Glory Promised – Luke 1 : 26-38

We are beginning a 4-week Advent series on the occasion of Christmas. Speaking about Christmas a few things to clarify, 25th Dec is certainly not the day when Jesus was born, the exact date we don’t know. We celebrate Christmas because it gives us an opportunity to remind and share the Gospel to our hearts first and then to others.

Importance of the Gospel

The Gospel is the most essential truth that our hearts need to hear again and again. Of all the things we expect from the church, expect for them to regularly point our hearts to the Gospel, to Christ. We live in a world where people are running after new age philosophies, teachings and experience to entertain themselves and also to find joy and hope for themselves, but as a believer we ought to understand that its only the Gospel that gives us the right perspective and points out hearts to long lasting joy, happiness and fulfillment.

The Advent Series

We have named our Advent series “God’s Glory Revealed”, where ‘Glory’ in this context means ‘the exalted status of God in Christ’ or ‘the divine radiance and presence of God revealed in and through Christ Jesus’. In this series we will explore the purpose and significance of God’s glory revealed in and through his son Jesus’
The title of todays sermon is “Glory Promised”, and we are looking at the passage Luke 1:26-38.

Why promise? – Because if all began with a promise. The passage from Luke 1:26-38 is the initiation of that promise, also known as the Annunciation story.

In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth, he created man in his own image and likeness. He created man to have fellowship with him, but under his rule and dominion, walking in obedience to his statues. But man disobeyed God and rebelled against him, he ate the forbidden fruit and was alienated from God.

It was the serpent who tempted Eve to ate the forbidden fruit. In Genesis 3:15 God says to the serpant “I will put enmity between your offspring and hers, and between your offspring and hers; he (referring to Jesu) will crush your head, and you will strike his heel” This is where the first promise appears in the Bible mentioning about Jesus.

Around 700 BC, in Isaiah 7:14, God speaks through prophet Isiah to king Ahaz who was facing a political tension, reassuring to Ahaz that God is with them, says “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign, Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Immanuel (which means God with you)” In Micah 5:2, the promise is comes with some more clarity –

Micah 5:2 (ESV):
“But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah,
who are too little to be among the clans of Judah,
from you shall come forth for me
one who is to be ruler in Israel,
whose coming forth is from of old,
from ancient days.”

Luke 1:26-38 describes to us the moment when God, in his great wisdom executes his promise, that will change the course of mankind forever.

A divine intervention

Luke 1:26-38 describes God divine intervention when he send the angel Gabriel to a virgin women called Mary, an ordinary women who finds favor in the sight of God.

The word ‘favor’ means ‘approval’ or ‘an act of kindness’. It was an act of kindness
shown by God that reached out to Mary, not because she was great or holy. She was just an ordinary person like us.

Mary’s response

In response to God’s intervention, we see Mary obedient response, she says “Behold I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word”
Today we will stop right here, and will continue with the rest of Jesus’s birth story in the
coming weeks.

What I want us to focus from his passage are two things –

1. God’s divine intervention in our lives
2. Our response to God’s interventions

God’s divine intervention in our lives

What if I told you that this very moment we are in is orchestrated by God. Though it might look a bit chaotic for some – The fact is He planned this day and moment well in advance. This sermon is the exact message he wants you to hear (or read) just as
much as he orchestrates every other moments in our lives – the good, the bad, the ugly, the happy ones etc

Psalms 115:3, Divid writes, “Our God is in the heavens, he does all that he pleases”

Our moments may not always look divine as it was for Mary but it still an divine intervention, an act of kindness he is showing towards us. Why? – To give us another opportunity to hear, to know and understand the truth, where he is revealing his great love for us – convicting us of our sins and reassuring his love and presence, giving us another opportunity to search our hears, repent of our present sins and put our faith
back in Jesus and to to trust Him for all things. It’s just like the moment described in Revelation 3:20 where Jesus says “Behind, I stand
at the door and know. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me”
What does it mean to open our hearts to Jesus?

Our response

Our Response – Just like Mary he is expecting is to respond saying “Behold I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word”

It may seem impossible for your to chance or experience any kind of transformation in your lives but the word says “there is nothing impossible for the Lord”

Ponder on these two verses as we conclude –

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. – John 3:16 (ESV)

Romans 10:9 (ESV):

“Because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”

Conclusion:
If you believe today, this very moment is a divine intervention of God in your lives, I want to encourage to respond like how Mary did.

May God bless you