I'm Expecting

Luke 31-33

31 And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus.

32 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 ancestor David.

33 He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”

As we go into this season of Advent, I want read this excerpt from N. T. Wright on what Advent is. “The Advent season begins four Sundays before Christmas. In 2023, Advent starts on Sunday, December 3, and Ends on Sunday, December 24. Each Sunday coincides with the lighting of one of four candles – a purple one on the first, second, and fourth Sunday, and a pink one on the third Sunday. Liturgically, the Christmas season – also called the Twelve Days of Christmas – begins of Christmas Day and is celebrated as a feast until January 6, when liturgical churches celebrate Epiphany.

Christians who celebrate Advent see it as a time of expectancy and preparation for Jesus’s arrival – which happened first in the incarnation (Jesus’s birth) and will happen again at his return. For some, Advent is a reminder to find rest in a season notoriously wrought with materialism, busyness and exhaustion. It’s a time to open a door on a calendar or light a candle while still embracing the wonder of Christmas.”

When we talk about Advent, each of these four Sundays entail a particular theme. This Sunday talks about Hope. It shines the light on the hope that Christ brings into the world as a result of his birth. When we think about hope, we think about an expectation that something is going to happen. When we think about hope, it’s a wanting, it’s a longing for something to happen. We say this all the time. “I hope” this or that will happen. The fact of the matter is a lot of times we place our hopes in things that soon will fade away. We place our hopes in people who we thought we could depend on but they turned out to not be so dependable. We put our hopes in the things that we buy. But the fact of the matter is those things will soon break down and we will have to get something else. But I just want to encourage somebody this morning to put your hope in Jesus. The songwriter said my HOPE is built on nothing less than Jesus blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame. But holy lean on Jesus name. I want to ask the question this morning, where does your hope lie? Where do your expectations lie? Does your hope or expectations lie in what the world has to offer or are you building your hopes on the eternal? One thing that I’ve found out is that when I put my hope in the eternal, when I put myself in a position of expectation from the Lord, every time the Lord comes through. The thing about expecting from the Lord is that when we expect something from the Lord we put ourselves to be in a position of God’s presence and power. What are you saying here, Pastor? I’m glad you asked. If I need something from the Lord and I’m expecting the Lord to come through, then I have to go to God and make my requests be made known unto God. In other words I have to push myself in to God’s presence so that God can give me what I need.

Just like in our text today. We find Mary in a conversation with the angel. The bible says that her cousin Elizabeth is already pregnant and Elizabeth’s husband, Zachariah is mute because of his unbelief. So here we are the bible says that the angel Gabriel was sent by God to Mary to tell her that she is favored and that The Lord is with her. The bible says that Mary is confused. But the angel tells Mary to not be afraid because the Lord had favored her. And because of this favor she is expecting.The Expectation Has A Name (V:31)

The Expectation Has A Name

Luke 1:31 “And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus.”

And this expectation has a name. Here it is. Look at verse 31. The bible says that the angel told Mary, “And now you will conceive in your womb and bear a son and you will name him Jesus.” This is the thing. There is more to a name than just a name. In some countries or cultures, they take up to seven days to name a child. Because they want to observe the child’s traits. They want to observe how the child moves and they name the child according to the child. So, the naming of the expectation named Jesus, is not arbitrarily or haphazardly given. This name giving was Jesus’ mission. This name given was Jesus’ purpose. This name given was Jesus’ authority. What are you saying here, Pastor? I’m glad you asked. The bible says that There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among mortals by which we must be saved. The bible says for our sake he made him to be sins who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. The bible says that At the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. The fact of the matter is that the divine expectation is that when we leave this earth if we accept Jesus then there are mansions prepared for us where we can live with Jesus for evermore.

Which leads me into the prophetic. Because here’s the thing. Just like the Holy Spirit impregnated Mary, God has put something on the inside of you that has a name attached to it. God has put something on the inside of you that has a purpose attached to it. God has put something on the inside of you that has a mission attached to it. But my question to you is are you listening to its name? Are you listening to what the Holy Spirit is saying to you? Are you listening to what God is saying you are about to give birth too? Here’s the thing. This is what piqued my interest in this particular text and what raised up in my spirit. Because the bible says that Mary is going to have a son and then name her son Jesus. I don’t know if it hit you like it hit me. But the spirit is about to release something inside of you are going to know exactly what it is. Mary you are going to have a son and his name will be Jesus. Mary you are going to write a book, and this is its title. Mary you are about to open a business, and this is going to be the name of the business, and this will be the mission of the business. Mary you are called to ministry, and this will be the name of your ministry. Look at somebody this morning and ask them what is its name? God gave you something and he told you just what it is. What is its name? I need somebody to get ready because what you are about to deliver, is something that you have never delivered before. That’s why you’re going through it. That’s why you feel the way you do. That’s why you feel like you’re being stretched in all these different directions. Because God has put something on the inside of you and what is on the inside of you is about to come forth and it’s going to change your life. But it’s not just going to change your life, it’s going to change the lives that are connected to you. What is its name?

The Expectation Has A Distinctiveness (V:32)

Luke 1:32 “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 ancestor David.”

Because the expectation has a name, the expectation has a distinctiveness that comes with it. Look at verse 32. The bible says that 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 ancestor David. I need for you to get this. The name is tied to your purpose. And along with your purpose comes distinction. Here it is. Jesus’ purpose was to save humankind, or should I say redeem humankind from a life of sin and shame. There was an expectation of salvific qualities attached to Jesus’ name. But here’s the second part to this. This distinction is tied to Jesus’ royalty. There are two types of royalty that we are looking at. There is a divine royalty and an earthly royalty. The bible says that this distinction is a great distinction, and his divine royalty is that he is going to be the Son of the Most High but then he is going to be in the blood line of David, WHICH puts him as an heir to the king of the Jews. Okay, you didn’t get it like that. Let me put it like this. The divine royalty connects Jesus to God. The royalty connects him to David. The characteristics of Jesus are not going to be like anybody else. We say it all the time. Jesus was Holy Human and Holy Divine. Jesus was unique in that he was God in human form or as we say, God wrapped in flesh.

This is the point I’m trying to make as far as the expectation having a distinction. What Mary was carrying inside of her was a special gift that was for the world and there will never ever be anyone or anything that will compare to what Mary was carrying on the inside of her. What Mary was carrying on the inside of her was a gift to bring hope back to Israel. What Mary was carrying on the inside of her was a gift to bring hope to humankind. This gift was different. This gift was unusual. Let me put a quarter in the parking meter and park right here for a second. The bible says that God has given all of us different gifts. Let me push it a little bit further. The gifts that God has given us are distinct. There are things that God has given us that nobody else could do if they tried. So, we shouldn’t be mad if others are using their gifts to edify the body of Christ. Here's the beauty of the distinct gifts. If I take my distinct gift and put it with your distinct gift and somebody else takes their distinct gift and we all use our distinct gifts together, the expectation is that when the world sees us working our gifts together, they don’t see us they see Christ. Okay, you didn’t get it like that let me put it like this. Just like Mary carried the savior, Just like Mary gave birth to the savior, your job with the distinctive expectation, that you’re carrying is to lead people to Christ so that the expectation will be salvation. The distinction that’s attached to the gift on the inside of you is not about you. It’s about Christ.

The Expectation Has A Promise (V:33)

Luke 1:33 “He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.””

The last thing is this. The expectation has a promise. Watch this. Go to verse 33. The bible says that he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end. Now remember that in my last point I told you that Jesus’ distinction was that he was divinely connected and humanly connected. Well, the human part of this goes back to the old testament. The house of Jacob is Israel. You got to remember way back in Genesis 32, God changed Jacob’s name to Israel. The promise comes in, still in the Old Testament, in 2nd Samuel when God told David through the prophet Samuel that his kingdom will be established forever. It was established again in in Isaiah chapter 11, and Isaiah prophecies that that there will be a shoot coming out from the stump of Jesse and a branch shall grow out of his roots. The spirit of the Lord shall rest on him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirt of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. The shoot is David the branch is Jesus. So, the connection is this. God is going to keep his promise to David through Jesus. Here’s the other promise. God is going to redeem his people through Jesus. God made his promise in the Old Testament. But the promise does not come through until the New Testament. David’s dead and gone but Jesus comes and is the rightful heir to David’s throne. Israel’s been destroyed, sin and hardheadedness has destroyed Israel, but Jesus comes and establishes and redeems Israel. But not only did he restore the Jew he adopted the Gentile too.

What are you saying here, Pastor? I’m glad you asked. If God made a promise, God is going to deliver. If God said it, God’s going to do it. God told Abraham that he was going to make him the father of many nations. God did it. God told the Children of Israel he heard their cry, and he was going to deliver them out of the hands of Egypt. God did it. God told Zachariah and Elizabeth they were going to have a son even at their old age. God did it. I know that’s bible. But let me come on down to your address. For some of you, you were sick. God said he would heal you and God did it. For some of you, God said he would open a door for you. God did it. For some of you your money was funny, and your change was strange. God said that he would provide for you. God did it. Is there anybody here that can testify to the fact that God kept every single promise in your life. Is there anybody here that can testify to the fact that you know for certain, that God’s promises are yea and amen. Is there anybody here that can attest to the fact that God is not a man that he should lie nor the Son of Man that he should repent. You may not have known when God was going to come through. But one thing is for certain. Your promise may have been made in your Old Testament portion of your life. But there came a time when the New Testament was written and we can say like we said last week, “See what the Lord has done.” I don’t know about you. But I get excited about the fact that God keeps his promises. God promised that he would never leave or forsake us and he’s right there. God promised that he would supply all of our needs according to his riches in glory and he’s provided. God promised that when we call on him, he will answer. God promised that he would be a present help in the time of trouble, and he came through. I’m so glad God kept is promises. Is there anybody here. That can testify for the last time and tell somebody that when I look back over my life, I can see that God has done exactly what he said he would do in my life.