The Lord is With You!

Intro:

It is the 4th week of Advent and we have been looking at what Christmas is really about according to Old Testament Prophecies and and the Psalms. Along the way we have seen that a special birth was foretold hundreds of years before it occurred. What we have seen is that the Person who was to be born is no ordinary person with an ordinary status, but that He is the very messenger of God, the one who establishes covenant with the people of God according to Malachi 3, that He is the ultimate King according to Psalm 2 who is the embodiment of the perfect will of God, and that He is given as the only one through whom God will offer his love and protection to Israel and all the nations of the world according to the prophecy of Isaiah 9. Today we want cross into New Testament fulfilment to take a closer look at His person, even His name, and to discover what the physician Luke wrote about the climactic arrival of this special person in Luke 1:26-38 as we think on the theme “The Lord is with you”

I. An Angelic Appearance (vs. 26-30)

A. In the sixth month the angel Gabriel appeared

In Nazareth in Galilee (remember Isaiah 9:1-2)

To a betrothed virgin (cf. Deut 22:23-30)

Of the house of David

Mat 1:1-17 back to Abraham through Solomon

Luke 3:23-38 back to Adam through Nathan)

Mary

B. Gabriel greets Mary as “O favored one, the Lord is with you!”

C. Mary is troubled at the greeting

D. Gabriel tells her not to be afraid because she has found God’s favor. (v. 30)

II. The Birth Announcement. (vs. 31-33)

You will conceive and bear a son.

Your son’s name will be Jesus.

Your son will be great.

Your son will be called the Son of the Most High.

You son will receive the throne of his father David.

Your son will reign over the house of Jacob forever.

Your son’s kingdom will have no end.

III. One Question…How? (vs. 34)

IV. Gabriel’s Answer (vs. 35-36)

A. God (v. 35)

Holy Spirit

Most Hight

Son of God

B. Elizabeth too! (vs. 36)

C. Nothing is impossible with God! (v. 37)

V. Mary’s response (v. 38)

Belief in what God is doing

Submission to the will of God