The Purpose Of Christmas, Part Two: "The Promise to Abraham Fulfilled" Luke 1:46-55

- Last time, in answer to the question, "What is the purpose of Christmas?" we talked about the promise of a son to establish God's eternal kingdom. We learned that God fulfills his promises in ways that defy human imagination. This week, as we continue to explore the purpose of Christmas, we're going to zero in on the significance of Mary's recitation, known as the Magnificat.

- Her song expresses her joy at the actions of God in her life not merely for her but for her people because of his promises.

- Why does Luke include Mary's Magnificat in his gospel, i.e., what is its significance to his readers? Let me suggest an answer: Mary's words point to Jesus as the fulfillment of God's promise to Abraham.

- Now you might be wondering, "How do Mary's words point to Jesus as the fulfillment of God's promise to Abraham?" Well let's look at the last thing Mary said.

^{- 54} "He has helped his servant Israel,
   in remembrance of his mercy,
⁵⁵ as he spoke to our fathers,
   to Abraham and to his offspring forever.”

- So according to Luke, Mary believed that Gabriel's announcements to her and the fulfillment of that promise in Jesus' conception is God's help for Israel. She believed that God remembered his mercy. The promise of his mercy down through the centuries was a promise God first gave to Abraham to extend his mercy from generation to generation & through whom all the families of the earth would be blessed.

- In these two verses, Mary is referring to the promises of God to Israel specifically to the historic promises of God to Abraham and to Abraham's offspring.

- Let's look at God's first promise to Abraham:

- ¹ Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.
²  And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.
³  I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonours you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” Gen 12:1-3 (ESV)

- Notice the last thing God said to Abraham, "in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed." God's intention in calling out a nation for himself and setting them aside to be his people was for them to be the light of the world through whom all the families of the earth would receive the blessing of God.

- A little later on in Abraham's story, before God changes his name from Abram to Abraham, we read that Abram still has no children. Following the rescue of Lot and after receiving the blessing of the priest Melchizedek, Abram receives a vision from God and we find a frustrated Abram interacting with God.

- ³ And Abram said, “Behold, you have given me no offspring, and a member of my household will be my heir.”
⁴ And behold, the word of the Lord came to him: “This man shall not be your heir; your very own son shall be your heir.”
⁵ And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.”
⁶ And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness. Gen 15:1-6 (ESV)

- Later on in the story, God makes a covenant with Abram and changes his name to Abraham. Abram means exalted father, but Abraham means father of a multitude. And God says to Abraham,

- ⁷ And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you.
Gen 17:7(ESV)

- sometime after the birth of Isaac, God commanded Abraham to take his only son into the land of Moriah and sacrifice him on the mountain that the Lord would show him. But God doesn't allow the sacrifice to be completed.

- ¹⁵ And the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven ¹⁶ and said, "By myself I have sworn, declares the Lord, because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, ¹⁷ I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies, ¹⁸ and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice."

- Now, the average reader will assume that God was referring to Abraham's physical/biological descendents and that is how these verses would normally be understood. But as we read in the apostle Paul's letter to the Galatians, we see that that is not how we are to understand God's promise to Abraham.

- ¹⁶ Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his seed. It does not say, “And to seeds,” referring to many, but referring to one, “And to your seed,” who is Christ. Gal 3:16

- Since Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness and since Christ is the seed/offspring of Abraham then all those who believe God will be counted as righteous and as Abraham's offspring through Jesus Christ. God's promises to Abraham are fulfilled through Christ.  Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son by faith is a picture of God's own willingness to give us Jesus, except that God went the whole way and allowed Jesus to die on a cross.

- Just as Abraham accepted God's word to him by faith, Mary also accepted God's word to her from Gabriel by faith. Not only is Jesus the offspring of Mary, but he is also Mary's offspring by faith. In the same way that God blessed Abraham with his son because of his faith, Mary also received the blessing of God and gave birth to a son through faith.

- What is the significance of Mary's Maginificat to Luke's readers?

- The significance of Mary's Magnificat to Luke's readers is that Mary's words point to Jesus as the fulfillment of God's promise to Abraham. And not just God's promises to Abraham, but all of the promises of God.

- Remember what Mary said,

⁵⁴ "He has helped his servant Israel,
   in remembrance of his mercy,
⁵⁵ as he spoke to our fathers,
   to Abraham and to his offspring forever.”

- In remembrance of his mercy, God fulfills his promises to help Israel, promises which he gave to Abraham, his descendents and his offspring forever.

- Mary's words expressed her joy at the fulfillment of the promises of God as well as the fulfillment of those promises in her life, that she would be God's chosen instrument, the mother of the Messiah.

- Mary's words show us that she knew what we need to know, that the child in her womb is the fulfillment of all of God's promises.  Mary was looking forward to his arrival. Her son, who would soon be born, was the foremost thought in her mind. She was looking forward to his arrival with great joy.

- Jesus is the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy. He is the fulfillment of God's promise to Eve that her offspring would crush the serpent's head. He is the fulfillment of God's promise to Abraham that God would bless him and make him a blessing to all the families of the earth. He is the fulfillment of the promise of a prophet like Moses.

- Jesus is the fulfillment of God's promise to bear the sins of his people. He is the fulfillment of God's promise to restore Israel and his promise of light to the Gentiles.

- To Abraham, God promised to bless all the families and all the nations of the earth. 

- God has placed only one condition on the promise of his blessing, you must believe.

- All the promises of God find their Yes in Christ.

- As Mary thought about the promises of God, as she considered the word of the angel Gabriel, and as she visited with her cousin Elizabeth she was moved to respond to God in worship.

- As we consider the promise of Jesus to return, as we consider the words God preserved for us in Scripture, and as we experience the work of God in our lives and the lives of others we also must be moved to respond to our God in worship as we contemplate his promises to us.

- All the promises of God find their Yes in Christ.

The Purpose Of Christmas: The Promise of a Son Luke 1:26-38

- The virgin birth, along with the resurrection of Jesus, is one of the most doubted aspects of the biblical story of Jesus. No doubt to a modern reader, who disbelieves the supernatural or only accepts the physical realm, the Bible's testimony is dismissed out of hand.

- The leading priests and other early enemies of Jesus dismissed the claim of Jesus to be the Son of God. Both then and now, it defies the imagination of people that God would directly cause a young woman to conceive and bear a son without the involvement of a sexual relationship with a man or his seed.  Without faith, the very idea is laughable.

- Yet if the virgin birth is so difficult to believe why does Luke include it in his narrative? Why is it part of the story? It has been suggested that the Christian faith would've been better off had Luke not included this information especially if it were fabricated, made up, a figment of Luke's imagination. The story itself invites the accusation that Jesus was an illegitimate child, born to parents out of wedlock.

- Luke reported the story simply because it was true. As a medical doctor, he knew very well how babies were made and it would've been just as difficult for him to believe the virgin birth as it is for people today.

- In the opening verses of his gospel, Luke tells us that he did the research that was necessary to write an orderly account of the life of Christ based on eyewitness testimony.

- The early traditions of the church report to us that Luke interviewed Mary herself for the opening chapters of his gospel. It is her story that Luke reports not the product of his imagination.

- Those who believe that God created the universe by the power of his spoken word should not have any trouble believing that God has the power to create life in a virgin's womb.

- As the story of the first Christmas unfolds for us from the gospel of Luke, beginning with the very first chapter, I want to look at a question that will dominate the next three weeks: What is the purpose of Christmas? That question leads me to today's question: What did Luke tell his readers was the purpose of Gabriel's announcement to Mary? The purpose of Gabriel's announcement to Mary was to present the good news that she was chosen to bear a Son to establish God's eternal kingdom.

- On the surface, the fulfillment of this promise seems like an impossibility not only for the very reasons that we have already discussed, but for some other reasons which we will examine.

- What stands out to me, however, what I have learned to be true in my own life, as well as, observing in the lives of others is this: God fulfills his promises in ways that defy human imagination.

- As we look at Gabriel's appearance to Mary and his announcement to her, it is the way in which God chooses to fulfill his promises that sticks out like a sore thumb in this passage. God acts in ways in which we do not expect. He goes beyond our imaginations. What he does, we often assume to be impossible!

-The first time we read about the angel Gabriel in the Scriptures it is the prophet Daniel to whom Gabriel is sent to explain the meaning of his visions. The second time we read about Gabriel it is the priest Zechariah to whom Gabriel  is sent with the message that his wife, although she is old, will give birth to a son who would be great.

- And now the third time we read about the angel Gabriel, it seems as if he is sent to one of the most unlikely people, a very young woman, a virgin who has just entered her childbearing years, who is also betrothed and more likely than not living at home with her parents.

- In those days, the practice of betrothal was such that very often once a young woman entered childbearing years she would be engaged to be married. The parents of the bride and the groom negotiated the bride price to be paid to the father of the bride by the groom's family.

- The young woman would then remain at home for one full year during which time she must remain sexually pure. If the woman was found to be pregnant during that time the betrothal could be annulled and the bride and her family would bear the disgrace for the rest of their lives.

- Gabriel's message to Mary was a message that would potentially turn her world upside down. How could people be expected to believe that the famous angel Gabriel came to Mary telling her that she was going to conceive a child by the power of the Holy Spirit? Who would believe her story? Certainly, no one in their right mind would be willing to accept such a story at face value. Joseph did, though not through any virtue or insight of his own, but because he also received a special revelation from God in a vision.

- Can you imagine the rumours? The gossip? The accusations? The innuendo?  Can you imagine what a burden that would've been to bear in those days?

- It seems that it even followed Jesus in the sarcastic response of certain people to Jesus teaching. They said to him, "we were not born of sexual immorality" (i.e., we are not illegitimate children), likely implying that they thought he was.

- Their statement was no mere insult, but an indication that they had some superficial knowledge of his back story. As if being a child born out of wedlock somehow delegitimizes personhood and dignity.  Birth circumstances do not rob people of their dignity, but people's attitudes, actions, and speech do.

- Never before had God caused a virgin to conceive and give birth to a son. This action was something unthinkable, something that would not even enter the realm of human imagination. 

- If God hadn't done it before, so goes the reasoning, then it must be impossible.

- How often do we forget that our God is preoccupied with newness. As the prophet Isaiah declared, "Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?" (Isaiah 43:19, ESV)

 - It is because of his interest in new things that God fulfills his promises in ways that defy human imagination.

- Mary herself demonstrated her own limited imagination as Scripture reveals, "How will this be, since I am a virgin?" 

- Now, whereas Zechariah doubted that his wife Elizabeth could possibly have a child, Mary accepted by faith that God would do it, but curiously wondered aloud how God would go about doing it.

- So Gabriel took the time to explain that her pregnancy would be the result of the activity of God in her life, that the Holy Spirit would do a new thing by causing her to conceive without sexual intercourse. In his explanation, Gabriel included an aside about Elizabeth's pregnancy in her old age then pronounced, "For nothing will be impossible with God."

- God fulfills his promises in ways that defy human imagination.

- The virgin birth of Jesus to Mary is the fulfillment of the promise of God which defies our imaginations. That God would come in human form, be born and grow up,  teach and heal, raise the dead, be crucified and buried, and then be resurrected… Why the whole story defies our imaginations. But the fact remains that God chooses to fulfill his promises in ways that defy human imagination. In ways that seem impossible to us, God chooses to do a new thing. In ways that seem unthinkable to us, God fulfills his promises.

- In his letter to the Ephesians, the apostle Paul reminds us that God "is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think" (Eph 3:20, ESV). The NIV of that verse says that he, "is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine."

- This Christmas as we spend time thinking about how God fulfilled his promises on that first Christmas, let us prepare our hearts and minds for the surprises that God has in store for us in the future.

- He alone is the one who is able to do immeasurably far more abundantly than all we ask or think or imagine. We simply are not capable of dreaming God sized dreams on our own. God alone is the one who can put God sized dreams in our hearts and minds.

- God fulfills his promises in ways that defy human imagination.

- Are we ready for God to do a new thing among us? Are we ready for God to blow all our assumptions out of the water? Are we ready for God to do something so big that our response is going to be like Mary's? Lord, how will this be? 

- Advent is a time of preparation. It is a time set apart to prepare ourselves for the arrival of Christ.  Let us set apart time for prayer this Advent season to prepare ourselves for the new thing that God wants to do among us, in us, through us, and around us. Let us commit ourselves to prayerfully meditating on the fulfillment of his promises to us in Christ so that we may be better prepared for the new ways in which he wants to act that defy our imaginations.

- God fulfills his promises in ways that defy human imagination.

Psalms For Life, 3: "In God's Arms" Scripture: Psalm 131

 ¹ O LORD, my heart is not lifted up;
   my eyes are not raised too high;
I do not occupy myself with things
   too great and too marvellous for me.
² But I have calmed and quietened my soul,
   like a weaned child with its mother;
   like a weaned child is my soul within me.
³ O Israel, hope in the LORD
   from this time forth and for evermore. (ESV)

- Have you got an answer for everything? Do you ever feel like you have to have an answer for everything? It is the proud that think they have all the answers. The proud think that they have it all together. They think they know all the answers or are thoroughly convinced that we can and will find them, even if we do not immediately know them. 

- Prideful people are always looking for great and marvellous things. They act like they truly think they know it all. The prideful are often unwilling to give an inch to someone who may know more than they about a matter or a subject. Even if the other person is an authority, the prideful tend to turn a deaf ear as they are often tooting their own horns. Prideful people are always comparing themselves to others, boasting in their own accomplishments, yet are inwardly discontent. The prideful man or woman is always scheming and planning how to outdo, outperform, and show-up everyone else.

- But sooner or later, life raises the most troubling questions, questions that we are simply incapable of answering, questions that leave us despondent, grieving, depressed, and even humiliated.

- What do you do when you don't have all the answers? When life brings you to the place where you do not know the answer, after looking high and low, yet still left with the same question, what do you do? When you don't even know where to begin to look and are overwhelmed, what do you do? To whom do you turn?

- The prayer of King David represented in this Psalm is David's response to the questions, "What do you do or where do you turn when you don't have the answers?"

- How does David deal with questions he cannot answer? David deals with questions he cannot answer by climbing onto the lap of the Lord.

- ¹ O LORD, my heart is not lifted up;
   my eyes are not raised too high;
I do not occupy myself with things
   too great and too marvellous for me.

- The first thing David does is humble himself before Almighty God.  David knows that God is greater and God is higher than any other and in that knowledge he surrenders himself to God.

- By humbling himself and surrendering to God, David put aside the temptations of pride in himself and his accomplishments. He had much to be proud of as the king who defeated the Philistines and sat on the throne at the beginning of Israel's Golden age. David could have chosen pride promenade, but he chose instead humble highway.

- While it is good and right to celebrate accomplishments with thanksgiving in your heart, when those accomplishments lead to self-centered pride it becomes increasingly difficult, if not downright impossible, to embrace humility.

- Pride makes it impossible to do the second thing that David chose to do.

- ² But I have calmed and quieted my soul,
   like a weaned child with its mother;
   like a weaned child is my soul within me.

- David deals with questions he cannot answer by climbing onto the lap of the Lord. When you humble yourself before God, it is at that point that you can calm and quiet your soul.

- David used the image of a child at rest with its head on its mother's breast like a pillow. For me, that is a powerful image. It reminds me of when Abbi and Zoe were smaller. There is a special beauty I see when I look at a child sleeping on her mother or father's chest. He is oblivious to the cares of the world. She is safe in the arms of her loving mother. In those arms, there is peace and quiet, calm and contentment. In those arms, nothing else matters.

- When Abbi was small, she was colicky and the only way we could get her to sleep was to place her on her mother's chest in the comfort of her presence. Later, she also frequently climbed up into my arms to fall asleep laying on my chest. Although Zoe was never colicky, even today when she needs comfort she climbs up onto her mother's lap & into her arms.

- There is something special about the love that is exchanged when a child climbs up onto a mother or father's lap and leans into the chest of that parent. It expresses a deep bond of trust built by love. I believe that God wants parents and children to dwell in that experience and remember it, so that we will learn that he wants to treat us the same way. God loves us like that!

- When life is overwhelming. When we are grieving. When we are burned out, chewed up, & broken. When we run out of proud answers, then what do we need to do? We need to humbly climb onto the lap of God.

- God wants us to drop our pride, surrender ourselves, and allow him to be our Abba, Daddy, Papa, the God of all comfort who comforts us in our distress.

- It is only when we have been with God that our hopes are restored. Only then is the possibility that the hope that we have can be shared powerfully, only when we have been with God and understand that he loves us & is always present to embrace us. It is only then that we can best share his love.

- David wrote: ³ O Israel, hope in the LORD
   from this time forth and for evermore.

- According to David, it is in God alone in whom our hope may be found. When we run out of proud answers, what do we need to do?

- When you run out of proud answers, humbly climb onto the lap of God.

- When there is in an unmet need in your life, God is able to meet it! No matter what the circumstances, your life is safe when you are in the arms of the living God.

- In 1999 when I was fresh out of divinity school, we had very little money. Toni and I were convinced that we were where God wanted us to be, but that did not mean that all our needs were immediately met.

- In fact, that year we were quite often short of cash and a number of times we came to the point when we wondered if we would have enough to get by.

- However, God demonstrated to us over and over again his care for us in even the smallest of things. At that time, Toni kept a record of the money that we received as a result of answered prayer. The total for the year was $3600.

- To me, that money is an amazing thing for which I am truly thankful. We will never know how that year might have turned out had we not placed our trust in the living God and climbed onto his lap to share with him all our needs and receive his loving care. We will never know what would have happened, but we do know what did happen.  When we placed our trust in the Lord, he took care of all our needs.

- No matter what your situation, you can be assured that all your needs will be met in the arms of God. 

- When you run out of proud answers, humbly climb onto the lap of God.