Good News for Real Life - Luke 1:26-38

Introduction

(Show a picture of the quadratic formula) I had to memorize the quadratic formula in the eighth or ninth grade. It was good that I memorized it, too. It came up a lot as I progressed through Algebra and Calculous in high school and college. But, a few weeks ago, I realized that it wasn’t just that I couldn’t remember the formula; I couldn’t even remember the purpose of it. In fact, this is the first time I’ve even seen the quadratic formula in about 18 years. You know, with all of the emphasis, I thought this would play a bigger role in my life than it does!

It comes back to the question that all children ask their parents while they’re slaving away at synthetic division: How will I ever use this in real life? I think that’s a good place for us to start Advent this year. We’re going back to that old story that you’ve heard since your mom first told it to you in a rocking chair — the story of Jesus and his birth. Truthfully, it’s a story that’s so familiar to many of us that we’re not even impressed by it any more. We know that it’s about Jesus and that Jesus is our Savior and that’s Good News. But, what I want us to see is that the birth of Jesus doesn’t just matter one day. It doesn’t just matter when you die. It’s Good News for today. It’s Good News with real help and real hope for real life — right now.

God’s Word

You see, we live in a Christian culture that has for a long time made the gospel message only about what happens when you die. Oh, that’s important. It’s vital. It’s eternal. But, I’m not so certain that we’ve done a good job of showing how important Jesus is today. It’s no wonder people aren’t worried with church and worship and time with God. But, the story of Jesus is the story of how the real God came into the real world as a real man to solve real problems — the same problems we’re all facing today. And, we’ll see this from the start when Mary learns about Jesus’ advent for the first time.

Good news for “marginal people.”

Luke is always concerned with marginal people in his writings. It’s probably because he saw himself that way. Luke was a Gentile. He and his family were the kinds of people that God wasn’t supposed to care about. And, that’s real life, isn’t it? We’re the kind of people that aren’t supposed to matter, the ones God should forget about like the rest of the world. We live in rural Alabama. We’re the butt of everyone else’s jokes. We have thick accents. Most of us are only a generation or two away from dirt floors. God — like everyone else — has bigger fish to fry. So, it’s beautiful where and to whom Jesus is born. It’s...

Hope for “forgotten places.”

Luke 1:26-28 “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!””

Nazareth is like Choccolocco or Rabbittown. You only know about it if you’re from there. Their most famous resident is the Choccolocco Creek Monster. People literally said, “Nothing good comes out of Nazareth!” The person to whom Jesus is to be born is just as unremarkable. Mary is a peasant girl who is probably about 12 years old. She had dirt under her finger nails instead of pearls around her neck. She was hardly pubescent when an Angel interrupted her mundane life with the news that she’d been chosen by God for the most remarkable task in human history.

That’s hope for people like us, isn’t it? God’s grace hasn’t forgotten a single place or a single person. In fact, it’s very often in these very places and with these very people that his grace shines brightest.

It’s a confusing way for God to work, really. It’s disorienting that God would work in such an opposite way. That’s Luke’s point in drawing it out, and that’s more Good News for us. You see, Jesus is...

Help for “confused people.”

Luke 1:29-30 “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.”

Mary is completely overwhelmed by what she was hearing. (1:29) Zechariah, John the Baptist’s dad, (1:12) is described the exact same way. They’re both “greatly troubled.” The word means quite literally to be “greatly confused, perplexed, overwhelmed.” Now, think about this. Mary is exactly in the center of God’s will for her. She’s found “favor with God.” Often, you’re not confused because you’re outside of God’s will but because you’re in the middle of it. It’s shocking and startling that God would ask us to serve him beyond our understanding or capacity. Nobody is safe from the call of God. He can use anybody to do anything at anytime.

But, there’s help for us confused people. Gabriel also gives them both the same encouragement: “Do not be afraid, for you have found favor with God.” "Do not be afraid, Cody, for you have found favor with God.” “Do not be afraid ______, for you have found favor with God.” In other words, He calls us by grace, and He enables us by grace. We may be confused about everything else, but that we can be certain of. “The Lord is with us.”

Our Savior was born in a lowly place. He played 2A football and spoke with a country accent. And, our Savior was born to lowly people. All of his life his mother was trying to figure him out. Our Savior was born in a place like us to parents like us to bring hope and help to people like us. He knows our small town problems firsthand, and He’s here to help. That’s real world hope.

Good news for “old promises.”

When Gabriel speaks, it’s a breakthrough after 400 years silence from God. God really hadn’t abandoned them, even though it probably felt like it. That’s real life. Sometimes, it feels like God isn’t there, doesn’t it? When we see Ukraine being shelled by Russia, when our children come home talking about gender confusion, when every effort to fix our lives seems to lead to more problem, it can feel like God is asleep at the wheel. So, we get frustrated when people keep telling us that “Jesus is coming soon.” We roll our eyes. We’ve heard it our whole lives, but where is He? That old promise just seems like it’ll never realized.

That’s how Jews in the first century felt, too. Then, suddenly — though not unexpectedly — Gabriel says, “He’s coming now!” Old promises are going to be realized.

The snake “loses.”

Luke 1:31 “And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus.”

Luke 1:34-35 “And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God.”

I love Mary’s reaction to Gabriel when she’s told about her impending pregnancy. “Uh, how? I know I’m just a farm girl from Nazareth, but this seems out of reach.” It’s not a question of unbelief, but of confused faith. But, it had to be a virgin birth to fulfill the first promise of the gospel in Genesis 3. Do you remember it? The protoevangelium? Genesis 3:15? Who is going to crush the head of the Serpent that had deceived Adam and Eve? The Seed of the Woman. Not the Seed of Adam — the man — but the Seed of the woman alone. All who descend from Adam in the ordinary way are sinners and guilty before God. So, Jesus is to be born miraculously that He might become a new Adam, a new man that could overcome Adam’s old failures. God had not forgotten his promise to Eve or his promise to the snake. It looked like it! It felt like the snake would slither forever! It felt like death would reign and suffering would continue and the curse would spread! But, now the Seed of Woman has come! The snake is going to lose! Death is going to lose! Suffering is going to lose! The old promise was being kept.

The Kingdom “lasts.”

Luke 1:32-33 “He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God 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.””

There’s a second promise that’s in view. Jesus is shown to be a Son in at least three different ways. He’s Mary’s Son, God’s Son, and David’s Son. And, Jesus is David’s Son because He’s Mary and Joseph’s Son — they’re both from David’s lineage. And, Jesus is David’s Son because He is God’s Son. God had said in Psalm 2 that his very Son would be the King who would reign over all the nations from David’s throne. Isreal is living occupied by Rome. They have no real power. They have no real prospects to overthrow the mightiest military in the history of the world. Even if they do, what difference does it make? Rome is just the latest occupier after Assyria and Babylon. Unless the promise is true. Unless there really is a Messiah. 600 years before, Isaiah had written: Isaiah 9:6-7 “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.” He’s here! He’s going to reign forever! Peace is going to last forever!

The suffering is “limited.”

How does that matter in real life? I want to bring these two old promises together so you can see the hope of our old promise. It feels sometimes like the snake is winning, doesn’t it? We’re still tempted to cheat on our husbands and to find our own paths to happiness. Our friends and family are still getting cancer. Depression seems more rampant than ever. It feels like the snake is winning. And, it feels like the Kingdom has been overtaken sometimes too, doesn’t it? There are more people who don’t believe in God right now than the history of the world. Many of us seem to know less peace, not more. Our children are exposed to more vulgarity and more persecution than we could have expected. It’s like living in an occupied country, and God seems silent. But, Jesus really did come. He really did kill the snake and establish his Kingdom. And, He’s going to interrupt the silence again. Is there anything more relevant to the real world today than that? Just a little while longer, brothers and sisters. Just a little while longer. Don’t roll your eyes. He’s coming.

Good news for “impossible problems.”

Now, this all a lot to take in for anyone, let alone a 12 year old peasant girl. So, Gabriel gives her an assurance. That’s what we need to make it through the real world, isn’t it? Assurance. Living as a messed up person in a messed up world leaves us feeling terribly insecure. “Maybe I just misunderstood God.” “I’m really not up for it.” “This is too big for me.” Like Mary, we need assurance.

So, Gabriel breaks some news to Mary. Her cousin — the infamously barren and aged Elizabeth — is pregnant. He’s assuring her.

God “has” come through.

Luke 1:36 “And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren.”

Everyone would’ve assumed that Elizabeth was cursed by God. That’s how barrenness was interpreted then. So, when God opened Elizabeth’s womb, He was reminding Mary of all the stories that she’d heard as a little girl. God had opened barren Sarah’s womb to give the promised son, Isaac. He had opened Hannah’s womb, too, to give birth to Samuel. And, here’s Elizabeth’s womb open to say that God isn’t just a God of the past; He’s the God of right now. He has already proven able to do what He’s telling Mary He will do.

And, since God HAS come through, she can know that....

God “will” come through.

Luke 1:37 “For nothing will be impossible with God.””

Now, certainly, it’s one thing to open the womb of a barren woman; it’s another thing to fill the womb of a virgin. So, Gabriel adds even further assurance. “Nothing will be impossible with God.” Nothing. I love the future tense that Gabriel uses. He doesn’t just say: “Nothing IS impossible with God.” He looks down the corridors of history to say that there’s nothing that will ever come, there is no problem that will ever be faced, there is no calling that God will ever give her that will ever be impossible with God. The virgin’s womb isn’t too much for God to overcome and neither will be a bloody cross. Her life with God is future proof.

That’s the real world hope you need as you raise your kids in a crazy world. That’s the real world hope you need as God calls you to start a new ministry. That’s the real world hope you need if God calls you to the nations or to be an example of faithfulness in the midst of horrible health and suffering. Jesus came to future proof your life. Jesus’ birth and resurrection are the assurance for us today that we’re okay as we live between two worlds. God has come through, and God will come true.

Good news for “surrendered plans.”

Luke 1:38 “And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.”

Luke wants his readers to expect that following Jesus will turn their lives upside down. Mary’s certainly has been. Mary speaks twice in the whole passage. “How in the world?” And then, “Let it be.” That’s what faith looks like. That’s what life in the Kingdom is like. That’s what following Jesus is like. Mary had everything on the line. She faces the potential of public shame. She faces the prospect of a divorce or a broken betrothal and never marrying. She would likely wear the scarlet letter of her day and be forced from home and family. She would be destitute. She was faced with a decision that would mean the forfeiting of every plan and dream that she’d had of her life. And, she has to make this decision at 12!

Faith is the bridge between “How in the world?” and “Let it be.” Faith that Jesus is true and worthy. The word she actually uses is “bondservant.” It means to sell yourself into slavery because it’s a better life for you. And, this young peasant girl shows us the path of discipleship in an upside down kingdom. Surrender leads to freedom. Death leads life. The lowly are exalted.

And, that’s Good News in the real world. Maybe today, God is calling you, and you think: “How in the world?” Will you surrender your plans and respond with: “Let it be?” That’s the backward step toward real freedom.