Good evening. You may be seated. What a wondrous occasion this is tonight to celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Although we do celebrate him yearly and year-round. Just like David said, this time of year just brings a different, deeper, much more meaningful time of celebration. Because the world, whether they know it or not, is focused on Jesus. They seem to be more open to gospel messages. And so it's all the more important that we get it right, that we get the gospel right, that we share it with folks. And so tonight, just for a few moments, we're going to talk about the announcement of the trustworthy coming king. If you happen to bring your Bibles, if you can see them out there, or if you have them in your phones, like I have a light. I invite you to join me in the gospel of Luke, the first chapter. And I do ask that you would stand for the reading of God's word, if you are able to. As you are turning to Luke chapter one, just by way of reminder, we are continuing this three-year series that is focused in on the King. And tonight is the final message of this year's four-part series entitled, The King is Coming. And we find recorded in Luke chapter one, beginning with verse 26. In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph of the house of David. And the virgin's name was Mary. And he came to her and said, greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you. But she was greatly troubled at the saying and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. And 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 call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end. And Mary said to the angel, how will this be since I am a virgin? And the angel answered her, the Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore, the child to be born will be called Holy, the Son of God. And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son. And this is the sixth month with her who was called barren, for nothing will be impossible with God. And Mary said, behold, I am the servant of the Lord. Let it be to me according to your word. And the angel departed from her. Let us pray. Father, we pray that you would help us to understand your word, to hear from you clearly, that our lives might be changed by your truth, by you. Please speak to us now. Help us to understand your word. Help us to glorify you by our obedience to it. We pray these things in Jesus' name for your sake. Amen. You may be seated. Once more, the title of this short sermon is The Announcement of the Trustworthy Coming King. There are two points to this message, and on the back of your order of service there, you'll find that these two points are the promises fulfilled in the announcement and the people in the announcement. Moreover, you will see that the key point of this night's message, and surely not just this message, but of the entire scriptures, that God's promise of a trustworthy coming king is fulfilled in Jesus. We all know that when the president of the United States is about to physically enter into an area, that the presidential theme music begins to play to announce his arrival. Our passage here today kind of serves as the divine theme music announcing the arrival of the trustworthy coming king. But this announcement is unique. It's unique in that it contains the fulfillment of specific promises of this arrival that were made centuries before the physical entry of the king. For in verse 26, we see the fulfillment of Isaiah chapter 9, verse 1b, in the latter time, he has made glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations. And we will recall that the key point of that particular passage in Isaiah was God promises ever-increasing joy to his people, and he guarantees its experience through Jesus. Then we see in verses 27 through 31 of our text, the fulfillment of Isaiah 7, 14. Therefore, the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Emmanuel. And we will also recall that the key point of that particular passage was God promises that he himself will deliver his people from their enemies and proves man's limited capacity to do so. Moreover, in verses 32 and 33 of our text tonight, we see the fulfillment of Jeremiah 23, 5, and 6. Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In his days, Judah will be saved and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called. The Lord is our righteousness." And we recall that the key point of that particular passage was when God keeps his promises, he transforms his people both internally and externally. Perhaps you noticed that all of the previous messages in this series talked about God's promise of a trustworthy coming king. And today's final message shows without question that God's promise is fulfilled in Jesus. As you look at the people of this announcement, we will notice right away, of course, that Jesus is the main person of God's promise. But there are other persons that are observed in this announcement that we have to recognize and gain insight into the importance and application of the announcement. First, there's the angel Gabriel, who was sent from God to a city of Galilee to a virgin named Mary. Notice the precision of the angel's assignment. Gabriel was sent by God to a specific place and a specific person. But not only this, but he was also sent with and he delivered this specific message from God. Moreover, Gabriel was prepared and he was authorized by God to relieve Mary's fears and to answer her questions. Isn't it the same thing with us? As we're sent by Jesus to specific places and to specific people to deliver God's message? Doesn't God prepare us through Bible study and fellowship with other believers in our local church to relieve people's fears and answer their questions by pointing them to Jesus, to the gospel and to the Bible? For as we look at the next person who is God the Father, we see that he sent Gabriel to the place of promise, to the vessel of promise, to deliver the message of promise, a message of grace. This is easily seen in the angel's words. Greetings, O favored one, and do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. From these things, we are assured that God keeps his promises and that he does so in grace. Next, we see God the Son, and we notice that he is the person of promise in verses 31 through 33. His name is Jesus, and Matthew 1.21 shows us that the name Jesus means that he will save his people from their sins. Once more, this speaks to his full humanity. It's a necessary ingredient for him to be able to die. And we see Jesus's deity in the title, the Son of the Most High. For the Savior needed to be God for his death to have eternal effect. Further, we see in these verses that Jesus fulfilled the Davidic covenant by receiving the throne of his father, David, and of his kingdom, there will be no end. We also notice that Jesus is called Holy, the Son of God in verse 35. We must note that this is a declarative affirmation of who he is, not what or who he would become. For in the same one person, Jesus is very God, every God, and fully human in the fullest sense of the word. He is the God-man. The Bible is clear that getting it right about who Jesus is and rightly responding to these truths is the foundation of all of life. Who do people say that I am or who the Son of Man is, Jesus asked his disciples in Matthew 16, 13. And the response of the people showed that they clearly saw him as some religious figure. Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets was the reply from the disciples. And then Jesus said to them, but who do you say that I am? It's just like Jesus, he's gonna get personal. He doesn't just deal in what ifs. He deals in the truth because he is the truth. He gets down to the nitty gritty. And he asked them, and he asks us, who do you say that I am? Simon Peter replied, you are the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered him, blessed are you, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. The Apostle Paul told the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 15, For I deliver to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to many. And the apostle John says in John 1.12, but to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God. Family, the Bible is clear. Jesus is the promised, trustworthy, coming king who was sent by God to save his people. We also clearly see God the Holy Spirit in this announcement. We notice that his overshadowing ministry prevented the sin nature of Mary from passing to Jesus. Surely if God the Holy Spirit is able to do that, then he must certainly be able to empower us to live the life of Christ every moment of every day. Next we see Elizabeth, Mary's relative, her cousin, and the mother of John the Baptist. The angel showed Elizabeth to Mary as an example of God's power to alter the physiological makeup of a woman. For Elizabeth was both barren and way past childbearing years. Ladies, how would you like to bear a child in old age, those of you who have already born children? Any takers? She was barren. She was old, but. There she was, six months pregnant. And then there's Mary, the virgin legally pledged to be married to a man whose name was Joseph. There are at least four things to notice about Mary here which speak to us today. First, she was a human recipient of God's grace. She was an imperfect little Jewish girl chosen by God's sovereign choice alone to receive the honor of bearing the Christ child. It's right there in verse 28. Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you. And in verse 30, and the angel said to her, do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. But let me be as clear as the scriptures are in this matter. Mary did not earn favor or grace from God. All God is saying here is that her lifestyle of seeking his will pleased him. It's the same thing that Luke writes of God's view of David in Acts 13.22, and when God had removed Saul, he raised up David to be their king, of whom he testified and said, I have found in David the son of Jesse a man after my heart who will do all my will. May we be people after God's heart who will do all of his will. Second thing we notice about Mary was she was troubled or afraid of what the angels said, but still wanted to understand what God was telling her through the angel. She was focused in on God's Word, not the angel. Third thing we see about Mary is that Mary was a realist, for she asked the angel, how will this be since I'm a virgin? That's being real. He said, how am I going to give birth if I had never known a man in the biblical sense? Karen, have you helped Tim figure that out yet? All right, good. Thank you. Listen, God takes into full account whatever our situation may be, and he addresses it according to who he knows himself to be, not according to the limitations of our life position or circumstances. Finally, Mary trusted God's word, which led to obedient action despite the personal cost. For when she heard the angel say, for nothing will be impossible with God, she immediately responded, behold, I am the servant of the Lord. Let it be to me according to your word. You see, nothing is impossible with God. God's word can be trusted because he can be trusted. For while the word for word is in verse 37, it remains untranslated. However, it's implied because the particular word that was used, family, it's right there. It's translated in verse 38. And that's what Mary heard. She heard the angel say, according to God's word, nothing is impossible. That's why she can trust God's word concerning this announcement of the trustworthy coming king. So as we get ready to sing our final two songs of the evening, we have to ask, as we always do, what does God want us to do in response to this text right here? Well, there's just one thing, and it comes from this text. It's following the example of Mary. You guys ready? Believe the biblical message about Jesus. Believe the biblical message about Jesus. You see, as we celebrate the birth of Jesus tomorrow and throughout the year and throughout our lives, let us believe everything the Bible says about Jesus, even those things that we don't fully understand. Why? It's because God is trustworthy. Therefore, since he's trustworthy, his word is also trustworthy. May we say to God, as Mary, the sinner saved by grace, human mother of Jesus, said to Gabriel, Behold, we are the servants of the Lord. Let it be to us according to your word. The trustworthy, coming king, Jesus Christ our Lord, has been announced. May we celebrate his birth and may we daily receive him with great joy. Let's pray. Thank you, Jesus, for coming. God, if you didn't come, we would be eternally lost. So when eternity passed, you chose to come. You chose to come to be born so that you could die for our sins. But oh God, you're not dead. No, you're not dead anymore. You paid the price for our sin. And after you paid it on that cross, you rose from the dead and you are alive forevermore, ready to save all who will come to you, who will turn from their sin and turn to you and trust in you alone, Jesus, for the salvation of their sins. We pray, Father, that you would help us to tell that message everywhere we go. To the end that you're glorified and your church is edified. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.