Sermon Tone Analysis

Each week leading up to Christmas we are looking at Calls given by God through angels.

What is a call?

We are not talking about a call, like you receive a call on the phone.

No, this is a call, like a call to action.

It is an invitation to join in, a direction given.

It is given to motivate, spur on, give a task.

A call is not something to passively receive, but to actively engage.

Last week: God sent an angel to Zechariah.

Zechariah was a priest who was at that time serving in the main city of Israel, Jerusalem.

He was a priest, educated in the Word of God, who taught others to trust the promises of God.

Zechariah was offering prayers in the temple when the angel Gabriel appeared to him.

Gabriel told him his prayers were heard!

God was breaking His silence!

God was about to fulfill His promises given so long ago!

God was going to send the one prophesied to go before the Messiah!

This is the one who would prepare the people for the Lord.

Not only did God hear Zechariah's prayers.

Not only was God going to begin preparing His people for their Messiah.

God was Calling Zechariah to be a part of that work.

God was calling Zechariah to help prepare, as God was giving him a son who would be the one to go and prepare the way for the Lord!

Unfortunately, Zechariah did not believe when he heard the message.

God was still going to do as he said, but now Zechariah wouldn't fully enjoy the blessing because he did not believe.

He was not able to joyfully tell everyone how God was keeping His promises until the child was born.

Oh, but once that child was born, Zechariah was able to speak again, and then he rejoiced and let everyone know God was preparing!

The call last week, was a call to prepare.

That is what God was doing through Zechariah--through Zechariah's son, John the Baptist.

When John grew up, he did prepare the people for the Lord.

He called people to repent, and believe God's promises, that the Messiah was coming.

This Christmas season, we need to apply this to our own lives.

We need to heed the call to prepare.

We need to repent of whatever is coming between us and God, and to believe Him.

That was the first call sent by God through an angel.

Today we are looking at the second Call given by God through the angel Gabriel.

This time, the call wasn't to a high class citizen like a priest.

It wasn't to someone who worked in the big city of Jerusalem.

Instead, this call was to someone society would have not have even considered.

A young girl from a small town of poor reputation.

She was given a Call to Provide.

Please watch this dramatization.

Mary: A Call to Provide

Let's read this passage together and work through this Call to Provide.

Greetings you who are 'highly favored'.

'Highly favored' is how they have translated a word that is literally 'one who is given grace.'

"Greetings, you who are highly favored!"

Literally,

"Greetings, one who is given grace!"

That is, given an undeserved, highly valued gift.

The angel was letting Mary know that God was giving her a great, undeserved gift!

She did not have to earn it, or pay it back.

It was a gift!

In the next couple verses, this is reemphasized:

You have found favor with God is just like what God said of Noah and others.

'They found grace in the eyes of the Lord!' God looked at them in an undeserved, favorable way.

A gift from Him.

Wow! What would you think if someone said this to you?

You have found grace in the eyes of the Lord!

You don't deserve this, but God is looking favorably on you!

God is giving you a special, undeserved gift!

What is really special about this to me, is that this word for God giving Mary grace is found only one other time in the Bible.

It is in Ephesians 1:6.

Where this verse says 'freely given' is the same word that the angel said to Mary! Here, it is stating that God gives that same precious, undeserved gift--grace--to every one of us who believes in Jesus!

Isn't that great!?!

This Christmas season, if you start to feel down, read these verses in Luke and Ephesians, and contemplate how God looks on you with favor, just like He did to Mary!! God gives you and me the same undeserved precious gift of grace as He did to Mary! Wow!

Now what is the nature of this grace, this gift?

The Lord is with you

What better gift could there be than, the Lord is with you.

For all that was coming, everything she was going to face, this is what she could hold onto.

This is the same promise God has given to all of His servants, like Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Joshua, Jeremiah, and the rest of the prophets.

"I am with you."

All that these saints of old went through, this is what gave them strength to lead nations, conquer enemies, boldly stand when facing opposition, endure all that came at them.

This is the promise God gave to Mary!

And, the next part is just as exciting!

The Lord is giving you a son, Jesus.

This Son, Jesus was God's provision!

God was providing the Messiah, the descendant of David that He had covenanted to provide centuries before!

Way back in the garden of Eden, God promised to provide One born of a woman who would defeat Satan and Sin!

Later as a part of the Covenant with Abraham,

God promised to make Abraham into a nation, and to bless the whole world through him.

Still later, through David, a descendant of Abraham, God gave even further detail, stating that it would be one of David's descendants that would be God provision to lead this nation and bless the world.

Ever since God made that covenant with David--which was just an elaboration of the covenant God gave to Abraham that a nation, and kings would come through him--the people of Israel who remained faithful to God kept waiting and holding on in hope of God's provision.

Now, after all these years, God was going to provide!

Now for God to provide a descendant of David, He needed a woman who would give birth to this special descendant.

Mary would be a part of God's providing for the world!

Mary would bear the child.

Well, Mary wondered how in the world this could be.

She was still a virgin.

She believed God, but how?

Wow, how could it be?

God!

I love that final declaration from Gabriel.

"Nothing is impossible with God."

He told her how Elizabeth was even having a son in her old age, then told her about this.

This had to bring to mind Abraham and Sarah to Mary.

These were the father and mother of the nation of Israel.

They were old and beyond the point of having children.

God had been promising to make a nation from Abraham's descendants.

Abraham was 100, and Sarah was 90 when they finally had Isaac.

A year before Isaac was born, God was talking with Abraham and told him is was finally time.

They would finally have a son.

Sarah laughed, because they were so old.