The Miracle Of the Message

The Miracle of the Mom!

Mary was a young Jewish girl from the tribe of Judah. She was engaged to a carpenter named Joseph. They had no earthly prominence and were probably very poor. She was not highly educated or hold any prominent position. From every human standpoint she was just an average Jewish that would go the path of most every other Jewish girl. However we see in the text that she was highly favored by God. So we may ask what was it about her that made her highly favored by God?

There was nothing that she did or was in her character that made her highly favored by God. What made her highly favored of God was that He chose her to be the mother of the son of God. She did not earn this privilege but it was given to her by God. This is what makes her highly favored. She would be the only woman ever to give birth to a son as a virgin. She would be the only earthly mother to the Son of God. What made her favored by God was that she was chosen!

Though she did not earn the privilege of being the mother to Jesus, there are some noteworthy characteristics about her personhood that we should take note of. First of all she was extremely humble. When Gabriel told her that she was highly favored of God she was perplexed. She didn’t understand why God would choose her. She was incredibly humble. She did not have the attitude that she was so special that she expected God to choose her for this purpose. The reason she is highly favored is because she was chosen.

People usually are at one of two extremes when it comes to Mary. Some give her so much glory that it outweighs the message of Christ. Some even believe that she was without sin. We find this nowhere in the Bible. As a matter of fact Jesus died for her sins as well. The other extreme that others go to is to not recognize her as special for being chosen. She is after all the mother of Jesus.

What made Mary Highly favored of God? She was CHOSEN!

This is another aspect of Christmas miracle that we can reflect on.

Just as Mary was chosen by God, so are Christians. We did not pursue God for salvation, He chose us.

44 No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day.

16 You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you.

But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

It is through Jesus Christ that we are chosen by God. We did not do anything to earn our salvation, but God chose us for salvation and pursued us and revealed His Son to us. We chose him after he chose us. Is God pursuing you? Will you choose to receive the gift of salvation that He is offering to you?

The Miracle of the Message

32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David; 33 and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end.”

He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High

Jesus is the Son of the Most High. What does that mean? It means there is no one higher. God is most powerful, most wise, most holy, Most sovereign. There is no one greater than God. To be the Son of the most High means that you have His essence. The same characteristics are possessed by the Son. Jesus Christ is God.

3 [a]And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and [b]upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,

Mary was going to give birth to God in the flesh.

The Lord will give Him the throne of His father David He will Reign over the house of Judah and His Kingdom will have no end

For many Christians it is.  I remember as a little kid growing up I used to wonder why the Roman Catholics couldn't get Jesus off the cross.  Did you ever wonder that?  I used to think they probably didn't understand the resurrection because He was always on the cross.  And I...I didn't go to Catholic churches but occasionally when I saw one there was always a crucifix or more than one, but whenever I met a devout Catholic they would have a crucifix around their neck, or I had a friend who had a set of those beads, there would be at the end of the beads a crucifix and I used to wonder why they couldn't get Him off the cross because every cross I ever saw in a Protestant church was empty.

And I guess we could say that as evangelicals we've done a pretty good job at getting Him off the cross.  But, you know, we haven't done a very good job of getting Him to the throne.  Now there's so much confusion in evangelical Christianity about that.  The story doesn't end with the death of Christ, the resurrection of Christ, and then our personal salvation; that's not the end of the story.  The end of the story is the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever and His kingdom will have no end.  That's the end of the story.  Don't you leave the story until it ends and it ends with a glorious kingdom and Christ reigning on the throne of David over the nation Israel and establishing at that point what turns out to be an eternal sovereignty. John Macarther

Jesus is King of Kings right now. There is no other person that has a higher position than Jesus. Not even the President of the United States of America. So positionally speaking He is the Highest there is.

However I believe the more important thing of the kingship of Jesus is not His position but His ownership of our hearts. We must understand that Jesus rules even our hearts if we allow Him to. I often wonder throughout the day if Jesus is in the rightful position in my heart. He deserves the thrown. Not me. This is why he says: And He was saying to them all, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me.

The Miracle of the Conception

When the angel told Mary she was going to give birth to a son, she asked how that could be since she was a virgin. The Angel told her that the Holy Spirit would come upon her. This is huge! It breaks the cycle of the sin nature being passed on. Every person born has a mother and a father. Both of which are sinners. Since they are sinners we inherit the sin nature and are sinners ourselves. If Jesus was born by natural conception from Joseph and Mary, then He could not be Holy because He would have inherited their sin nature. But because the Holy Spirit caused Mary to conceive the sin nature that would have been passed on was eradicated.

This is why He qualified to be the lamb of God. He was without sin. He was perfect. This is why Satan tried so hard to get him to sin. So that He could defeat God. He didn’t!

The next day he *saw Jesus coming to him and *said, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!

15 For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.

The miracle of this conception is what sets us free from sin. Because Jesus is perfect, He meets the demand of God. He bestows upon those who put their faith in Him, His righteousness. God no longer sees Christians in their sinful state, He sees them in their resurrected state through Jesus.

Miracle of Obedience

38 And Mary said, “Behold, the [ab]bondslave of the Lord; may it be done to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.

When Mary said this to the Angel, she was taking the call regardless of how difficult the task. What does a teenage girl know about raising a child, much more the Son of God. She was going to be pregnant and not married. This was grounds for death. She would be a shame to her family. Joseph would probably divorce her. There are many factor that could have happened that would be detrimental. She was willing to do what God chose her for regardless of the difficulty.

Following the call of God on your life is not always easy, but Mary serves as a good example of how to follow Christ when things are difficult.