The Wonder of Wonders

The Wonder of Wonders

Blake Kenaum / General

The Dawning of the Day / Birth of Jesus; Immaculate Conception /

Our Text is a Watershed Text In Christian Truth. This is the foundation of an Essential Doctrine.

This is the first time we are introduced to Mary but more importantly Jesus. It’s not man’s perspective we hear from, there’s no news anchor or special bulletin, there’s no special documentary to explain it, rather it’s heaven we hear from. We hear from heaven and God speaks to men revealing to them the person of Jesus Christ.

The One Who God Favors

“favored one” - one who has recieved grace.

She was a sinner, she did not deserve God’s favor, she had not earned the right to be the “Mother of Jesus”, she was a part of those who were sinners, not righteous.

God’s Favor:

Is always to those who don’t deserve it;

Simply because he decided it.

Is usually to those who are least likely to receive it

She was an Insignificant Person as far as we can tell.

A lowly woman, from a lowly town, unrecognized by the world, but singled out by the God of the universe!

ESV

26 For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; 28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, 29 so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.

God cares for even the most insignificant, the lowly. It isn’t the high and lofty that God favors, it isn’t those who have prominence or prestige, it’s the insignificant. God shows his preference, raising up the lowly, favoring those who are not esteemed by men. Don’t make yourself out to be something, don’t seek to raise yourself and make yourself something, (acknowledge what you are, give it to Christ, and let him lift you up. Some men can’t be saved, because they can’t get past this, they are hung up on making something of themselves of raising themselves up.

She was a woman

Not a person in authority or leadership (In a day when the role of women was undervalued)

God had a promise to keep, and he used Mary to keep it.

ESV

15 I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”

Mary’s Response to God’s Favor?

vs. 38 She responded in faith and submission to God’s will. She presented herself as the Lord’s “slave”

A Walk with God: . Gabriel Visits Mary ()

She was saying, ‘If this is what God wants, then I will do it.’

The way we should respond to God’s favor.

The Identity of Jesus Revealed

· Gender reveal <Jesus revealed

· Great men revealed< The Son of God revealed

He Will Be Great

-Son of the most high: (the Son of God)

He’s going to be divine.

ESV

14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.

The one unique son of God, he was the darling of heaven.

-He Will Be King

ESV

12 When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. 14 I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. When he commits iniquity, I will discipline him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men, 15 but my steadfast love will not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you. 16 And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever.’ ”

ESV

14 And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.

ESV

6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 7 Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.

You Will Have a Son

He Was Man (The Seed of the Woman)

Not merely God, not merely man, but the God-man.

Uniquely, Jesus did not begin at his birth, he began he existence as a man at his birth!

• Here we see God’s love again!

ESV

10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

God shows his love for you. When he should have condemned all mankind to eternal destruction, when the next thing revealed could have been/should have been a holy God descending from heaven on a white horse accompanied by the armies of heaven bringing down the full fury of God’s wrath, when that should have been what was seen, we instead see

ESV

9 But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.

The Manner of His Conception Foretold

A problem presented

Mary was a virgin, and only engaged.

You’d have to be blind not to get that from this text!

The Power of God Magnified

The Result of a Divine Operation

God will act upon you. You will become pregnant without having sexual relations? How, God!

Illustration: Men have advanced in knowledge to the point that we can artificially inseminate an egg. We can, take the seed of a man and in a lab combine it with the seed of a woman, and then place that egg back in a woman. This is a marvel of scientific achievement.

But no man can take just the egg of a woman, and make a Child.

The Holy Spirit will come upon you! God is going to do something to you!

Jesus’s conception was not the consequence of man’s initiative, or skill, it was God’s power exerted on her!

A New Creation

“Will Overshadow You”

This echoes from the phrase used in Creation.

ESV

2 The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

hovering: or brooding, like a hen who broods over a nest of eggs to incubate them, the Spirit of God was “brooding” over the earth to bring about life.

That’s the image of the Spirit over Mary. The Holy Spirit is going to overshadow you, he is going to exert creative energy on your womb causing it to become pregnant. God will overrule nature and bring about a miracle. A virgin will conceive!

Everything about his conception shows that he was no ordinary man.

Further Witness

“Elizabeth…has also conceived.”

This was a sign to further prove the truthfulness of the message:

FOR NOTHING WILL BE IMPOSSIBLE WITH GOD!

A Demonstration of God’s Power

Jesus’ birth was a demonstration of God’s power.

God magnifies his power! He draws back his sleeve and flexes his muscle and shows his strength. When he could have magnified his power in judgment, he instead chooses to magnify it in becoming like you and associating with you! He identifies with you, to save you!

Let Us Wonder at This!

We are meant to wonder at this. As majestic as the rising of the son, it pales in comparison to the rising of the Sunrise of God’s salvation. The sunrise of God’s salvation rises on God’s people.

THE WONDER OF WONDERS AS RECORDED BY THE INSPIRATIONS

WORD & MUSIC BY CHARLES B. WYCUFF

VERSE 1

THE WONDER OF WONDERS AS SHE LOOKED ON HIS FACE

THAT THIS LITTLE BOY SPOKE THE WORLDS IN THEIR PLACE

THE STARS AND THE MOON, SHINNING BRIGHTLY ON THEM

THE EARTH AND THE SUN WERE CREATED BY HIM

VERSE2

THE WONDER OF WONDERS AS SHE HEARD HIS SMALL CRY

THAT THIS VOICE HAD THUNDERED ON MOUNT SINAI

THE HAND THAT SHE HELD SO TENDERLY

HAD MADE A DRY PATH THRU THE MIGHTY RED SEA

VERSE 3

THE WONDER OF WONDERS AS SHE LOOKED DOWN AND SMILED

THAT HE WAS HER MAKER AS WELL AS HER CHILD

HE CREATED THE WOMB THAT HAD GIVEN HIM BIRTH

HE WAS GOD INCARNATE COME DOWN TO THE EARTH.

VERSE 4 (NOT RECORDED BY THE INSPIRATIONS)

THE WONDER OF WONDERS AS A FATHER LOOKED ON

IN ETERNITY PAST THIS WAS HIS SON

HAD SENT HIM TO DIE ON CALVARY'S TREE

AND THAT IS THE WONDER OF WONDERS TO ME

CHORUS

THE WONDER OF WONDERS OH HOW COULD IT BE

THAT GOD BECAME FLESH AND WAS GIVEN FOR ME

THE ALMIGHTY CAME DOWN AND WALKED AMONG MEN

THE WONDER OF WONDERS HE DIED FOR MY SIN