God's Power & Grace For The Weak & Wounded

Unbeknownst to Lake, before his qualifying match, his engine had blown. The mechanic didn’t tell him, because he didn’t want to distract him. After all, there wasn’t time to fix it. The qualifying match had already begun. His mechanic got under the hood and cranked the engine by hand with a wrench. That was only to get him started. He never imagined that car would even run one lap, let alone run well enough to put him in second place. But it did.

This is what the driver said in an interview with Sports Spectrum: “God did a major mechanical miracle. I always pray right before the race. Sitting on that track, when it didn’t start, I prayed, ‘Lord, I don’t know what’s going on here, but if there’s any way, I’d like this thing to start.”

Some of you this morning are up against something that seems impossible. Whatever it is, it is looming over you and you are experiencing dread or anxiety. You’re overwhelmed — because you’re weak and wounded. The good news? We may be weak and wounded, but God is gracious and powerful.

[SLIDE: MARY WAS WEAK]

Mary was weak

I hope you’ll look with me at vv. 26-27: “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.”

Notice with me Mary’s limitations.

[SLIDE: MARY’S LIMITATIONS]

Mary’s limitations:

Mary is young

From a poor family

From an unimportant place

Unmarried

A virgin

Mary is very young. We know this because the text says she is betrothed — which means she is legally engaged. She was a girl. She was probably around 13 years old, but no older than 15 years old.

Mary is from a poor family. We know this because later when Jesus is born Joseph and Mary offered the firstborn offering specifically designed for poor family of a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.

Mary is from a small, unimportant town. Nazareth is a tiny blip on the map. The history books don’t talk about Nazareth. Philip’s brother Nathaniel when he heard Jesus was from Nazareth, he literally said, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” (John 1:46 ESV).

Then again, Mary is unmarried. This means she doesn’t own property, and couldn’t own property even if she could afford it. As a woman, Mary’s testimony in a court of law is invalid testimony — women weren’t viewed as trustworthy.

Mary was poor, young, from an unimportant town, she is a sinner, and lastly, Mary was a virgin. She did not remain a virgin the rest of her life. She had other children after Jesus. But when Jesus was conceived in her, Mary was a virgin.

[SLIDE: MARY WAS WOUNDED]

Mary was wounded

Poor, young, unmarried, and a virgin. Mary has many human limitations. But Mary is not only weak, like us. She is also wounded.

What I mean is that Mary was sinful. The Roman Catholic Church teaches something called the immaculate conception — it’s the belief that Mary was conceived within sin and lived her whole life without committing sin.

But the Bible is clear that there has only been one sinless person, and that is not Mary; it is Mary’s son Jesus. Nothing in this story about Mary or any other Bible passage about Mary teaches that Mary was anything other than a completely normal human being, like us. And that means that Mary was a sinner.

Poor, young, unmarried, sinful, and a virgin. What’s the point? The point is that Mary had absolutely nothing to offer to God. Hear that again: Mary was not chosen by God for her social status. Mary was not chosen by God because she was especially holy.

Why did God choose Mary? It’s very simple. God chose Mary because in and through her He could show His power. If God chooses a person who is extremely capable, or extremely wise, or extremely holy, we might think, “Well, obviously God chose this person; because they’re capable or wise or holy.” But that would mean that the person would get the credit, while God’s power would be hidden.

God uses people who are weak and wounded so that He can display His perfect power. And so that we can watch and say, “If God can use her, there’s no reason He can’t use me.”

God is gracious

If Mary is wounded, and if you and I are also wounded because we too are sinners, then there is good news, because God is gracious.

This is the first thing that the angel Gabriel has to say to Mary. God is gracious. Look at verse 28: “And he came to her and said, ‘Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you’”. “Favored one” is a good word to underline in your Bibles. What does it mean to be favored? In prosperity gospel circles, to be “favored” means to be wealthy and healthy. If you have nice houses and fancy cars and the latest tech, you are said to be highly favored by God.

To be favored by God =

God accepts you

God loves you

God is pleased with you

That’s not what it means to be favored by God. To be favored by God does not mean God has done you many “favors”; to be favored by God is so much better: to be favored by God simply means to be accepted with God. It means to be loved by God. It means that God is pleased with you, and that’s the tough one, right?

How many of you believe that to love someone and to like someone are not the same thing? I can believe that God loves me — of course He does, He loves everyone. But does He like me?

He does. Turn to the person beside you and say, “God loves you and He likes you.”

Do you have a hard time believing that? So did Mary. Verse 29: But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be.” Mary was no more accustomed to having angels knock on her door than we were. But look at what the angel says: “Do not be afraid, Mary”. Why would she be afraid at the presence of the highest ranking angel of heaven? Because He is a representative of the holy and righteous God. And as we have seen, Mary herself is a sinner.

“Do not be afraid, Mary.” God is not angry with you. You will not incur His judgment. Why? “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor” — or you have found grace — “with God” (Luke 1:30 ESV).

You say, Pastor Dustin, how do I know that? Because Jesus His Son came into this world as a baby and then lived a perfectly sinless life as a human being. Then He died on the cross as the fully divine Son of God, as our legal substitute. The Bible says, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2Cor 5:21 ESV).

I’m clothed with the righteousness of Jesus, God’s Son. That means that how God feels about His Son — that’s how He feels about me, and that’s how He feels about you, if you have rested your hope of salvation in Jesus.

We are weak and wounded. God is gracious.

But God is also powerful.

God is powerful

God’s grace is seen in His acceptance of Mary. God’s power is seen in what He will accomplish in and through her.

God, through the prophet Gabriel, gives Mary a glimpse of what God has in store for her, verse s30-33: “And the angle said to her, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you shall conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. 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.”

Now all of that that we just read is there is found in the OT. All of that that the angel spoke to Mary is the fulfillment of ancient promises God made in the OT.

But for a lot of you, none of that means much because you don’t know the background. For a lot of you, this is like finding a new TV show you like on Netflix that’s been running for like eight seasons and you’re just now getting into it. You’ve got a lot of catching up to do. So for those of you who don’t know, track along with me for a couple minutes.

You see, way back in the beginning of time, humanity experienced a crisis. Our first parents, Adam and Eve, chose to disobey God’s command in the garden of Eden. When they did that, shockwaves reverberated across the world and they continue to reverberate down through history because every one of us is born with a sin nature, passed down to us from Adam and Eve. Born with a sin nature, and that means prone to sinful living. And sinful living means that we are alienated from God by nature and we are objects of His wrath if nothing changes to alter that condition.

God disciplined Adam and Eve. He said they couldn’t stay in the garden. IT was impossible for them to have fellowship and companionship with a holy God because of their sin. But as God expelled them from the garden, right after he disciplined them,. he showed them grace in two ways.

[SLIDE: GEN 3:15 HCSB]

Genesis 3:15 HCSB

I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.

First, God made Adam and Eve some special clothes to cover up their nakedness and their shame. And second, after he clothed them, God turns to the serpent and makes a promise to him and to them: “I will be put hostility between you” — that is, the serpent — “and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring” — tens of thousands of years of spiritual war between the human race and Satan. But then he says that this war will culminate in one final battle between the serpent and the offspring of the woman, who will be Jesus: God says, “he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” That happened when Jesus died on the cross and then rose again in victory as King.

Later on, God chose Abraham, sand “Abraham, I will make you a tremendous family and from your family, Abraham, one will come who will finally crush the serpent’s head and restore all things to they way God intended.

Then God narrowed it down more. From the descendants of Abraham, he chose another man, Moses. God said, “Moses, I want you to be the head of the nation of Israel, God’s special, chosen nation.” and from that nation the promised Messiah would be born.

Then God narrowed it down even further: this coming Messiah would be a descendant of one particular Israelite, King David. And as all this unfolds throughout history, Israel watched and waited for the coming of this One.

Then something happened: everything went dark. Silence. 400 years of silence. God always spoke to His people through the prophets, for centuries. For 400 years, there were no prophets. There was no new word from God. Only those ancient promises that now seemed hopeless.

People wondered: what has become of God’s promises to send One who would crush the serpent and restore us? Where is the One who will come and forgive our sins and restore us to a right relationship with God?

Now, with the angel Gabriel coming with this news for Mary, that 400 year silence is broken. God didn’t go away! God didn’t forsake His people! God didn’t abandon His promises! It just wasn’t time yet. Now, it’s time. The hour is here. The promise One is coming.

So look back with me at verse 32. “He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give him to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and over his kingdom there will be no end” (Luke 1:32-33 ESV).

Now, how many of you when I read those verses, I lost you? Some of you are trying to grasp what I read means and that just illustrates my point. It staggers the imagination. Reign over the house of David? Forever? We have no category for this in our minds.

But Mary hasn’t even gotten that far. Gabriel lost Mary at the start. Gabriel lost Mary right after he said, “you have found favor with God.” The next words were “you will conceive in your womb and bear a son...”

Mary’s response is: “How can this be, since I am a virgin?” People have been hard on Mary over the years. They’ve said, “Mary didn’t trust God.” Mary is asking a perfectly reasonable question. It’s probably a question that you all have asked at some point: “God, I believe you’re going to do this, but how are you going to do this?”

Because, church, trusting God doesn’t mean you don’t have questions for God. So often we think we have to understand God before we can trust God. You don’t. Trust Him first, and trust Him to bring the answers. Trusting God just means you keep trusting Him even when your questions aren’t answered yet. Mary is saying basically what the man said who brought his demon-possessed son to Jesus, desperate for help: “I believe; help my unbelief” (Mark 9:24 ESV).

[SLIDE: LUKE 1:35]

Luke 1:35 ESV

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.

The answer that Gabriel gives is simply that of God’s infinite, absolute power. 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” (Luke 1:35 ESV).

Our Lord and Savior Jesus was born into this world and his mother was a virgin when He was conceived. How? Notice that verse 35 doesn’t at all tell us how God did this. There’s no biological process that’s laid out. The mechanics of how Jesus was conceived in Mary’s womb without her being sexually intimate with her husband — Luke is not concerned to tell us that. Luke — who I would remind you is a physician — Luke simply tells us it was God’s power.

Notice again verse 35, the words used: The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow…come upon you, overshadow you — Mary begins to fade from view and all that is seen is God and His power.

There are people who say miracles don’t happen.

There’s a Major League Baseball story that illustrates this. Any baseball fans this morning? Do you remember the 1996 American League championship series?

The Yankees at home, playing the Orioles. In the bottom of the eighth, the Yankees were trailing the Orioles 4-3. Armando Benitez is pitcher. Derek Jeter sent the ball soaring to right field. Up against the stands, Tony Tarasco jumps up to catch the ball in his glove, but from his perspective it seems like the ball disappears out of thin air. A miracle. In reality, a 12 year old fan named Jeff Maier stood up, raised his glove into the air, and caught it.

The empire called it a home run so Baltimore and New York were tied. The game would go on into extra innings and in the bottom of the 11th, Bernie Williams hit a home run that won the game. Because the Yankees won that game, they went on to win the American League Championship series 4-1. [Craig Brian Larson, 750 Engaging Illustrations for Preachers, Teachers & Writers (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2002), 353–354.]

There are people who say that what looks like a miracle is really just a combination of natural causes and that if you look closely, you can see them. To the catcher in the outfield, the ball seemed to vanish out of thin air just before it should have landed in his glove. A miracle. The real cause was a boy in the stands behind him who was paying attention and saw an opportunity and took it.

I get why they say that. I sympathize. But if you’re a Christian, and you believe that God created everything that exists out of nothing, believing in the virgin birth of Christ is no problem for you.

What is a miracle, by the way? Do you know how to recognize the work of God when you see it?

[SLIDE: WHAT IS A MIRACLE?]

What is a miracle?

An unusual event

An instantaneous event

A good event

A purposeful event

We all know there are people who say miracles don’t happen. That’s because miracles are highly unusual — out of the ordinary — they seem to violate the laws of nature. People don’t normally come back to life; babies aren’t normally born of virgins. A miracle is instantaneous — there are no gradual miracles. A miracle is purposeful — it points to God and His glory. A miracle is good — it does good, like healings or miraculous provision. [Geisler, Christian Apologetics, 2nd ed., 309-10]

Let’s test the virgin birth by this criteria. Is it unusual? Does it seem to violate the laws of nature? Um, yes. Was anybody else in the room this morning born of a virgin?

Is it instantaneous? We’re not told, but probably, because most miracles in the Bible were instantaneous, like Jesus turning the water into wine or God speaking creation into existence.

Was the virgin birth good — did it do good to human beings? Yes, look at verse 35: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore” — the purpose, or the result of that, is “the child to be born will be called the Son of God.”

And did it have a purpose? Absolutely — to glorify God. And herein lies, church, the ultimate reason for miracles: when something miraculous happens, it is to point to the only Being in the universe with the power to carry something like that out. [Geisler, p310]

Verse 38 is a statement of God’s omnipotence. “For nothing will be impossible with God.” If you need God to show up for you this month, this week, today — commit verse 37 to memory: “for nothing will be impossible with God.” Turn to the person beside you and remind them: “Nothing will be impossible with God.”

Our response: surrender (believe & obey)

We are weak and wounded; God is gracious. We are weak and limited; God is all-powerful. How are we to respond to a God like this? Mary the mother of Jesus is a perfect example of what it looks like to live for Him, the God who is gracious and powerful. Mary models surrender.

You see, Mary has to know that becoming pregnant in this way opens her up to scrutiny. People will talk; people will spread rumors and gossip. People will think she and Joseph have had premarital sex, or that she has cheated on Joseph. Either way, it won’t look good. But Mary hones in on what is our most fundamental identity before God: she says, “I am the servant of the Lord.”

Surrender involves two things: surrender involves believing. We believe God when He speaks to us. We believe God when what He says makes sense and when it doesn’t. We say with Mary, “I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word” (Luke 1:38 ESV). We believe God. Then surrender means obeying God, we do what He says, and leave the consequences to him.

Do you know God? Do you have a personal relationship with God? You say, “Well Pastor Dustin, I come to church and all that.” But friend, many pews in many churches are full of people with no relationship with God, people who are headed for an eternity of suffering in hell.

You must make a decision to turn away from your sin and turn toward God. Men, you must make a decision to turn away from sin and turn toward god. Women, you must make a decision to turn away from sin and turn toward God. Teens and children, you must make a decision to turn from sin and turn toward God.

You will find able and ready and eager to save you. Make that decision today. Say to God, “I am yours; save me.” Come forward after the sermon and tell God’s people and we’ll celebrate with me. Find me or one of our deacons after and let us pray with you and help get you started in your walk with Christ.

Mary may not have all the answers. And neither do we. But Mary does know who God is, and so do we — and that is all that matters. When we are weak and wounded, God is gracious and powerful.

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