The Baby Announcement - Luke 1:26-33

Good morning, and welcome to the preaching ministry of Dillingham Moravian Church.

My name is Pastor Simon, and we're so thankful that God has led you to worship

Him together with us on this second Advent Sunday.

According to Guinness World Records, on May 4, 2021, nine children were born

to Halima Cici of Mali in the Iain Borgia Clinic in Casablanca, Morocco.

This is the first known incident of nonuplets surviving birth.

The record previously belonged to eight babies born in 2009 to Nadia Sulman

from the USA, aka Octomom..

No nuplets are extremely rare, and until the arrival of the sissy children,

no cases had been recorded of nine babies from a single birth surviving more than a few hours.

Doctors in Mali initially thought that Halima was carrying seven children,

and on 30th March 2021, under government orders, she was flown to a clinic in

Casablanca that offered specialist care.

It was there that nine babies were detected.

I share this event with you to explain that although a woman giving birth to

nine live babies is quite amazing, it is a miracle.

Jesus' birth was on a whole other level of miraculous. Let's pray.

Father, as we enter into this Advent season, where we continue on in it,

And may you grant us your humility, your joy.

Your anticipation as we remember what you have done, sending your son, Jesus Christ, to earth.

But he wasn't sent to earth just to be a baby.

He was sent to earth to die so that we can have life, so that we can be in a

relationship with you. And we are so thankful for that.

Work through this message. Work in me. Work in those who are listening.

Use us, Lord. Show us what you want us to know from this Word.

Teach us by your Holy Spirit. In your precious Son's name, Jesus Christ, I pray. Amen.

For over 400 years, God's people Israel was in and out of cruel captivity.

God had taken a long break in communicating to His people through the prophets.

God was essentially silent.

Yet God never stopped working.

God sent the angel Gabriel to the priest Zechariah to declare that God had heard

his prayers, and his wife Elizabeth was to give birth to a son whose name was to be John.

John was to be the forerunner and herald to the long-awaited Messiah.

The angel Gabriel, who stands before the throne of the Almighty and the only

living God, was sent by God to visit a young woman named Mary in Nazareth,

a small town in Galilee, in northern Israel.

Mary was a poor girl from a poor family who was betrothed to a poor carpenter

named Joseph who was of the line of King David.

And this was the backdrop to our passage that we're going to study this morning.

Turn with me, please, to Luke 1, verse 26 to 31.

Luke 1:26–31

In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee

named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph of the house of David.

And the virgin's name was Mary. And he came to her and said,

Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you.

But she was greatly troubled at the saying and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be.

And the angel said to her, Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.

As we're looking forward to celebrating the birth of Christ,

there are two important truths that I believe are essential to faith in Christ

Jesus, our Savior and Lord.

The first truth is that Mary was favored by the Lord.

This last week, we celebrated my son Jonathan's ninth birthday.

Now, Jonathan had a wish list for his birthday, but there was no guarantee that

he would receive the gifts that he wished for, right?

There are many factors that go through a parent's mind when they decide to get

presents for their children.

Cost is a factor, whether it will fit in our house, and so on.

Now, even if we, Jonathan's parents, or anyone else gets him a gift that he

wanted, did Jonathan earn that gift of that toy?

Or that instrument that he desired? Absolutely not.

A gift is a gift. We do not expect anything back for it, nor can we ever earn a gift.

And this concept of being bestowed or given something freely is what God had given Mary.

In Luke 1, verse 28, the angel declared to Mary, Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you.

Luke 1:28

The word the angel used for favor was the only time this word was used in Scripture.

This word meant to be grace bestowed, to become the recipient of God's freely

bestowed beneficent goodwill.

And thus God's favor on Mary meant that God bestowed on Mary His special undeserved goodwill.

This doesn't mean that Mary deserved God's grace in any way.

But the unprecedented honor that she received of being the earth mother of God.

Almighty was indeed specific and special, and God's undeserved favor was shown

by the truth that God was with her.

I want you to notice that the angels said in verse 30, you have found favor

with God. Now, this word found referred to find for oneself,

to gain, procure, to obtain.

The angel declared that Mary found or gained the undeserved favor of God.

Now, the question is, how could Mary, who did not and could not ever earn the

favor of God, gain God's favor? This seems like an oxymoron.

How can one earn something that is unearnable?

The answer is that Mary did not earn God's favor, but she did seek His favor.

Matthew 7, verse 7-8, Jesus said, Ask, and it will be given to you.

Matthew 7:7–8

Seek, and you will find. Knock, and it will be opened to you.

For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds.

And to the one who knocks, it will be opened.

In response to God's love, Mary was a woman that sought after God continuously,

and she was favored by God in a miraculous way.

How can we apply this to us as Christians today?

There are two ways that we can apply this passage. The first application is

that as those of us who are in relationship or fellowship with and in Christ,

we have found great favor with God and it has nothing to do with our own efforts.

God's grace has been given to us as we have responded in faith to God's grace

only because God the Father has chosen to find favor with us through the sacrifice of His beloved Son.

The Apostle Paul in Ephesians 1, verse 5-8 taught, He, meaning God the Father,

Ephesians 1:5–8

predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself,

according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His

grace, which He, and here it is,

freely bestowed upon us in the Beloved.

In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses,

according to the riches of His grace, meaning His undeserved favor,

which He lavished upon us.

Through the sacrificial death of Christ, God has freely bestowed or given to

us the privilege and honor of being adopted as sons and heirs of God Almighty.

We have been bought back or redeemed from the clutches of Satan and sin.

Our sins and trespasses against God have been completely forgiven.

All of these honors have been lavished upon us.

The word lavish meant to shower, to provide abundantly with.

Through the pouring out of all of Jesus Christ's lifeblood, we who have been

showered with all these blessings and so many more, that we are completely soaked with them.

We did not, nor can we ever deserve God's freely bestowed grace.

And why has God done all this for us? This is where most of the church today

would say, because He loves us.

And true, God does love us. But that is not what the Scripture says about why

all God's undeserved favor was freely bestowed upon us.

God did it all to the praise of His glorious grace.

In a time period in a world full of struggle and trial, God has so showered

us, you and I, as His bride, the church, with blessings, so that we can praise

God for His glorious, gracious love.

You and I need to believe that we are living in the favor of God and continually

praise God for His freely bestowed grace.

The second way that we can apply these verses is that as disciples of Christ,

we are called to continually seek His favor.

And Jesus Himself promised that if we seek God, we will find Him.

I want to encourage us to continually seek to stay in the Lord's favor.

And how do we stay in God's favor of love?

By praying to God unceasingly, personally, and amongst the corporate body of

the local church, meditating or thinking deeply on the truth of God's Word, and by obeying His Word.

John 14, verse 23 taught, Jesus answered and said to him, If anyone loves me,

John 14:23

he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and

make our abode or home with him.

We have just read that the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary and proclaimed to

her that God favored her.

Now what form would God's favor towards Mary take?

The angel made a special declaration to Mary, and that declaration was the announcement and identity of a baby.

When my wife Abigail was pregnant with our two boys, she had multiple ultrasounds

at different stages of her pregnancies.

The purpose of those ultrasounds was to determine

whether the baby was a boy or a girl Whether the

baby was developing normally in terms of height

and weight and heartbeat and breathing If there was any signs of abnormalities

or diseases It's a miracle to me that although the doctors told us that from

the various ultrasounds Our now six-year-old Paul would be a Down syndrome baby Look at Paul now.

Additionally, through the ultrasounds, the baby's birth weight and size was

projected based on the baby's growth and development at various stages.

As parents-to-be, we had no idea of the identity of who our child would become

or what they would do, other than that our boys were our children.

And these are the normal pre-birth announcements for a child.

But what happened to Mary was absolutely extraordinary and completely unique.

The angel not only told Mary that she will bear a child in a humanly impossible

manner, but the angel also told Mary the sex of the baby, his name, his identity,

who the baby will become, and what he will accomplish, all before the baby was even conceived.

In Luke 1.31-33, the angel promised Mary, And behold, you will conceive in your

womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus.

He will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the

house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.

According to verse 27, we know that Mary was a virgin who had never had sexual

relations with a man, and therefore Mary could not have conceived of a child

in the ordinary human manner.

Yet the angel's announcement was anything but ordinary.

The angel told Mary that she would conceive and bear a son.

The angel proceeded to tell Mary three truths about who her baby would be and

what her baby would accomplish.

And the first thing the angel announced about the baby was that his name will be Jesus.

Why would God be naming the baby in this situation?

Because the baby was God's own son.

And by naming the baby Jesus, which means Yahweh saves, God was declaring that

his baby boy would be the savior of his people.

However, I want to show you something. Let's go to Isaiah chapter 43,

Isaiah 43:11–12

verse 11 through 12, where Isaiah prophesied, I, even I am the Lord. And there it is.

Here's what I want you to see. No savior besides me. It is I who declared and saved and proclaimed.

And there was no strange God among you. So you are my witnesses,

declared. the Lord, and I am God.

Every single instance in the Old Testament that the word Savior was used,

Savior referred to one being and one being only, and that is God Almighty.

Now, granted that the Messiah that was waited was to be an agent of God who

was to come with God's authority and His power to save and deliver God's people.

Whoever believed that even Jesus' name points to His identity as God,

Let's look at the next title for Jesus. He will be great.

Let's turn to Genesis 12, verse 2 through 3, where God promised Abraham,

Genesis 12:2–3

and I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and I will make you, here's the word, great.

So you shall be a blessing, and I will bless those who bless you,

and the one who curses you, I will curse.

And in you, all the families of the earth will be blessed.

You see, not only would Jesus be the Savior of His people, but He would also be great.

Jesus would be of superior importance in God's kingdom.

From the world's perspective, Mary was a nobody from a politically unimportant region of Israel.

And yet, God, through His angel Gabriel, promised Mary that her son would be

great, even more than Abraham.

What an encouragement to Mary this must have been.

However, I want you to also notice that the title, Great, in the ancient world,

was a title referring to God and other deities.

David, in 1 Chronicles 16, was assigned a psalm to Asaph and Asaph's relatives to give thanks to God.

In 1 Chronicles 16, verse 25-26, Asaph sang, For great is the Lord,

1 Chronicles 16:25–26

and greatly to be praised.

He is also to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the peoples are

idols, but the Lord made the heavens.

Psalm 145, verse 3, also declared that great is the Lord, and highly to be praised,

Psalms 145:3

and His greatness is unsearchable.

This truth is important to point out. Jesus was named great not just because

he would be great in God's kingdom like Abraham and Jacob who were men,

but that Jesus would be great because he is the one and only God.

To provide further evidence for this claim, the angel declared that Jesus would be called who?

Jesus would be called the Son of the Most High God.

Mary, being a Jew, would not have missed the significance of this title.

To call her son Jesus, Son of the Most High, was saying that he would be the

same as the Most High, that he is God.

David sang in Psalm 9, verse 2, Be glad and exult in you. I will sing to your name.

Psalms 9:2

Here it is. O Most High.

Jesus said in John 10, verse 6, Do you say of him whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world?

John 10:6

You are blaspheming because I said, Here it is again, I am the Son of God.

The Jewish leaders understood very well the title of the Son of Most High, or the Son of God.

And the leaders wished to kill Jesus for declaring to be God's Son.

The angel continued on in verse 32-33, to proclaim that the Lord will give him,

meaning Jesus, the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever,

and his kingdom will have no end.

This is also essential because in the angel's proclamation to Mary,

we find the basic basis of the key doctrine that Jesus is both fully God and fully man.

Jesus could be only the true Christ or anointed king over Israel if he fulfilled

the prophecy that foretold that the Messiah was to come from the line of David.

And this is one of the reasons why God had to be born as a man.

So that he could be the anointed king and he could rule over Israel.

Not just over a lifetime, like David, but forever and ever.

The key takeaway from Luke 1.31-33 is that we as disciples of Christ are to

believe, trust in, and proclaim the identity of Jesus.

Why is it so important to believe and trust in Jesus as the Son of God and speak

about who He is? because Jesus, as the Son of God, is who He is.

Without Jesus being the Son of God, there is no salvation.

We can only have eternal life through believing in the name of the Son of God.

John 20.30-31 recorded, Therefore many other signs Jesus also did in the presence of disciples.

Which are not written in this book, But these have been written so that you

may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you

may have life in his name.

I want to make very clear here that the knowledge of Jesus being the Son of

God and Savior does not come from people.

Comes from the very testimony and revelation of Almighty God Himself.

Some churches have unfortunately either officially capitulated on doctrine to

appease the pressure from culture,

or officially have right doctrine, but in practice they're not living as Jesus

is the Son of God and Lord over their lives.

Now don't get me wrong, there are many areas in Scripture that are debatable

and are not core doctrine.

The identity of Jesus Christ is not one of these.

Who Jesus is as the Son of God and the human heir of David is everything.

I mean everything to our faith, without which we have absolutely nothing.

Our salvation from the wrath of God, our relationship with God,

our identity as children of God, being recipients of the undeserved mercy of God,

Christ returning to finally and fully save His people from these mortal sinful

bodies and to rule over the world.

All of these and more are based and founded on the identity of Jesus being the

Son of God and the Messiah Christ.

Please do not mistake that, or make the mistake that many make,

and believe that you can be a Christian, and not believe that Christ is fully God and fully man.

I strongly encourage each of us to reevaluate what it is we genuinely believe

about Jesus, who He is, what He has done, and what He will do in the future.

Because we cannot love God and others rightly without right doctrine on who Christ is.

What is it that God is teaching us from this passage, this Advent season?

The first truth that we have learned is that as Mary received the favor of God,

God has also freely bestowed His undeserved favor upon us because of the blood

sacrifice and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

You and I are called to trust that we are living in the favor of God and continually

praise God for His freely bestowed grace.

We have also been taught that the truth about Jesus being fully God as Son of

God and fully human as the heir of David's throne is absolutely essential to faith in God.

The only way to be saved from the wrath of God is through believing in Christ

as the Son of God and Lord over your life.

There is a lot of Christmas traditions and customs in Christianity that are

of secondary importance.

Jesus being God and anointed King over Israel are not side issues to the gospel.

Jesus is the gospel. And if you're here or listening to this message and you've

never put your faith allegiance in Christ as the Son of God,

Yahweh Lord, then I strongly urge you to not let a minute pass before you repent

of your sins and surrender your trust over to Him as your only Lord and Savior.

Because Jesus was born, lived and died and rose again so that you and I can

have eternal life and live in the favor of God in this life and in the next.

There is no life without Jesus. The only way that we can be spiritually alive

is by faith in the Son of God who loved us and gave himself up for us. Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for your truth,

especially about who your son is without which we do not have life we cannot

be in your presence and we are all doomed to die and go to hell forever.

Thank You for sending Your Son, Jesus Christ. Help us, by Your grace,

to know Him more, and to live in His presence always.

In Your precious Son's name, Jesus Christ, I pray. Amen.

I'll leave you with a blessing from Romans 15, verse 13.

Romans 15:13

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing,

so that by the power of hope, or by the power of the Holy Spirit, you may abound in hope.

Have a wonderful Sunday. May the Lord bless you.