Luke 1:26-45, 56-66, 80
Good morning, are you ready to continue on in the Christmas story? Today, we’re going to look at the rest of the narrative, the story, in chapter 1 of the book of Luke. Last week, Fred spoke about the angel Gabriel coming to Zechariah to proclaim that even in their old age, his wife Elizabeth would conceive, get pregnant, and have a son. Their son would be called John, and he would be a kind of Elijah, a forerunner of the Messiah. John’s ministry would “make ready a people prepared for the Lord.” After 400 years of prophetic silence, we have the announcement of the one who will prepare the way for the ultimate fulfillment of prophecy: the coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ.
Let’s pray. Lord Jesus, I pray that you would speak to us this morning. Apart from You, there is no good that can be done, there is no good thing that can be said, there is no life to be lived. I pray that you would awaken in us the reality of your coming. Who You are and what You have done for us? I pray that we would not only be amazed at how you provide for us in our circumstances, giving us our daily bread and so much more, and how you answer our temporal prayers for this life. I pray that you would give us eyes to see the eternal story that you have written and are still writing. Help us to see that we have a place, a role, a part to fulfill in Your master plan. Change us and equip us as Your servants and saints. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
I’d like to start today with a confession. Sometimes, I’m a little slow. I don’t mean that I walk slow, or I talk slow. As a matter of fact, as a born and bred Southerner, I can talk practically at a blinding pace. I wouldn’t even say I am slow between the ears although I have my suspicions about cobwebs up there, too, from time to time. No, my slowness is slowness of heart. And, slowness of heart really is spiritual slowness.
One reason I say that is I always find myself telling stories about my weaknesses and failures when I give a message on Sunday morning. It is my desire and Carl’s desire and Fred’s desire to be led by the Holy Spirit when we give a message. For me, that means time and time again, when I prepare a message, the Spirit leads me back to some goof ball thing that I’ve done, and some of those have happened more recently than others, like this summer, nearly dropping an enormous tree limb on my head a la Wile E. Coyote.
We are a unique church in a lot of ways. One of our distinctives is that we have a plurality of leadership. Even though we are a relatively small church, there are three elders or pastors. Fred is an elder, Carl is an elder, and I am an elder. This plurality or team leadership is a protection for us as leaders because a chord of three strands is not easily broken. That strength of plurality is also protects the body.
We also have complementary gifts which is another benefit of plural (more than one person) leadership. Each one of us does certain things differently and in some cases better than the others. Now for me, here is where it gets more difficult. Whenever you’re on a team, you try to find your place or your identity on the team. A good coach looks at those differences and immediately adapts the responsibilities to the gifts of individual team members.
Now, the Holy Spirit is like the coach of our leadership team. And when I pray about what I need to share. The answer usually involves testifying about something that either A) shows how God has bailed me out of some goof up, a testimony to God’s sovereignty or providence or B) how some ignorance or jumbled thinking helps illustrate a principle of God, basically, what or how what I did or thought is what not to do. Apparently, part of God’s plan for my life is to tell embarrassing stories.
And so, it’s good to know where you fit in on the team. It’s good to know your role and fill it. By following the Holy Spirit’s leading, I’m accomplishing the purposes and plans of God. That’s really awesome.
There’s only one problem. My pride. If I take what I just explained and extrapolate it out to an example that I can easily understand, here is my conclusion: I’m the spiritual equivalent of Mater. You know Tuh-mater ‘cept without the Tuh.
Is there anyone who doesn’t know this character? Mater is a country bumpkin tow truck from the Pixar movie Cars and Cars 2. He is extremely funny but not especially bright. However, he is genuine and honest, sometimes painfully honest. He doesn’t get what is going on around him sometimes. Sometimes he says and does the wrong things. He comes across as childish or immature.
That’s how I feel spiritually sometimes. I don’t think that I’m disingenuous. I think that I’m honest and genuine. But, I’m afraid that I am immature. I don’t get what is going on in the Word when I read it. I miss things. I have a difficult time putting spiritual concepts together. My Scripture memorization is horrendous.
I don’t really want to be a Mater. I want to be a super suave spiritually knowledgeable world changer for Christ. So I want to reject this idea that I’m a Mater. But here’s the thing. I find that I identify with Mater. And the more I study the Word, the more I learn about what God has done for me. The more I see God’s unmerited favor in my life. The more my “Materness” becomes apparent to me.
God is doing great things, all the time. Colossians says that He is the sustainer of the universe, actively, all the time, all things are held together. The peace, joy, faith, hope and love that we enjoy are all a direct result of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross. Whether you are saved or not, whether you have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ or not, any good thing you have or enjoy be it material or relational comes from Jesus. If you do have a relationship with Jesus Christ, how much more do you have. You have eternal life. You have security forever. Ultimately, no more fear, no more pain.
I want to take a couple of minutes and watch a scene from the latest Cars movie, Cars 2. Before we do, I’ll just point out a few things to think about and to look for as you’re watching it. Just watch Mater and how he relates to the circumstances around him. Then, use your imagination just a bit and push those circumstances into the spiritual realm. Rather than a simple car chase, imagine the enemies in the scene representing attacks by the devil. Mater is preciously guarded as valuable, valuable to be saved by the good guys and critical to be destroyed by the bad guys.
The fact that I can or would even try to draw spiritual parallels from a animated movie surely must be an example of Materness.
There are four imperatives or commands given to Mater in this scene. I’ll pull in one more that happened about a minute earlier than the clip we watched. The secret agent Finn McMissile tells Mater to “Come with me,” (John 12:25-26) “Hang on,” (John 15:4, Hebrews 10:25) “Drive forward,” (Proverbs 4:25-27, Hebrews 10:23) and “Whatever you do, don’t stop.” (Luke 18:1, Galatians 6:9) I thought those were interesting parallels to the Christian walk. We need to follow Christ and spend time with other believers. We need to “hang on” to our faith and our relationships with other believers. We need to “drive forward” and pursue Christ without turning to the right or to the left. We can’t stop or turn back, no matter what.
Also, if we put ourselves in Mater’s place, as a believer, you are being jealously guarded and protected by God the Father and the heavenly host. The battle is real whether we recognize it or not. I John says that God is love, and I Corinthians 13 says that love never gives up and love never fails. Therefore, God never gives up and He never fails.
Also, as a believer, you are now a “secret agent” sent to rescue others from the lies of the world and the traps of Satan. Fred calls them divine opportunities. This is our calling as believers. It is our choice whether we embrace that calling.
One of my biggest fears about becoming an elder was that I was exposing my family to great risk. We are so limited that we cannot see beyond the present. We don’t know what will happen tomorrow or even this afternoon. God does, but we don’t. There are things going on and traps being laid by the evil one that may not be revealed for years. Politics has a string of examples where events in peoples’ past “knocking them out” of a race. We’ve got an example in our presidential race, right now.
That is an example where something in the past changes the present, but it is contained to one man’s choices. His bad decision, his sin resulted in his failure. My fear was more that my family members have now become targets because of my willingness to become an elder. In addition to attacking me, Satan can make me much less effective by attacking my family members. Maybe I should just lay low and avoid becoming a higher priority target. In the end, it came down to a question of trust. Do I trust God? Come what may, do I trust that He is in control? It is not an easy decision, and it is one that you will make more than once.
But, when I saw this clip in the theater, it gave me a visual representation of what God can do in the midst of spiritual attack. Yes, Satan is shooting darts at you, your family, your children and even your pets. Yes, he is really that cruel. Satan shot some of these missiles even in the far past, 5, 10, 20 years ago. Should we be afraid that we’re being shot at? Okay, yes, maybe a little. It should push us to abide in Christ rather than standing out in the open alone. But here’s the visual for me. Roll the clip back to the exchange of missile fire.
The bad guy shoots a missile capable of blowing up the good guys, but the good guy is able to shoot a missile that destroys the bad guy’s missile. God is doing that for us continually. We are under heavy fire, but we enjoy peace to a large degree because there is a hedge of protection around us. We can spend time worrying, but it would be much more fruitful to spend time in prayer and intercession and leave the worrying aside. He never gives up, he never fails.
And maybe I’ll keep right on being a Mater, but somehow I doubt it. The Holy Spirit is transforming us continually. As we grow, others will look to us for leadership and discipleship. May we be available to the Lord for whatever purposes and plans he has for us. No matter what, “Let us live up to what we have already attained.” (Philippians 3:16)
Now, for a bit of oratory sleight of hand. How in the world can I possibly tie this long string back into the Christmas story? Fortunately, the Holy Spirit leads and so a way has been provided.
Materness is not limited to me only. There are some Mater moments in the Bible, too. On the same day as the Jesus’ resurrection, we find two Mater’s on the Emmaus road, downcast and confused. You remember the story? Jesus joined them on the road, but they were unable to recognize him. They explained the sad events of the previous days, who Jesus was, what he had done, how he had been seized and crucified, and even how the women had found the empty tomb. At the end of their speaking, Jesus replied,
“How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?” And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself. Luke 24:25-27
Jesus did reproach the two disciples, but He does not leave them without understanding or without hope. And whether we are slow in heart or not, if we seek Him, Jesus does not leave us in darkness. Jesus explained all that was said about Him. Now is our chance to avoid being slow of heart. Let’s turn back to the beginning of Luke and the beginning of the fulfillment of those Old Testament prophecies. Let’s not forget the significance because the story is familiar.
In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin's name was Mary. Luke 1:26-27
Here is Gabriel again, six months into Elizabeth’s pregnancy, so maybe seven months or so after appearing to Zechariah in the temple. He has an even more exciting message to deliver.
Nazareth was north of Jerusalem in a hilly region 15-20 miles west of the Sea of Galilee. The book of Matthew points out this is fulfillment of prophecy. Jesus will be called a Nazarene.
Mary is a virgin. Isaiah prophesied 700 years before that the virgin would be with child and he would be Immanuel which means “God with us.”
The Messiah would also be a descendant of David. And Joseph is a descendant of David.
Wouldn’t Jesus himself have explained these prophecies on the Emmaus road? We read, “He explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.”
The angel went to her and said, "Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you."
Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. Luke 1:28-29
Mary’s response is not that unlike Zechariah’s. She is greatly troubled.
But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.” Luke 1:30-33
The name Jesus means “the Lord saves.”
The promise of a descendant to reign forever goes all the way back to God’s promise to David once his kingdom was established 1000 before Christ.
“How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?” Luke 1:34
Now, Zechariah asked the angel a question and ended up getting more than 9 months to think about it before he could speak again. Mary asks a question, but it does not bother Gabriel, and she gets a direct answer. Why is that?
Zechariah’s question appears to be one of disbelief. “How can this be?” Whereas, Mary’s question is one of logic. “How will this be or how shall it be since I am a virgin?” Mary may be a young woman, but she knows about the birds and the bees. A woman cannot have a baby unless she has been with a man.
Gabriel explains that there will be one time in the history of the world that a child will be born to a virgin.
The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be barren is in her sixth month. For nothing is impossible with God.” Luke 1:35-37
It would be a miraculous conception. For me, this statement always clarified God as Father. Throughout, the Bible is clear on God as Father, not as mother or as a genderless parent. If Jesus has an earthly mother, then who is God but the Father? And, if we are Jesus’ brothers and sisters, is not God our Father as well?
Gabriel is telling it to Mary that Elizabeth is pregnant as a confirmation or proof of what he has said. “Your relative is going to have a child in her old age.” – “Nothing is impossible with God.”
Mary has the wisdom and faith to accept Gabriel’s testimony. – Elizabeth, who as the King James version says is well stricken in years, will have a child. – “Nothing is impossible with God.”
We too can take Gabriel’s assurance. In the midst of difficult circumstances, we can remember that nothing is impossible with God. In the midst of hardened hearts of friends and relatives toward the gospel, remember nothing is impossible with God. In the midst of fierce temptation, remember nothing is impossible with God. He always provides a way of escape. (I Corinthians 10:13)
“I am the Lord's servant,” Mary answered. “May it be to me as you have said.” Then the angel left her. Luke 1:38
The whole conversation here takes only a moment. Our familiarity with the story can lead us to pass by this moment too quickly. Mary is a special, blessed, and highly favored woman, just as Gabriel said when he greeted her. The fact that she was chosen is a testament to her character and her heart before the Lord.
Things are a little different in our time. We are not unfamiliar with young unmarried women becoming pregnant. However, in the time of Jesus, adultery was a sin punishable by stoning, punishable by death.
What thoughts passed through Mary’s mind? What about Joseph to whom she was betrothed? What about her reputation? What would friends and family think of her? What would happen to her life?
And yet, in the midst of those possible doubts and concerns. Mary makes her choice. “I am the Lord’s servant, the Lord’s slave.” No conditions, no restrictions, nothing withheld. She gives herself completely to the Lord. “May it be to me as you have said.” What is God asking of you right now? Is he asking you to put your faith in him? Is he asking you to serve in a certain way? Is he asking you to speak to a certain person about Jesus? Whatever it may be, whatever the risk, may we be willing to say as Mary did, “May it be to me as you have said.”
At that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea, where she entered Zechariah's home and greeted Elizabeth. Luke 1:39-40
There must be an established relationship between these two women. Judea is 50-60 miles away from Nazareth. Perhaps they had met previously during some of the feasts? We don’t know, but Mary gets ready and “hurries.”
Now we’ll see that Mary is pregnant already when she arrives at Zechariah and Elizabeth’s home. We don’t know how she traveled. Did Joseph take her? They weren’t yet married at that time, so that seems unlikely. Did she travel with other family? She wouldn’t have traveled alone. We just don’t know.
However, it does make me think that Joseph did not find out about her pregnancy until she returned from Judea. Matthew says that Mary was “found to be with child through the Holy Spirit.” Joseph is a righteous man and he loved Mary. He decided to divorce her quietly, and not expose her to public disgrace and risk of stoning. In Matthew, we see that an angel visits Joseph in a dream and explains the situation to him. Joseph does what the Lord had commanded and he married Mary.
When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. In a loud voice she exclaimed: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed is she who has believed that what the Lord has said to her will be accomplished!” Mary stayed with Elizabeth for about three months and then returned home. Luke 1:41-45, 56
Gabriel told Zechariah that the baby John would be filled with the Holy Spirit from his mother’s womb. Upon Mary’s arrival, Elizabeth too is filled with the Holy Spirit. We’ve already been talking about fulfilled prophecy from the Old Testament. Now, we see prophecy in the New Testament. Elizabeth knows upon Mary’s arrival that she is pregnant and that she is carrying her Lord.
There are strong ramifications here regarding the life of a child in the womb. A preborn child. Some would want to call this child a fetus. We’ve all been amazed by the beauty and perfection of a weeks old infant: perfect hands and feet, fully formed, but miniature, smaller than your hand. This physical reality should move us to see the preborn child as a person. How much more the testimony of Gabriel and Elizabeth? The child John is filled with the Holy Spirit in the womb. It is not an unidentified protoplasm or a kind of pre-personhood “animal.” The preborn child is a person. It reminds me of the C.S. Lewis quote that Carl used earlier this year. “You don’t have a soul. You are a Soul. You have a body.” That body, no matter how small is the physical representation of a soul.
When it was time for Elizabeth to have her baby, she gave birth to a son. Her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown her great mercy, and they shared her joy. Luke 1:57-58
Their neighbors knew she was pregnant, but likely did not know or either did not believe that she would surely have a son. In those days, the birth of a son was celebrated much more than the birth of a daughter. In particular, for a barren couple, to have a son in their old age was a great joy.
On the eighth day they came to circumcise the child, and they were going to name him after his father Zechariah, but his mother spoke up and said, “No! He is to be called John.” They said to her, “There is no one among your relatives who has that name.” Luke 1:59-61
It was customary that first sons were named after fathers or grandfathers. In particular, no one would use a name that was not somewhere in the family. Of course, Elizabeth knows the whole message of the angel, and she quickly speaks up.
The name John means “the Lord is gracious.” A fitting name for the forerunner of Christ and the firstborn of an elderly couple.
Then they made signs to his father, to find out what he would like to name the child. He asked for a writing tablet, and to everyone's astonishment he wrote, “His name is John.” Luke 1:62-63
Poor Zechariah hasn’t been able to speak for more than nine months. He may have been deaf, but I guess that it was hard to communicate so he may have allowed people to think he was deaf so as not to have to go to the trouble. It just makes me smile to think about everyone doing charades and talking in really loud voices when the only problem is Zechariah can’t speak. Regardless, Zechariah is ready with the right answer.
Immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue was loosed, and he began to speak, praising God. Luke 1:64
Cool that his first words are praise. He’s had nine months to think about it.
The neighbors were all filled with awe, and throughout the hill country of Judea people were talking about all these things. Everyone who heard this wondered about it, asking, "What then is this child going to be?" For the Lord's hand was with him. And the child grew and became strong in spirit; and he lived in the desert until he appeared publicly to Israel. Luke 1:65-66, 80
The people were filled with awe and wonder. Not only were the events of John’s birth miraculous. We also see that the Lord’s hand was with him. It is not clear to us in what manner the Lord’s hand was with him. We see that even as a child, he became strong in spirit.
Do you remember what Gabriel told Zechariah that John would do? He is “to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.” Luke 1:17
Make ready a people prepared. How? The image given in Luke 3:3-6.
He [that is John] went into all the country around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. As is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet: “A voice of one calling in the desert, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him. Every valley shall be filled in, every mountain and hill made low. The crooked roads shall become straight, the rough ways smooth. And all mankind will see God's salvation.’” Luke 3:3-6
If a king were traveling, the roads would be prepared prior to his coming. Every time we have an important visitor in the plant where I work, the painters are sent in to come and touch up. I begin to wonder if the world smells like wet paint to kings and queens and presidents? The coming of Jesus does not require infrastructure improvement of physical roads, but it does require a moral and spiritual preparation. People must be prepared for the coming of the Messiah.
When I went looking for commentary on Luke 1:17, I found an entire sermon by Charles Spurgeon. If I am Mater, then Spurgeon is my Lightning McQueen. If Spurgeon saw fit to devote an entire sermon to Luke 1:17, then it must be pivotal.
"The fact is, dear friends, that to get men to come to Jesus just as they are, is not an easy thing. To get them to give up the idea of preparing, to get them prepared to come without preparing, to get them ready to come just as they are, this is the hardest part of our work, this is our greatest difficulty. If we came and preached to men the necessity of preparation through so many weeks of fasting during a long Lent, or through so many days of scourging and penitence, they would attend to us at once, for they would be willing enough to make any preparation of that kind; but, when we say to them, "Come just as you are now, with nothing in your hand to buy the mercy of God, with nothing wherewith to demand or to deserve it," men want a great deal of preparing before they will come to that point. Only the grace of God, working mightily through the Word, by the Spirit, will prepare men to come to Christ thus, prepared by being unprepared so far as any fitness of their own is concerned. The only fit state in which they can come is that of sinking themselves, abandoning all idea of helping Christ, and coming in all their natural impotence and guilt, and taking Christ to be their all in all.
"Beloved friends, this is the true preparedness of heart for coming to Christ, the preparedness of coming to him just as you are; and it was John's business thus "to make ready a people prepared for the Lord." That is also my business at this time. May the good Spirit, who dwelt in John the Baptist, work through us also, that some here may be made ready for Christ, "a people prepared for the Lord"!"
Spurgeon made four points, saying John prepared the way by:
1. AROUSING THEIR ATTENTION
he set them thinking, preached to them a Savior, they began to expect something as well as to hope for it, he put a pressure of presentness upon the people
2. AWAKENING THEIR CONSCIENCES
to their sin, he showed them their need of cleansing, their need of a change of life, he pointed out the precise sin of each class of persons
3. BY POINTING OUT THE NATURE OF TRUE RELIGION
it did not depend upon external privileges,true religion is not the same as official pretension,
the necessity of being right before God
4. DECLARING THE GRACE AND POWER OF JESUS CHRIST
John preached Jesus Christ as a mighty and glorious Saviour on whom the Spirit rested, the Christ whom he preached was able to baptise them with the Holy Ghost, he pointed out Christ as the Sin-bearer
Are you prepared? Are you able to come to Jesus without pretense? He is the blessed child. He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. He is the one who makes all things new. Let us rejoice that we live in a time where the prophecies of his first coming are fulfilled, and we live under grace looking forward to the fulfillment of the prophecies of his second coming. Let’s pray.
Lord Jesus, thank you for your willingness to come and to live as a man, including development from conception, nine months in Mary’s womb. Thank you that by doing so, you made salvation for us a possibility. Help us to put aside childish things and grow in the Spirit. You are worthy to be praised. Come Lord Jesus. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment