December 7, 2008 -- Advent
PAYING ATTENTION

Little Ole was sitting at the kitchen table doing his school homework. He had a puzzled look on his face as he considered the assignment that was due--writing an essay about his origin. He turned to question his mother. "Mama, where did Grandma come from?" he asked.
"The stork brought her," answered mama Lena.
"And where did you come from?" asked Little Ole.
"The stork brought me," his mother answered.
"And where did I come from?" Little Ole inquired. "Well, son, the stork brought you, too," mama Lena replied.
With a scowl on his face, Little Ole picked up his pencil, turned to his school tablet, and began writing his essay: "There have been no natural births in our family for three generations."

Speaking of unnatural births, we are going to take a close look at the most unnatural, most amazing birth of all time. The announcement was made by an angel:
Luke 1:26-56
26 In the sixth month of Elizabeth's pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a village in Galilee,27 to a virgin named Mary. She was engaged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of King David.28 Gabriel appeared to her and said, "Greetings, favored woman! The Lord is with you!*"
29 Confused and disturbed, Mary tried to think what the angel could mean.30 "Don't be afraid, Mary," the angel told her, "for you have found favor with God!31 You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus.32 He will be very great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David.33 And he will reign over Israel* forever; his Kingdom will never end!"
34 Mary asked the angel, "But how can this happen? I am a virgin."
35 The angel replied, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the baby to be born will be holy, and he will be called the Son of God.36 What's more, your relative Elizabeth has become pregnant in her old age! People used to say she was barren, but she has conceived a son and is now in her sixth month.37 For nothing is impossible with God.*"
38 Mary responded, "I am the Lord's servant. May everything you have said about me come true." And then the angel left her.
39 A few days later Mary hurried to the hill country of Judea, to the town40 where Zechariah lived. She entered the house and greeted Elizabeth.41 At the sound of Mary's greeting, Elizabeth's child leaped within her, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.
42 Elizabeth gave a glad cry and exclaimed to Mary, "God has blessed you above all women, and your child is blessed.43 Why am I so honored, that the mother of my Lord should visit me?44 When I heard your greeting, the baby in my womb jumped for joy.45 You are blessed because you believed that the Lord would do what he said."
46 Mary responded,

"Oh, how my soul praises the Lord.
47 How my spirit rejoices in God my Savior!
48 For he took notice of his lowly servant girl,
and from now on all generations will call me blessed.
49 For the Mighty One is holy,
and he has done great things for me.
50 He shows mercy from generation to generation
to all who fear him.
51 His mighty arm has done tremendous things!
He has scattered the proud and haughty ones.
52 He has brought down princes from their thrones
and exalted the humble.
53 He has filled the hungry with good things
and sent the rich away with empty hands.
54 He has helped his servant Israel
and remembered to be merciful.
55 For he made this promise to our ancestors,
to Abraham and his children forever."

56 Mary stayed with Elizabeth about three months and then went back to her own home.

This passage of scripture leads me to ask 3 questions. I’ll call them the questions of Christmas.
1. Are there really angels? If so, what is their role?
The Bible is full of angels. Angel or angels are mentioned 304 times!
We don't know whether every angel carries out the same tasks, or whether some of them specialize in certain areas. The Bible does speak about classes of angelic beings like cherubim (Ezekiel 1) and seraphim (Isaiah 6). We also know the names of two notable angels: Michael (Daniel 10:13; Jude 9) and Gabriel (Daniel 9:21; Luke 1:19,26).
The unnamed angels who appear most often in Scripture carry out a variety of tasks—all designed to serve God…
 Worship and praise - This is the main activity portrayed in heaven (Isaiah 6:1-3; Revelation 4-5).

 Revealing - They serve as messengers to communicate God's will to men. They helped reveal the law to Moses (Acts 7:52-53), and served as the carriers of much of the material in Daniel, and Revelation.

 Guiding - Angels gave instructions to Joseph about the birth of Jesus (Matthew 1-2), to the women at the tomb, to Philip (Acts 8:26), and to Cornelius (Acts 10:1-8).

 Providing - God has used angels to provide physical needs such as food for Hagar (Genesis 21:17-20), Elijah (1 Kings 19:6), and Christ after His temptation (Matthew 4:11).
 Protecting - Keeping God's people out of physical danger, as in the cases of Daniel and the lions, and his three friends in the fiery furnace (Daniel 3 and 6).
 Delivering - Getting God's people out of danger once they're in it. Angels released the apostles from prison in Acts 5, and repeated the process for Peter in Acts 12.
 Strengthening and encouraging - Angels strengthened Jesus after His temptation (Matt 4:11), encouraged the apostles to keep preaching after releasing them from prison (Acts 5:19-20), and told Paul that everyone on his ship would survive the impending shipwreck (Acts 27:23-25).
 Answering prayer - God often uses angels as His means of answering the prayers of His people (Daniel 9:20-24; 10:10-12; Acts 12:1-17).
 Caring for believers at the moment of death - In the story of Lazarus and the rich man, we read that angels carried the spirit of Lazarus to “Abraham's bosom” when he died (Luke 16:22). Author: Dr. John Bechtle.

The book of Hebrews mentions that angels are ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation (Hebrews 1:14). They are not meant to be prayed to or worshiped. Any time that worship is even remotely attempted, angels are the first to dispel such notions. They draw glory to God – never to self.

Angelic activity is not reserved just for Bible times. There is story after story - throughout history - right up to the present of people experiencing angelic visitations – here in the US and around the world. Like the doctor in Philadelphia who was awakened by a persistent knock at the door in the middle of the night to help a lady in desperate need. The child that came to get him was most convincing. He dressed, followed her, and found the lady in her home desperately sick with pneumonia. The Dr. assumed that the child was the sick lady’s daughter and complimented her on her daughter’s courage. The problem was, the sick lady did not have a daughter! The girl was not ever seen again (Hewett).

Then there was John Paton, a missionary in the New Hebrides Islands. One night hostile natives surrounded the mission station, intent on burning out the Patons and killing them. Paton and his wife prayed during that terror-filled night that God would deliver them. When daylight came they were amazed to see their attackers leave. A year later, the chief of the tribe was converted to Christ. Remembering what had happened, Paton asked the chief what had kept him from burning down the house and killing them. The chief replied in surprise, "Who were all those men with you there?" Paton knew no men were present--but the chief said he was afraid to attack because he had seen hundreds of big men in shining garments with drawn swords circling the mission station. Today in the Word, MBI, October, 1991, p. 18.
How about the pastor who was in Mexico on a preaching mission? While he was returning, his van developed mechanical problems. After jacking up the van, the pastor crawled underneath to check out the problem. The jack collapsed, and suddenly the pastor was struggling for his life. His traveling companions quickly grabbed the bumper to lift the van. They couldn’t even budge it. The pastor cried out, “Jesus, Jesus.” Within a few seconds, a young looking Mexican came running toward them. He was thin and small in stature. He was smiling. When he reached the van, he grabbed the van and lifted it. The others joined in, and the van lifted like a feather. The pastor was freed. The visitor lowered the van, waved to them and ran off in the direction from which he had come. Know one knew who eh was or where he had come from (Hewett).

I am certain that some of you may have had such a visitation – maybe so amazing that you have not told a soul. The only way that your story makes since is from the perspective of an angelic presence.

This leads me to ask a second question; it comes right out of this passage.
2. Does God play favorites?
Look at what the Gabriel said to Mary: “Greetings, favored woman! The Lord is with you.” It would seem that Mary was shown favoritism.

A similar construction of words is used in Ephesians 1:6 – the only other place in the New Testament where the same verb is used. The grace in view here is clearly bestowed upon all believers without any merit of their own. So, God has shown His favor upon Mary and all who call upon God as their savior.

What about those who are sick and no one comes to their rescue? What about those who are threatened and not protected? What about those who are stuck and not freed? Is this fare? Let’s take this apart for a moment. First, there are many, many times that we have been rescued, protected and freed – we just were not aware of it at the time. One of the great events in heaven will be the many angelic conversations that point out the activity of an angel totally unaware to us at the time. God has interceded again and again and again.

Also, there are many, many times, that some of the great Christians arrived at the end of their earthly lives too early – people like songwriter and singer Keith Green who died in a plane crash at age 29 or missionary Jim Elliott who died at the hands of the Waodani tribesmen he was trying to reach for Christ – he was 28,

At the same time, God directs many lives to a different path – sometimes full of suffering – yet always to achieve a greater purpose – folks like Joni Erickson Tada - who at the age of 18 dived into a swimming pool and broke he neck – making her a quadriplegic. That was 41 years ago. Since then, she has authored over 30 books, traveled to 41 countries, recorded several music projects including 2 critically acclaimed albums and ministers to the disabled through her daily radio show “Joni and Friends.” Oh, did I mention that she is an accomplished painter? She paints while holding her paintbrush with her teeth.

Each of these examples mirrors the example of Mary, who said, “I am the Lord’s servant. May it be as you have said.”

This leads me to the last question of Christmas:
3. How did Mary respond in such a manner to Gabriel?
Mary in essence said, “Not my will by Thy will be done.” Sound familiar? Her Holy Spirit offspring would use the same words in the Garden of Gethsemane. Mary could have been more wrapped up in her plight. She could have said, “No – not me. I don’t want the shame of being an unwed mother. Besides, I’ll lose my Joseph.”

Instead, she faced certain shame and submitted to her God. We only need to look at the song that she wrote, called the Magnificat, to see where this character was formed. In her song of praise she cited 12 different Old Testament passages. This is evidence of her deep religious roots. She knew her Bible. It was her source of strength. She met her God there. That strength would surface at just the right time! Her song of praise also shows that she understood her role in the birth of God’s son. Her faith caused her to look ahead to the great plan of God. This plan took precedence over her own plan.

One more question: there is a song that asks, “How can we further His kingdom when we are so wrapped up in ours?” This is a question for each and every one of us to answer. When things don’t go our way – when we are taken advantage of – when we are made to suffer – when we are angry and impatient – we take away from furthering the kingdom of God. One only needs to look at society to see what we have become. How sad that someone would be trampled during the Christmas season just to get into the store before others. If that is not a sign of our self-centeredness, I’m not sure what is.
But there is good news: 30 "Don't be afraid, Mary," the angel told her, "for you have found favor with God!31 You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus.32 He will be very great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David.33 And he will reign over Israel* forever; his Kingdom will never end!"

The Son of God to be born from Mary was the perfect antidote to a world in chaos. Jesus’ surrogate father, Joseph, was from the line of King David. Jesus’ earthly mother was also from the line of Joseph but also connected to the line of Levi, from whom the priests are chosen. He would be a Priest King. This is just what we needed – one who can minister to us as priest and lead us as our King. God is so amazing!

This passage of scripture has one central theme: God’s salvation! The name Jesus means “Saves.” This salvation was achieved by the Holy Spirit. If God is God, a virgin birth is not only possible but absolutely necessary. The Creator can create life any way He chooses. It was the only way that God could walk among us – born of a woman yet God - experiencing life as we do yet without sin! That makes him the perfect sacrifice for sin. God is so incredible. Pay attention to this great love that Gabriel announced. It has changed countless lives. Has it changed yours?

Ken Ramsey shared this story from his childhood with his pastor’s recently: I shouldn’t have been playing ball in the house, but I was. One wrong bounce and it crashed into a decorative statue that my mom had received as a gift. She loved that little figurine. It occupied a prominent place on her dresser and now it occupied a prominent place on the floor - broken. Mom was due home shortly and it was decision time for her kid. I tried some super glue, but it just looked worse. I felt sick. I knew how much she prized that little statue. She would be really upset. The moment of truth arrived as she returned home. By this time I had worked up a really good knot in my stomach. I led her into the room and showed her the damage. When I saw the look on her face, I broke into tears. I couldn’t even verbalize an apology. The next thing I know, she is holding me. The comfort of her hug enfolded me. I dried the tears and said, “I’m so sorry mom, I know how much you loved it. It can’t be fixed. I tried.” “Yes” she said, “I love it a lot, but remember, son, I love you a whole lot more.” She could have pointed out my failure, my brokenness or my stupidity. She could have elaborated on how much I had messed up. But she didn’t. She chose to love. On that day (and many others I might add) my mom was wearing God goggles. She saw me through the eyes of love. Love can make all the difference in the world, if we choose it. I don’t know what happened to that broken statue. But I do know what happened to that broken boy. He was healed by love.

Love is the difference. Mary proved it. Jesus proved it. God proved it! Has such a love made a difference in you?