The Promise of Christmas - Part 1

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Well, as we anticipate gathering to celebrate Christmas this week, I want us to consider the promise of Christmas this morning. In 2017, the Pew Research Center surveyed Americans about Christmas. The results of the survey were interesting. They found that 90% of Americans, 95% of Christians, celebrate the holiday but only 46% of Americans celebrate Christmas as a religious holiday. 46%. That’s down, by the way, from 51% just a few years before. And I’m sure if the survey were retaken now, it would be even lower. Millennials, and then those born after the millennials, are less likely than other adults to celebrate Christmas in any kind of religious way. So, it’s only going to continue to decline. Only 57% of those surveyed believe that the events described in Luke 2 actually happened. That too is down a number of percentage points from just four years before. It was interesting as well to me that the belief in the historical events of Christmas, of Luke 2, were doubted not only by those who identified as secular, but increasingly doubted even by those who self-identify, who profess to know Jesus Christ. Of course, they don’t, or they wouldn’t deny these things, but they at least claim that. 20% of those surveyed, one in five Americans, say none of these things that we celebrate this week actually ever happened.

Luke wrote his gospel to show the historical basis of our faith. In fact, that’s how he puts it. He says, “Theophilus, I’m writing to you...” - this is early in Luke’s gospel where he says, “[I’m writing to you] so that you may know the exact truth [the certainty] about the things you have been taught [catechized].” And so, I want us to look this morning at Luke 1. We’re going to study the promise of Christmas, the promise that God made in the announcement of Jesus’ birth to Mary.

Luke’s gospel begins with two announcements. The first one is to Zacharias, the priest who was to be John the Baptist’s father, the father of the forerunner. The other announcement is to Mary about Jesus’ birth.

There are major contrasts between these two announcements. In fact, you can see them there. Let me just highlight them for you. Zacharias was in the temple; Mary was in her own home. Zacharias in Jerusalem; Mary in Nazareth. He was in Judea; she was in Galilee. He was a man of course; she was a woman. He was over 60 years of age; she was 13 to 15 years of age. He had been long married to Elizabeth; she had never been married but was engaged. He is, it turns out, had weak faith and she had strong faith. Zacharias was the father of the forerunner, John the Baptist, the one who would pronounce the coming of the Messiah, and Mary was to be the mother of Jesus Christ, our Lord the Messiah.

This year I want us today and next Sunday, as we anticipate Christmas and after we celebrate it next Lord’s Day, I want to look together at Luke’s record of the announcement that the angel Gabriel made to Mary of Jesus’ birth. Let’s read it together. Luke 1, I’ll begin in verse 26 down through verse 38. You follow along.

“Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the descendants of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary. And coming in, he said to her, ‘Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.’ But she was very perplexed at this statement, and kept pondering what kind of salutation this was. The angel said to her, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary; for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name Him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David; and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end.’ Mary said to the angel, ‘How can this be, since I am a virgin?’ The angel answered and said to her, ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason the holy Child shall be called the Son of God. And behold, even your relative Elizabeth has also conceived a son in her old age; and she who was called barren is now in her sixth month. For nothing will be impossible with God.’ And Mary said, ‘Behold, the bondslave of the Lord; may it be done to me according to your word.’ And the angel departed from her.”

Luke begins his gospel, in the first four verses, by telling us that he thoroughly investigated all of the facts of the Christian faith, all of the things that transpired during the life and ministry of our Lord, and that this gospel is the fruit of that research. Undoubtedly, what we’ve just read in the Annunciation to Mary came from Luke’s investigation, probably from a firsthand interview with Mary during the two years that Luke was with Paul while Paul was in prison in Caesarea, on the coast of Israel and just a few miles from where all of these things transpired and from where Mary lived at the time. This text describes, then, the angelic announcement to Mary, probably, almost certainly from Mary’s own perspective, the announcement of the miraculous conception of her first child, who would be the long-awaited Messiah. This amazing passage tells us so much about who this child would be even before He was conceived in Mary’s womb. In fact, he identifies for us here three characteristics of this child whose birth we celebrate at Christmas - three unique characteristics that are His. I want us to look at these three characteristics today and next Sunday. And so, let’s begin.

The first characteristic, and the only one that will examine today, is His unlikely parents, His unlikely parents. Let’s begin in verse 26. And we’ll begin by considering the fact that they were unlikely because of their extremely obscure background. Verse 26 say, “Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God...” You’ll notice the time reference “sixth month”. That’s explained in the two verses before. Verse 24: “After these days Elizabeth his [Zechariah’s] wife became pregnant [pregnant with John the Baptist] and she kept herself in seclusion for five months, saying, ‘This is the way the Lord has dealt with me in the days when He looked with favor upon me, to take away my disgrace among men.’ Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent [came]...” So, we’re talking about the sixth month then of Elizabeth’s pregnancy with John the Baptist.

When did all of this transpire? Well, I’ve dealt with this in more detail at other times in other messages but let me just say this. When you put all the evidence together, it appears that Jesus was probably born around the time of the winter solstice. As far as the exact month and day, we can’t be sure of that, but there is an ancient tradition of late December, even December 25th. According to Hippolytus, one of the early church fathers, the December date was held to be Christ’s birth date in the 2nd century BC. But it only began to be widely observed in the time of Constantine. So, Jesus was likely born in the winter. And we know about the year He was born because it had to be before the death of Herod the Great. Because, you remember, Herod is the one who sent to have all the children, two years of age and under, killed in the little village of Bethlehem. And so, it had to be before Herod died and he died in the spring of 4 BC. So, that means Jesus was born in probably December of either 5 or 6 BC. That means that the announcement to Mary, that we’re studying here, came in late March or early April of either 5 or 6 BC.

And this announcement was absolutely monumental. You know, we sit here, and we read our Bibles and because so much history is compressed into such a small amount of space, it’s easy for us to think that all these things happened all the time, that angels showed up constantly. Every day there was an angel showing up. Every day God was speaking from heaven. That’s simply not the truth.

In fact, the last miracle in the Old Testament and the last appearance of an angel in the Old Testament, was back in the time of Daniel. You remember, when in Daniel 6, the angel shut the mouth of the lions? That was more than 500 years before Christ. So, the last miracle, the last appearance of an angel was as far removed from Mary, in Luke 1, as the year 1500 is from us. It had been a long time.

But not only had angelic appearances been scarce, but so had any word from God. From Moses, in about 1400 BC, God had spoken in almost every generation through a prophet for more than a thousand years. But in Luke 1, the last time that God had spoken was 420 years before, through the prophet Malachi. So, think about this: 500 years since an angel has shown up, 420 years since God had given any fresh revelation, any new insight from heaven, and then Gabriel shows up in the temple in Jerusalem.

Go back to Luke 1:8: “Now it happened that while he [Zacharias] was performing his priestly service before God in the appointed order of his division, according to the custom of the priestly office, he was chosen by lot to enter the temple of the Lord and burn incense.” As I pointed out when we studied this passage, this was a once in a lifetime opportunity for a priest. Zacharias had served his entire life as a priest and had never before been chosen to do this job. It was the best job as a priest you could have, was to go in and offer the incense representing the prayers of God’s people before God. And on the one time in his life, he’s over 60 at this point, an older man, he has this opportunity. Notice what happens, verse 10: “And the whole multitude of the people were in prayer outside at the hour of the incense offering. And an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing to the right of the altar of incense.” This angel was Gabriel. He identifies himself as such. And you remember, Gabriel goes on to tell Zacharias that his older wife, Elizabeth, is going to become pregnant and have a child, John the Baptist.

I love Zachariah’s honest response. It’s like, “Wait a minute. How do I know this is really going to happen?” I also... One of my favorite scenes in all of Scripture is Gabriel’s response. Look at chapter 1:19. Zacharias says, “How do I know this is really going to happen?” “The angel answered and said to him, ‘[Really?] I am Gabriel, who stands in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news.’” You just see this eye roll from Gabriel like, “These humans!”, you know, “How dense can you be? I’m Gabriel, sent from God.” Five months after that encounter, Gabriel shows up in Galilee, in the north.

Scripture calls only one angel an “Archangel”, and that’s Michael in Jude 9. That title, Archangel, indicates authority over other angels. But in Daniel 10, Michael is also called one of the chief princes which suggests there may be other archangels. And if so, it’s very possible that Gabriel is because, besides Michael, he’s the only other angel that’s mentioned by name in Scripture. His name, by the way, Gabriel, means “man of God” or “God is strong”. He factors prominently in the Scripture. In fact, Jewish scholars believe that it was Gabriel who destroyed the 185,000 Assyrians on a single night in the Old Testament history. We can’t be sure of that, but we do know that Gabriel brought the vision of the 70 weeks to Daniel in his prophecy. And in Luke 1:19, it was Gabriel who announced the birth of John to Zacharias.

Now, five months later, God sent Gabriel back to make another announcement, back to Palestine again, this time to announce the birth of Christ to Mary. Look at verse 26 again: “Now in the sixth month [of Elizabeth’s pregnancy] the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city in Galilee called Nazareth...” Both Mary and Joseph were from this city called Nazareth. Jesus would call this His hometown from the time He was about two years old, when they returned from Egypt, until He was a little after 30 years of age, when He moved His ministry headquarters to Capernaum, a nearby city on the Sea of Galilee.

Now, the fact that Jesus would call Nazareth home is completely shocking. Before the first advent, nobody would have ever guessed that the Messiah, the Savior of the world, the Son of God, would live most of His earthly life in Nazareth. You’re used to it because that’s what you’ve heard your whole life. But think about this. For 28 years, Jesus lived in Nazareth. He went to synagogue school there. He grew up there. He even worked as a carpenter there. The reason it’s shocking is because Nazareth, in Jesus’s day, was absolutely not an important city. In fact, you’ll notice the word “city” - that’s a bit of an overstatement. Luke uses the word “city” not only for what we think of as cities, but for towns and even for villages. And that’s what Nazareth was. It was a village. It was a very unimportant, little village. In fact, it’s so unimportant that it’s not even mentioned once in the Old Testament. Josephus, the historian, mentions 45 towns in Galilee, but not Nazareth. It’s not among the 63 towns that the Talmud mentions. In fact, outside the New Testament, no literary sources mentioned Nazareth at all until the 4th century AD. Archaeologists today have confirmed that the city in Jesus’ time was just a small agricultural village, certainly less than 500 people and most of them estimate it was around 200 people, essentially, the number of people in one of the sections in this auditorium. That was the population of the city where Jesus grew up.

It was large enough to have a synagogue. Jesus would have gone to synagogue school there. It’s located, just to give you the big picture, about 15 miles west of the southern tip of the Sea of Galilee and about 20 miles east of the Mediterranean and about 65 miles north of Jerusalem. This little village, when it was known, wasn’t known well. It didn’t have a very good reputation, especially with the culturally sophisticated in Judea. They looked at Nazareth the way New Yorkers might look at someone coming out of one of those square states in the middle of the US. John 1:46: “Nathanael said to him, ‘Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?’ Philip said to him, ‘Come and see.’”

It was also secluded; it wasn’t on a main road at all. However, a major trade route passed just south of it, so it was sort of locked in the hills but near it, to the south, was a major ancient trade route. That was the little town, less than 200 people, to which Gabriel came with this announcement. Mounts writes of Nazareth, “Secluded, yet not isolated, Nazareth cradled the origin of the Christian faith.” So, Jesus’ parents were unlikely to be the parents of the Messiah because of their obscure background. This is their heritage; this is their history.

But I want you also to consider their unique qualifications because, on the one hand, they were unlikely because of their obscurity. On another hand, they were unlikely because of their unique qualifications. First of all, Mary was a virgin. Verse 27, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a virgin. The Greek word here for “virgin” always refers to a person who has never had sexual intercourse. And just in case that wasn’t clear enough, the New Testament authors go out of their way to make sure this is clear. Look down in verse 34: “Mary said to the angel, ‘How can this be, since I am a virgin?’” If you have a version of our Bible that has a footnote, you will see that literally what she said was, “since I know no man”, using that Hebrew expression, “I’ve never had physical relationship with a man.” She was a virgin. Turn over to Matthew 1, in the text we read earlier in our Scripture reading. This is reiterated again and again. Verse 18: “...before they came together [physically] she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit.” Verse 20: “...for the Child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.” And go down to Matthew 1:24: “And Joseph awoke from his sleep and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and took Mary as his wife [notice verse 25], but kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a Son; and he called His name Jesus.” She had very unique qualifications to be the mother of a child; she was a virgin.

A second unique qualification that they had together is this: both of them were descendants of David. We know Mary was a descendant of David for two reasons. First of all, if you look at chapter 2:4-5, that’s Luke 2, Luke 2:4-5, you’ll discover that Joseph, at the time of the census, had to go to Bethlehem to register “because he was of the house and family of David, in order to register [notice this] along with Mary, who was engaged to him, and was with child.” She too had to register because she too was of the lineage and descendant of David. In the genealogy that comes in Luke 3, beginning in verse 23, there you have not Joseph’s genealogy; it’s Jesus’ genealogy through Mary, His mother, and it shows that she descended from David as well. I’ve dealt with that at length in another time, in another place. But basically, there are two different genealogies. One shows - Matthew shows Jesus’ legal right to the throne through His adoptive father Joseph, and Luke shows His genealogy back to David through Mary, the physical lineage He had - connection to Mary. So, Jesus was a physical descendant of David through His mother Mary. Jesus’ adoptive father, Joseph, was also related to David. Look at verse 27: “[Mary was] engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the descendants of David...”

Now, we know very little about Joseph. Here’s what we know. We know, first of all, that his name means “may He add”. “May He add” - probably a prayer, “May God add children”, “May God add sons”, probably in a Jewish context. We know that he lived in Nazareth. We know that he worked as a carpenter. Matthew 13:55 identifies Joseph as a carpenter. The word literally means “craftsman”. The Greek word, like our English word “builder”, is a very broad word. It can describe a carpenter, a mason, a woodworker. Justin Martyr, one of the early church fathers who lived shortly after the apostle John, wrote of Jesus who took up the family business, that when He was among men, He made plows and yokes and other farm implements. So, we don’t know exactly what kind of builder Joseph was, but we know, whatever his trade was, it hadn’t made him wealthy because, you remember, Luke records that, at 40 days after Jesus’ birth, they took Jesus to the temple to dedicate Him as the firstborn son. And the offering was supposed to be a lamb and either a dove or a pigeon. But the law said, if the parents couldn’t afford a lamb, then they were allowed to substitute two turtle doves or pigeons, which Luke tells us is exactly what they did. So, like most couples starting out, apparently Joseph and Mary weren’t wealthy.

The only other glimpses we get of Joseph are in Matthew 1, which we read a few moments ago for our Scripture reading. We know that he was a true believer in the God of Israel. We know that he was a righteous man, both imputed righteous by the grace of God, but also a man who exhibited righteousness in his life. And we also know he was a gracious man. How do we know that? Well, you remember, it says in Matthew 1:19, “And Joseph her husband, being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her, planned to send her away secretly [literally, divorce her privately].” In other words, he didn’t want to make a public spectacle of her. Now, think about that. As far as Joseph knew, Mary had been unfaithful to him. She’s pregnant. And he knew the child wasn’t his. So, as far as he knew, she’d been unfaithful to him in their betrothal period. And yet, he decides (this is before he knew that this is something supernatural), knowing that about Mary, he decides, even at the risk to his own reputation, instead of making this a public thing and saying, “I am not the father of this child; this is something she did”, he decides to divorce her privately so as not to make a spectacle of her. So, we know he was a gracious man.

But Luke tells us the most important thing about Joseph in verse 27: “[Joseph was] of the descendants of David [literally, in the Greek text, ‘of the house of David’]...” It pictures all of the descendants of David like a great family, a great household, and Joseph belonged to that family. In chapter 2:4, we read, “...he was of the house and family of David.” In Matthew 1:20, Gabriel refers to Joseph as the “son of David”. Now folks, this is absolutely crucial because if this weren’t true, Jesus could not have been the Messiah. Jesus of Nazareth, if not connected to David, was a fraud.

Throughout the Old Testament, the prophecies about the Messiah gradually grow more and more specific. The first prophecy comes in Genesis 3:15 where all we learn, there in the Garden of Eden, is this: there is coming a unique male who will deal with the sin problem. We know He’s unique because He’s called the seed of a woman, which was a very unusual expression in the Hebrew mind, in the Semitic mind of that world. So, all we know is He’s going to be a very unique male child who’s going to come and deal with sin. In Genesis 12, we learn that He’ll be a descendant of Abraham because all the nations will be blessed through the seed, the offspring of Abraham. Genesis 21:12, we learn He’ll come through Isaac. Genesis 28:14, we learn, He’ll come through Jacob. And in Genesis 49, we learn He’ll come through one of Jacob’s sons, specifically, Judah.

And then in 2 Samuel 7:16, fast forward all the way to the time of David, there we learn that He’ll come from one family in Judah, the family of David. 2 Samuel 7:16 says this: “[God says to David] Your house and your kingdom shall endure before Me forever; your throne shall be established forever.” God promised David that one of his descendants would reign into eternity forever. That’s why in Isaiah 9:6-7, when you have that Messianic prophecy, it says the Messiah will sit “On the throne of David”, the throne that belongs to David. Matthew 22:42, even in Jesus’ time, this was the sort of the general expectation of the people: “‘What do you think about the Christ [Messiah], whose son is He?’ They said to Him, ‘The son of David.’” He has to be a descendant of David. So, turn to Acts 2. Acts 2, on the day of Pentecost, Peter makes this very point in his sermon. He says in verse 29, ““Brethren, I may confidently say to you regarding the patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. [Verse 30] And so, because he was a prophet [David was] and knew that God had sworn to him with an oath to seat one of his descendants on his throne, he looked ahead and spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that He was neither abandoned to Hades, nor did His flesh suffer decay. This Jesus God raised up again...” He had to be a descendant of David. That’s who the Messiah was going to be. So, Joseph had to be a descendant of David.

And it’s through Joseph that Jesus gets His legal right to the throne. You remember Matthew 1:1: “...Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham...” Look at Acts 13. Acts 13, as Paul is preaching at Pisidian Antioch, he says in verse 22, “After He had removed him [Saul from being king in Israel], He raised up David to be their king, concerning whom He also testified and said, ‘I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after My heart, who will do all My will.’ From the descendants of this man [David], according to promise, God has brought to Israel a Savior, Jesus...” So, Joseph was the legal heir to David’s throne and, therefore, Jesus was qualified to be the king.

Verse 27 of our text goes on to say that Mary was engaged to Joseph. Now, Scripture doesn’t tell us how old they were at this point, but most Jewish men of that time married before they were twenty, and most girls were betrothed just after puberty, years 13 to 15. It’s possible that Mary was older, maybe in her late teens, but it’s very unlikely because it was very uncommon in those days. So, she is a teenager, 13 to 15 years old, and she and Joseph are engaged.

Now, what is this “engaged”? What is this word that’s used here? Well, you have to understand that a first century Jewish marriage consisted of two parts, and I’ve explained this to you before but let me just remind you. The first part was the betrothal period called the kiddushin. This usually lasted for about a year. Now, during the betrothal, you were in a relationship that was essentially as binding as marriage itself, but the couple didn’t live together and were to remain sexually pure, which they usually did because sexual sin, during the betrothal period, was considered adultery and the guilty party could be stoned, according to Deuteronomy 22. The kiddushin was much more serious than our engagement because, in that culture, the only way you could get out of the marriage, once you had entered into this betrothal period, was by a divorce. That’s the first part.

The second part of the Jewish marriage was called the huppah. This is when the man went to the home of his wife with great fanfare, with all of his friends and family accompanying him. He traveled through town taking the longest route, making the most noise and arrived at the home of his wife-to-be and there he would take her back to his home. Once they arrived back at his home, it was a feast accompanied by as many as seven days of feasting. If you’re a father in the first century, you save up your shekels. And, of course, the consummation of the marriage. Now, Luke uses a word here that clearly refers to the first part, to the kiddushin, to the betrothal period. They were betrothed. They were in that one year or so timeframe when it was like a marriage, except they didn’t live together. There were no sexual relations, but they were committed to each other.

So, what kind of woman will bear the Messiah? Royalty? A princess living in a palace? No! She’s a very young, completely unknown virgin who is engaged to be married to the village carpenter, in the backwater town of Nazareth, a town of 200 people or less. Verse 27 says, “and the virgin’s name was Mary”. This young girl was named Mary. It’s the Greek form of Maria. She was named after Moses’ sister, Miriam, which means “exalted one”. So, Miriam and Joseph, two young people engaged and living in a tiny Galilean town, they are a most unlikely pair to be the parents of the Son of God. So why did God choose them? You ever ask yourself that question? Why Mary and Joseph?

Well, let’s consider that because it’s revealed here in this text. Let’s look at their gracious selection, their gracious selection. What do we know about them together? We know both of them were true believers in the God of Israel. Matthew calls Joseph a righteous man. And it’s clear from Mary’s Magnificat, later in this chapter, that even as a young teenager, she was very serious about God, very serious about her faith, very serious about the Scripture. There’s more prayer, or more Scripture rather, in Mary’s song and prayer, the Magnificat, than in most modern Christian’s minds.

But God didn’t choose them to be the parents of His Son because they were especially wonderful people. God didn’t look down on first century Israel and say, “ Where are the best two people I can find? Those are the ones I want for My Son’s home. Joseph is the best man alive and Mary - she’s the best woman alive. I’m choosing them because of who they are.” No! It doesn’t work like that. Psalm 143:2 says, “...For in Your sight [God] no man living is righteous.” In other words, it wasn’t because they were impressive.

So, why did God choose this pair? Well, the answer is found right here in this text. Look at verse 28: “And coming in, he said to her, ‘Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.’” Gabriel was either invited into the house or at least into the courtyard that was common in first century homes, or he appeared and came into the home. Mary apparently recognized him to be an angel immediately. You know, of course, angels can disguise themselves as male humans. Hebrews tells us some have entertained angels unawares. But Mary apparently knew this was a messenger from God.

And he greets her. He begins with the word “Greetings”. This was a standard first century Jewish greeting, a lot like our “Hello”. It was often used, especially in the morning, we’re told, and so it may be this interaction happened in the morning. It literally means - “greetings” literally means “rejoice”. So, he begins the conversation by telling Mary to rejoice. Why? Notice, because she was a favored one, literally, the one having been shown favor. This is very clear in Greek. The ending of this Greek verb always identifies the one, not doing, but receiving the action. So, here it means the one receiving grace. Mary, you are receiving God’s grace.

Tragically, in the Latin Vulgate, Jerome mistranslated this expression. And here’s how it comes out in the Latin Vulgate, “Hail Mary, full of grace.” Jerome actually meant that Mary was full of grace that she had received from God. But sadly, because of his mistranslation, the Roman Catholic Church eventually distorted the meaning to say that Mary was full of grace that she could give to others. And out of a flawed, terribly flawed interpretation of this verse, the Roman Catholic Church developed an entire system of prayers to Mary which is exactly the opposite of what the angel says to her. Gabriel identifies Mary, here, not as one who is full of grace inherently that she can give to others, but as one who has received God’s grace.

And then he adds, “the Lord is with you”. This was a common Old Testament greeting. You can see it in Judges 6:12, Ruth 2:14, other places. And by the way, it’s a statement, not a prayer or a wish. Gabriel is saying, “God is with you, to bless you, and to continue to show you, His favor.” And the idea behind this expression is that the Lord is with you to prepare you, Mary, for some special service to Him.

Now, put on your sanctified imagination for a moment and imagine being Mary. You’re a 13- to 15-year-old, first century girl, living in a small town of 200 or less. And an angel, verifiably an angel shows up in your home. He begins by telling you to rejoice because you’re highly favored by God, and God is specially with you to bless you. Now, you understand Mary’s reaction, verse 29: “But she was very perplexed at this statement, and kept pondering what kind of salutation this was.” “Very perplexed” means confused. And “kept pondering” refers to a kind of internal debate that’s going on within Mary. The troubling issue here is what kind of greeting this was. She’s shocked. She’s confused. In her humility, she can’t understand why she would be addressed like this. Why? Because here’s what Gabriel was really saying to her. He was saying, “Mary, just like God did with the great men and women of the Old Testament, God has chosen you, and He’s going to empower you for a special service to Him.” Hendrickson writes, “She knew she was but a young woman of lowly social position and, therefore, could not understand how it was possible for her to be addressed in such lofty terms.”

Clearly, Gabriel picks up on Mary’s uneasiness and he tries to reassure in verse 30: “The angel said to her, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary; for you have found favor with God.’” Don’t be afraid. Fear, by the way, is the most common reaction to these powerful, intelligent beings the Bible calls angels. Back in chapter 1:12, Zacharias, a more than 60-year-old priest, when he encountered Gabriel, it says, “fear gripped him [came upon him]”. Fear gripped him. But I love this. Every time angels interact with God’s people, they’re always tender and kind. Hebrews 1:14 explains, “Are they not all ministering spirits, sent out to render service for the sake of those who will inherit salvation?” You may never meet an angel, and if you do, you may not know. But I can promise you this. The angel will be on your side because he’s on God’s side. And he’s on the side of the people of God.

So, Gabriel comforts Mary and then he explains his greeting. Verse 30: “...for you have found favor with God.” Literally, you found favor with God. Now, that word “favor”, in English, can be a little confusing. The Greek word is simply the normal Greek word for “grace”. Gabriel says, “You have found grace with God.” Now, those two words, “find” and “grace”, are very common in the Old Testament. In fact, those two Greek words occurred together more than 35 times in the Septuagint. In Genesis 6 it says, “But Noah found favor [grace] in the eyes of the Lord.” Later in the book of Genesis it says Lot found grace. In Exodus 33 it says Moses found grace. And in Stephen’s sermon, in Acts 7:46, he says David found grace. So, when Gabriel says to Mary, “You have found favor”, that’s what he meant. “Mary, you have found grace from God. You are the recipient of God’s grace. God is delighted to do good to you, even though you deserve exactly the opposite”, which is what grace means.

How had Mary experienced God’s grace? Already, she’d experienced it in the salvation of her soul. She was a true believer. You can see it in her Magnificat. Look over in Luke 1, Luke 1:46: “And Mary said: ‘My soul exalts the Lord, And my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior [God my Rescuer].’” She’s not talking about from not having a child; she’s talking about spiritual salvation.

In verse 31, Gabriel told her that the same undeserved favor that had brought her that spiritual salvation, is now going to express itself in the privilege of giving birth to the Messiah. Look at verse 31: “And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name Him Jesus.” The Greek of that expression clearly reflects the promise in the Septuagint in Isaiah 7:14: ”Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel.” That’s what God was promising Mary. He was promising that she would give birth to the Messiah. It was the promise nine months before of Christmas.

Now, why did God choose this humble couple to be Jesus’ human parents? Don’t ever forget this. It’s because of sovereign grace alone. How many times does Gabriel have to say to her, “It’s because of God’s grace. It’s because of God’s grace. It’s because of God’s grace.” I began my message this morning by listing the differences between Zacharias and Mary, but I want to end by reminding you what they shared in common, and what they share in common with us. Both of them were sinners in need of a Savior. And they both experienced that real spiritual salvation. They both had been rescued by God. And both were chosen for salvation and for their special roles in God’s redemptive plan by sovereign grace alone. It’s so important to remember. Listen, when we read these stories, even the Christmas story, we tend to elevate the people as if they’re the heroes. Folks, Mary and Joseph are not the heroes of the Christmas story; God is, Jesus is. So, when you look at his unlikely parents, you see a lesson in sovereign grace. They were extremely unlikely, and it never would have happened if God hadn’t shown them grace.

If you’re here this morning and you’re a follower of Jesus Christ, if you’ve repented of your sins and you’ve believed in Jesus, understand this, God didn’t choose you because of who you are. God didn’t look down on your life before Christ and go, “There’s one I’ve got to have! He’s going to - he or she’s going to add so much to My Kingdom. If only I can get them to believe. Won’t that be wonderful?” No, that wasn’t it at all. God didn’t choose you because you were greater, more intelligent, had greater potential. He chose you for the same reason He chose Mary and Joseph, so that He alone would get the glory. That’s exactly what Paul says at the end of 1 Corinthians 1. Turn there with me. 1 Corinthians 1. In verse 18, Paul says, “For the word of the cross [the message about the cross, the message about Jesus crucified] is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” So, how did we get to be those who are being saved? Well, the answer is back in verse 9: “God is faithful, through whom you were called into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.” The reason you believe the message is because God called you to Himself.

This is what theologians refer to as the effectual call. It’s when God calls you. It’s like when you were growing up. At least this is why it worked in my home. There were times, when I was in trouble, when my Dad called me over, “Come here!” What did you do when Dad said, “Come here!”? I can tell you what happened in my home. You didn’t do anything but come there. That’s like the effectual call, except you’re not getting called because you’re in trouble, you’re getting called because God wants to do something good to you that you don’t deserve. Through the gospel He calls you. He says, “Come here!” and you come.

But why did God call you, Christian? Why did He call you through the gospel to believe? Well, you’re not going to like this. Verse 26: “For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh...” God didn’t call many of the great academic minds. He didn’t call many of the intelligentsia. Wasn’t God’s plan. It doesn’t say none. There’s some. There’s some here, but not many. “...not many mighty” - not many of the powerful, influential people of our world. “...not many noble”, not many of the blue-blood aristocrats. Again, it’s not that they’re none. Some in these categories are represented in our church but not many. Verse 27: “but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not...” In other words, you know what he’s saying? God decided to call, to choose and to call, the nobodies and the nothings (that’s most of us) “so that He may nullify the things that are...” And here was His purpose, verse 29: “so that no man may boast before God.” And I love verse 30: “But by His [God’s] doing you are in Christ Jesus...” It’s because He called you. He said, “Come here!”, and you came. And He “became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, so that, just as it is written, ‘Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord.’” Listen, as you celebrate Christmas this week with your family, don’t ever forget that it is all sovereign grace from beginning to end.

If you’re here this morning and you’re not a Christian, your only hope is to fall on your face before God and plead for grace because, you see, you can’t earn God’s grace any more than Mary and Joseph did. God is determined to provide grace, to bestow His grace on those who humble themselves before Him. While you can’t earn it and never will earn it and you won’t earn it by your humility, but God has decided to bestow it on those who come to Him humbly. Listen to Psalm 138:6: “For though the Lord is exalted, Yet He regards the lowly, But the haughty [the proud, a person who thinks he’s got it all together] He knows from afar.” In other words, He knows who you are. He knows everything about you, but He doesn’t have a relationship with you and won’t. Look at Isaiah, Isaiah 57. I love how this is expressed. Isaiah 57:15: “For thus says the high and exalted One Who lives forever, whose name is Holy, ‘I dwell on a high and holy place, And also with the contrite and lowly of spirit In order to revive the spirit of the lowly And to revive the heart of the contrite. For I will not contend forever, Nor will I always be angry...’”

Listen, you want to come to know God? Here’s where it starts. It starts when you recognize who He is and who you are, and when you humble yourself. You see, nobody ever comes to God like a peer. You come to God on your knees like a beggar. And that’s exactly what Jesus said. I’ve pointed this out to you several times in the last few weeks. It just jumps out at me from the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus began that great sermon, in Matthew 5:3, with this very first beatitude: ”Blessed [spiritually blessed] are the poor in spirit [literally, beggars in spirit]...” It’s not that you don’t have quite enough; it’s that you have nothing. You come to God saying, “God, I’ve got nothing. I’m just here to beg. I’m just here to say, ‘Be gracious to me. Give me what I don’t deserve. Give me the forgiveness that I didn’t earn and never could earn. Give me what Christ did instead of what I deserve.’” Listen to what Jesus said, “Blessed are the poor [beggars] in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” He says, “The kingdom of heaven, My kingdom, belongs to those who come to God like that, like beggars.”

My plea to you this morning, if you’re not a follower of Jesus Christ, it’s to recognize that this is the only way God will ever receive you, is if you get on your knees before Him and, like a beggar, you ask for Him to show you grace, which you don’t deserve, in and through the life and death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. And the good news is, He will. Jesus said, “Blessed are the beggars in spirit, for to them belongs My kingdom.”

As you celebrate Christmas this week, remember that the real meaning of Christmas, from beginning to end, folks, is grace. I mean think about even Titus 2:11. He’s talking about the coming of Christ and he says, “For the grace of God has appeared...” John 1: “...grace and truth were realized through [the earthly life of] Jesus Christ.” So, as you think about Christmas, as you celebrate it, remember that it is grace, from beginning to end, from the couple that God chose to be the parents of His Son, to the actual giving of His Son, to what He offers us in the gospel, forgiveness and a relationship with Him. It’s all grace and that’s our only hope.

Next Sunday, Lord willing, we’ll look at the other two characteristics of this child and look at this remarkable person whose birth we celebrate.

Let’s pray together.

Father, thank You for this amazing announcement that You made to Mary and all that it shows us. Thank You for the lesson we’ve learned today, Father, that you didn’t choose them because of how good they were. Nobody was good enough. Nobody measured up. It was just grace. Father, remind us this week, as we celebrate Christmas, that everything, everything connected to Your Son and to our knowing You through Him, is grace, that You chose us so that no one could boast before You. By your doing, we are in Christ Jesus. And Father, I pray for those who are here this morning who don’t know You through Your Son. Lord, help them to see that they must humble themselves before You. They must come like a beggar. And You will receive them because You dwell with the contrite and the lowly to raise them up, to offer them hope, to offer them forgiveness, a relationship with You through the life, death, and resurrection of Your Son. May that become a reality for them even this week. We pray in Jesus’ name, Amen!