“The Announcement!”

Scripture: Luke 1:26-38

Imagine – you’re going about your everyday life – mowing the lawn, helping the kids with their homework, driving to the store to do some shopping, working in the office - and then you suddenly realize that your life is about to change – drastically! You’ll continue to be the same person, with the same issues and needs in life, but all of your hopes and dreams and plans for the future will soon fly right out the window and will be replaced with the most incredible and unbelievable promises you could never imagine!
What are you going to do about it? Do you start keeping a journal, with the hope of selling your story to a movie producer or book publisher for an unheard of amount of money? Do you rush out to share your new revelation with everyone you meet, expecting them all to show great honor to you? Do you start making a list of folks you will ask to help you with your new duties? Or do you just sit down, trembling at the realization of what you have just been asked to do, and understanding that not one ounce of fame will come to you in this lifetime?

Read Luke 1:26-30

Mary had probably not heard the news about her cousin Elizabeth and her unexpected pregnancy, as news traveled extremely slowly in those days. Elizabeth and her husband Zechariah had wanted children for many years, but had never been able to conceive. The lack of children, and the absence of male heirs in particular, was a sign that God was displeased with you for some reason, and there was nothing that you could do about it. But now, the shame of being childless had been taken away from them by God, and hope had been restored.
That same angel had come once again, but with a different announcement, for a different woman, in a different situation, with a message that few, at the very least, would ever believe and accept. Mary, a young teenage girl, unmarried, living in a little, dirty, “back water” town, was about to discover just how much God loved her. And that was how the angel began his message to her – “you who are highly favored”!
So what does it mean that you are “highly favored” by God? Is it comparable to getting a promotion at your place of work? Is it the same as being chosen to sing a solo in the church’s Christmas pageant? Is it even close to making the high honor role in school?
Not even close! It means that God has chosen you because he could trust you to do what he is about to ask. It means that out of all the people of earth, you are the right one, in God’s eyes, to accomplish his will here on earth. It means, unfortunately, that you are going to be asked to do something that you would never choose to do on your own!
Decision making in business involves evaluation of many issues, especially those known as “adverse consequences”. These are the things that could possibly go wrong in a project, causing delays, or quality problems, or other issues that might result in project failure. With God, however, his plan will never fail, and there is only one best way to accomplish whatever it is that he needs to have done. His only consideration of “adverse consequences” is to minimize their effect – all of them - to the extent that they will not be able to effect the ultimate outcome. He doesn’t eliminate them – he either refuses to let them impact his will, or else he uses them to accomplish his will.

And then, the angel tells Mary “The Lord is with you.” Amazingly, the announcement that Emmanuel is about to burst upon the world, is made totally personal for this young girl – it isn’t just that “God is with us”, but that “The Lord is with YOU!” This girl had been chosen to be the means of the impossible – the means of God’s Will – the means of the arrival of God’s greatest blessing on the world. Emmanuel – “God is with you”.

Read Luke 1:31-33

Notice that the angel doesn’t frame this message in the form of a question – Mary isn’t given a choice! God doesn’t ask her if she would be willing to do this for him – she is simply told that all that had been prophesized was about to come true. 2 Samuel 7:16 – “Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne shall be established forever.”, and Gabriel confirms the promise with nearly the same words. 2 Samuel 7:14 – “I will be his father, and he will be my son.”, and Gabriel tells Mary that her child will be “the Son of the Most High”.
The prophesy is sure and is about to be fulfilled. And the one who will carry this Holy Promise is never given a choice in the matter. God’s will isn’t negotiable. His plan won’t be modified. His choice is perfect. And yet, how many times do we foolishly try to back out of being the Lord’s choice? His call on our lives seems to be too difficult, too unusual, too early in life, too late in life, too uncertain, too scary, too “something”. We generally have a list that is longer than the one Moses used to try to convince the Lord that he was not the right man to bring the people out of Egypt! And God listens to our whining just as long and just as patiently as he did for Moses.

The Lord’s plan for salvation was about to begin in the womb of a trusting, unmarried, teenage girl.

Read Luke 1:34-38

And Mary has only one question for Gabriel – “How is God going to do this”? She may have been young, she may have been unmarried, but she knew where babies came from. And that way had yet to occur with her. Zechariah had similar concerns when he was told about his son John. “How can this be?” he would ask. He and Elizabeth were both well advanced in years, and child birth was unheard of at their age.
But Zechariah was a priest and should have been more accepting of God’s announcement, and because he doubted, he would lose his ability to speak for the duration of the pregnancy. Mary also would express a concern about the process, but because of her youth and innocence, Gabriel explains, as well as any angel could, how God was going to make it happen.

The Lord’s ways should always amaze us, even though he has shown us over and over how he works such marvelous ways through birth.
Sarah was 90 years old when she became pregnant with Isaac to ensure that the Lord’s promise to Abraham would be fulfilled. And she doubted, too!
An unnamed Levite woman would give birth to a child who would be called Moses – a child who had been condemned by Pharaoh, but in God’s somewhat humorous way, the boy would be raised under Pharaoh’s own roof and would become a thorn in a future Pharaoh’s side.
Hannah had been barren for many years, and when she pledged her first born to the Lord, she would give birth to a son named Samuel, who himself, would also play an important part in God’s plan for Israel.
How about Ruth, who wasn’t even a Jew but who would become King David’s grandmother.

So why shouldn’t another older woman give birth to a herald for Christ, and a very young, unmarried girl become the mother of the “Son of the Most High”? Why not? And Gabriel’s final words to Mary are probably the most fitting and most telling of the way God works. Simply that “Nothing is impossible with God.”
And Mary replies “OK – count me in.”

There are two phrases that I think we need to consider for our own lives. The first is the one that Mary received – “Nothing is impossible with God”. And in our “impossible” lives, we need to be reminded of this over and over again. The second is nearly as important, and that is “God will not be denied.”
How deep is our faith? We proclaim that our God is omnipotent (all powerful), Omniscient (all knowing), and Omnipresent (present everywhere and throughout time). If these things are true, how could anyone ever doubt that the Lord can, indeed, do anything he desires to do? And second, if these things are true, who do we think we are to say “No” to him? Do we really think that we know better than God, that we can change the Lord of the Universe’s mind?
Throughout scripture and throughout the ages, people have been called to do things in the name of Almighty God that there is no way that they could ever do them on their own. We question the wisdom of the Lord’s plan for our lives, even though we know that “in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8:28)

Mary and Elizabeth both would know that God was working a marvelous wonder through their faithful lives. They trusted their Lord, and they gave themselves willingly and joyfully in service to him. Would they both be subject to heartbreak? They most certainly would, but they also trusted that the glory that would come from it would drown out their sorrow.

How about you? Has God been trying to announce some special message to you? Have you been listening, or have you been trying to ignore it? God will win, you know, so why not give him a chance? Allow him to speak his good news into your life today.