Join us as we kick off the Christmas season with our “Holy Moments” sermon series. Take in the sights and sounds of the season and most of all lean into the miracle of Jesus Christ and the difference he makes in our lives and in our world.
For this Christmas season, we will consider what we call Holy Moments. This refers to those special times when you sense and see that God is at work in a profound, fabulous way. Have you ever had one of those times? I have.
On day two of my first trip to Israel, not long after 9-11, I stood outside the Church of the Beatitudes on the north shore of the glimmering Sea of Galilee. Our group entered the building, but I stood outside taking in the incredible scenery. Within a few minutes, our group started to sing the short chorus I Love You Lord a cappella. The song radiated from the open windows of the seaside chapel.
Standing there in that unique, sacred place, and realizing the Lord had preached his first sermon just a few yards away on the slopes of a natural amphitheater, I started to cry. I cried so hard I had to walk around to the backside of the building to collect myself because I had to teach in a few minutes near where Christ spoke. Believe me, being in that holy location had the Lord all about it. It was as if I could sense Him there with me. I’ll never forget it.
As we turn and study similar moments in the birth narrative of Jesus this Christmas, we will dig into snapshots of unique times in history when God showed up to guide His redemptive/kingdom plan. I pray you will be encouraged, uplifted, and challenged by what you hear from these inspired texts. I also pray that you will, at some point, know beyond the shadow of doubt, that the living Lord is definitely with you. And if you happen not to be a Christ-follower, I pray that you will become one as you consider the reason for Christ’s birth 2,000 years ago.
The first Holy Moment I want us to delve into concerns the angel Gabriel announcing to Mary the coming of the Messiah through her, a virgin. This encounter will tell us much about God’s love for us and what He wants from us as His disciples.
Moving through these historical panels of this interchange between the mighty angel and the lowly Mary is something you should never forget. Why? Because at this moment in time God spoke most definitively regarding His well-orchestrated plan to bring salvation to sinners and a kingdom of peace like this old earth has never known. The world of the day, much like our day, couldn’t have been more cruel, chaotic, and corrupt, yet this is when God moved, as He typically does, to strategically advance His merciful plans for mankind. All of this was set in motion, as we shall see, with the sudden arrival of Gabriel.
The Recipient (Luke 1:26-27)
Six months after Gabriel told Zacharias and Elizabeth that God would give them a child in their old age, a child who would be the forerunner of the Messiah, the angel received a second directive from God:
26 Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city in Galilee, called Nazareth, 27 to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the descendants of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary.
His job this time? Explain to this couple, who were legally married in the Jewish betrothal custom, once they became engaged, that they, of all people, would be the parents of the Messiah.
Why them? They were both descendants of David. The prophets clearly foretold that the Messiah would come from the line of David. The forever nature of the Davidic Covenant implied an eternal Davidic king:
16 “And your house and your kingdom shall endure before Me forever; your throne shall be established forever.” (2 Sam. 7)
Prophets like Isaiah drove this wonderful, precise truth home in passages like Isaiah 9:
6 For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. 7 There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness, from then on and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will accomplish this.
Since the Messiah had to come through the Davidic, regal line, it is only logical to realize that Mary and Joseph had Davidic blood flowing through their veins. Mary’s Davidic line stretches back thirty-eight generations to Nathan, one of David’s sons. Joseph’s Davidic line stretches back to David’s other son, Solomon. This line, however, was cursed by Jeremiah (Jer. 22:30) under Jehoiachin (Jechonias, Jechoniah, Jeconiah, Coniah). Hence, Mary provided the Messiah, Jesus, with the regal bloodline back to David, while Joseph provided the legal bloodline to David.
Don’t you know that Gabriel was excited about breaking this fantastic news to this particular, God-ordained couple? No doubt.
The Reveal (Luke 1:28)
28 And coming in, he said to her, “Hail, favored one! The Lord is with you.” (Luke 1)
One moment, Gabriel stood before God’s throne in God’s trans-dimensional world, and the next, the dutiful angel effortlessly broke into Mary’s far inferior dimensional abode.
28 And coming in, he said to her, “Hail, favored one! The Lord is with you.”
Luke 1:28 καὶ εἰσελθὼν πρὸς αὐτὴν εἶπεν· χαῖρε, κεχαριτωμένη, ὁ κύριος μετὰ σοῦ. (Luke 1)
Think about the magnitude of the opening clause, “And coming in.” As easily as the resurrected Lord later just appeared in a locked room full of disciples, this unique angel suddenly materialized before the pheasant girl, Mary.
Five hundred years before this event in 5 B.C., Gabriel, whose name means “Man of God,” explained to the prophet Daniel the visions about the rise and fall of Persian rule (539-331 B.C.), followed by the rise and fall of Hellenistic rule (331-143 B.C.), and the subsequent division of Alexander the Great’s vast kingdom among his four warring generals after his untimely death. The Seleucid kingdom, Gabriel explained, would see a wicked leader arise who would dominate Israel. His name? Antiochus IV Epiphanes. He would desecrate the holy temple for exactly 2,300 offerings, occurring twice daily, or for 1,1150 days, or three years. This happened exactly as Gabriel said it would, since Antiochus did this from December 16, 167 B.C., until 164 B.C., when Judas Maccabeus, the Jewish insurrectionist and freedom fighter, reclaimed the temple area. How did Gabriel know what would happen some 370 years into the future? God told him, and all this information was relayed to Daniel.
Gabriel also explained the great prophecy of Daniel 9:24-27, wherein the exact timing of the Lord’s crucifixion was given, followed by the final seven-year Tribulation wherein the Anti-Christ will act much like Antiochus before he meets his fateful end at the Messiah’s hand.
So, Gabriel has played a key part in God’s redemptive and kingdom plan for literally hundreds of years. Between the testaments, there was roughly four hundred years of darkness, when God gave no prophetic word. Suddenly, God dispatched Gabriel to set things in motion for the arrival of the Messiah, who would become the Sacrifice, Savior, and Davidic King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Don’t you know he was excited when God gave him his marching orders? First, he had the pleasure of informing an aged priest named Zacharias that he and his barren wife, Elizabeth, would become the proud parents of the forerunner of the Messiah. His name? John the Baptist (Luke 1:1-25). Six months later, God dispatched him again to tell a humble, meek young lady in Nazareth that she, of all the women in history, was about to become the mother of the long-awaited Messiah.
I wonder if Gabriel had questions in his superior, but limited mind? “Lord, what city will the Messiah be born in? Rome? Jerusalem? No, you say? Bethlehem? Ok, I get it because it’s the city of David, and the Messiah will come from David’s line. Who will the Messiah be born to? A Jewish princess? No, you say, a pheasant young lady in Nazareth, an out-of-the-way village on the northern rim of the Valley of Armageddon? Ok, I get it because the Messiah will come from the stump of Jesse, and stump in Hebrew is neza (גֵּ֫זַע), which could be a derivative of Nazareth (Isa. 11:1). Got it, God, and I’m on it.” Would that we, as saints, were as obedient to God even when we don’t get exactly what He is doing.
Gabriel’s opening words to Mary are full of joy because he was happy with the news God assigned him to deliver:
28 And coming in, he said to her, “Hail, favored one! The Lord is with you.”
Translated, if God favors anyone, it is you, Mary. The final clause, “The Lord is with you,” does not have a copula, or main verb. It is supplied in English, but is missing in Greek. This rhetorical device is called ellipsis, and it is used to place extreme emphasis on the statement in question. By using it, Gabriel underscored just how God’s grace and mercy rested on this young, obscure, poor, betrothed woman.
The Response (Luke 1:29)
Mary didn’t jump up and down with the news from the angel. On the contrary, even though Gabriel presented himself in the most positive, uplifting manner, she was instantly thrown into emotional and cognitive disarray.
29 But she was greatly troubled at this statement, and kept pondering what kind of salutation this might be.
We learn from her positive words about this angelic encounter later with her relative, Elizabeth, just why she reacted this way to Gabriel:
46 And Mary said: “My soul exalts the Lord, 47 And my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior. 48 For He has had regard for the humble state of His bondslave; For behold, from this time on all generations will count me blessed. 49 For the Mighty One has done great things for me; And holy is His name. 50 And His mercy is upon generation after generation toward those who fear Him. 51 He has done mighty deeds with His arm; He has scattered those who were proud in the thoughts of their heart. 52 He has brought down rulers from their thrones, and has exalted those who were humble. (Lk. 1)
These verses tell us how Mary viewed herself. She thought she wasn’t anyone special, an honest nobody, as it were, compared to all other women. She was just the wife of a humble, lowly carpenter, who didn’t make much money, wasn’t well-known, and had to work hard to provide for them. Why, then, would God think of choosing her to be the Messiah’s mother? It was a logical, honest question.
At the moment, much like us, she forgot a key word from God that explains how He operates:
6 For though the LORD is exalted, yet He regards the lowly; But the haughty He knows from afar. 7 Though I walk in the midst of trouble, Thou wilt revive me; Thou wilt stretch forth Thy hand against the wrath of my enemies, And Thy right hand will save me. (Ps. 138)
God chose her because of her humble, meek, and godly nature. He couldn’t care less about the size of her bank account, the location and size of her home, the number of degrees behind her name, and so on. He looked at her life and heart and saw a young woman who loved and feared Him, and who lived a careful spiritual and moral life. And because she was from David’s line, she was a perfect pick for the Messiah’s mother.
Yet, she still had to work through precisely what Gabriel was really talking about. He helped her out when he spoke up.
The Revelation (Luke 1:30-33)
Lovingly, Gabriel piped up:
30 And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; for you have found favor with God.
BGT Luke 1:30 Καὶ εἶπεν ὁ ἄγγελος αὐτῇ· μὴ φοβοῦ, Μαριάμ, εὗρες γὰρ χάριν παρὰ τῷ θεῷ.
His statement, “Do not be afraid,” is a negative in Greek followed by a present tense verb. This construction forbids an action in process; hence, little Mary was probably shaking in fear. Seeing this, Gabriel sought to calm her down by allaying her fears with facts. He did the same thing earlier with Zacharias in verse 13:
13 But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zacharias, for your petition has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you will give him the name John. (Luke 1)
13 εἶπεν δὲ πρὸς αὐτὸν ὁ ἄγγελος· μὴ φοβοῦ, Ζαχαρία, διότι εἰσηκούσθη ἡ δέησίς σου, καὶ ἡ γυνή σου Ἐλισάβετ γεννήσει υἱόν σοι καὶ καλέσεις τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ Ἰωάννην. (Lk. 1)
It is interesting how demons instill fear to immobilize people, while holy angels seek to calm the fears of God’s people, mobilizing them for His work.
In rapid-fire succession, Gabriel enlightened Mary regarding just what God was up to with her:
31 “And behold, you will conceive in your womb, and bear a son, and you shall name Him Jesus.
Interesting. He just told her she didn’t need to bother with a baby name book. No need to consider popular Jewish boy names like Adam, Asher, Baruch, Daniel, Elijah, David, Levi, Ariel, Ezra, Menachem, or Nehemiah. God had already selected this child’s name: Jesus, or Jeshua, in Hebrew. Why this name? It comes from the Hebrew verb “to save,” and, indeed, this is precisely what He would do as prophesied by Isaiah in chapter 53 of his inspired book. He would be the sacrificial lamb who would bear the sin of the world on his sinless body so that he could become the true Savior.
In addition, Gabriel added:
32 “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;
This would be no ordinary son. On the contrary, he would be great, and, indeed, He was and is. As Paul states later, at His name, all knees will bow one day because He is the Savior and King of Kings:
9 Therefore also God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those who are in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth, 11 and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Phil. 2)
Two thousand years later, we are still talking about Him. He was born in a backwater village, was raised in a no-named village in the hills west of the Sea of Galilee, he had no major education, He had no servants but was called, Master, He had twelve disciples who had all kinds of personality issues, and He won no military battles, yet He conquered the known world with His redemptive work and message. That is why I say Jesus was, and is, great. There is none greater than He.
Gabriel wasn’t finished, either, giving Mary some much-needed insight.
32 “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;
True, He would be her son, but in reality, He would be the Son of the Most High, which is an ancient name for the Father, El Elyon (Gen. 14:18-22; Deut. 32:8; 2 Sam. 22:14; Psalm 9:2; Dan. 5:18). This statement must have boggled Mary’s mind, and rightly so.
In addition, Mary’s son, Jesus, would be the final one to rule and reign on David’s throne, as prophesied throughout the Old Testament.
6 For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. 7 There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness from then on and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will accomplish this. (Isa. 9)
5 “Behold, the days are coming,” declares the LORD, “When I shall raise up for David a righteous Branch; And He will reign as king and act wisely and do justice and righteousness in the land. 6 In His days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely; And this is His name by which He will be called, ‘The LORD our righteousness.’ (Jer. 23)
Jeremiah underscores how the Davidic King of Kings would the the LORD, Yahweh, in the flesh.
To this, Gabriel added another thought:
33 and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever; and His kingdom will have no end.”
Again, the prophets foretold of a Davidic empire that would one day rule the earth in complete peace. After Daniel interpreted the great image that King Nebuchadnezzar had seen, an interpretation that showed the rise and fall of the final world empires, the prophet said:
44 “And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed, and that kingdom will not be left for another people; it will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms, but it will itself endure forever. (Dan. 2)
In Daniel 7, the prophet drove this truth home again:
13 “I kept looking in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven One like a Son of Man was coming, and He came up to the Ancient of Days and was presented before Him. 14 And to Him was given dominion, Glory and a kingdom, that all the peoples, nations, and men of every language Might serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which will not pass away; And His kingdom is one which will not be destroyed. (Dan. 7)
Mary’s son, Jesus, would be this man.
The eternal kingdom of peace that Gabriel spoke about has not been fulfilled yet, but Isaiah does give us some insight as to what it will be like when it arrives:
1 The word which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.
2 Now it will come about that in the last days, the mountain of the house of the LORD will be established as the chief of the mountains, and will be raised above the hills; And all the nations will stream to it. 3 And many peoples will come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; That He may teach us concerning His ways, and that we may walk in His paths.” For the law will go forth from Zion, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. 4 And He will judge between the nations, and will render decisions for many peoples; And they will hammer their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not lift up sword against nation, and never again will they learn war. (Isa. 2)
Ah, we long for the day when Mary’s son, Jesus, finishes the Father’s kingdom plan, but in the meantime, we must focus on the fact that He was, and is, the Savior, as His name implies. We must be consumed and committed to sharing His gospel of forgiveness of sins and new life in His family (John 3:16-17).
How did Mary receive all of this fantastic, jaw-dropping news? Well, she had a logical question to ask. I call it . . .
The Rebuttal to the Rebuttal (Luke 1:34)
With great courage in front of Gabriel, she posed a question that needed answering:
34 And Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?” (Luke 1)
“Uh, Gabriel, there is just one small problem. The marriage hasn’t been consummated in the betrothal period, so how can I, as a virgin, medically have this son you speak about? Yeah, how will this be possible without me having relations with Joseph?” She was sharp. She understood precisely what Gabriel’s words ultimately meant, but humanly, she realized she was missing something here. How could this happen? How could a virgin produce a child purely on her own? That is impossible.
Gabriel was one patient angel. He listened and then responded.
The Revelation (Luke 1:35-38)
This pregnancy would be none like the world had ever seen, or would see again. God would, by definition of His power, cause her to become pregnant without her having an intimate relation with Joseph:
35 And 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 offspring shall be called the Son of God. (Luke 1)
Translated, her conception would be of divine, not human, origin. Amazing. The God who spoke everything into existence, who created all of the irreducible complexity of things like human eyes, the mind, and the DNA chain, can certainly and effortlessly speak and cause a young virgin like Mary to suddenly be with child. It would be, and it was, a miracle of divine order.
And just in case Mary needed some further proof of how God was acting in a divine fashion in all of this, Gabriel added:
36 “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.” (Luke 1)
To send the forerunner of the Messiah, as prophesied in the Old Testament (Isa.. 4):3-5; Mal. 3:1; 4:5-6; Luke 1:17), God caused a barren old couple, Zacharias and Elizabeth, Mary’s relatives, to suddenly be with a child they would name John, or John the Baptist.
While Mary focused on all of these jaw-dropping, mind-numbing truths coming her way, Gabriel closed out the conversation with one final statement to encourage her:
37 For nothing will be impossible with God. (Luke 1)
Isn’t this the truth? According to Chandra Wickramasinghe, professor of applied mathematics at the University of Cardiff, Wales, “the statistical probability of forming even a single enzyme, the building block of the gene, which is in turn the building block of the cell, is one in 10 40,000. The translation of that figure is that it would require more attempts for the formation of one enzyme than there are atoms in all of the stars of all the galaxies in the entire known universe.”[1]
Not only does this information tell us there is a Designer, but it also informs us that nothing is impossible for Him to accomplish. Concerning his power, the late Dr. Norman Geisler observes: “Since God has power, God is power, purely and simply. Whatever is power, purely and simply, is infinitely powerful, for only what has power is limited– it is limited to the power it has. What is Power itself is not limited in power. God’s power is unlimited.”[2] With this kind of bottomless power, God, therefore, had no issue at all in decreeing that Mary was instantaneously with child without knowing a man. This was miraculous, and it was necessary for the Lord not to be tainted by the sinful seed of Adam. How wise of the Father. Concerning the importance of the virgin birth of Jesus, Clarence Macartney, as a pastoral friend of the great Greek Scholar J. Gresham Machen, concluded,
Only a God man who had taken human nature into organic union with himself and so identified Himself with the human race as to become the common man, the second Adam, the head of the race, could redeem the race. The doctrine of the Virgin Birth gives such a God-man. Natural generation could not possibly give us such a God man. Therefore, the doctrine of the Virgin Birth is essential to the integrity of the incarnation, as the Incarnation is to the doctrine of Christ and Christian Salvation.[3]
The Reception (Luke 1:38)
38 And Mary said, “Behold, the bondslave of the Lord; be it done to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her. (Luke 1)
What just happened? Mary embraced God’s amazing, out-of-the-box plan wholeheartedly. She was willing to be scorned by naysayers. She was willing to endure the whispers of people as the pregnancy developed. But it was all worth it for God was in it, hence, she knew that ultimately everything would be great. So, she trusted God’s word and decided to follow Him wherever He sovereignly led her. What a woman.
What do we learn from this holy moment Mary had with the angel? This one truth readily merges:
Main Idea: When God speaks up, we must move out.
Go ahead. Ask your questions of God as He works in your life, and expect answers. But at some point, you decide to follow where He leads you. May this be your prayer this Christmas, “Lord, send a holy moment my way, and when it comes, help me to be like Mary. Help me to believe you are doing great things in and through me, and give me the power to quickly go through the doors you open for me so I can maximize your gospel.”
And if this sermon is the first holy moment in your life because you, as a non-Christian, sense God speaking directly to you, then right now is when you bow before the Savior and ask for Him to save you, and He will. As Paul promises by way of divine inspiration:
13 for “Whoever will call upon the name of the LORD will be saved.” (Rom. 10)
All includes you.
[1] Matthew Parris, “The Rage of Reason,” London Times, 22, May 1992, 22.
[2] Norman Geisler, Systematic Theology: God, Creation, Vol. 2 (Minneapolis: Bethany House, 2003), 161.
[3] Clarence E. Macartney, Twelve Great Questions About Christ (London: Fleming H. Revell, 1923), 36.
