WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.160 So, for the next number of weeks leading up to the Sunday before Christmas Day, we're 00:00:06.160 --> 00:00:14.120 going to look at the early chapters in Luke's gospel as we think about the birth of Jesus. 00:00:14.120 --> 00:00:18.719 It's going to get the birth of Jesus anytime, but it's a great time of the year to do that. 00:00:18.719 --> 00:00:23.839 And we're going to do it this time through the lens of Mary, Jesus' mother. 00:00:23.839 --> 00:00:26.640 And I think that's going to be exciting. 00:00:26.640 --> 00:00:34.520 And challenging and helpful for us in our Christian lives. 00:00:34.520 --> 00:00:40.399 And if you're not a Christian, I hope it will really make you think about the gospel 00:00:40.399 --> 00:00:44.400 and about Jesus Christ, the good news of the gospel. 00:00:44.400 --> 00:00:47.760 But I think when you read, we didn't read the whole chapter, but when you read the section 00:00:47.760 --> 00:00:53.840 that we read this morning that Sue read for us, I think there's at least to the modern 00:00:53.840 --> 00:01:00.240 person, there's at least a couple of challenges that you may have thought about or you may 00:01:00.240 --> 00:01:06.480 have considered, maybe not, but if you've read a passage like this, it may be that some 00:01:06.480 --> 00:01:10.640 thoughts and some challenges have entered into your mind. 00:01:10.640 --> 00:01:17.439 I've thought of at least a couple, the first being Mary herself, because she was a nobody, 00:01:17.439 --> 00:01:18.439 right? 00:01:18.439 --> 00:01:21.400 Mary was really a nobody. 00:01:21.400 --> 00:01:25.960 Maybe we've known about Mary if it hadn't been for this gospel account and for what 00:01:25.960 --> 00:01:26.960 happened. 00:01:26.960 --> 00:01:31.560 She was in Galilee, in a backwater in Palestine. 00:01:31.560 --> 00:01:35.760 As far as we're aware, she had no formal education. 00:01:35.760 --> 00:01:38.439 She was a peasant. 00:01:38.439 --> 00:01:45.840 Nothing that would make her stand out among the roughly, and any scientists and other 00:01:45.840 --> 00:01:52.359 kind of people might question this, 100 billion people who have walked on this planet since 00:01:52.359 --> 00:01:54.200 its creation. 00:01:54.200 --> 00:02:03.640 Yet probably she's the most famous person who ever lived, other than her son. 00:02:03.640 --> 00:02:09.000 She certainly, I would argue, she's certainly the most famous woman who ever lived. 00:02:09.000 --> 00:02:11.640 This absolute apparent nobody. 00:02:11.639 --> 00:02:16.599 So Mary herself is a bit of a contradiction in all of that, in the significance and the 00:02:16.599 --> 00:02:18.599 importance of Mary. 00:02:18.599 --> 00:02:24.879 But also, the fact that this, the reality that this story is written, and the passage 00:02:24.879 --> 00:02:30.239 that we read together, is written as fact and not as fiction. 00:02:30.239 --> 00:02:32.119 It's not fable. 00:02:32.119 --> 00:02:34.119 It's not make-believe. 00:02:34.119 --> 00:02:36.119 It's written as fact. 00:02:36.120 --> 00:02:45.039 It's written by Dr. Luke, the famous gospel writer who was also a physician, who was a 00:02:45.039 --> 00:02:49.640 medical doctor, as we're recorded in Colossians chapter 4. 00:02:49.640 --> 00:02:53.800 And like all medical people, precision matters. 00:02:53.800 --> 00:02:56.960 It matters the kind of diagnosis that you give to people. 00:02:56.960 --> 00:02:59.120 It matters the medicine that you give. 00:02:59.120 --> 00:03:02.120 Accuracy is important for a doctor. 00:03:02.120 --> 00:03:06.599 And here is someone who is giving an orderly account, we didn't read it, but in the first 00:03:06.599 --> 00:03:10.920 paragraph we're told that as he's explaining why he's written the gospel, he's written 00:03:10.920 --> 00:03:15.599 it to a friend of his, theophilus, who may be interested in knowing about Jesus. 00:03:15.599 --> 00:03:20.480 He says he's gathered all these eyewitnesses together, and he's come to make an orderly 00:03:20.480 --> 00:03:25.560 account for you, most excellent theophilus, that you may have certainty about the things 00:03:25.560 --> 00:03:26.560 that you've been taught. 00:03:26.560 --> 00:03:31.400 So it's given clearly as a factual account of Jesus. 00:03:31.400 --> 00:03:35.159 Now, medics do keep accurate records. 00:03:35.159 --> 00:03:43.080 My sister Nanny, who's here today, she's worked for quite a while on the genealogy of our family, 00:03:43.080 --> 00:03:50.439 and a couple of weeks ago sent us through as siblings, this phenomenal digital record 00:03:50.439 --> 00:03:53.560 of my dad's war record. 00:03:53.560 --> 00:04:01.599 51 pages of great and detailed information about his war record, and it's fascinating 00:04:01.599 --> 00:04:07.840 because it also includes his medical records of the time, and these medical records are 00:04:07.840 --> 00:04:11.920 detailed and they're accurate, and it mattered. 00:04:11.920 --> 00:04:17.680 He was an ordinary soldier, and when you think of 51 pages that have been digitalized, of 00:04:17.680 --> 00:04:23.000 one soldier, how much work has been done over the years to record for posterity, all of 00:04:23.000 --> 00:04:25.240 the details that mattered. 00:04:25.240 --> 00:04:31.800 On the 11th of December, 1944, complaints of a left frontal headache that lasted two 00:04:31.800 --> 00:04:41.519 months, injured in action in Normandy, evacuated to the UK on the 30th of July, 1944. 00:04:41.519 --> 00:04:47.079 Accurate, detailed knowledge of his medical condition because that's what doctors do, 00:04:47.079 --> 00:04:51.560 that's what medics do, and that is the case with Dr. Luke. 00:04:51.560 --> 00:04:53.680 That's exactly what he's doing. 00:04:53.680 --> 00:04:59.959 And here we have an account factually given of God, of angels, of miracles, of a divine 00:04:59.959 --> 00:05:11.040 plan, all being given to Mary in one recorded conversation, to Mary, these amazing realities. 00:05:11.040 --> 00:05:12.040 And that's a great challenge. 00:05:12.040 --> 00:05:19.160 I would imagine that's a great challenge to us this morning in our secular and naturalistic 00:05:19.160 --> 00:05:25.680 mindset and philosophical thinking when all these things are recorded as facts. 00:05:25.680 --> 00:05:31.720 That everything here is being explained with a purpose and a determination and an existence 00:05:31.720 --> 00:05:36.440 that's very different from our day-to-day experience. 00:05:36.440 --> 00:05:41.560 But I think it's very important for us to consider that and to be reminded of that as 00:05:41.560 --> 00:05:51.879 believers, unless we sink into a life of ordinariness and faithlessness and secularity and materialism 00:05:51.879 --> 00:05:59.720 which denies all these realities which are so significant for us in our life of faith. 00:05:59.720 --> 00:06:06.240 So we're reminded here of several things in this account that was read this morning. 00:06:06.240 --> 00:06:14.480 We're reminded of the reality of Gabriel who is an angel and he comes as a messenger of 00:06:14.480 --> 00:06:18.840 God to speak directly to Mary. 00:06:18.840 --> 00:06:29.720 So we have that kind of rather unspoken or un-dramatic description of almost just ordinary 00:06:29.720 --> 00:06:33.720 that, well, an angel came, Gabriel came and spoke to her. 00:06:33.720 --> 00:06:39.280 He comes from another realm, a heavenly realm, and he's sent. 00:06:39.280 --> 00:06:45.120 He's sent by God and he breaks into human experience and to human reality and to human 00:06:45.120 --> 00:06:56.040 life, representing one of a myriad of powerful beings, created beings that are not human, 00:06:56.040 --> 00:07:03.879 that we can't see but that are very real, glorious, powerful servants of God. 00:07:03.879 --> 00:07:10.240 Gabriel who is mentioned in the Old Testament in Daniel as coming to bring God's message 00:07:10.240 --> 00:07:17.560 which then was also prophetically speaking about Jesus in the midst of the Old Testament. 00:07:17.560 --> 00:07:23.200 And so there's this almost unspoken expectation that there is an unseen world, a world that 00:07:23.199 --> 00:07:29.800 we don't interact with from day to day, that is all around us, an unseen world but that 00:07:29.800 --> 00:07:36.399 is a spiritual reality that has a huge impact on created experience and on our experiences 00:07:36.399 --> 00:07:38.439 even if we don't know it. 00:07:38.439 --> 00:07:43.919 And the Bible speaks very clearly and very openly about angels and demons, about heaven 00:07:43.919 --> 00:07:50.079 and hell, about God and the devil, about good and evil. 00:07:50.079 --> 00:07:58.959 And these are absolute clear factual realities that are revealed to us in Scripture. 00:07:58.959 --> 00:08:04.879 But we also recognize it's not like ying and yang, it's not like these things are equal 00:08:04.879 --> 00:08:08.199 and opposite and kind of wrestling and battling with one another. 00:08:08.199 --> 00:08:11.799 They're not equal forces and the Bible makes that clear. 00:08:11.799 --> 00:08:16.719 The Bible makes clear from the very beginning that God is the author, God is the Savior, 00:08:16.720 --> 00:08:21.600 God is the Redeemer, God is the Creator, God is infinite, eternal and unchangeable, nothing 00:08:21.600 --> 00:08:22.880 else is. 00:08:22.880 --> 00:08:27.880 And in the mystery and the reality of darkness and the evil and of blackness that He has 00:08:27.880 --> 00:08:35.000 come to defeat that and He has done it through this amazing reality that we are introduced 00:08:35.000 --> 00:08:39.240 to today. 00:08:39.240 --> 00:08:45.440 So the Bible absolutely and clearly speaks into origins, speaks into morality, does speak 00:08:45.440 --> 00:08:52.680 into the problem of evil and the purposes of God, the genesis, the focus and the victory 00:08:52.680 --> 00:08:58.600 of good over evil, which ultimately we will all experience when Christ returns and in 00:08:58.600 --> 00:09:05.360 the new heavens and the new earth, if we are put our trust in Jesus. 00:09:05.360 --> 00:09:11.000 And what we see is not only the reality of angels, but we see in this passage very clearly 00:09:11.000 --> 00:09:15.120 God getting close and intimate. 00:09:15.120 --> 00:09:22.560 God the sovereign, God the eternal, God the ineffable, God who in many ways we feel cannot 00:09:22.560 --> 00:09:25.759 be known by us, gets close and intimate. 00:09:25.759 --> 00:09:32.759 Now God all the time is accused of being distant, isn't he, by so many and maybe sometimes 00:09:32.759 --> 00:09:38.679 by ourselves in our own lives, the divine clockmaker or the distant potentate or the 00:09:38.679 --> 00:09:45.439 angry deity, the unknowable one, the one who doesn't care about my life or my involvement 00:09:45.439 --> 00:09:49.679 or my concerns and we can often feel that. 00:09:49.679 --> 00:09:55.759 Now there are many questions that we have about God, of course, as much we don't understand, 00:09:55.759 --> 00:10:03.199 but here is God, here is God and He hones in on Mary individually. 00:10:03.200 --> 00:10:09.320 Anyway sometimes see these clips of films, film of, I don't know how they work, a camera 00:10:09.320 --> 00:10:15.640 that's out in space and you see space and then you see the planet earth and then it's 00:10:15.640 --> 00:10:21.680 homing in all the time and it hones in and it hones in on a land mass and it hones in 00:10:21.680 --> 00:10:28.960 further and it's Europe and it hones in further and it's the UK and it hones in further and 00:10:28.960 --> 00:10:35.120 it's Scotland and it's Edinburgh and then it's the lawn market and then it's the red 00:10:35.120 --> 00:10:37.360 doors of St. Columbus. 00:10:37.360 --> 00:10:44.200 You know, you see that amazing zooming in from the massive into the very detail and 00:10:44.200 --> 00:10:48.560 it's kind of like that here with Mary, you've got this divine being the living God and He's 00:10:48.560 --> 00:10:56.840 honing in on one individual, on Mary and on Elizabeth, also her cousin and He speaks into 00:10:56.840 --> 00:11:03.600 her life and He brings her comfort in her fears when she is met with Gabriel. 00:11:03.600 --> 00:11:08.879 I'll say a little bit about that in a minute, it's interesting that there's no indication 00:11:08.879 --> 00:11:14.080 of what Mary thinks of Gabriel in terms of, does she know he's an angel? 00:11:14.080 --> 00:11:18.399 I think there's something pretty amazing about him because she's certainly full of fear and 00:11:18.399 --> 00:11:25.720 he says to her, don't be afraid, God is with you, you've found favour from God and He comforts 00:11:25.720 --> 00:11:31.000 her and brings her into His loving purposes. 00:11:31.000 --> 00:11:43.480 This is Mary and she's chosen and she's chosen by God and He explains and I think it has 00:11:43.480 --> 00:11:49.320 to be one of the most incredible verses in the whole of the Bible, in verse 35, the angel 00:11:49.320 --> 00:11:54.560 said to the Holy Spirit, we'll come upon you, the power of the Most High, that would be 00:11:54.559 --> 00:12:02.000 God the Father, will overshadow you, therefore a child, Jesus Christ the Son, will be born, 00:12:02.000 --> 00:12:05.119 He will be called Holy, the Son of God. 00:12:05.119 --> 00:12:13.119 It truly is an outstanding and remarkable verse that we have here where God explains 00:12:13.119 --> 00:12:22.039 to her that miraculously, the Trinitarian one explains that the Son will be born of 00:12:22.039 --> 00:12:25.759 her miraculously flesh of her flesh. 00:12:25.759 --> 00:12:36.039 The Trion Mysterious God is focused on and intimately involved in this woman's life, 00:12:36.039 --> 00:12:45.279 in this miraculous conception of Jesus, God the Son coming into this world. 00:12:45.279 --> 00:12:55.360 It's clearly impossible to us, it's outrageous, but it's unmistakably unique in the history 00:12:55.360 --> 00:12:56.360 of the world. 00:12:56.360 --> 00:12:58.159 It had to be. 00:12:58.159 --> 00:13:01.199 God broke into human society. 00:13:01.199 --> 00:13:05.279 He came because it was His own will, not the will of a Father, not the will of a couple 00:13:05.279 --> 00:13:11.879 together, but the will of God who came and He was brought into this world specifically, 00:13:11.879 --> 00:13:21.159 seamlessly to be our redeemer as flesh of our flesh and bone of our bones. 00:13:21.159 --> 00:13:25.840 And so we have the beginning, many ways, of this outstanding revelation of His love and 00:13:25.840 --> 00:13:32.879 of His justice that is going to make sense to this broken world and to every single cry 00:13:32.879 --> 00:13:40.720 of belonging that you have and cry for mercy and cry for justice and cry for purpose and 00:13:40.720 --> 00:13:41.720 hope. 00:13:41.720 --> 00:13:48.759 And we find it, we might even ever have to go in a sense further than that one verse 00:13:48.759 --> 00:13:58.160 because it unpacks what lies ahead and it makes clear what Jesus had come to do. 00:13:58.160 --> 00:14:05.320 And not only does God get close and intimate, but He takes His unshakable plan for humanity 00:14:05.320 --> 00:14:11.879 out of the shadows in these great verses of 32 and 33 when He's explaining who will 00:14:11.879 --> 00:14:12.879 be born to her. 00:14:12.879 --> 00:14:14.840 He will be great. 00:14:14.840 --> 00:14:22.240 He will be called the Son of the Most High and the Lord God will give to Him the throne 00:14:22.240 --> 00:14:28.640 of His Father, David, and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever and of His kingdom. 00:14:28.640 --> 00:14:31.160 There will be no end. 00:14:31.159 --> 00:14:37.319 So Jesus is breaking, God is breaking in through Gabriel giving this message which He'd given 00:14:37.319 --> 00:14:43.679 to Daniel before and which the angels knew about at that level, although I do believe 00:14:43.679 --> 00:14:50.240 there was clear surprise when that will of God was unpacked, particularly in the rejection 00:14:50.240 --> 00:14:53.039 and crucifixion and death of Jesus. 00:14:53.039 --> 00:15:00.360 But here the certainty of God's plan, the clear action, this long expected Old Testament 00:15:00.360 --> 00:15:06.080 prophecy of the coming Messiah of the Redeemer, the Son of David who would reign on His throne 00:15:06.080 --> 00:15:12.919 forever was being made clear, a purpose that was there from before the creation of the 00:15:12.919 --> 00:15:23.960 world and that reality of Ephesians chapter, what have I done with that bit of paper? 00:15:23.960 --> 00:15:34.160 Oh, here it is, Ephesians 4 which encapsulates what the angel is saying or God is saying 00:15:34.160 --> 00:15:39.639 through the angel, for He chose us and includes us in this moment. 00:15:39.639 --> 00:15:44.080 He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His 00:15:44.080 --> 00:15:45.080 sight. 00:15:45.080 --> 00:15:50.120 In love He predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ in accordance 00:15:50.120 --> 00:15:54.600 with His pleasure and will to the praise of His glorious grace which He's given freely 00:15:54.600 --> 00:15:56.159 to us in the one He loves. 00:15:56.159 --> 00:16:01.560 He chose us in Him before the creation of the world which is the unpacking of what is 00:16:01.560 --> 00:16:09.600 happening here, that it's crystal clear. 00:16:09.600 --> 00:16:14.960 We need to remember and remind ourselves of that fact. 00:16:14.960 --> 00:16:18.279 It's clear, crystal clear. 00:16:18.279 --> 00:16:24.319 God taken on flesh, the incarnation, the life, the death, the resurrection provides for us 00:16:24.319 --> 00:16:29.799 the central understanding of and meaning of the universe. 00:16:29.799 --> 00:16:31.159 And that's important for us today. 00:16:31.159 --> 00:16:36.759 It's important for us as Christians today because it starts in contradiction, in stark 00:16:36.759 --> 00:16:43.279 contradiction to the concept of a history that is unfolding randomly where the future 00:16:43.279 --> 00:16:49.000 is unknown, where purpose and meaning is undefinable if there can be any purpose or 00:16:49.000 --> 00:16:50.000 meaning at all. 00:16:50.000 --> 00:16:58.519 We stand against that, and we stand against that personally, and we stand against it in 00:16:58.519 --> 00:17:02.839 terms of the way forward of the world as well, corporately. 00:17:02.839 --> 00:17:07.759 But we recognize that our lives and our futures are in God's hands. 00:17:07.759 --> 00:17:10.440 So God takes His unmistakable plan. 00:17:10.440 --> 00:17:13.079 God gets close and intimate, and Gabriel comes. 00:17:13.079 --> 00:17:16.359 This is all revealed to Mary. 00:17:16.359 --> 00:17:17.359 All revealed to Mary. 00:17:17.359 --> 00:17:19.599 It's great, isn't it? 00:17:19.599 --> 00:17:20.599 You couldn't make it up. 00:17:20.599 --> 00:17:25.919 Of the hundred billion people who have ever lived, this financially poor teenage girl 00:17:25.919 --> 00:17:32.519 without formal education, but she was undoubtedly well taught and intelligent, planning a quiet 00:17:32.519 --> 00:17:40.759 life with Joseph to whom she was betrothed as a tradesman in a Galilean village. 00:17:40.759 --> 00:17:47.000 This revealed to her, to a woman, to an uneducated woman. 00:17:47.000 --> 00:17:56.559 What a glorious upturn of how it so often is in the world in which we live. 00:17:56.559 --> 00:18:02.240 What a great message to all of the world's great misogynists and all the men who think 00:18:02.240 --> 00:18:04.240 that they are more important than women. 00:18:04.240 --> 00:18:11.799 That here is Jesus, their coming of Jesus, this most significant of announcement that 00:18:11.799 --> 00:18:22.640 was ever made, and this most incredible union of God with human flesh being spoken of and 00:18:22.640 --> 00:18:27.480 dealt with to a woman. 00:18:27.480 --> 00:18:33.960 But more significantly, you may think today that God isn't interested in you, and in 00:18:33.960 --> 00:18:40.440 your life, and that you can't grab His attention, and He doesn't care about what's happening 00:18:40.440 --> 00:18:42.240 in your experience. 00:18:42.240 --> 00:18:45.559 That couldn't be further from the truth. 00:18:45.559 --> 00:18:49.720 If you're a believer today, it can't be further from the truth. 00:18:49.720 --> 00:18:55.559 You need to keep in mind what has already happened, how He has already shown Himself 00:18:55.559 --> 00:19:02.279 to be deeply interested, deeply concerned, deeply involved in your life, deeply loving 00:19:02.279 --> 00:19:03.279 you. 00:19:03.279 --> 00:19:08.639 If you're not a believer, there's that great invitation to recognize and know that His 00:19:08.639 --> 00:19:13.279 arms are open to invite you to a personal relationship with Him. 00:19:13.279 --> 00:19:17.920 It was all revealed to Mary, and we'll just finish with a couple of thoughts about Mary. 00:19:17.920 --> 00:19:20.279 She's one who was gifted, Grace. 00:19:20.279 --> 00:19:24.799 We're told in verse 28, these amazing words, and He came to her and said, Greetings, O 00:19:24.799 --> 00:19:27.960 favoured one, the Lord is with you. 00:19:27.960 --> 00:19:33.360 Favoured one doesn't mean that God looked down and so she's a lot better than everybody 00:19:33.360 --> 00:19:34.360 else. 00:19:34.360 --> 00:19:42.000 She's the best looking, best person inside and out to be the mother of my son. 00:19:42.000 --> 00:19:45.160 But it rather means that she was endowed with Grace. 00:19:45.160 --> 00:19:50.519 Grace was poured out on her, and she recognized that herself in her amazing song, which we'll 00:19:50.519 --> 00:19:52.559 talk about briefly. 00:19:52.559 --> 00:19:57.480 She says in verse 50, and His mercy is for those who fear Him, from generation to generation. 00:19:57.480 --> 00:20:00.360 She knew she was a recipient of God's mercy. 00:20:00.360 --> 00:20:04.680 She knew that she had come to Him and that she depended on His mercy. 00:20:04.680 --> 00:20:08.880 She'd been chosen by God and recognized her need of forgiveness. 00:20:08.880 --> 00:20:15.480 And that is the foundation, foundation reality for every single human being, isn't it? 00:20:15.480 --> 00:20:21.519 That we recognize our need of His mercy and we recognize that He will never turn away 00:20:21.519 --> 00:20:30.480 anyone who calls out to Him in faith, that He invites us to come and receive His salvation. 00:20:30.480 --> 00:20:32.039 She was gifted, Grace. 00:20:32.039 --> 00:20:38.039 It's the gift that we're believers we have, gifted through nothing in ourselves other 00:20:38.039 --> 00:20:40.440 than that recognition of our need of it. 00:20:40.440 --> 00:20:42.400 And we come to Him. 00:20:42.400 --> 00:20:44.759 But we also see that she was acutely afraid. 00:20:44.759 --> 00:20:50.960 In verses 29 and 30, when she saw the angel, she was greatly troubled at the sayings and 00:20:50.960 --> 00:20:53.840 tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. 00:20:53.840 --> 00:20:55.640 The angel said, do not be afraid, Mary. 00:20:55.640 --> 00:20:58.039 You've found favor with God. 00:20:58.039 --> 00:21:03.920 So as we don't really know what the angel looked like, did he appear as an angelic being? 00:21:03.920 --> 00:21:05.319 Was that why she was afraid? 00:21:05.319 --> 00:21:08.079 Did he have a great sense of power about him? 00:21:08.079 --> 00:21:09.600 Or was it the message that he brought? 00:21:09.600 --> 00:21:11.079 Or how did she know it was from God? 00:21:11.079 --> 00:21:12.559 We don't know these things. 00:21:12.559 --> 00:21:14.640 But she was definitely afraid. 00:21:14.640 --> 00:21:20.920 She was being confronted with unseen realities and divine truth that for her was not initially 00:21:20.920 --> 00:21:27.720 comfortable, just as it can often not be very comfortable for us to be confronted with the 00:21:27.720 --> 00:21:35.080 truths of God's Word or the truth of the claims of Jesus Christ. 00:21:35.080 --> 00:21:40.759 And even the comforting words of God sometimes can be overlooked because we recognize that 00:21:40.759 --> 00:21:42.840 in Christ we're heading into unknown territory. 00:21:42.840 --> 00:21:48.600 If you're standing, sitting on the edge of commitment to Jesus Christ, there's a lot 00:21:48.600 --> 00:21:49.600 of fear there. 00:21:49.599 --> 00:21:52.039 A lot of fear of going into what you think might be unknown. 00:21:52.039 --> 00:21:54.159 What's it going to be for me to be a Christian? 00:21:54.159 --> 00:21:55.559 What am I going to have to give up? 00:21:55.559 --> 00:21:56.559 What am I going to be? 00:21:56.559 --> 00:21:57.559 What am I going to have to say? 00:21:57.559 --> 00:21:58.559 What will it mean for my reputation? 00:21:58.559 --> 00:21:59.559 What will it mean for my standing? 00:21:59.559 --> 00:22:06.759 There can be lots of different fears that we have because we move forward by faith and 00:22:06.759 --> 00:22:09.799 we move into unknown territory. 00:22:09.799 --> 00:22:15.319 But the reality is there that God intervening in our lives will always turn our world upside 00:22:15.319 --> 00:22:16.319 down. 00:22:16.319 --> 00:22:20.960 And the door of our hearts will always be a challenge to us because it will take us out 00:22:20.960 --> 00:22:24.000 of our comfort zone as we go and follow Him. 00:22:24.000 --> 00:22:25.839 But He knows that. 00:22:25.839 --> 00:22:26.839 He knows that. 00:22:26.839 --> 00:22:31.200 And He says to Mary, as He says to us, He said, look, don't be afraid. 00:22:31.200 --> 00:22:32.839 So often He says that in Scripture, doesn't He? 00:22:32.839 --> 00:22:35.119 He understands us and He calms our fears. 00:22:35.119 --> 00:22:38.079 And He says, I will be with you. 00:22:38.079 --> 00:22:43.000 Gabriel promised that the Lord will be with you and the Lord will be with you. 00:22:43.000 --> 00:22:47.200 And if the Lord is with us, then that's the most important thing. 00:22:47.200 --> 00:22:51.759 Whatever else is our battles and our struggles and difficulties, if we know that this living, 00:22:51.759 --> 00:22:54.640 infinite Creator God is with us, then that is what matters. 00:22:54.640 --> 00:22:57.880 And He promises to do that. 00:22:57.880 --> 00:23:03.359 So she was afraid and God knew that and comforted her fears and does with us also. 00:23:03.359 --> 00:23:05.359 And she also asked a reasonable question. 00:23:05.359 --> 00:23:10.960 In verse 34, it was an extremely reasonable question when He says what was going to happen. 00:23:10.960 --> 00:23:14.480 She says, and Mary said to the angel, how will this be since I am a virgin? 00:23:14.480 --> 00:23:15.799 She's not daft. 00:23:15.799 --> 00:23:23.480 Now a lot of people despise the whole concept of the virgin birth and say it's just mythological. 00:23:23.480 --> 00:23:28.680 And anyway, virgin here in the original language doesn't necessarily mean someone who has never 00:23:28.680 --> 00:23:32.519 had sex before, but it can mean just a young woman. 00:23:32.519 --> 00:23:34.519 But it doesn't make sense, does it? 00:23:34.519 --> 00:23:36.640 How will this be since I'm a young woman? 00:23:36.640 --> 00:23:39.039 Well, that wouldn't make sense, that question. 00:23:39.039 --> 00:23:43.680 It wouldn't be a reasonable question because she's a young woman and young woman can have 00:23:43.680 --> 00:23:44.879 children. 00:23:44.879 --> 00:23:50.680 She knows exactly what she is saying here and Luke knows exactly the questions that she 00:23:50.680 --> 00:23:52.960 knows her own body. 00:23:52.960 --> 00:23:56.839 She knows about her relationship with Joseph to whom she was betrothed and betrothed an 00:23:56.839 --> 00:23:59.559 ancient nearest, was akin to marriage. 00:23:59.559 --> 00:24:03.960 It was more than just what we call an engagement. 00:24:03.960 --> 00:24:10.160 Really which is why it says that Joseph would have needed to have got a certificate of divorce 00:24:10.160 --> 00:24:13.600 for her, but nonetheless they still lived apart until their wedding day. 00:24:13.600 --> 00:24:18.680 They lived in their family homes and there was no intimate relations until they get married 00:24:18.680 --> 00:24:20.880 and she knew that. 00:24:20.880 --> 00:24:27.240 And she knew that that was the case and that she wasn't playing around or playing the field. 00:24:27.240 --> 00:24:34.960 And so she asked a reasonable question and she was given this answer from God that this 00:24:34.960 --> 00:24:40.519 will happen because of the claim that Gabriel made. 00:24:40.519 --> 00:24:48.120 She was given the additional information of her old and barren cousin Elizabeth, being 00:24:48.120 --> 00:24:49.960 six months pregnant. 00:24:49.960 --> 00:24:57.120 She's given the truth of the Old Testament prophecies and it is topped by the angel saying 00:24:57.119 --> 00:24:59.679 with God all things are possible. 00:24:59.679 --> 00:25:01.639 Nothing is impossible with God. 00:25:01.639 --> 00:25:03.479 It's great, isn't it? 00:25:03.479 --> 00:25:13.639 We get these answers to Mary's questions here and God isn't afraid of our questions. 00:25:13.639 --> 00:25:15.799 God doesn't want to keep our questions to ourselves. 00:25:15.799 --> 00:25:19.359 You know, he's the sovereign king of the universe. 00:25:19.359 --> 00:25:20.879 He can cope with them. 00:25:20.879 --> 00:25:23.439 Oh, we may have some great questions. 00:25:23.439 --> 00:25:25.839 That's going to stump God. 00:25:25.839 --> 00:25:26.839 It's not. 00:25:26.839 --> 00:25:30.399 We may not find the answer and we may not find the answer easy, but we're not to be 00:25:30.399 --> 00:25:36.159 afraid of going to Him with rational and real and genuine questions. 00:25:36.159 --> 00:25:40.399 And it's important when we do to search the scriptures, to search what He has revealed 00:25:40.399 --> 00:25:45.879 about Himself and to find what He is saying. 00:25:45.879 --> 00:25:52.240 I think often we ask the questions, but we're actually afraid of the answers. 00:25:52.240 --> 00:25:59.079 But faith enables us to come to recognize the answers are always good from God. 00:25:59.079 --> 00:26:00.559 We might not be easy. 00:26:00.559 --> 00:26:03.720 We might not understand everything that He reveals, but they are good. 00:26:03.720 --> 00:26:08.120 He is the God who has revealed to us what we need to know. 00:26:08.120 --> 00:26:10.680 He is a God who understands our fears. 00:26:10.680 --> 00:26:12.839 He's the God of promise. 00:26:12.839 --> 00:26:19.279 And also, let us not forget this morning, He is the God of the impossible. 00:26:19.279 --> 00:26:23.440 This was impossible, a child being born of a virgin. 00:26:23.440 --> 00:26:26.160 It was God's will for it to be done. 00:26:26.160 --> 00:26:27.639 She asked her reasonable question. 00:26:27.639 --> 00:26:32.160 And lastly, very briefly, she sung a song of praise. 00:26:32.160 --> 00:26:36.839 One of the greatest songs that has ever been written, the Magnificat, and we have it in 00:26:36.839 --> 00:26:38.519 these verses from verse 46. 00:26:38.519 --> 00:26:43.720 I wish you had more time to look at this amazing song of praise. 00:26:43.720 --> 00:26:50.240 Mary, this unnoticed young woman, probably a teenager, becomes one of the authors of 00:26:50.240 --> 00:26:54.920 Scripture, one of the authors of the greatest parts of Scripture, one of the greatest songs 00:26:54.920 --> 00:26:56.920 of praise ever spoken. 00:26:56.920 --> 00:27:03.440 And we really don't have time to look at it, but it's definitely worth a second look. 00:27:03.440 --> 00:27:06.279 It's framed in Old Testament language. 00:27:06.279 --> 00:27:11.720 It's framed in the hymnology of the Old Testament, the way that it's written. 00:27:11.720 --> 00:27:16.400 She clearly knows a lot of truth about the Old Testament and even about the way songs 00:27:16.400 --> 00:27:20.759 were structured in the hymnology. 00:27:20.759 --> 00:27:27.640 It closely mirrors the song of Hannah in the Old Testament in similar situations, as 00:27:27.640 --> 00:27:29.120 it were. 00:27:29.120 --> 00:27:36.400 And it is intensely personal. 00:27:36.400 --> 00:27:38.120 My soul magnifies the Lord. 00:27:38.119 --> 00:27:44.000 My spirit rejoices in God, my Savior, for He's looked on the humblest state of His servant. 00:27:44.000 --> 00:27:47.000 And from now on, all generations will call me blessed. 00:27:47.000 --> 00:27:48.000 It's inspired. 00:27:48.000 --> 00:27:49.000 It's revelatory. 00:27:49.000 --> 00:27:50.000 It's powerful. 00:27:50.000 --> 00:27:51.000 And it's personal. 00:27:51.000 --> 00:28:03.000 And what an amazing song for her to be given and to be able to create when we know her future, 00:28:03.000 --> 00:28:10.240 faced with the region, shortly faced with the region as an unmarried, pregnant teenager. 00:28:10.240 --> 00:28:17.440 Suspicion, poverty, homelessness, sorrow, loss, unspeakable heartache. 00:28:17.440 --> 00:28:22.440 A difficult life predicted by Old Simeon that we'll look at again in a few weeks where 00:28:22.440 --> 00:28:25.359 the sword will pierce your soul also. 00:28:25.359 --> 00:28:28.240 But God was her Savior. 00:28:28.240 --> 00:28:29.640 God was her redeemer. 00:28:29.640 --> 00:28:35.040 God was the focus of her love, and she was the focus of His. 00:28:35.040 --> 00:28:41.080 And her life had purpose and hope, and He was with her. 00:28:41.080 --> 00:28:46.280 And that is why she was able to find genuine satisfaction. 00:28:46.280 --> 00:28:52.360 She realized the counterintuitive nature of faith, which is that God sends the rich empty 00:28:52.360 --> 00:28:55.400 away, and it is the poor that He helps. 00:28:55.400 --> 00:29:01.840 And that's not necessarily in any way physical wealth that is being spoken of here, but that 00:29:01.840 --> 00:29:11.720 great reality of spiritual poverty being honored by God and spiritual wealth are not needing 00:29:11.720 --> 00:29:18.560 the spiritual wealth of God, but recognizing that we are rich and morally good and independent 00:29:18.560 --> 00:29:23.280 and don't need God, going away from God empty. 00:29:23.279 --> 00:29:27.039 It's the song of the revolution. 00:29:27.039 --> 00:29:29.599 That's what it is. 00:29:29.599 --> 00:29:31.039 It's a song of the revolution. 00:29:31.039 --> 00:29:37.639 It's a revolutionary song because it turns every natural instinct of our lives upside 00:29:37.639 --> 00:29:46.799 down and it speaks of trusting in the priorities and the expectations and the realities of 00:29:46.799 --> 00:29:53.200 a God who was conceived in the womb of Mary and who became flesh. 00:29:53.200 --> 00:29:59.279 And who learned obedience and who lived perfectly the life that we couldn't live and died the 00:29:59.279 --> 00:30:00.960 death that we deserved. 00:30:00.960 --> 00:30:04.840 It's utterly, radically revolutionary. 00:30:04.840 --> 00:30:11.400 And we're called to put our faith in Jesus Christ, this child who became the redeemer. 00:30:11.400 --> 00:30:18.400 And I hope and I pray that it's your song. 00:30:18.400 --> 00:30:24.600 The song is really important because singing so often is an expression of our hearts. 00:30:24.600 --> 00:30:26.840 I do hope it's your song. 00:30:26.840 --> 00:30:28.240 Let's pray. 00:30:28.240 --> 00:30:35.800 Father God, I pray and ask that we would take these words of the song and recognize that 00:30:35.800 --> 00:30:43.080 Mary becomes in many ways representative of every believer, every mature believer who 00:30:43.079 --> 00:30:54.720 comes to recognize the personal, loving, concerned and amazingly wonderful gift of Jesus Christ 00:30:54.720 --> 00:30:57.839 to us in salvation. 00:30:57.839 --> 00:31:01.079 And it's the most precious thing in the world. 00:31:01.079 --> 00:31:09.799 And we might be the poorest, meanest, least gifted person that has ever been created. 00:31:09.799 --> 00:31:16.399 But in Christ we are the richest, we are the most privileged, we are the most honored, 00:31:16.399 --> 00:31:22.000 and that we have had the most attention lavished on us that we could ever hope for. 00:31:22.000 --> 00:31:30.319 And not only now, but unspeakably, unimaginably so in the future. 00:31:30.319 --> 00:31:35.839 Help us to grasp hold of that, the significance and the importance and the reality of this 00:31:35.839 --> 00:31:41.639 living truth that's revealed to us, which we all know so well here, most of us anyway, 00:31:41.639 --> 00:31:48.879 I'm sure, and which might just slip out of our mind and our attention as just another 00:31:48.879 --> 00:31:54.359 sermon that's been ticked off and another Bible passage that we know about anyway. 00:31:54.359 --> 00:32:03.079 But may it be, Lord Jesus, that your Spirit takes it today, refreshes, revives, renews, 00:32:03.079 --> 00:32:11.319 reinvigorates, redeems and transforms us as we enter into this new week, this privileged 00:32:11.319 --> 00:32:16.279 new week, a week that we'll never have again and a week that you gift to us. 00:32:16.279 --> 00:32:34.039 In Jesus' name, amen.