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.

Psalms For Life, 2: With Or Without God? Scripture: Psalm 127

- As we think about this Psalm, we need to remember the particular gifts of the one who wrote it. We need to keep in mind that it was composed by Solomon whom God gifted with great wisdom. The Bible describes Solomon's wisdom in this way: ²⁹ "God gave Solomon wisdom and very great insight, and a breadth of understanding as measureless as the sand on the seashore. ³⁰ Solomon’s wisdom was greater than the wisdom of all the people of the East, and greater than all the wisdom of Egypt" (1 Kings 4:29-30, NIV)

- The wisdom of Solomon was such that it is always immensely spiritual and immediately practical for daily life. A person who puts into practice the wisdom she or he learns from Solomon will be seen as a very wise person indeed.

- After reading this Psalm, the first thing that stands out to me is verse one and that verse is traditionally used as a call to worship at the beginning of the marriage ceremony. Granted, this Psalm has some important things to say about family, but the subject of this Psalm is not primarily the family. The main idea of this Psalm is the utter meaninglessness of life without the living God.

- What does Solomon say is the value of all of life's accomplishments? According to Solomon, all of life's accomplishments are vanity, unless the Lord is their source, family included.

- Life only remains meaningful with God; life without God becomes meaningless.

- Unless God is at the center of our lives, then all our efforts, all our building, all our striving, all our work, and all that we invest in our families is meaningless.

- If we are wise, then our everyday, ordinary lives will demonstrate that God is central to our life and our living.

- If we want to raise a godly family, then God must be at the center of the family. Otherwise, all of our efforts to produce a family that lives right in the eyes of God will be in vain.

- If we want to produce a godly community, then God must be at the center of that community. Otherwise, all of our efforts to produce a godly community, which lives right in the eyes of God, will be in vain.

- From the beginning of creation, we have seen the results of human efforts to live without God. With the disobedience of Adam and Eve, God gave all humanity a taste of what life would be like without him. The result of the fall of the first family unit is a world in bondage to sin, death, and decay. Life without God is a life without his sustaining and redeeming power.

- The family unit that fails to place God at the center is a broken and dysfunctional family unit. The evidence of that brokenness is all around us and it shows itself in domestic violence, child abuse, adultery, addictions, disrespect, low self-esteem, marital strife, disobedient children and so on. The only solution for the brokenness of the family is to return God to his rightful place at the center.

- The community that fails to place God at the center is a broken and dysfunctional community. That brokenness is also evident all around us in communities gone wrong.

- Remove God from schools and what do we find? Increased violence, drug use, bullying, and gangs. We find unsuccessful students, teachers that are more concerned about their jobs than the students, program focused education rather than student focused education, and so forth.

- Remove God from government and what do we find? A culture of entitlement, corruption, and political jockeying become of greater importance than doing what is right for the sake of the country and good government.

- Remove God from the legal system and what do we find? We find laziness & corruption in the police, in attorneys, the judges, and in the system itself.

- Remove God from public life and family life and other false gods will rush in and fill the vacuum that is left behind; false gods which wreak havoc and destruction upon the communities of the world and upon the family.

- The world of the 21st century has placed nearly all its eggs in the technological basket. Technology, for all its value and all it's good, cannot save us from ourselves. It keeps us busy yet unfulfilled, entertained but dissatisfied, socially connected but somehow isolated and lonely. For all our technological accomplishments, on their own, they fail to bring greater meaning and depth to our lives.

- We could continue to list the effects of what happens when we remove God from the place where he belongs but that isn't going to help us this morning. All it would serve to do is lead us to lamenting and complaining about the culture in which we live and the communities to which we belong. It is depressing, disheartening, un-motivating and gives no hope.

- In the 127th Psalm, Solomon gives us a pattern for hope and shows us where we need to focus our work if we are going to change the culture around us.

- If we are going to see renewal in the church and revival in our community, then placing God at the center begins with each one of us and our families. As Solomon reminds us in verse one, "Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labour in vain."

- It was the very first family unit that chose a life without God and it is with the family unit life with God must begin.

- Family life only remains meaningful with God; family life without God becomes meaningless.

- ³ "Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD,
   the fruit of the womb a reward."

- The legacy of right living godly parents is right living godly children (that also goes for those who are spiritual parents in addition to biological parents, which many of us are).

- When God is at the center of your life and your marriage, then you will have an eternally significant influence upon the lives of others. Your legacy will be children in the faith. When God is at the center, your life will have eternal significance. With God, life remains meaningful!

- ⁴ "Like arrows in the hand of a warrior
   are the children of one's youth.
⁵ Blessed is the man
   who fills his quiver with them!"

- When God is at the center of your life, your marriage, and your family, then you reap a sense of security and protection that people living without God do not have.

- Just as many arrows protect the archer, so a person's godly influence brings the blessing of God.  A reproducing family ensures the family line and gives security and protection to the parents in their old age. Will the aged parents of a godly family be lonely? No. Will they be abandoned and isolated by society? No, not while their children are living.

- Isn't this also true of the church? The church that is producing godly offspring is a church which God protects as it ages because it will continue to reproduce godly offspring, offspring who will do what is right in the eyes of God.

- Life without God becomes meaningless; life only remains meaningful with God.

- When I was in senior high school, I made a decision that I didn't want to be told what to do anymore. I didn't want to do my homework, so I didn't. I didn't want to listen to my parents, so I didn't. I didn't want to go to youth group, so I didn't. I didn't want to read my Bible, so I didn't. Oh, I showed up for church and Sunday school. I went through the motions, but essentially I was living life without God.

- That first series of poor decisions led to another series of bad decisions. Let's just say the old saying, "I don't drink & I don't smoke. I don't cuss & I don't chew & I don't girl go with girls who do," doesn't apply to me. I did all those things and a few more.

- What I found was that none of those things fulfilled me. I found that what I like to call, "my little experiment" in life without God was empty & meaningless.

- When I hit rock bottom, which for me meant sinking low enough that I felt like dirt, then I knew it was time to turn things around and get my life back on track by putting God at the center.

- I learned that life without God becomes meaningless. When I turned back and committed myself the following him, then I began to learn that life only remains meaningful with God.

- I have learned that my life can have no greater purpose than to fulfill the calling that God has placed upon my life. Without him at the center everything this life has to offer is in vain. But with God at the center, every effort, every accomplishment finds meaning and purpose and fulfillment in him and for that I'm eternally grateful.

- Life without God becomes meaningless; life only remains meaningful with God.