Totally Dependent on God

Tonight we are here to celebrate the birth of our Savior. A birth that has been celebrated for centuries. A birth that brought about a new life and a new Kingdom. The way Jesus came was unexpected and revolutionary. While a young virgin was minding her business an angel appeared to her and declared: “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.” 29 Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. 30 But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. 31 You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. 32 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, 33 and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.” Luke 1:28-33

Jesus was pronounced as king before he was ever conceived. But he did not come from a royal family, this was not how it was supposed to be. God chose this young girl to be the mother of His Son, and for the life of her, Mary couldn’t understand why. In her modesty she didn’t understand why the angel would greet her in such exalted terms.

God was about to bring forth the long awaited Messiah and He chose a simple young girl to carry the world’s most precious gift. And Jesus, the King of kings, would have to rely on her to meet His every need as He grew into His position. It’s hard for us to comprehend why the Son of God would ever put Himself into a position of complete dependence. He formed the universe, but needed Mary to bathe Him.

He humbled Himself into the position of a lowly servant,

“Who, being in very nature God,

did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;

7 rather, he made himself nothing

by taking the very nature of a servant,

being made in human likeness.

8 And being found in appearance as a man,

he humbled himself

by becoming obedient to death—

even death on a cross!” Philippians 2:6-8

As Jesus grew, He ultimately humbled Himself to be fully dependent on God. Why would He need to do this? Why couldn’t he have come as a grown man, capable of saving the whole world by Himself?

He wanted to give us the perfect example of what it looked like to fully rely on God for every part of His life. This flies in the face of our current culture. A lie we often believe is that we should be independent. We shouldn’t need to rely on anyone but ourselves. But this is the antithesis of what it means to be a Christ follower. Some of our greatest regrets in life come from our prideful independence. Whenever we play king over our own kingdoms our decisions are based on what is best for us without taking into account how those decisions could negatively affect those we love.

But when we humble ourselves and seek God and His Kingdom, we will begin to see the supernatural acts of the King become our reality. After healing a disabled man on a Sabbath day, Jesus defended His actions by saying, “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. 20 For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, and he will show him even greater works than these, so that you will be amazed.”

Jesus did nothing on His own. All of the amazing things we read about in the Gospels were first God’s plan before Jesus made them people’s reality.

Jesus showed us through His birth, life, and death that relying on God establishes His Kingdom here on earth. And His Kingdom doesn’t resemble any other kingdom. Whereas other kings are born into extravagant wealth, nobility, and privilege. Jesus was born into poverty, obscurity and even rejection.

It all seems so backwards. The way Jesus came into this world doesn’t seem right to us. It isn’t logical. But it is exactly how God planned it. He did it so we’d have a King who we could relate to. One who understands our daily struggles. One who would show us that even in times of uncertainty, we know Who we can depend on.

2020 has taught us that we are completely dependent on God. We are not guaranteed tomorrow.