Sunday Service

Introduction

Attention Getter: Christmas Theme: Joy to the World! We are going to look at 4 different Christmas themes that encourage us to have Joy. God has brought Joy to the World. These themes are just four places that we can find hope, rest, restoration, healing, comfort, and joy.

Introduce Topic: Joy Came to the World because God is in Control!

Scripture: Turn with me to Luke 1:26-33

Background:

Spence-Jones, “The annunciation of the Virgin Mary is peculiar to this Gospel of St. Luke.

Sproul, “How did Luke know of Mary’s reaction to Gabriel’s words? Where did he get his information? Luke got his information about these events from the lips of Mary herself.

Challenge Audience: In a world that seems out of control, we can take comfort that God is in Control of all things. It is this God who keeps the earth spinning in the perfect distance from the sun that life can exist. It is this God who allows your heart to stay in rythume. He keeps the stars in the sky. He controls the tides. He controls the hearts of kings.

God’s Gracious Control (Luke 1:26-29)

A. God was Gracious to the City of Nazareth (26)

Luke 1:26 In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth,

Morris, “Nazareth is called a city, perhaps because Greek has no word for a ‘town’ and the alternative is ‘village’.

Spence-Jones, “The meaning of the name Nazareth has been the subject of much learned controversy. The more usually adopted derivation refers the word to נצר, “a shoot or branch,”

Burckhardt, the traveller, believes the name was originally used on account of the numerous shrubs which cover the ground in this locality.

Application: There was nothing special about Nazareth. God was just being gracious to do his work in a town of little significance.

B. God was Gracious to the House of David (27)

27 to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary. (See Luke 1:32)

God made a promise to King David over 1,000 years ago.

2 Samuel 7:16 And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever.’ ”

Psalm 89:27 And I will make him the firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth. 28 My steadfast love I will keep for him forever, and my covenant will stand firm for him. 29 I will establish his offspring forever and his throne as the days of the heavens.

This virgin was of the house of David and Joseph, she was betrothed to, was also of the house of David.

Morris, “Betrothed, a state much more binding among the Jews of that day than is an engagement with us. It was a solemn undertaking to marry, so that divorce was necessary to break it.

Osborne, “The betrothed girl legally belonged to her husband but would not move in with him until the wedding ceremony about a year later.

Application: God is graciously keeping his promise to David.

C. The Promise of the Prophets (28)

28 And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” (KJV: “Blessed are you among women”). 29 But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be.

Virgin Prophecy!

Osborne, “By mentioning parthenos (virgin) twice before naming her, Luke prepares for the unprecedented nature of the virgin birth.

Isaiah 7:14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.

God is with you!

Osborne, “The Lord is with you” promises God’s continuous presence in her life.

This is a special promise, paralleling the angel’s greeting to Gideon, “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior” (Judg 6:12).

Osborne, “God’s gracious choice of individuals is found often (Abraham - Gen 18:3; Gideon - Judg 6:17; Hannah - 1 Sam 1:18), and she needs to realize how special she is.

Osborne, “To hear language that places her in exalted company with the heroes of the Old Testament would perplex anyone.

Application: Fear of God’s Control and Will

30 And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.

Sometimes we are uneasy about God’s control of our lives.

Mary is uneasy with the gracious words of the angel.

Osborne, “In every sense she could be called the most favored woman in all of history, for she has been chosen to bear the Messiah. It is impossible to be more special than that.

Osborne, “Gabriel is assuring her that God is thoroughly pleased with her. She feels quite unworthy, but God wants her to know his special grace and mercy in her life.

Morris, “It is, of course, a complete misunderstanding to translate ‘Hail Mary, full of grace’, and understand the words to mean that Mary would be a source of grace to other people. Gabriel is saying simply that God’s favour rests on her. He goes on to explain that she will conceive and bear a son.

The World hates the idea that God is in Control because it means that they are not.

God’s control is gracious.

God’s Good Control (Luke 1:30-33)

Jesus’ Reign of Deliverance (31)

31 And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus.

Osborne, “Once more (1:13) the child’s name is a heavenly decision, and he is to be called Jesus.

The name Jesus is the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew Yehoshua/Yeshua, which means “Yahweh saves.” “The Salvation of Jehovah.”

Since in the ancient world the names given children reflected the parental hopes for the child, this shows God’s messianic intentions for the child.

Jesus Reign is Divine, more than human. (32a)

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

Morris, “Gabriel proceeds to say that Jesus will be great, a word he had applied to John (15), but now uses with a fuller meaning, for Jesus will be called the Son of the Most High.

Osborne, “the Son of the Most High,” an exalted form of “Son of God.”

Osborne, “As with “Son of God” there are also overtones of divinity. He is Messiah yet more than Messiah.

Isaiah 9:6 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.

Barnes, “By his being great is meant he shall be distinguished or illustrious; great in power, in wisdom, in dominion, on earth and in heaven.

Lange, “Shall be called;—i.e., not only shall be, but shall one day be publicly recognized as what He really is.

Spence-Jones, “This title, given by the angel to the yet unborn child, was the one given to the Redeemer by the evil spirit in the case of the poor possessed (see Mark 5:7).

Mark 5:7 And crying out with a loud voice, he said, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I adjure you by God, do not torment me.”

Philippians 2:9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Jesus Reign is Faithful (32b)

And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David,

Osborne, “the Davidic covenant and pointing to his messianic reign as king (2 Sam 7:13–16; Pss 2:7; 89:27–29). Luke will stress this house/throne-of-David imagery (1:69; 2:4, 11)

Barnes, “The throne. The kingdom; or shall appoint him as the lineal successor of David in the kingdom.

Barnes, “The promise to David was, that there should not fail a man to sit on his throne, or that his throne should be perpetual (1 Ki. 2:4; 8:25; 9:5; 2 Ch. 6:16) (see Ps. 132:11).

Calvin, “In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen,” (Amos 9:11.)

Jesus Reign will be Everlasting (33)

33 and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”

Osborne, “Concluding the list is the summary promise that “his kingdom will never end,” especially fulfilling the promise of Daniel 7:14.

Daniel 7:14 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.

Barnes, “His is the only kingdom that shall never have an end; He the only King that shall never lay aside his diadem and robes, and that shall never die. He the only King that can defend us from all our enemies, sustain us in death, and reward us in eternity. O how important, then, to have an interest in his kingdom! and how unimportant, compared with his favour, is the favour of all earthly monarchs!

Application: Why are we still waiting? God’s Plan for Long-suffering!

Spence-Jones, “Twenty centuries have passed since Gabriel spoke of a restored throne of David, of a kingdom in Jacob to which should come no end.

Spence-Jones, “It has been well observed how St. Luke’s report of the angel’s words here could never have been a forgery of the second century. Would any writer in the second century, after the failure of Jesus among the Jews was well known, when the fall of Jerusalem had already taken place, have made an angel prophesy what is expressed here?

Lange, “The “troubles” of holy minds always end in comfort.—The members of Christ’s kingdom have in Him an everlasting King, an everlasting support, and an everlasting joy.

2 Peter 3:8 But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. 9 The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. 10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.