December 4th, 2024
The Upward Look, by Jon Forrest
Unexpected Glory
Mary and Joseph, The Lowly Elevated
Matthew 1:18-25 & Luke 1:26-56
Talk about unexpected. Who could have expected it? Mary was a young girl, unmarried, but pledged to be married to a carpenter named Joseph. The two lived in the dinky hillbilly community of Nazareth in northern Galilee where nothing ever happened of importance. What could make them think they should expect anything of historical value to happen to them? Carpenters were uneducated; on the low end of the economic scale. Mary and Joseph were among the lowliest of the lowly in society.
Out of nowhere, Gabriel, one of God’s most high angels, came and spoke to this teenage girl, Mary, with some amazing words.
Simply the appearance of this great celestial being, even speaking to Mary had to be one of the most amazing moments in all history. One would think she would have been shocked and overwhelmed by the appearance of Gabriel, but the text says what troubled her were his words, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”
When a great powerful angel tells you that you are highly favored and that God is with you, you must wonder, what on earth is up? But, if Mary thought she had been given life shaking information up to now, she had no idea what life shaking news was, but Gabriel was about to give it.
“Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. 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, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.” Matthew 1:30-33
Talk about your unexpected encounters! This majestic celestial being tells a young virgin that she is going to have a baby. What? A baby?
Oh, but there’s more! The baby’s Father? He is only God Almighty! And, to top it off, she is to name him Jesus (meaning savior) and he will be a king, ruling over his kingdom forever!
"Ahem! Excuse me, Mr. Gabriel, but I think you’ve got the wrong chick here. If you haven’t noticed, I’m not rich! I’m not even popular! And, to top it off, I’m a VIRGIN and I’m not even married yet. This must be a case of mistaken identity."
Okay, she didn’t say it quite that way, but you know she must have thought it. What she actually said was…
“How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?” -Matthew 1:34
Gabriel went on to explain to her that the Holy Spirit would overshadow her and she would become pregnant with the Son of God. This terminology may sound strange to us, but the original Greek language here is the same as in Acts chapter 2 when it tells how the Holy Spirit filled the Apostles. He went on to tell her about how her relative, Elizabeth, who was too old to give birth and had been barren all her life, was already six months pregnant. He concluded with these words in verse 37, “For no word from God will ever fail.”
How would this simple Jewish country girl respond? She responded with humility, gratitude and, above all, submission to God’s will, “I am the Lord’s servant. May your word to me be fulfilled.”
After Mary turned up to be expecting the child, she was sent to stay with Elizabeth for a time. In the mean time Joseph was confused about what to do about the situation. He loved Mary deeply, but the woman to whom he was engaged had turned up pregnant and unmarried. In those days and in that small religious town, this was a major scandal. Our Matthew text tells us that Joseph had decided the loving and face saving thing to do would be to quietly break off his relationship to Mary, to divorce her privately. As far as Joseph was concerned he had been betrayed by an unfaithful woman. But God had another idea.
But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”
All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).
When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus. --Matthew 1:20-25
Joseph’s experience with an angel of the Lord was phenomenal, yet not quite as intimidating as Mary’s because his came through a dream. However, the angel was an effective communicator. It’s a good thing since the word Angel means messenger. We don’t know this from Scripture, but you can imagine how Mary might have pled with her husband to be, that he understand that this child was miraculously from God and that an angel had come to her with the explanation. Now he understood! It was all true. Mary had not been unfaithful to him. Therefore, Joseph became obedient and took Mary to be his wife, waiting to consummate the marriage until after the birth of Jesus.
But look at these two and what God did here. He took two very lowly Jewish peasants, two people who would normally have been overlooked by the world. Normally they would have faded into the background as nothing more than extras blended into the set of a movie. Why would God have chosen such instruments, when he could have chosen anyone he wanted. He could have chosen the rich, the royal, the famous, the well connected, the well educated and so on, yet God picked the lowest of the lowly in society to bring his precious Son, the Savior of the World, the promised Messiah, the King of kings, Lord of Lords and Prince of peace into the world and rear him to adulthood.
What was God doing?
He was showing us…
…that His values are not the same as the world
…that He doesn’t need the advice or help of mankind to accomplish his goals
…that real life is simple, not as complicated as we make it.
…that the foolishness of God is greater than the wisdom of man.
…that God specializes in the impossible.
Then, there is the aspect of this virgin birth.
God demonstrated that he wants to work with and through mankind to accomplish His plans for us, but it is still His work that is accomplished. The virgin birth of God’s only Son demonstrated that God wanted to become one of us. As John 1:14 expressed, “the Word became flesh and made His dwelling with us.”
God completely transformed the lives of Mary and Joseph, making them two of the most revered, loved and admired people in history even though, as the world would put it, they came from nothing.
He did it by calling them to His work, by calling them to his plan, by calling them to obedience. With God’s help they stepped up to the plate BIG TIME!
In the Christmas story God wants to have an encounter with you and me. He wants us to see that He doesn’t need our popularity, our education, our riches, our talent, our connections, our fame, our wisdom or any of the things that we think are ours. Those things are His to begin with. Without God none of those things would be in our lives. They already belong to Him.
What God wants more than anything from you and me is our obedience; our willingness to surrender everything to His direction.
What God can use is our weakness, our sorrow, our sickness, our trouble, our poverty, our brokenness, our insignificance and transform it into His strength, His joy, His health, His wealth, His victory, His importance, and more. We must understand that what is ours is of the flesh and what is His is of the Spirit.
God fundamentally changed Mary and Joseph’s world when they encountered Him.
He wants to fundamentally change your life and mine, but first we must meet God on His terms and embrace the Christ of Christmas and surrender everything to Him.
He can take your lowly life and bring it to glory, but He can’t do much, if anything with your own glory until He makes it lowly.
As you encounter God this Christmas will you come lowly and embrace His Glory through His miraculous Son?
He will take your lowly position and elevate it to unexpected Glory!
This Sunday will be the second Sunday of Advent. Josh will give a message titled A Time for Trials based on Psalm 61:1-2. Keep reading in your daily devotional and see how these sermons help to tie these ideas together.
Lowly, but used by God with you,
Jon
Unexpected Glory
Mary and Joseph, The Lowly Elevated
Matthew 1:18-25 & Luke 1:26-56
Talk about unexpected. Who could have expected it? Mary was a young girl, unmarried, but pledged to be married to a carpenter named Joseph. The two lived in the dinky hillbilly community of Nazareth in northern Galilee where nothing ever happened of importance. What could make them think they should expect anything of historical value to happen to them? Carpenters were uneducated; on the low end of the economic scale. Mary and Joseph were among the lowliest of the lowly in society.
Out of nowhere, Gabriel, one of God’s most high angels, came and spoke to this teenage girl, Mary, with some amazing words.
Simply the appearance of this great celestial being, even speaking to Mary had to be one of the most amazing moments in all history. One would think she would have been shocked and overwhelmed by the appearance of Gabriel, but the text says what troubled her were his words, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”
When a great powerful angel tells you that you are highly favored and that God is with you, you must wonder, what on earth is up? But, if Mary thought she had been given life shaking information up to now, she had no idea what life shaking news was, but Gabriel was about to give it.
“Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. 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, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.” Matthew 1:30-33
Talk about your unexpected encounters! This majestic celestial being tells a young virgin that she is going to have a baby. What? A baby?
Oh, but there’s more! The baby’s Father? He is only God Almighty! And, to top it off, she is to name him Jesus (meaning savior) and he will be a king, ruling over his kingdom forever!
"Ahem! Excuse me, Mr. Gabriel, but I think you’ve got the wrong chick here. If you haven’t noticed, I’m not rich! I’m not even popular! And, to top it off, I’m a VIRGIN and I’m not even married yet. This must be a case of mistaken identity."
Okay, she didn’t say it quite that way, but you know she must have thought it. What she actually said was…
“How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?” -Matthew 1:34
Gabriel went on to explain to her that the Holy Spirit would overshadow her and she would become pregnant with the Son of God. This terminology may sound strange to us, but the original Greek language here is the same as in Acts chapter 2 when it tells how the Holy Spirit filled the Apostles. He went on to tell her about how her relative, Elizabeth, who was too old to give birth and had been barren all her life, was already six months pregnant. He concluded with these words in verse 37, “For no word from God will ever fail.”
How would this simple Jewish country girl respond? She responded with humility, gratitude and, above all, submission to God’s will, “I am the Lord’s servant. May your word to me be fulfilled.”
After Mary turned up to be expecting the child, she was sent to stay with Elizabeth for a time. In the mean time Joseph was confused about what to do about the situation. He loved Mary deeply, but the woman to whom he was engaged had turned up pregnant and unmarried. In those days and in that small religious town, this was a major scandal. Our Matthew text tells us that Joseph had decided the loving and face saving thing to do would be to quietly break off his relationship to Mary, to divorce her privately. As far as Joseph was concerned he had been betrayed by an unfaithful woman. But God had another idea.
But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”
All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).
When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus. --Matthew 1:20-25
Joseph’s experience with an angel of the Lord was phenomenal, yet not quite as intimidating as Mary’s because his came through a dream. However, the angel was an effective communicator. It’s a good thing since the word Angel means messenger. We don’t know this from Scripture, but you can imagine how Mary might have pled with her husband to be, that he understand that this child was miraculously from God and that an angel had come to her with the explanation. Now he understood! It was all true. Mary had not been unfaithful to him. Therefore, Joseph became obedient and took Mary to be his wife, waiting to consummate the marriage until after the birth of Jesus.
But look at these two and what God did here. He took two very lowly Jewish peasants, two people who would normally have been overlooked by the world. Normally they would have faded into the background as nothing more than extras blended into the set of a movie. Why would God have chosen such instruments, when he could have chosen anyone he wanted. He could have chosen the rich, the royal, the famous, the well connected, the well educated and so on, yet God picked the lowest of the lowly in society to bring his precious Son, the Savior of the World, the promised Messiah, the King of kings, Lord of Lords and Prince of peace into the world and rear him to adulthood.
What was God doing?
He was showing us…
…that His values are not the same as the world
…that He doesn’t need the advice or help of mankind to accomplish his goals
…that real life is simple, not as complicated as we make it.
…that the foolishness of God is greater than the wisdom of man.
…that God specializes in the impossible.
Then, there is the aspect of this virgin birth.
God demonstrated that he wants to work with and through mankind to accomplish His plans for us, but it is still His work that is accomplished. The virgin birth of God’s only Son demonstrated that God wanted to become one of us. As John 1:14 expressed, “the Word became flesh and made His dwelling with us.”
God completely transformed the lives of Mary and Joseph, making them two of the most revered, loved and admired people in history even though, as the world would put it, they came from nothing.
He did it by calling them to His work, by calling them to his plan, by calling them to obedience. With God’s help they stepped up to the plate BIG TIME!
In the Christmas story God wants to have an encounter with you and me. He wants us to see that He doesn’t need our popularity, our education, our riches, our talent, our connections, our fame, our wisdom or any of the things that we think are ours. Those things are His to begin with. Without God none of those things would be in our lives. They already belong to Him.
What God wants more than anything from you and me is our obedience; our willingness to surrender everything to His direction.
What God can use is our weakness, our sorrow, our sickness, our trouble, our poverty, our brokenness, our insignificance and transform it into His strength, His joy, His health, His wealth, His victory, His importance, and more. We must understand that what is ours is of the flesh and what is His is of the Spirit.
God fundamentally changed Mary and Joseph’s world when they encountered Him.
He wants to fundamentally change your life and mine, but first we must meet God on His terms and embrace the Christ of Christmas and surrender everything to Him.
He can take your lowly life and bring it to glory, but He can’t do much, if anything with your own glory until He makes it lowly.
As you encounter God this Christmas will you come lowly and embrace His Glory through His miraculous Son?
He will take your lowly position and elevate it to unexpected Glory!
This Sunday will be the second Sunday of Advent. Josh will give a message titled A Time for Trials based on Psalm 61:1-2. Keep reading in your daily devotional and see how these sermons help to tie these ideas together.
Lowly, but used by God with you,
Jon
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