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For those that may have to work or miss out on Church on Sunday for whatever reason, I've included a sermon below that I preached last Sunday.
Several people who were at the service prayed to receive Christ after listening. Some were reaffirmations, others may have been new commitments to the Lord.
Whatever your situation is, believer or unbeliever, I think there is some encouragement here for you. If you'd like to hear an audio version you can find one at the website for Eaglebrook Church at: Eaglebrook Online Sermons
As I have noted in the past, what follows are my notes from preaching, so they are formatted for my own eyes during sermon delivery, rather than being formatted for a "reader" like yourself.
I don't read the sermons during the presentation. The manuscript style helps me think through things more clearly during development. I hope the result of having saved the material in this format will be helpful to you.
Merry Christmas, and if you as a result of reading this you make a commitment to the Lord, whether first time or a repeat, drop me a line. I'd love to know about it.
Gordon
Eaglebrook Church – Minocqua, WI Sunday December 18, 2005
Mary Did You Know? Luke 1:28-35
Introduction
When I was a boy I was like most kids who grew up in our small town. I thought about baseball and football and basketball and hunting and fishing and outdoor stuff almost all the time. And I thought about music and one day being a famous singer. Of course I wondered what I would actually end up doing, because I thought I might have to choose between a professional baseball or basketball or football career too.
It never occurs to you when you are younger that there are people who may be better than you are at something. You just think you can do stuff. And then in time you learn that there are people who are much better at things than you are and that you frankly aren’t all that talented! Its part of growing up!
While this sort of frivolous childhood thinking was going on, there was also another line of thought that was going through my head that I suspect was not unique: I wondered about life and what the meaning of life was and what life in the future would hold.
I remember being in the car with all five of us kids stacked in a station wagon on winter evenings about this time of year, driving along to destinations that I now can’t remember, looking out of the windows across the Iowa farm fields near our home, seeing the lights of farm houses off in the distance.
As they sparkled against the black sky, and as I saw the stars out beyond the farm houses above the horizon, I remember wondering:
I wonder what is out there in space. Is there really a God? What is he like? I wonder what happens after you die? I wonder what the future holds?
On and on my thought process would go, wondering, thinking, considering, trying to analyze and think my way through things I didn’t know the answer to as a boy.
Mary Did You Know?
As I was thinking about this morning’s sermon a week ago, I was reminded of the words to a song that capture a sense of this same kind of wondering about one aspect of the birth of Christ. That song is titled, "What Did Mary Know?"
We know that Mary understood that her son was to be the Messiah, but what else did she understand about her son?
Mary, did you know, that your baby boy would some day walk on water?
Mary, did you know, that your baby boy would save our sons and daughters?
Did you know that your baby boy has come to make you new?
This child that you've delivered, will soon deliver you.
Mary, did you know, your baby boy will give sight to a blind man?
Mary, did you know, that your baby boy will calm a storm with His hand?
Did you know that your baby boy has walked where angels trod?
When you've kissed your little baby, then you've kissed the face of God.
Mary, did you know?
Mary, did you know?
The blind will see, the deaf will hear, the dead will live again.
The lame will leap, the dumb will speak the praises of the Lamb.
Mary, did you know, that your baby boy is Lord of all creation?
Mary, did you know, that your baby boy will one day rule the nations?
Did you know that your baby boy was heaven's perfect lamb?
This sleeping child you're holding is the great "I am".
Mary did you know?
Luke 1:28-35 (NASB)
28 And coming in, (the angel) he said to her, "Hail, favored one! The Lord is with you." 29 But she was greatly troubled at this statement, and kept pondering what kind of salutation this might be.
30 And the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary; for you have found favor with God. 31 And behold, you will conceive in your womb, and bear a son, and you shall name Him Jesus. 32 He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David; 33 and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever; and His kingdom will have no end."
34 And Mary said to the angel, "How can this be, since I am a virgin?" 35 And the angel answered and said to her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason the holy offspring shall be called the Son of God."
What did Mary know? She pondered the salutation in her heart. She asked a question: How will this happen since I am virgin? She was curious and interested at the amazing news she had heard.
The Promised Messiah
What we know she did know from the meeting with the angel must have made her so excited that she could hardly contain herself because Mary for a moment was a representative really of all of Israel.
Israel for centuries had lived in extraordinary faith that God would deliver as he promised, a Messiah. And while it is true that the largest majority of the people of Israel rejected the idea that Jesus was the fulfillment of the promise of the Messiah, even today, those who are committed Jews live in steadfast faith that Messiah will come. There is great trust there in the Lord and there is great wonder as well.
They wondered in that day as they wonder yet today, "When the Messiah does come, how will it happen? What will Messiah be like? What all will he do?"
There in a small town called Nazareth, just a short 65 miles from Jerusalem, about the distance from here to Wausau, was a woman named Mary who suddenly had learned how the promise of Messiah’s coming would unfold—things that all Israel had wondered about and had prayed about for centuries.
Here is how it would happen: Though she was a virgin she would bear a child, the child of the Holy Spirit. And his name...his name, this name that no one had known would be the name of the Messiah, to use the English rendering—his name would be Jesus. Jesus or Yeshua, which means: Jehovah is Salvation!
So this is how it would happen! So this is what all the prophecies had pointed to!
What was resident for a brief time in the mind and heart of Mary alone out of all the human race, information that no one else had ever known. David had not known, Abraham had not known nor had Moses known what Mary had learned from Gabriel that day. Solomon with all his wisdom had not known what this young simple woman from Nazareth knew.
How interesting that the first person to have this information was a woman.
How much like God to do something that flies in the face of convention. Men were the spiritual leaders. Men were the priests. Men were the warriors and so on, but the Lord sent an angel to speak first to a woman.
All of prophetic history, recorded almost exclusively by men, the stories of which focus mostly on men, yet here at this pinnacle moment for Israel when the wrapping paper of history is being lovingly removed from the package of prophetic truth, is a woman who is opening the present.
I loved that thought, not just from what would be a politically correct view in our society of how this shows God’s value of women, but of God’s love for all people. He shows no partiality.
Believer did you know how loved you are? Unbeliever did you know?
Did you know this baby boy would one day walk beside you?
Did you know that this baby boy would one day come to guide you?
People, did you know?
God chose some one from a small town. No power-broking religious family from Jerusalem where the Temple was. No priestly connections, since Mary was from the tribe of Judah, rather than the tribe of Levi. Humble family circumstances were Mary’s, until there was a quiet visitation from an angel announcing something that no one else had thought of in precisely this way.
Women of Israel hoped to one day be the mother of the Messiah, but the passage from Isaiah 7:14 regarding a virgin bearing a son, was some how missed. That the Messiah would be God in the flesh was also missed.
Now as Mary was in her room there in Nazareth, it was as if the curtain of history had been opened a crack, so that she could see behind it what was to come.
Luke 1:30-33 (NASB)
30 And the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary; for you have found favor with God. 31 "And behold, you will conceive in your womb, and bear a son, and you shall name Him Jesus. 32 He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David; 33 and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever; and His kingdom will have no end."
What Mary heard were astounding words on several levels. That she heard an angel speaking to her was remarkable enough, but she was hearing words from the angel that came as direct fulfillments of promises given to David back in 2 Samuel 7 where the Lord said to David through Nathan the prophet:
2 Samuel 7:12-17 (NASB)
12 "When your days are complete and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your descendant after you, who will come forth from you, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. 14 I will be a father to him and he will be a son to Me; when he commits iniquity, I will correct him with the rod of men and the strokes of the sons of men, 15 but My lovingkindness shall not depart from him, as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed from before you. 16 And your house and your kingdom shall endure before Me forever; your throne shall be established forever."
17 In accordance with all these words and all this vision, so Nathan spoke to David.
Jesus never committed sin or iniquity; he became sin for us, our sin piled on him and by his stripes we are healed.
Mary, did you know when the angel spoke that this was the prophecy that was being fulfilled? Did you know that words that had been spoken to David a thousand years before were being brought to life with God using you as a tool? Mary did you know? I suspect that she did on this point.
Believer did you know that these words of the Lord from Nathan the prophet some 3,000 years ago are part of your heritage?
The Messiah, the son of David has come. He was born in Bethlehem over 2000 years ago, the God of all the ages fulfilling the promise he had made, and he will fulfill all is other promises.
Israel Trip – "Looking at a living piece of history"
Denna and me are once again planning a trip to Israel. We’ll be going in February and taking some other folks from town here with us...a small group of us, joining up with a group from Texas.
I remember our very first trip there back in 1998 I believe it was. One of the highlights was standing on the top of Masada, 1100 feet above the Dead Sea, with the Dead Sea in sight, as our tour guide told us the terrible story of what had happened there. I would encourage you to read about Masada and what happened.
As she began her story, Susan our guide said, "You are looking at a living piece of history."
My split second mental response was not to fully understand what she meant. I suppose I thought she was talking about Masada, this rock enclave we were standing on, with its evidence of the battle that was fought there, both lost and won by the Jews.
But Susan pressed forward with her meaning quickly leaving me no time to be confused, when she said:
"You are looking at a daughter of Abraham. I am living piece of history."
I can’t tell you of the impact of those words as we stood there in Israel hearing the story of the heart of the Jewish people. It gives you chills to consider the import of her meaning.
God is faithful and has preserved his Chosen People. The sons and daughters of Abraham live and have carried their heritage to this age and to this day. God promised that it would be so. No other nation on the face of the earth in all of human recorded history has ever been displaced from their land and then returned after 2,000 years to once again possess it. Nation after nation has disappeared from their land, their names part of the past, not the present.
Not so with God’s children Israel.
1,000 years from a promise to David to the time of the fulfillment in the birth, life and death of Christ. And now it has been another 2,000 years since the time of Christ, and God’s Word is no less trustworthy. God has been faithful.
Believer did you know that you can fully trust God’s word and the promises in it? Believer did you know that when God says he will save you, he really means it? Believer did you know this baby boy fully became a man, to die a death on Calvary and be resurrected again?
Believer did you know?
Perspective on the shortness of life
It has been just over a year since my mother died and recently I have undergone a treadmill stress test to see how my ticker is working. Things turned out ok with the treadmill, but I was reminded again of the shortness of life.
One of my co-workers and I have been working on a project for the company that required us to go to Wausau on several occasions and we have had some time in the car to talk about fishing and hunting and life and other things besides the project as he and I talked. The other day he spoke of the loss of his own mother not so long ago and how it got him to thinking. He is 62, and he said:
"You know in a good long life a person might get to see 80 springs. That’s not very many. We tend to think of spring and summer and winter and fall as always being there, but they won’t be for us. We only have so many, and I have only so many of those springs left."
What a great perspective on life that was for me to hear from this gentleman. We only have so many springs left.
As I thought about that and the fact that one day our own time will come to leave this earth, I was reminded of the importance of the promises of God. How easy it is to tell others of how trustworthy these promises are, and yet how difficult it can be for us ourselves.
Believer did you know that you can trust God’s word?
Believer did you know that God’s word is faithful and that he himself is faithful and true?
I remember talking with Mom just last year about this as she was dying from a form of leukemia. We knew her time was short and so did she. She said that she wasn’t afraid to go, but she said that there was so much to her that was a mystery.
Oh how I understand what she was driving at! So much we don’t know. So much we don’t understand.
But so much to count on. So much to be certain of.
God’s word, no matter how much time passes, will be fulfilled. Not one word will fall to the ground.
Promises Delivered Through Abraham
Though the 1,000 years is remarkable between the promise given to David and the birth of Christ it was long before David’s time that another version of the same promise was given. Back in the days of Abraham 2,000 years before the time of Christ, a promised son, a boy named Isaac, was asked by God of Abraham to be given up, to be sacrificed.
Abraham, did you know your baby boy would be father to a nation?Abraham did you know?
Abraham, did you know your baby boy, son of promise and expectation,
Would portray the sacrifice of Christ, the message of salvation?
Did you know your baby boy would speak down through the ages?
Did you know that hearts would be moved as they turned the pages,
Of Isaacs life as it revealed to them the Rock of all the Ages.
Abraham did you know when God sent you to Mt. Moriah to sacrifice your son, that God himself would intervene and prevent you from doing so, and this was only a test to see if you truly feared God and would obey him? Abraham did you know?
So much Abraham did not know about what would happen, and so much that he did know by faith.
He trusted that if God had asked him to sacrifice his son and if God had promised that through his son he would be the father of many nations, that God must be planning on resurrecting Isaac after the sacrifice.
It never occurred to Abraham that God might not be telling the truth or that God’s word would not come true! How much we need that reassurance when we go through our own deep waters. And how difficult it is to trust.
One of the key messages of Christmas, among the wonderful messages that are part of the story of the birth of Christ, is the message that God’s word can be counted on. He will keep his promises.
Believer you know that, but do you really know that?
Believer do you know that down deep in your soul that you can trust God? No matter how deep the waters you are going through or the fires of trial you are facing, God’s word, God’s promises are trustworthy. Believer do you know?
Unbeliever, do you know that?
Do you know that God’s word will be fulfilled? Do you know that if you trust Christ as your Lord and Savior, that no matter what you have done it will be forgiven? Did you know that God will wash away your sins and mark you as his own, preparing a place for you in heaven? That is his promise to you.
But did you also know that if you refuse his offer of forgiveness through Christ that his word is just as certain that there is no other hope for you?
Jesus Christ is the only way to heaven. There is no other provision for the forgiveness of sins. As surely as it is true that Christ was born according to the promises that came 1,000 and 2,000 years before his birth, in the years and ages to come whenever it may be that God chooses to return to earth to finalize things before eternity begins, there will be a judgment day.
It will be a day when all accounts will be settled. A day when questions are asked and answers will be given. One of the questions in so many words that will be asked, will be:
"Have you said yes to my offer of forgiveness through Christ?"
The answer you need to be able to honestly give if you are going to spend eternity with the Lord is:
"Yes, I repented of my sin and put my trust in Christ and Christ alone for salvation."
If you haven’t done that I hope you will do so today.
And for those who have, my hope is that today will be a day of peaceful reflection on goodness and trustworthiness of God.
"Mary did you know your baby boy would save our sons and daughters?"
Yes she knew and we know. And we are so grateful.
If you haven’t received Christ into your life, today would be a good day.
Here's a prayer that will help you do so. Pray this with honesty and heaven is yours:
"Heavenly Father I admit today that I am a sinner in need of a Savior. Today I turn away from my sin and turn to you, asking that you forgive my sins through Jesus Christ. I put my trust in Jesus as my Savior, accepting your offer of allowing Christ's death on the Cross to be my payment for sin, and his resurrection from the dead to be my guarantee of eternal life with you.
I offer you nothing in payment for my sin except what Christ did for me on the Cross; no good works on my part, no merit on my part, only what Christ did can wash away my sin. I ask that you grant me eternal life as you have promised, and fill me with your Holy Spirit, making me a new person, born spiritually into the family of God.
I pray this in Jesus name."
(Friend, if you honestly and sincerely prayed that prayer to the Lord, you are on your way to heaven. Drop me a line if you did, I'd love to tell you how to take the next steps in your new life with the Lord. Gordon)
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