A Magnificent Message

December Sunday Nights, 2023

Luke 1:26-38.

ETS: Gabriel announced the birth of Jesus to Mary.

ESS: We should join in the celebration with joyful obedience over this magnificent message.

OSS: [Consecrative] {I want the people to heed the calling of God on their lives.}

PQ: What are the parts to this encounter between Gabriel and Mary?

UW: Parts

Intro.:

TS: Let us examine a few parts of this encounter now:

There was the magnificent greeting. [vv. 26-30]

This is a magnificent greeting because it reveals the magnificent grace of God. Mary was not favored because of anything she had done; because of her status; etc.

Mary was deeply troubled by this greeting. Yet, the angel Gabriel assured her in the same way he assured Zechariah in Luke 1:13.

There was the magnificent message. [vv. 31-33]

The message is magnificent because it reveals the miracle that God was working out- that the virgin, Mary, would conceive and give birth to a son.

“Jesus” is the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew word Yehoshua (Joshua) meaning ‘the Lord is salvation.’ (CSBSB)

Jesus would be great and called “the Son of the Most High”- unlike others being born, being the son of an earthly father. He was called Son of the Most High because He was conceived by the Holy Spirit, yet associated with Joseph in order to fulfill the prophesy that Jesus, the Son of God, would come through the lineage of David, inheriting the throne of David and reigning forever according to the covenant in 2 Samuel 7:13 “13 He is the one who will build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.”

Thus, it is a magnificent message because it reveals to miracle of God, Jesus, being born of the virgin; and because it revealed God’s plan to fulfill his covenantal promise to establish and sustain an eternal kingdom through the line of David.

There was the magnificent response. [vv. 34-38]

Mary’s response, initially, is to ask a question, perhaps out of sincere curiosity since she had not been sexually intimate with Joseph.

Yet, the response from Gabriel provides the first two aspects of this magnificent response:

It will happen because the Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.

Assurance is provided that God is able by providing evidence of His power already at work in a tangible way in her relative, Elizabeth, who was pregnant in old age with John.

Mary’s response, then, reveals the third aspect of this magnificent response:

Humble, obedient surrender.

CONCLUSIVE QUESTIONS to lead into interactive invitation:

[1] Have you considered how God wants to use your life to show others around you His magnificent, miraculous power during this special season?

[2] What hinders you from adopting the response of Mary for your own life and willingly, humbly, obediently surrendering you story for His glory, “See, I am the Lord’s servant…may it happen as you have said.”

As you think about this, pray with someone next to you during this time that God would show you how He wants to use your story and situation during this special season to show Himself to others through you.