The Angel Gabriel Was Sent from God

So today we're in the fourth sermon from our Advent sermon series on the birth of Jesus Christ. We've been going through the sermons on the coming of Jesus, the first coming. Now last week, Pastor Dave ended and preached on the account of the shepherds who were witnesses to the birth of the Messiah and how the shepherds were acted as messengers to the... glory that they witnessed, to the message that they had received from the angels. And this morning, we're going to study the account of the angel Gabriel's visit with Mary, the mother of Jesus. And our aim today, the goal of today, is that we would seek to understand the significance of this encounter and its application to our lives as believers today. So let's stand now and hear the word of the Lord. This is from the Gospel of Luke, chapter 1.

We'll be in verses 26 to 38. Now, in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city in Galilee called Nazareth to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph of the descendants of David. And the virgin's name was Mary. And coming in, he said to her, Greetings, favored one. The Lord is with you. But she was very perplexed at this statement and kept wondering what kind of salutation this was. The angel said to her, Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and his kingdom will have no end. Mary said to the angel, How can this be?

Since I am a virgin, the angel answered and said to her, The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. And for that reason, the Holy Child shall be called the Son of God. And behold, even your relative Elizabeth has also conceived a son in her old age, and she who was called barren is now in her sixth month. For nothing will be impossible. And Mary said, This is the word of the Lord. You may be seated. Now the first thing we see here is that our text opens with the angel Gabriel sent on a mission by God to a particular place to a particular woman.

The Apostle Luke begins this account by setting the stage for Mary's unexpected encounter. In verse 26, we see, and in verse 27, we see that he says, the Apostle Luke says, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city in Galilee called Nazareth. So immediately, what we see is that the angel of the Lord Gabriel is fulfilling God's mission. Now, what is an angel? It's kind of a funny question to ask because it's one of those things that we see everywhere, we hear everywhere, especially here at Christmastime. Angels are commonplace in almost everywhere you go. What is an angel? Well, it's very different what you see that society says is an angel than what Scripture says is an angel. An angel is a divine, heavenly representative of God.

He's sent to reveal to man the perfections of God, the glory of God, His will, and His message. Angels are the exact opposite of the way we understand them in our culture today. In our culture today, what we understand angels to be is really pathetic, weak, flimsy, powerless. Cute. And yet, when you see Scripture bring an angel on the scene, everything stops. People's mouths gape open. People are on the floor begging for their life. People are afraid. They're in terror. And the angels have to say, no, don't be afraid. Remember what the angel said to the shepherds. Fear not. Why did he have to say fear not?

Because with angels, you have the glory and holiness of God shown in a small way. Angels are sinless. They're sinless beings. Heavenly angels are. And they're masculine. Angels are masculine. And Gabriel, this is who Gabriel is. Gabriel is a representative of God. with the authority of God to carry out God's message to this individual who he's going to. He's a powerful heavenly creature and he is sent by God Almighty to deliver God's message. Verse 27, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph of the descendants of David and the virgin's name was Mary. Now who is Mary? How would you define Mary?

There are lots of different things that we see about Mary that are true in the Scriptures. But one of the defining characteristics and aspects of who Mary is and who her life is, is that of weakness. Mary's life is defined by weakness. Now what is weakness? How would we define weakness? How do we? How should we define weakness? Well, weakness is anything in your life that reveals deficiency, flaw, and imperfection in you. That is weakness. Simply put, weakness is to be put in a position of great vulnerability. And this was Mary. Mary had no highly respected status or wealth or power. She had no prominence or position of importance in society.

She was a simple, young teenage girl. She was engaged to a poor man, Joseph. Mary's position in life was a position of weakness. There was nothing glamorous about Mary. And the angel Gabriel, he said to her, he comes to her and he says this, Greetings, favored one. The Lord is with you. Now this statement is one that causes Mary confusion and worry. Why do we know that? Because what she says is what? It says that she was perplexed at him being there. Now that would be enough in itself if an angel showed up to perplex you. But what does it say? It says she was perplexed at the statement. And she kept pondering what kind of a salutation this was. And the statement...

The angel responds to that by saying, Do not be afraid, Mary. Verse 30, For you have found favor with God. He again reiterates, Greetings, favored one. The Lord is with you. You've found favor with God. Don't be afraid. Don't be alarmed. Now here we learn something about God. Remember, an angel is a representative of God, and so we can learn about the character of God from... His representatives. What is God's attitude toward weakness? What is your attitude toward weakness? Well, number one, God favors weakness. Where do we see that? We see that because the angel says, greetings, favored one. The Lord is with you. The Lord favors you. You have found favor with God. Now, was it...

Was there something about Mary in herself that God said, I favor you because you have less money than you? We'll get to that later. But God favors weakness. We'll talk about what kind of weakness He favors. God favors it because, number one, God could have shown up to Mary. God could have revealed and spoken directly to Mary Himself like He did Moses. And instead what he did was he sent a representative. He sent the angel Gabriel. God accommodated her weakness. God could overwhelm us with his glory to the point where we are too afraid to come to him because of our sin and because of our frailty, because of our imperfections. And yet God accommodates weakness.

God favors weakness, therefore He accommodates it. He makes provision for it, and He sent an angel instead to deliver the message. In the same way God accommodates the weakness of those of us who hear the Word, God could have spoken to you directly this morning, directly from His own mouth. God could have sent an angel to speak His Word to you. And yet God sends a sinner. A sinful man to give you his word. Who's like you in every way. God accommodates weakness. Now, we say God favors weakness. We can look all through Scripture and see how he does this. Who did God choose? He chose Abraham. Who did God choose? He chose one man. He didn't choose a king. God chose Israel. And the reason he chose them is he says that they were the smallest.

and weakest of nations, that they were nothing. God chose Bethlehem, not Jerusalem, where Jesus would be born. God chose to reveal His Word and His Gospel news to shepherds and not to princes first. God chose a woman to bear the Son of God. And you say, wait a minute, now we're getting off on the deep end. You don't realize this is the 21st century. Don't you realize that there's no difference between men and women? And I say, oh, have we drifted from Scripture. Husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way. As with what? Someone weaker. You know what it says after that? Since she is a woman.

And we look at that and we despise that Scripture. How many of you have heard a sermon preached from that text recently? Some of us have never heard a sermon preached on that because the preachers today know how to go far to the edge without going over. And yet, that problem is not in Scripture. The problem is us. Because what we don't value is weakness. We don't see weakness as God sees it. We see... For things to be equal, they must be same. And then we have the audacity to say that we value diversity. God favors weakness. It says that in the kingdom of heaven, the last shall be first. What is your attitude toward weakness? Do you know the difference? Are your eyes open to see weakness? Do you know that God designed weakness?

He did not create man equal with God in every way. And yet he favors man because man bears his image. Children, though equal image bearers of God, are weak and are no less valuable. And so do you have compassion on those who are weak? Your wife, your children, your brothers and sisters in Christ? Do you see the frailty? Do you see... The imperfections, do you see the inadequacies in those who are weaker than you in particular areas? Do you have compassion on that? Do you favor that? Do you accommodate it? Do you make provision for it? Or do you just hate and despise it? Well, we hate and despise weakness today. Well, why do we do that? We despise the weakness we see in others because it reveals to us some hidden truth about ourselves.

And that truth is this, that we are indeed weak. That we are made of dust. That we cannot survive independently. That we're dependent on more than just ourselves. We are weak. And sometimes it takes circumstances in your life to remind you that you're weak. Your car breaks down. You don't know how to fix it. Your body. Become sick. There's nothing you can do. You lose your job. Your spouse leaves you. Your children reject the faith. Weakness is all over. We are weak. We're weak like Mary. Some of us recognize it and some of us refuse to. The crucial difference, though, what's the difference then? If we're weak, a Christian is weak and a non-Christian is weak, well, what's the difference?

Between a Christian and an unbeliever. Well, the difference is this. The crucial difference between a Christian and an unbeliever is that while an unbeliever sees weakness and vulnerability as a disease and a curse to be escaped, the Christian spends his whole life recognizing his weakness and glorying in his weakness. Why? Because God is in the habit of using the weak and despised of this world to manifest and make known His power. He uses the weak to lead the strong. The foolish to shame the wise. The things that are not to nullify the things that are. Why? So that no man may boast before God. God favors weakness. He favors humility. He favors...

The acknowledgement that we cannot do anything apart from Him. Remember, Jesus said, apart from Me, you can do nothing. God favors weakness. Number two, acknowledgement of our weakness leads us to faith in God's power. Acknowledgement of our weakness leads us to faith in God's power. John Calvin, the great pastor and reformer of the church, about 500 years ago says this. He said, Men have no taste for God's power till they are convinced of their need of it and they immediately forget its value. They immediately forget its value unless they are conditionally reminded by awareness of their own weakness. We cannot trust in the goodness of God, the promises of God, the work of God, the power of God to deliver us.

Apart from acknowledging that we're incapable of doing it ourselves. We're incapable of delivering ourselves. We're incapable that we need Him. God wants us to acknowledge that we need Him. And look at Mary's response. So the angel comes to her and says, Greetings, you're highly favored. The Lord is with you. The Lord is on your side. The grace of God is upon you. And then what he does is he preaches the gospel to Mary. What does he say? He gives Mary the good news. He says, Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and his kingdom will have no end. You see this? The angel is proclaiming the gospel to Mary. And he says, this is what God will do.

Through your womb. And the womb of a woman is a sign of weakness. God will display His glory and power within your womb. Starting in your womb. Now Mary, overwhelmed at this news, responds how many of us would respond. She says what? How can this be? How is this possible? How can this be happening? She responds with two things. Fear and doubt. Fear and doubt. How can this be since I am a virgin? And this response is common to each of us. When God gives us a promise of His favor and goodwill towards us and of His plan for us in the Scriptures, through His Word, through brothers and sisters in Christ, our response so often is to say, I don't know how that's going to happen.

Do you understand the circumstances that I'm in right now? How in the world are you telling me that there's hope for my marriage? Don't you understand where I'm at here? How are you telling me that there's hope for my unbelieving family member? Don't you realize this is where we're at? How is there hope for my health? How is there hope for my fight against my sin? Don't you understand the circumstances that I'm in presently? Don't you know that that's not possible? A virgin doesn't conceive apart from the way that God designed a baby to be born. And don't you think Mary's question may have been a reasonable question? And yet God, through his angel, through his servant, the angel answered her and said, you know what he does? Away with you. We're done. Found the wrong person. You don't have any more favor. No, no.

God wasn't. I can't believe it. And this is an angel. I mean, if God had any reason, according to our thinking, to be done with Mary, for not simply going, yeah, okay, don't know how it's going to happen, fine. He would be completely right in doing so. An angel just appeared to her. Is that not evidence enough? Do you need more? And yet God, through... The angel Gabriel calms her fear with assurance. He further explains the promise and reassures her. He says, verse 35, the angel answered and said to her, the Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. And for that reason, the Holy Child shall be called the Son of God. And behold, and he doesn't just stop there. He says, you know what?

Even your relative Elizabeth has also conceived a son in her old age, and she who was called barren is now in her sixth month. For nothing will be impossible with God. You see what he does? You see how God accommodates the weakness of Mary and her fears and her doubts? He doesn't squash it. He says, look. Look at where God has done this. You don't believe that God will do this for you. You're scared. You're questioning. Look, this older woman shouldn't be able to conceive. And look. Look at what God's done. Go see. Nothing will be impossible with God. And this is what we need to do as we interact with weakness, as we deal with weakness. When you deal with someone who is struggling, whether it's your wife or your husband or your children or someone who's questioning the faith, do not squash. Don't stomp out weakness. If God did that, we would have no redemption. Calm fears and concerns with truth. Use truth as a remedy against...

Fear and doubt. But you use truth not as a chainsaw or a hacksaw, but as a scalpel, as a doctor would use to do surgery. Careful, thoughtful, measured, stable. Nothing will be impossible with God. Mary's second response, you know how she responds after. Very sweet. Trust in God and submission to His will. That is Mary's response. And Mary said, verse 38, Behold, the bond slave of the Lord, may it be done to me according to your word. And the angel departed from her. That was it. Okay. Lord, I submit myself to you willfully as a bond slave does. It's master. Do what you will. I trust you. Now, how was it?

That Mary was able to trust God in the midst of uncertainty. It was uncertain. You've just been told that the Son of God will be in your womb for nine months. Well, because she embraced weakness. She embraced her weakness and believed that God's power was most clearly made known at that position. And so, brothers and sisters, anytime you find yourself in lowly circumstances, take delight in it. Because God is using that trial in your life to make you weak so that through your suffering, you might seek Him all the more diligently. Why? Well, so that He can make His power known to you in weakness. That's Christian faith. God's power is made known in weakness. This is God's habit. God loves to use weakness.

He prefers it. 2 Corinthians 12, 7-10. The Apostle Paul says this. He says, To keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me, to keep me from exalting myself. Concerning this, I implored the Lord three times that it might leave me. So Paul is, there's something going on and we don't know what. but Paul is being bothered and tormented by a weakness in his life. And then he says, I prayed, I pleaded with God, take it away. And God's response says, verse 9, He said to me this, My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness. Most gladly, therefore, I would rather boast about my weaknesses, You know what he says next? So that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Wasn't that true of Mary? The power of Christ dwelling in her. Literally, God's power is made known in weakness. Now, as we close, some application. What does this mean? If God's power is made known in weakness, if God favors weak and lowly, humble means,

To accomplish His work. What does it mean for us? Number one, learn to love weakness. Learn to love weakness. Learn to take delight in it. Anytime you see weakness in your home, your wife has had a bad day with the kids. Wives, your husband has had a bad day at work. When you see that standards aren't being met, learn to love it. You say, how can I love? The standard not being met. And I say, well, because God will use it. It doesn't mean you stay there, but it means that you meet the person where they're at. That's what condescending is. You know that that word was used for years and centuries. It had a completely different connotation than it does now. What do we think of condescension now as? It'd be like me, it's...

It's a negative thing because what it means is I think I'm better than you and I'm just going to sort of stoop down to your level in such a way as you feel and know that I'm better than you. And you feel less than me. And so we think condescending. Well, that's bad. Centuries before, condescension was Jesus coming to earth, bringing himself low. Not out of selfishness, but out of love. Give yourself, learn to love weakness. When you see weakness, don't get rattled. Don't get stiff. Don't stomp it out. Just meet it where it's at. Don't despise your children for being children. Teach them. Discipline them. Instruct them. But be patient with them. Be patient with your wife. Be patient with...

your brothers in Christ. For heaven's sake, they're patient with you. Number two, trust God, especially at the points of fear and doubt. Trust God, especially at the points of fear and doubt. What does that mean? Well, trusting God doesn't require you to understand or have all of the details and facts on how God will be fulfilling His plan. You don't have to know the details to be able to trust God. But when you get to those points of fear and doubt, ask God. Say you fear. Say you doubt. Ask Him to give you assurance. Ask Him to give you confidence. Ask Him to give you the faith that you need to move forward. And He will do it. The funny thing is Mary's question ultimately wasn't all bad. Mary was asking for help.

When she said, how can this be? And God gave her the help. So trust God, especially at the points of fear and doubt. Lastly, trusting God requires you to become weak yourself. Become weak yourself. Some of you don't like weakness. You don't like being in situations where you feel vulnerable. And I'm telling you, that's not Christian faith. Jesus came weak. And we're to follow his example. And you say, well, look at all the miracles he did. Look at all of the things that he said and the crowds that followed him. What do you mean weak? And I say, always remember the backdrop of Jesus being known as the son of a harlot. Always remember that. People knew. Remember what the Pharisees said.

They called him a glutton. They called him a drunkard. And they accused him of being the son of an unfaithful woman. Jesus walked around with weakness hanging over his head. He embraced weakness. He became weak. And it's possible for you to become weak and still trust God. I'll put it a step further. You will not be able to trust God apart from weakness. Because what is weakness other than acknowledging your imperfections? What is weakness other than being bankrupt of seeing your flaws, of knowing your flaws, of having your flaws exposed? You remember Jesus said, I didn't come to save healthy people, I came to save sick people. I came to save weak people. And weakness is the path of faith. So love it.

Trust God, especially at the points of fear and doubt, and become weak yourself. And how do you do that? Number one, when circumstances come your way that force you, when circumstances come that wreck your life in some way, recognize them as the kindness of God to help you see your weakness so that you can depend on Him. This week, I got a call at 10.30 on my lunch break. I take early lunches. And the call I got was my wife. And she said, you've got to come home right now. There's an emergency. I say, what in the world is going on? She said, I can hear water leaking all in the ceiling. Water is all over the ceiling. And I don't know where it is. I can hear it. And I don't know where the water shutoff is.

So I rush home, and what did we find? We find water damage all over the place. And so I've spent this week looking at, in my dining area, with a hole, a big gaping hole in our ceiling. Stuff ripped out, a wall, part of a wall ripped out. We replaced some piping and things that went wrong. That kind of set things back a little bit. Now, there are two responses to get upset and despise. God for it, find someone to blame for it, or I can acknowledge that it comes from the hand of God. And it comes from His kindness to remind me that we need Him. We need to be weak amongst one another. We need to confess sins to one another, to pray for one another, to encourage one another. All the commands in Scripture, weep with those who weep, rejoice with those who rejoice. All of these things.

Correct and rebuke one another. Receive rebuke. All these things require vulnerability, both on the part of the person giving and the part of the person taking. And this is how God works. This is what the world will see and marvel at. This is what the world will be attracted to. Christians who are humble, who depend on God, who persevere through trial with joy. Praise God for... giving us His Son in such a way for Him being born as a baby and taking on our flesh so that we through His weakness might become strong. The Apostle Paul later says, after that verse, power is made known in weakness, he says, for when I am weak, then I am strong. And you'll find in your life that the times when you have the most strength are the times when you feel the weakest.

I'm telling you, as those of you who are older know that that's true. And so love weakness. God loves it. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your son. We thank you for Christ. Oh, Father, what a Savior. The goodness, the mercy that we receive from him. Father, we're unworthy to receive it, and yet you have blessed us. You've richly blessed us with... Every spiritual blessing, Father. I pray that this week during Christmas, as we go our ways, as many of us will be traveling and with family, many of which who do not know you, Father, help us not to despise their weakness. Help us to not despise them when they sin against us, when, Father, they're lost as we were.

Give us compassion for our family who doesn't know you. Give us compassion for our wives. Give us compassion for our husbands and our children. Give us patience. And give us strength, Father, by your Holy Spirit. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.