The Wedding Crasher

Luke 1:26-38

 

Preparation for a Wedding

·          There are at least two fears common to every couple that I have ever met, and they particularly apply to the woman.

1.       The fear that something is going to happen which will somehow ruin all of her planning.

·          My first wedding…walking in on the bride—naked.

 

2.       An unplanned pregnancy.

·          Abby, Flannery, #3

 

The Christmas story begins with crashed wedding plans and an unplanned pregnancy.

 

*         Imagine Mary, probably 14 or 15 years old, sitting on her mat one night looking through Bride magazine and contemplating whatever the ANE equivalent of china patterns might be.

 

I.    The Messenger.

 

      A.  Gabriel, the messenger of God (vv. 26-28).

 

26 In the sixth month, 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.”

29 Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be.

 

Why was Mary “greatly troubled at his words?”

 

1.      Because she was a sinner, just like you and me.

 

2.      Because she was a lowly, peasant girl with nothing to offer God.

 

3.      The hardest thing for a sinner to grasp is the concept of unmerited favor.

 

We have no trouble understanding why God would be angry with us, because we know our own hearts.  It’s the unmerited favor or grace of God that most of us have trouble with—and that’s exactly what Mary is grappling with right now.

 

Why would an angel of the Lord come to me and call me highly favored?

 

If the concept of an angel appearing before her troubled her, we hope she was sitting down for his actual message:

 

II.  The Scary, yet Good, News ( vv. 30-33).

 

30 But the angel said to her, ‘‘Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God.  31 You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus.

 

*Notice how the angel, again, affirms grace—before he breaks the somewhat uncomfortable news to Mary, he reminds her that what is about to happen to her is a result of God’s favor—not his displeasure.

 

A.  Why was the news scary?

 

1.   We know the news is scary because she is about to be married and this angel is telling her that she is going to be with child and give birth to a son—this would have made her liable to divorce, scorn, chastisement and, on top of that, no beautiful wedding, no procession, no week long party, no nuptials, nothin’.

 

2.   This must be scary, but there is something still scarier—relinquishing control.

 

3.   We know it is scary, because if there is anything more unnerving to a sinner than unconditional favor, it’s relinquishing control of our lives to the one who created us.

 

B.   It was scary because she faced being completely ostracized by her community, it was GOOD NEWS because this baby was the promised one—the Messiah (Meshiac).

 

31 You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name 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 the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.”

 

Messiah is coming…and you’re the first one to know about it.  The son that you’ll deliver, will soon deliver you.

 

Just as the angel came to Mary and told her that Messiah was coming, my job is to tell you that Messiah has come.

 

This news is both scary and it is good.

 

·         Scary news:  We’re sinners.

·         Good news:  In the person of this baby is forgiveness of sin.

 

  • Scary news:  God wants control over your whole life.
  • Good news:  He’s sent the king to conquer.

 

  • Good news:  He conquers us by conquering our enemies—namely death and sin.
  • Scary news:  Your life will never be the same.

 

  • Good news:  For those who follow this King, this one born in a lowly manger, he promises that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

    •  

    What about the “virgin birth?”  Apparently even Mary was puzzled by this.

     

    ·         She would birth him whom all Israel awaited.  Her next question is very logical…How?

                She didn’t question the message’s veracity, she questioned its mechanics.

     

    34 ‘‘How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, ‘‘since I am a virgin?”

    35 The angel answered, ‘‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.  36 Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be barren is in her sixth month.  37 For nothing is impossible with God.”

    Nothing is impossible with God.

     

III.       Mary Responds by Faith

                38 ‘‘I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. ‘‘May it be to me as you have said.” Then the angel left her.