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The Good News is declared yet again…

³⁰ … 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.”

I love this part of the story. It speaks of how God’s Kingdom will NEVER end. I can’t imagine being in Mary’s shoes as she first hears about how her son will be Jesus, the SAVIOR OF THE WORLD.

As a parent, I look forward to what Wesley will be when he grows up; I can’t imagine what he will be. I know he’ll do great! But Mary was told that her son would be God’s begotten son! Wow! Can you think how Mary would have felt?

But let’s look at the other side of the coin, our side. Because Mary was obedient, God chose her, and gave not just to Mary, but to ALL of us Jesus. God gave the world Jesus so that we could be saved. Without Him, we would still be helpless.

Now that we have Jesus, the burden is on us to help His Kingdom grow. Sure, His Kingdom will last forever, but not everyone will be a part of it. If you know somebody that’s not a part of His Kingdom today, it is our duty and honor to tell them TODAY because tomorrow we may not get the chance. Be obedient today – tell others about Jesus.

Since we completed the story of the promise of the birth of John the Baptist yesterday, today we begin the promise of the birth of Jesus:

²⁶ In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, ²⁷ to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. ²⁸ The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.” – Luke 1

Many of us recall from the Nativity Story movie, the scenes where this angel appears to Mary. I never really thought a lot about this specific scene, because it was “just a movie.” But, the whole story of Jesus’ birth, to include these events are not only historically true in nature, they are included in Scripture for a purpose.

We need to be reminded on occassions, that Scripture is profitable for teaching.

 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. – 2 Timothy 3:16-17

So what can we learn from the passage where the angel comes to Mary?  Scripture clearly states: “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.” I don’t know about you, but it would be great to hear those words come from an angel – don’t you think?  So, how do we go about it? 

Well, we might not have the opportunity to have an angel visit – but we can still live that life. It’s about our decisions, our choices, our obedience. Mary followed the Lord and submitted to His Will, and she received His favor. What can we change today to be more obedient to the Lord? What does He want us to do for Him?

After hearing the Angel promise him and Elizabeth a son… 

¹⁸ Zechariah asked the angel, “How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well along in years.” ¹⁹ The angel said to him, “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to tell you this good news. ²⁰ And now you will be silent and not able to speak until the day this happens, because you did not believe my words, which will come true at their appointed time.”

 ²¹ Meanwhile, the people were waiting for Zechariah and wondering why he stayed so long in the temple. ²² When he came out, he could not speak to them. They realized he had seen a vision in the temple, for he kept making signs to them but remained unable to speak. – Luke 1

Unfortunately, Zechariah was in a position that allowed his human understanding to limit his understanding of who God is and what God can do. Zechariah was focused on the physical limitations that we ”know” from science. But that is a real problem for us as humans.  Our minds try to limit our intellectual knowledge to what we [think we] know from science. 

While I trust science in many matters, we all have to be cautious when applying physical science to the world of spiritual matters. God can overcome and DOES overcome science. Think of any miracle that you may have personally witnessed. How does science explain it?  It probably doesn’t – that’s why we call them miracles. Jesus performed many while here on earth, but God continues to perform miracles through the Holy Spirit.

When you have the opportunity and hear from God, trust Him. Zechariah limited his belief and was stricken by muteness until his son John was born. Don’t allow your minds to be limited by science – TRUST GOD. 

Need a daily reminder?  Look at our money “In God We Trust” – are you exercising that thought in your daily living? Or are you exercising trust in science which changes everyday with ”new” technology and understanding of nature?

As we continue the Christmas story, an interesting development occurs:

¹⁴ [John the Baptist] will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth, ¹⁵ for he will be great in the sight of the Lord…. he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even before he is born. ¹⁶ He will bring back many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God. ¹⁷ And he will…turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”

The angel tells Zechariah that his baby will lead people to Christ. Wow – isn’t that a wonderful thing to be known by? I can’t imagine knowing what the future holds for my child, but to know (as Zechariah did) that your baby will grow up to be obedient to the Lord and to lead others to Christ has to be a comforting feeling.

Within this passage we are also told that people are “made ready for the Lord” through gaining wisdom. People aren’t naturally prepared to meet their maker. We don’t possess the kind of knowledge that we need when we are born to properly be obedient. In fact, many would say that we are born with an innately evil sense. Experts believe that humans are selfish without being taught this trait. Therefore, we need to prepare our hearts and minds for a different way of thinking. We must avoid sin and selfish behavior and become righteous.

Jesus was the only sinless human to live on earth and gave us a perfect example by which to follow. I know we can’t be perfect in all things, but this reminds me of an old anecdote. “How do you eat an elephant?”  The answer: “one bite at a time!”

My challenge to each of us today is to find one thing to improve in our lives to make us more Christ-like.  Once we accomplish this improvement in our life we can take another bite.  What will you do differently today for God? By doing this we can start preparing ourselves for the Lord.

 ⁸ Once when Zechariah’s division was on duty and he was serving as priest before God, ⁹ he was chosen by lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, to go into the temple of the Lord and burn incense. ¹⁰ And when the time for the burning of incense came, all the assembled worshipers were praying outside.

I stopped at this point, because I feel there is something we can learn from this brief part of the Christmas story.  It is obedience. Although Zechariah was chosen by chance to be the priest to offer incense at the altar, we find in the following passage that he quickly obeyed and entered the sanctuary to burn the incense as instructed. He didn’t doubt, he didn’t pause – he immediately obeyed.

I wonder how many times that we know “what Jesus would [have us] do,” but are slow in obedience or flatly reject His call.  What would Jesus do?  He would obey. He proved that through His life and death here on earth. He gave His life so that we could have life: the ultimate obedience – giving one’s life for another. 

Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends – John 15:13