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READ: Luke 1:26
CHALLENGE: Reasons for Confidence in God
There are three faith builders I’d like to talk about. These are truths that can prop you up in life and keep you going. Scripture is given for our benefit and we are encouraged through this story.
- FAITH IS STRENTHENED BY PROVIDENCE
Luke 1:26-28 – In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, 27 to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28 The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”
Mary is about to find out she will be the mother of the Messiah. This story shows Providence. “Providence in theology refers to God’s continuous guidance and care for creation, ensuring that everything unfolds according to His will. It encompasses both the general maintenance of the universe and God’s specific interventions in human affairs.”
God intervenes. God’s hand is guiding and impacting our world. Our spiritual reality is that God has touched each of our lives. We could never experience true salvation unless that was true. None of us just lucked into finding the narrow gate unless God leads us there.
It’s the Christmas season and the birth of Christ is the true reason for the season. In it we find one of the biggest announcements in the history of the world. Mary, you will be the mother of Jesus, our Lord and Savior. She will be the mother of God in the flesh which is nearly incomprehensible.
When it comes to God’s providential working in our world, it will likely not be exactly as we think and perhaps not when we think. For instance, the Messiah is about to enter the world and God choses a young girl from Nazareth rather than a royal princess. It’s a poorer family rather than a family with loads of money. I don’t know how I would have expected God entering our world to play out. However, I’m pretty sure that it would not remotely resemble this.
Are there are times when God is doing a work in our lives but it’s not how or what we imagined? Certainly. That’s OK – this is where we trust God to work all these things out in according to His own purpose.
Let’s make some observations here – God is in the details. They say the devil is in the details. I’m not sure why we say that phrase but it’s actually God who is in the details. And saying anything else might greatly short-change God. I would rather give God the glory in the details of life rather than the devil. How about you?
(trans.) Where do we see God’s hand in the details of life?
- God Works in His Time
When did the angel show up? It was precisely in the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy. Now was that happenstance or did God intend for this specific time? Obviously, this is an important divine detail. Elizabeth was unable to have children until God miraculously intervened and she would give birth to the famous John the Baptist.
God dispatched the angel right then for His reasons. God’s timing is interesting to contemplate because it’s a clear demonstration of his working in our world. This summer I had some unexpected cash come in at the specific time I had a bill in the same amount as the unexpected cash. God constantly provides.
Ex.
God answers prayer in his timing and if that were not true, He would not be in control. When Jesus delayed after he heard Lazarus was sick, was that accidental or timing perfection? God had his own purpose for all of it to demonstrate his immense power.
Abraham and Sarah had a child in God’s timing. They wanted one far before they received one but in God’s timing, He fulfilled His promises. The arrival of the Messiah and the salvation of the world is certainly something that was in His timing. God’s awakening souls is also in his time.
God comes to Mary at a moment in her life that he has set, not her. In fact, it may have been hugely inconvenient for Mary as we think about it. Trust God for His timing!
- God Works in Particular Places
He sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth. A specific angel is sent to a specific town. This is how God works. Gabriel is chosen by God for this mission. And the angel literally goes from the throne room of God to the dusty streets of a little town in Nazareth. Nazareth was small town in an out of the way place in a valley. They estimate that the population at the birth of Christ would be between 200-400 people. They would have been farmers and tradesmen. The town was set on 5-10 acres of land which is not much.
I love that God can work in small towns. God is aware of obscure places and that’s great news because our church rests in a corn field. It’s nice that He is aware of Rock Creek and what’s happening here and every small town everywhere.
Where would you expect God to be working to bring a king into the world? Clearly it would be a palace. But that’s not God’s pick. When Jesus is born, he’s in a stable, not even a plush inn. God works in many places both secular and sacred.
- God Works with Specific People
Greetings you who are highly favored. This verb means to show grace or favor to someone. And it is in the perfect tense which means that the grace has already been with her all along. It started in the past and continues into the present.
I like knowing that the grace in Mary’s life didn’t start on that day. It wasn’t like suddenly for the first time ever she’s favored. She already was. This means that God was working in her life prior and blessing her before this announcement. Isn’t this true of us? God is already at work in your life before you’re even aware of what He’s doing or what He’s preparing you for.
I wonder how much work God did in Mary’s life to ready her to be the mother of the Messiah? The fact that she was engaged to Joseph was something that God would have orchestrated. The way that she was raised. Her parents. Her experiences. It would all prepare her.
In her case, God sends the angel Gabriel. Could it be that God is still sending people into our lives to help us just when we need it? Clearly people have showed up in my life at just the right moment.
When Jesus reached the Crazed Demoniac, it was a rescue mission to save that one person. God’s eye was on that hopeless and wretched soul.
Where do we see Providence? God shows up in Nazareth via the angel Gabriel. It was a determined time, a specific place, a particular person. God is in the details. He has a plan but there’s no way for the big plan to work without a host of other smaller pieces. That takes God’s guiding hand.
- God Has a Plan
What is this story really about? It’s about Jesus being born which is about God’s salvation in the world.
John 3:16 – For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
1 Peter 3:18 – For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit.
We know that God wants people to believe in Him. To have faith. He wants all to come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. This is an enormous part of what God is doing. The entire flow of the Bible is about salvation, so there is no doubt, it’s part of His plan.
So, we’ll see God in the big picture things like sending Jesus to our world to save us. Christmas is an annual reminder that God has a plan. However, the bigger plan includes the individual. What’s salvation without believers? In order for an individual to come to faith in Jesus Christ, there has to be some work in that person’s life. How can we come to God unless we’re drawn by God? How can we see spiritually, without God opening our eyes? And this means that God has to be doing a work in specific people in particular ways and that takes details my friends. Divine orchestration.
When it was your turn to be saved, there had to be specific ways that He got hold of you. You may have met someone. Someone invited you to church. You had some inner drive to be in church or to seek. God moves in our lives and that most likely looks different for each of us. But God was in the details of you coming to the position of belief in Jesus Christ.
Does God have a plan for your life? We’ve been reading about Jeremiah and there’s a part in the book where he wishes he had never been born. And that’s sad that it came to that. However, the book starts by saying that God set him apart from the womb to be a prophet. Even in the hard times God was working. Even when he got beaten or imprisoned for speaking the truth, God was not unaware of it and there was something that the people needed to hear. Sometimes it’s good to know that there is a purpose in what we’re doing. God has a plan. Timing, place, people, are all part of his plan.
I encourage you to ponder the amazing Providence of God.
- FAITH IS STRENGTHENED BY GOD’S PROMISE
Vv29-33 – Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. 30 But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. 31 You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. 32 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, 33 and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”
Gabriel spoke truth to her. You are favored. The Lord is With You. You’ll have a son. And that son will reign. These are all the promises from God that she will have to count on throughout life. Let’s acknowledge that this would be the most important job ever given to mankind. Giving birth to the long-awaited Messiah is a bigger than big job but God would be with her. It’s OK. You can handle it. And not because you’re strong, it’s because God favors you. Don’t be afraid.
Some of the things that loom on the horizon are scary, but you’ll be able to make it. You’re going to be OK. What is it that God has asked you to do? It could be to bear something. To leave something. To start something. To give something. It’s not always easy to do it but He will be with you.
Hope in the promises of God. What has God already said? Let’s look at what the angel says to her. “No word from God will ever fail”. That’s profound. There is not one word that will hit the ground! It means that it’s impossible for God’s word to not be accomplished. It cannot be thwarted or blocked.
Mary would be able to fall back on the word of God throughout life. I’m sure that it would not play out the way she imagined unless she could have known he was headed to the cross. You need to stand on the promises of God in the darkest of days.
When God tells you that He will forgive your sins, you have to count on that to be true. When God says, you can escape the temptation, you can. When God says He answers prayer, He does.
What is your go to promise verse? I think of the wisdom one a lot because I certainly need it. I believe that God strengthens us. I believe all things work together for good. How could they not when God is involved in it.
- FAITH IS STRENGTHENED BY GOD’S POWER
Vv34-38 – “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?” 35 The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called[b] the Son of God. 36 Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month. 37 For no word from God will ever fail.” 38 “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Then the angel left her.
You’re going to have a child. The son of God. She said, it’s not possible because I’ve never been with a man. The virgin will be with child and life will come into her through God’s power.
God’s power is something that bolsters our faith. We don’t gain a bold faith looking at ourselves. We get a bold faith by looking at God.
There have been two momentous things referenced here. Elizabeth was older and unable to have a child. God brought life to her womb where there was none prior. God did the impossible. They one everyone said would never have a child did have a child.
A virgin should not be able to miraculously have a child without a man, but with the Holy Spirit, it was possible. God can do the impossible.
The same is true with our salvation. The disciples asked Jesus “Who then can be saved?” 27 Jesus replied, “What is impossible with man is possible with God.”
It’s safe to say that there is a life-giving power with God. We get our spiritual life from Him.
Ephesians 2:4-5 – But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.
Where were we? We were dead in transgressions. Dead. Not living. No pulse. No light. No response. No conviction. Dead. I’ve had plants die and that means there’s no fruit and no green and they will become brittle. Spiritually, there is no life in us at birth. Sure, everyone can enjoy life and food and friends and football. But when it comes to the all important relationship with God, all are disconnected at some point.
Like a dead battery on a cold day. It cannot start a car or get you moving. Coming to Jesus is like dropping in a new battery. It’s amazing. We will be having a baptism and baptism demonstrates God’s power in a person’s life. You have gone from death to life.
Romans 6:3-4 – Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
This is an important verse.
Romans 6:11 – In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Every baptism tells of the power of God to transform lives. It’s testifies of a spiritual reality. All the things that bound us no longer do. We’re free. You’re alive to God now. And you’re committed to following the Lord.
38 “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Then the angel left her.
May this be the attitude be for each person baptized today. I am the Lord’s servant!!