God of Impossible Part 2
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Last week we saw the angel Gabriel appear to a priest named Zacharias who was very old and without children. He announced his wife Elizabeth would have a son, an impossible feat given they were beyond child bearing years. But we saw that God is the God of impossible as what he promised through the angel Gabriel came to pass and a child was indeed born to Zacharias and his wife, they named him John, and he would grow up to be the forerunner of the Messiah (a forerunner is the prophet who prepares the way for another).
Some time later, six months according to verses 26 and 36, the same angel appears to Mary to announce another miraculous birth.
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.”
Nazareth back then was a nothing town. It is quite developed today. But in the first century, it was an agrarian town. There were a few families, there would have been the carpenter, the blacksmith, the synagogue, and so on. Everybody knows everybody, which is not too different from here. So for an angel to come to a young woman in a nothing town in the middle of nowhere to announce that she would miraculously give birth to the Savior if the world, nobody would expect.
Of this child who will be born to her, it is said:
He will be great
He will be called Son of the Most High
God will give him the throne of his father David
He will reign over the house of Jacob (Israel) forever
His kingdom will have no end.
There is no mistaking what the angel is saying. The son Mary is to conceive is the long awaited Messiah of Israel. That would be news that would rock anybody’s world. Imagine for a moment your family, your ancestors, your nation has been waiting and longing for the deliverer God had promised all the way back at the beginning and the day came where it was announced that this deliverer would be born to one in your family and that it was happening soon. This deliverer will sit on the throne of David as promised in 2 Samuel 7:16. The king they have been waiting for is coming. His reign will never end. Once he sits on the throne he will never stop. The kingdom he establishes will last for all time. No opponent can overthrow him. No government can crush him. No scandal can ruin him. No time can corrupt him. no life will leave him. He is the Son of the Most High. His existence precedes time itself.
Imagine hearing the news. For generations, the church, the faithful followers of Jesus, have been awaiting the return of our king to fulfill the prophecy of 2 Samuel 7, to see Jesus sit on the throne of his father David and establish his kingdom on earth for all eternity. What if just before he came, there was an announcement of his coming. There will be. His coming will be preceded by the sound of a trumpet. Imagine you knew that it was going to happen in your lifetime. I imagine Israelites throughout the generations lived with anticipation for their Savior to come just as the church for generations await the second coming of Christ. It could happen in our lifetimes. How exciting it would be to live to see the day.
But wait…there’s a complication.
Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?”
Knowing how babies are made, Mary sees a complication in God’s plan. She’s a virgin. Some have tried to explain this by suggesting that the word virgin simply means young woman, but does not mean a young woman who has never been with a man. In some cases, that is true. But in this verse, the word virgin literally means “known no man.” So here we have a whole new scenario. Last time, God was going to help an old couple conceive the natural way, which Zacharias thought was impossible. Here, he is performing an even greater feat by removing the male contribution entirely!
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.”
The Holy Spirit is going to come upon you Mary, and this is how it will be done. The child to be will share the DNA of his mother, but not the DNA of his earthly father, a concept they hadn’t even thought of yet. He will be called the Son of God because it is from God he comes. There is no other source. A child created this way can only have God as Father.
The proof comes in that Elizabeth is pregnant and she’s now six months along. This is the first time Mary is hearing this news. Verse 37 is vial: nothing will be impossible with God.
A woman who never sleeps with a man does not get pregnant. This is how that works. This is not normal circumstances. When God gets involved in his creation, unbelievable things can happen. What God is doing through Mary is impossible through any other means. You can wait a million years, but a woman who never sleeps with a man is never getting pregnant. But with God nothing will be impossible.
No matter how impossible the path might seem, God always has a way to get us where we need to go.
No matter how impossible the path might seem, God always has a way to get us where we need to go.
What God wanted to do was impossible by any ordinary means. Yet, the angel is declaring that it will be so. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, anything is possible. Last week I asked you if you had a dream God gave you that you might have given up on. Do you believe he can do it? If he can give a baby boy to a virgin woman, can’t he do what you are looking for him to do in your life? I know it requires patience, and sometimes you feel like you’re just sitting still. But God can do the miraculous.
Today, we may not be looking for miracles like virgin births, water to wine, or walking on water. Today, we are looking for miracles that are more simple, like maybe our children will come home to us. Maybe the person you have been praying for will finally give their lives to Christ. Maybe God will heal us from the disease we have. Maybe God will bring reconciliation to our families. Maybe God will bring that job or the right opportunity. Those kinds of miracles can and will happen in your life, but they are not absent of your involvement. As we wait on the Lord to fulfill his promises, we do things to work toward that end. The path may seem impossible. The path to standing against Pharaoh in Egypt and leading the Israelites to the promised land was impossible to Moses. But he took one step at a time. If God wants us there, he will get us there.
The other thing I want you to see is the difference between Mary and Zacharias.
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.
Mary responds with belief and obedience. May it be done to me according to your word. This is a statement of acceptance. Notice that both Mary and Zacharias questioned how it is possible for the word of the Lord to come to pass. Yet Zacharias was muted and Mary wasn’t. Zacharias said, “How will I know this for certain? For I am an old man and my wife is advanced in years?” Mary said she had never been with a man. Both took a look at the physical barrier that would have to be overcome. Both asked a question. But the difference was in the position from which the questioning came. In Zacharias’ case, he looked at the old age of he and his wife and thought this could not happen. Mary looks at the fact that she has never been with a man and asks, “Given this reality, how is that going to work?” Two similar situations with two different outcomes.
Doubting God leads to greater troubles than trusting in his promises.
Doubting God leads to greater troubles than trusting in his promises.
This is not to say Mary had it easy. She will still face ridicule and doubting by even the people closest to her. But she remains steadfast. I’m sure Elizabeth was laughed out of the room until she turned up pregnant. Even then, it must have been difficult.
The path God has us walk is not always an easy one, but it is a rewarding one.
The path God has us walk is not always an easy one, but it is a rewarding one.
There is nothing like being in the center of God’s will for your life. The joy of discovery and watching God work is indescribable. It’s not always easy, but he never promised it would be. But it is fulfilling. What would God have you do if you said yes to him today? No matter how impossible it might seem, is he beginning to show you something he has planned for you? Does it scare you a little bit? That’s a good thing. Maybe he’s simply asking you to take a stand for him in a culture that is hostile toward belief in him. Maybe he is calling you to take that job, or take that risk. You’re afraid you’ll fall on your face if you do, but you just might learn to fly. What would he have you do if you simply said yes today?