Luke, Christmas, and the God of the Impossible

How many of you know that we serve a God who can do the impossible?

Maybe you have said this when you applied for a new job. Maybe you said it when your car didn’t work, or you couldn’t make the car payments. Or you pay rent.

You don’t know how you are going to do it.

In these moments, you might have to remind yourself, maybe through a short prayer or by whispering under your breath—and you should remind yourself: You should declare, “I serve the God that can do the impossible.”

God can make a way when there appears to be no way.

Where does this idea come from?

Well, it partially comes from the story we will be reading today, as we start looking at Luke.

I want you to ponder this as we read our reading for today:

How does the phrase “there is nothing is impossible for God” relate to our reading, especially the last portion of our reading?

Also, ask yourself this:

How is Luke, Christmas, and the God of the impossible all related?

Open up your Bibles, we will be reading Luke 1:1-4, 26-38.

I encourage you to bring your Bibles as we start looking at this book.

Maybe even buy a Bible that you could use to write on.

We will first read the entire passage, then we will dissect it.

Luke 1:1–4 NIV

Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word. With this in mind, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, I too decided to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught.

Luke 1:26–38 NIV

In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.” Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.” “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?” The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month. For no word from God will ever fail.” “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Then the angel left her.

Let’s pray.

Let’s start by dissecting Luke 1:1-4

Luke 1:1-4

Luke 1:1-4 is the prologue of the Gospel of Luke.

No other Gospel introduced the book like Luke did. He introduced the book with beautiful, classic Greek.

And I think it’s useful to have Luke start us off with this new series. Let’s see how and why Luke wrote this account.

According to Luke, there were a lot people who ordered, organized, gathered information about what had happened among them.

Luke was saying that something very interesting had happened among the Christians.

It was so interesting that

People had to speak about it. They had to describe the events that were taking place.

It’s not that the people were coerced to proclaim what had happened. But, rather, they wanted to share about things that were taking place among the Christians.

You know, when something big happens in your life, something really good, happens in your life, you just want to share about it.

That’s what’s taking place here, and I think we can learn from them.

These Christians wanted to share the goodness that they had experienced.

And some Christians experienced the goodness of Jesus, not because they were eye-witnesses, but because there were Christians who handed down the truth to them

Luke 1:2

The Gk. word for handed down is one of the more famous Gk. words.

It’s the word παραδίδωμι.

The early church saw that they had recieved something, and it was their responsibility to pass it down.

They saw the early tradition.

It started with Jesus. He taught the truth—He is the truth.

And He shared his good news with the disciples.

The disciples shared the good news with those who would become the church.

And it continued and continued.

The previous generation shares with the upcoming generation the truths that the previous generation had benefitted from.

It’s something we share.

And, although there are people who say it’s made up, that even the early Christians thought the truths were mere allegories or fiction, with good morals.

The early Christians did not think so.

They thought it was real.

The early Christians were not believing tales.

They were following what the first eyewitnesses passed down. Luke probably heard stuff from the first Apostles, and Luke organized their thoughts. Luke wasn’t criticizing those who came before him; instead, he continued the tradition.

And they didn’t just make it up. It wasn’t like the best ideas would win. No, instead, they recieved the testimony from those who saw, with their own eyes, what had happened.

There were people who were firsthand eyewitnesses. And they had an oral tradition, a witness, a testimony about what had happened. Hundreds shared what had occurred. This is what Luke’s second work is all about, the book of Acts, about how Christians would share what happened with Jesus.

The author, Luke, was not an eyewitness himself, but he was able to get info about what had happened because eyewitnesses of Jesus were unashamed to share what they knew, especially if it would help a person,

These eyewitnesses were not trying to make a new religion: They were just following the word. The did not lie, were not trying to make a profit. They were just sharing what they had experienced.

One scholar correctly said (K. H. Rengstorf),

The eyewitnesses “were not propagandists for their own views of what happened with Jesus but had unreservedly put their persons and work in the service of Jesus’ cause.”

They weren’t trying to a start a new religion. They were just sharing the goodness of what they had experienced.

And I like what Athanasius said on the testimony of the eyewitnesses:

New Testament III: Luke Handing down the Traditions

What the apostles received, they passed on without change, so that the doctrine of the mysteries (the sacraments) and Christ would remain correct. The divine Word—the Son of God—wants us to be their disciples. It is appropriate for them to be our teachers, and it is necessary for us to submit to their teaching alone. Only from them and from those who have faithfully taught their doctrine do we get, as Paul writes, “faithful words, worthy of complete acceptance.” With them we are back to ground level, because they did not become disciples as a result of what they heard from others. Rather, they were eyewitnesses and servants of God the Word, and they handed down what they heard directly from him.

We get our doctrine from the Apostles without any change. We strive to follow the correct teachings of Jesus. Jesus gave the truth to the disciples, and he wants us to be their disciples. We should submit, take heed, follow what they, the first disciples, have said.

Luke 1:3

With all of this in mind-people writing accounts, eye-witnesses passing down what they had experienced—with all of this in mind, Luke decided to investigate everything from the beginning.

The word for investigate reminds me of Solomon Schechter.

Here’s a picture of him working through some medieval scrolls, trying to translate them and make sense of them.

I could imagine Luke doing something akin to Solomon Schechter.

Sometimes, the church seems to be anti-research, but it shouldn’t be… Look at Luke. He did his research, his study, to prepare what we will be reading for the next couple of Sundays.

I’m afraid that sometimes we think that something is godlier when it takes place spontaneously, or if the preacher has notes, or has spent time preparing, he is less spiritual.

But within the Bible, spiritual people prepare. Yes, sometimes it can be spontaneous. But, the Spirit can also use you when you study, as he used Luke to write this account.

Luke probably had Matthew’s account or Mark’s Gospel with him, and used them to help write his account. It’s very likely that he did since the Gospels are sometimes so similar that the word order is the same.

Luke probably also consulted other eyewitnesses. Maybe, he interviewed Mary, and that’s why we have a very extensive story on the birth of Christ. Luke wanted to know everything there was to know about the story of Christ.

Luke did his research so that he could write an orderly account.

What kind of literature is Luke? What kind of genre is Luke?

It is an orderly account, or narrative.

Ordered here does not mean chronological, but as well-ordered, polished product of a historian’s work.

We should see this as the narrative of Christ, the account of Christ, the account of the things that have happened according to Luke and his research and literary skills.

The details of Luke support the claim that Luke considered his writings to be a record of something that actually happened.

Luke heard what others had said and followed their example by compiling his own witness.

And he wrote this order account for Theophilus.

Theophilus was probably a Roman official with the title “Most Excellent,” a common title for ranking Roman officials.

Why was Luke writing to Theophilus?

Luke 1:4

Luke wrote this Gospel to help Theophilus become certain of the things that have been taught.

This is the purpose of the Gospel: It’s one Christian helping a person with his faith.

Theophilus had been taught.

The Gk. word for taught is κατηχέω.

During the time of the New Testament, the word κατηχέω revolved around instructional information.

It was used to talk about a person being informed of a report—the report can be a negative or positive report.

Paul used the word κατηχέω to talk about those who teach the word.

Those who teach the word are known as κατηχοῦντι and those who received instruction were κατηχούμενος.

That is why, for a long time, the church had these times of teachings known as catechisms--

Catechisms… κατηχέω… sound familiar, right?

Through these catechisms, the church informed the people about the Christian faith.

While it is possible that the church, or a Christian, had formally taught Theophilus, maybe not as extensively and systematic as churches do it nowadays, the main point here is that Theophilus had some information regarding the way of Christ.

Now Luke was writing a compiled account of everything that had happened to help Theophilus be certain.

Essentially, what Luke wrote was the earliest form of Christian curriculum.

Within our Small Groups, we used Francis Chan’s book, Crazy Love, to help us grow in our faith.

Next month, we will be restarting our connect groups, and we will be using the book Relentless Elimination of Hurry, by John Mark Comer, to help us with our spiritual journey.

Here (hold up the Bible) we have Christian curriculum that has helped Christians since the inception of the church.

And I pray, that as we go through the writings of Luke, we might benefit from it like Theophilus did.

That we would become certain of the things that have been taught to us

That Jesus is king

That God is love

That He is for us

That he has brought the kingdom.

Through our time together in the writings of Luke, I pray that we would become certain of the truths that have been passed down from generations ago.

The Greek word for certainty is ἀσφάλειαν. Just by looking at how the word is setup--ἀ|σφάλειαν— a student of Greek can see that the word gives that idea of no falling. σφάλειαν is falling and ἀ is not, just the a in atheist signifies not a theist, not a believer.

We shouldn’t just look at the composition of a word to get its meaning, just like we shouldn’t look at butterfly and think that it’s butter flying.

If we look at how the word is used, we would see that the usage agrees with the composition.

In Luke’s case, Luke desired that Theophilus would not fall from what he had been taught, that Theophilus would be certain of the information he had heard.

Luke wanted Theophilus to have not doubt, to not fall away, but instead to be certain of what God had revealed to him.

And this is my prayer for you: That you would be confident in what God has revealed.

This book is here to help you as you follow Jesus.

Let’s see what Luke wrote to help Theophilus become certain. Let’s see how Luke ordered his account. Our goal is to hear Luke preach what he has compiled, and I believe through this, we will grow in our faith.

Luke 1:26-38

This is what we read earlier.

It’s the birth of Jesus being foretold.

We will look at one paragraph at a time.

Luke 1:26

An angel went from God’s presence to a town in Galilee called Nazareth.

God would have angels who served as his messengers.

Like a king, God would delegate to others specific tasks.

He would commonly delegate the angel Gabriel to bring news.

He did in the Old Testament with Daniel,

and now God sent Gabriel to bring news to a town in Galilee.

So here’s the picture of the ancient world during the time of Jesus.

You can see Spain on the left, Italy, which was Rome in the Middle.

And the very right of the Mediterranean sea, is where the ministry of Jesus focuses on.

If we zoom in to the right, you will see what was the region of Judea.

And up in the north, we see Nazareth.

God sends the angel Gabriel to this small town, to meet, out of all people, a virgin.

Luke 1:27

The word for virgin in the Gk. (παρθένον) conveys the same sense that our English word conveys.

A young girl who has not had any sexual relations.

Also, she is ready for marriage.

And we can see that this virgin was ready for marriage since she was pledged for marriage.

It’s similar to our idea of being engaged, but way more serious.

Breaking up an engagement is easier now than it was back then.

Breaking up an engagement back then was similar to getting a divorce—it was very serious.

This virgin was engaged to Joseph, who was a descendant of David.

David was a king, and God had promised David that he would have a son who would have an eternal kingdom. (Yes, the kingdom theme has reappeared).

We will see the significance of this in a few verses.

Then, we see the name of the virgin.

Her name was Mary.

In Gk., the original language, it’s Μαριάμ, which is translated into Mary and it could also be translated into Miriam, a very common Jewish name (after the name of Moses’ sister). The name means “exalted one”

Luke 1:28

The angel said to Mary, “Greetings, you who are highly favored… Greetings, favored one.”

he said, favored one, or you who are highly favored. In the Gk. it’s just one word: χαριτόω

Mary was χαριτόω - highly favored.

Some have taken the liberty to believe that she was highly favored because of her character

but as the word suggests, esp. in passages like Eph. 1:6, Mary was highly favored because of what God had decided to do.

God had freely, graciously, generously chosen her—thus she is favored. Because God has chosen her to be the mother of the Messiah, she is χαριτόω—she is the favored one.

She was also favored because God was with her.

Luke 1:29

Mary heard this. And the first thing she thought about was: Who’s this person?

What is he saying to me?

What’s going on.

She was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of Greeting this might be.

I think we can probably relate.

If somebody randomly appeared and greeted us,

We wonder what type of greeting this was.

We might ask: What’s going on here?!

We might even feel fear.

And then the angel said one of the most common phrases of the Christmas story:

The angel said,

Do not be afraid.

I think that’s something we all need to hear.

Do not be afraid.

Mary had found favor, but she was afraid.

We have found favor, but we are afraid.

And I think we need to be reminded that we should not be afraid.

As God was with Mary, he is with us.

Luke 1:31

After telling Mary to not be afraid, the angel said one of the most strangest things:

To a virgin, he said that she will have a child soon.

Then, the angel said that she would call the son Jesus.

Back in the day, the father would be the one who names the child, but here the mom is going to name the child.

God is empowering the mom, and also, there is a sense that the son does not have an earthly father.

The mom was to name the son Jesus. Ἰησοῦν.

This comes from the Hb. name for Joshua (ישוע)

With the name Jesus, we should get the idea, that the Lord, God, saves us. That’s the meaning of the name.

Luke 1:32

And Jesus will be great.

The Gk. word for great is megas.

So he’s gonna be mega.

And he is going to be called the Son of the Most High.

Again, his father is not earthly: this Son comes from above.

And he will be the Son of God.

God will be his Father, and Jesus will be his son.

And this is part of the promise to king David concerning the kingdom, concerning David having a descendent who would be God’s Son—this promise is fulfilled.

And this son will have the throne of David.

The Bible portrays David’s throne as a good thing. David ruled faithfully. And now, the son of David, a descendant of David—father doesn’t mean biological father who married mom, it means like patriarch or head of family—this descendent would have David’s good throne and rule faithfully.

We’re getting kingdom themes again. I promise you that we’re done with the kingdom series, but as we saw in the series, the kingdom is everywhere.

Luke 1:33

And the angel added that Jesus would rule over Jacob.

Jacob’s descendants made up what was the people of Israel.

God had promised them a beautiful, eternal kingdom.

But the people of Israel, during Mary’s time, were under Roman occupation.

The promises of the kingdom seemed to be far-fetched to the Israelites.

But yet, the angel proclaimed that the forever kingdom is coming, and it’s coming through the son of Mary.

Luke 1:34

Mary’s in disbelief: How will this be?

Of course she would be in disbelief—who wouldn’t?

I think anyone would ask this question.

It’s really hard to believe that a virgin, someone who has not “known” a man, would conceive a son.

And then the son she is having is going to be the Son of God, the Messiah, the king who would bring the eternal kingdom.

Hard to believe.

This seems impossible.

Remember, this is to encourage Theophilus in his faith.

But I could just imagine him reading this and thinking this is nonsense.

And maybe we feel the same.

The angel answered Mary’s concern; he didn’t just brush it off.

The angel began to explain how it was possible. How, Mary, as a virgin, would conceive the Son of God.

Somehow the Spirit of God would be over Mary, and the power of the Most High would overshadow her.

I know this sounds weird, but according to the angel, this is what would happen.

After the Spirit and the power of God miraculously acted, Mary would bear the holy one—the Son of God.

Still, this sounds hard to believe.

So, the angel gave an example.

He referenced Elizabeth.

You could read her story a few verses back in Luke 1:5-25.

The angel gives a recap:

Elizabeth was Mary's relative, somebody whom Mary knew well.

Elizabeth was in her old age, unlikely to have a child.

And people even said that she was barren, unable to conceive a child.

But, now, she is six months pregnant.

See—God can do it!

God told Elizabeth that she would have a child, and now she is six months pregnant.

And now, the angel tells Mary,

no word from God will ever fail.

Other translations say, for nothing is impossible for God.

Maybe,

This is all hard to believe...

It’s hard enough to believe that we would make it out of debt. That God would help us get out of our dire situation.

That we start a church amid COVID

That we will grow and survive 2020

It’s hard enough believing all these things...

now imagine how hard it is to believe that through a virgin , God will send his king

Theophilus, as we do, as Mary did, would have a hard time believing this...

But look God has done the impossible.

God has given Elizabeth a son when she was old in age and was called barren.

I mean yes it’s hard to believe, but c’mon, God is the creator of heaven and earth.

He can make a way.

His words have power.

He speaks and it is.

He said let there be light and there was.

He told Elizabeth that she would have a child, and she did.

And now, God has told Mary, a virgin, that she would have a child.

Of course, he will do it, because nothing is impossible.

No word that God has said will ever fail.

If he said it, he will make a way.

And we know that he made a way for Mary.

2,000 years ago, God made a way: Mary had Jesus.

I am reminded of the words of Elevation worship:

Your promise still stands

Great is Your faithfulness, faithfulness

I'm still in Your hands

This is my confidence,

You've never failed

I've seen You move,

You move the mountains

And I believe,

I'll see You do it again

You made a way, where there was no way

God has made a way and continues to make a way.

And I pray we will be like Mary and say, let your words be so.

Let’s be our God’s servant, and serve. Let’s follow Mary’s great example of faith.

Let’s worship him and trust in him.