Well, if you'll turn with me to Luke, chapter 1, that's page 1588 in your pew Bibles. We're going to be reading Luke 1, 26-38. Luke 21, verse 26 to 38, the birth of Jesus foretold to Mary by Gabriel. I'll begin. Luke 1 at verse 26. In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, To a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin's name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, greetings, you who are highly favored. The Lord is with you. Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, do not be afraid, Mary. You have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name 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 the house of Jacob forever. His kingdom will never end. How will this be, Mary asked the angel, since I am a virgin? 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. Even Elizabeth, your relative, is going to have a child in her old age, and she who is said to be barren is in her sixth month, for nothing is impossible with God. I am the Lord's servant, Mary answered. May it be to me as you have said. Then the angel left her. Let's pray. Father, our God, we praise you for your word. We pray now that you would be honored and glorified in it, that you would send your spirit to our hearts. Mold us, Lord, as you have your will. We pray this in Christ's name, amen. Well, it's no doubt that this is a wonderful time of year, time for us to celebrate the arrival of our king and to sing these wonderful hymns, and a time, really, to put everything else aside And as we look at this text, at first glance, we have an announcement here, the announcement that signifies Christmas, the coming of our king by Gabriel to Mary. But actually, upon closer inspection, there are two announcements in this text. Admittedly, it's a little harder to see the second announcement in your English translation. But actually, at verse 38, at the very end of the text there, Mary's response has a word there in the original language, behold. That's what Mary says. And yesterday, we heard about that word behold, didn't we? We heard how important that word is. And yet Mary is saying it here. It's a powerful statement. Behold your servant, she says. So actually, this passage is about two things, because Luke could have easily just left off the second half of it. It could have just been Gabriel's announcement. Mary didn't have to question, and he didn't have to include Mary's question or Mary's statement at the end, but he does. There's two parts to this passage. First, the announcement of the coming king. And second, the response of the king's servant. In other words, what we're talking about here is a relationship. The king who holds nothing back, who loves and gives all, and the servant who, in response, does the same thing, trusting the king with everything, with their very life. But see, in this text, there's a question in the middle of it, and it's really core, and it might be a difficult thing to wrestle with. That's verse 34. How will this be? Merry questions. Now the question, as we'll talk about later, is asked in faith. On one hand, you have the promise of God to her. There's no doubt there. On the other hand, me, from Mary's perspective, my part. I'm a virgin. I cannot give a child. So we have the promise of God and then our part in it, knowing that we can't provide. But by the end of this, what we see, of course, is what I just pointed out. In response to Gabriel's answer, Mary has a powerful proclamation. It goes from, how will this be, to behold your servant. And we, of course, want to apply this to ourselves and ask ourselves the same question in our lives. During Christmastime, we see our king, as Mary does, the promise and announcement of the king. No doubt about him. We have strong faith when we look at him. And yet, after Christmas, we might spend more time looking at ourselves, as Mary did. seeing how much we struggle, how imperfect our service is. And we might ask, how will this be? The gospel, yes. In my life, when I see the way that I act, how can it be? And so we want to take a look at what caused this change in Mary. And ultimately today, we'll be looking at this relationship between the king and his servants and how it's powered by the love of God. And so the theme for this morning is our king's loving rule, the first part, draws our heart to serve him, the second part. And our first point, his message, behold your king. And the second point, our response, behold your servant. And first, his message, behold your king. Now the first two verses of this chapter, of this section, I should say, paint that beautiful portrait that we're so familiar with. The context for this announcement, the where, Nazareth, the whom, the Virgin Mary, and also the people that she represented, the people of David. And when we hear this, we have nothing but a response of positivity towards them, of high regard. But what is hard for us to understand is at that time, that would not be the reaction from most people when they hear these names, Nazareth, Mary, and the people of David. The surrounding people would never have reacted that way. And this is important because Mary, we are told, was greatly troubled by Gabriel's words. Not his appearance, it says his words. And she wondered what they meant. When Gabriel greeted her, he said, greetings, you who are highly favored. And she didn't understand that. Highly favored? Me? This is why I have to understand that, because Nazareth, we may know this, was looked down on. When Christ told Philip to follow him, and Philip went to go tell Nathanael that he had found the Messiah, he told him, it's Jesus of Nazareth. And you remember how he responded? Basically, he said nothing good could come from there. What could come from Nazareth? That's the place. And Mary, the person, she had no popularity, no power. She wasn't a queen. She was a normal young lady. The people of David, yes, at one time, they were highly regarded under their King David. Now, a fallen kingdom ruled by a false king, Herod, a middleman for Rome. Really, they were the slaves of Rome. They were subject to Rome, just as the people of God were in Egypt. Herod would kill their sons, just like Pharaoh did. And on top of that, it had been over 400 years since they had heard the word of God from a prophet. So that's the context. We have here Gabriel appearing to this woman of no regard in a town of ill repute to a people in slavery, and he says, greetings, you who are highly favored. Mary was greatly troubled and wondered what this meant, this greeting. And so we can understand Mary's confusion here. And if we take a look at our own lives, we may have the same confusion at times. If we heard words like this, would it shock us? You highly favored one. When we look and our lives are falling apart at times, we feel like if others saw our lives, they'd be shocked, disappointed. Maybe we even feel that if we were to disappear, no one would care. Or perhaps even it would be a help to them. No, Gabriel comes and he says, you who are highly favored, and he says why they're highly favored. Because the Lord is with you. The Lord is with you. To the world, this people is weak, a people in slavery. To the world, the town is hated. To the world, Mary is a no one, worth nothing. but not to God. She isn't a no one to God. God has not forgotten her. He has been with her since birth. She is favored by God. In other words, she is loved by God. While the world may see her as nothing, God would give everything for her. He will give his only son for her. Highly favored one? Yes. Why? Because the Lord is with you. Brothers and sisters, right now, you too are highly favored, though that may surprise you. If you rather, instead of feeling highly favored, perhaps you feel alone or forgotten or pushed around or beaten. You may not feel very favored right now, but you are favored for the same reason, because the Lord loves you. And through history, this is the story of Israel, there was never a time where they weren't the favored ones. The Garden of Eden, we see the seed of the woman was promised after they sinned. The time of Noah, the whole world was evil continually, and yet Noah and his family were delivered. And Abram, he lived in a pagan city. If he were left there, he would have died in that city. Yet God called him out and made the covenant with him. The Bible is the same message, God coming down to favor his people, to make a favored people a loved people. Greetings you who are highly favored, why? Because the Lord is with you and he loves you. And this is important because it's the start of our relationship with him. It's how our service to God begins. Because Mary in just a moment will, without any hesitation, say to this messenger of God, behold, I am the Lord's servant. May it be to me as you have said. But it's important because faith and faithful service is always a response to God's love and his grace. Faith and service is always a response to God's love. I thought of different illustrations from scripture that I could use. There's so many. But since we're talking about David here, think about David and Goliath, a young man going out to fight a giant, a beast of a man. Saul, his king, tries to stop him, saying, you're a little boy, basically. This is a man who has been killing people since he could essentially walk from childhood. But what does David say? David says, well, basically, since I can walk, God has been with me. He's seen the grace of God in his life over and over again as a lion and bear would attack the sheep, and he would fight them off. David says this, the Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of the Philistine. In other words, my point is that the Lord has protected David all his life, and by God's grace to him, David will now serve the Lord. He'll respond to him with boldness, with faith as a response to that love. And this is what we see here in Mary too. Though it may not be quite as flashy or heroic as David's, it's the same response ultimately comes to that, I trust you with my life. And for the same reason, that's the important part, because the Lord loved her first. And this is the context, this picture of God coming down. And it always has been. A people who need to be delivered and a God who in love comes down and delivers them. And what are the content of the message? At verse 31, you will be with child and give birth to a son. And you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great. 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 the house of jacob forever his kingdom will never and of course this is a good news isn't it that the announcement of a king and what is the king's name but jesus which means god saves that is god delivers he also tells him how god will save by ruling on the throne of david that is that he would be king of this favorite people, David's people. And that's our reason for rejoicing, that this loving and gracious God would be their king, that we can say he is our king, not just a king, not the king, because God is always king. He never stopped being king. He doesn't become king. He's the creator, the king of kings. The good news isn't that he becomes king. In fact, it's bad news that he's king to those who rebel against him. is that he's our king and that he saves, God saves, that he sits on the throne of David. That is, that he would be God to his people, to dwell with them, to rule them in justice and grace, to represent them before himself as holy. And I think this is where the world misunderstands. They can't understand, because they understand that a king with real authority and power is often a bad thing. We see that on Earth. People see that. We see the power that corrupts. We've all seen and read about wars throughout time, the horrors and atrocities committed, the destruction. Dictators rise up and subjugate and use their people. We've seen those horrible pictures, mass graves, starvation. We see how authority in other areas is also a problem and misused, like abusive fathers, corrupt businesses. This is how the world sees authority. This is how the world would see a king. They understand that picture. But what they don't understand is a king who rules, rather, with overflowing generosity. They don't understand a king that serves. They don't understand a father that's gentle and patient, a groom that loves perfectly, an authority that blesses his people, that frees them, that rules them with true peace. Because these can only come from God, and only by salvation, which is deliverance. And that's what Gabriel's message is here, a message of deliverance, that they will be delivered from their false king, their false kings, by way of the true king. The message is that God had never left them, the same message we hear from God in scripture time and time again. I want to read to you from Hosea, because it really shows us the heart of God towards his people, that even in Hosea, when the people have actively rejected God, have walked away from him, It shows you that he was with them from the beginning, and he refuses to let them go. Listen to the language that we hear here, that we hear here. Hosea 11, one, when Israel was a child, I loved him. And out of Egypt, I called my son Israel. But the more I called Israel, the further they went from me. They sacrificed to the Baals, and they burned incense to images. It was I who taught Ephraim to walk. taking them by the arms. But they did not realize it was I who healed them. I led them with cords of human kindness, with ties of love. I lifted the yoke from their neck and bent down to feed them. And instead of letting them go as he should have, this is what he says. We deserve to be cut off. But he says this. How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I hand you over, Israel? How can I treat you like Admar? How can I make you like Zevonim? My heart is changed within me. All my compassion is aroused. I will not carry out my fierce anger, nor will I turn and devastate Ephraim. Why? For I am God and not man, the Holy One among you. I will not come in wrath. And that's the message. God has come, not in wrath, but in love, to save his son Israel, his people, the ones he taught to walk and the ones who walked away from him. God bends down again to feed them, just as he did here in Hosea, he says, but now with the bread of life, Christ the Lord, to deliver them from the false kings. And this is why Christmas is a time when we sing joyful songs, even if we're like Mary, perhaps, and our lives are hard and we don't feel very favored, when it feels like we are still ruled by false kings, when we are lonely or scared, or when we are subjected or persecuted by these false kings. Because in the end, this is the truth, they are not our king. That's the joy. The victory by our king has been won on the cross. For our sins, it has been paid. It is finished, Christ said. Satan lost. So we can say Satan is not our king. We can say death will not have the last laugh. We can say loneliness is temporary. And we can say we're not ruled by fear. Because we know the true king, and we know of his love for us. So then we can say, what can man do against us? What can a lion or a bear or a Philistine do? What can our remaining sin do? We have been delivered by our king, and his reign will never end. So Gabriel's message is, behold your king. But secondly, as I said, is our response. And we're going to look at Mary's response here. Behold your servant. And Mary's response, though powerful, Behold, your servant. It doesn't start off that way, as I drew attention to earlier. Because what does she ask first in verse 34? How will this be, since I am a virgin? Notice in the text, with this amazing announcement that she hears, it's not that she doubts God's part in it, but rather she's doubting her own part in it. She believes God saves, but then she sees herself. How can I be a part of this? I can give nothing. She's a virgin. She can't produce a child. She has no way of doing that. And just before this, we have another account of Zechariah who responds in what sounds like essentially the same thing. He looks at himself as well when he hears about the promise, the announcement of his son, John. And what does he say? I'm old. My wife is old, Elizabeth. She's barren. But see, it's interesting because Zechariah, of course, as we know, is rebuked by Gabriel, but Mary is not. So what's the difference? Because their words sound the same. And it's so critical that when we're reading scripture, in these passages that we've come to that are difficult, we have to start with the truths that are clear to us and then work down from there. So we know that there's a difference because Gabriel rebuked Zechariah very clearly. Because ultimately we know that Zechariah doubted from that rebuke. He says, how can I believe? What does Gabriel say? He basically says, how could you not believe? I came from God. I stand in the presence of God. These are the very words of God. Zechariah said, essentially, in the original language, he said, how can I know this? How can I believe? Well, Mary, on the other hand, said, how will this be? In other words, she says, it will be. It will be. But how? Not, how can I believe this? So both of them were given the word of God. You will be used as a means for God to save. And then they both look inward, and they say, I cannot provide anything, which is a correct response. But then we have here Gabriel's response. Does he tell them, no, you can do it. Pray harder, try harder. Just stop failing. What does he say? No, he says, really, he says you're right. With man it's impossible. But he says nothing is impossible with God. Look at verse 35. He answers this. The Holy Spirit will come upon you. The power of the Most High will overshadow you. That's his answer. 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 for the same reason. And this is the sixth month with her who is called barren, for nothing will be impossible with God." So ultimately, what is the announcement? We said, God saves. It's Christ's name, Jesus. God saves. God saves, not man. That's the whole point. They have nothing to save with. Right? It's like asking an infant, a baby, to help you pay the mortgage. They have nothing to give you to do that. And we see, too, with Abram and Sarai, they were promised an heir, a seed, Isaac, and they tried to take it into their own hands as well. They tried to provide in their own way. And, of course, we have Hagar and we have Ishmael. And Hagar, who came from Egypt, now is saying that their household has now become worse than Egypt because of their actions they have taken in their own hands. Now we have to remember that our service is a response to what he has done for us, and only what he could do. The work has already been completed, in other words. And so then, what is our response? What is our part in this then, if we have nothing to add? It's to believe. It's to believe. To believe that the king did come and accomplish our salvation. And again, as I said earlier, at this time of year, when we look at God, it's easier for us, I think, to believe that. But what about next week, or tonight, or whenever? And you look at yourself. See, that's the problem. When we look at ourselves, God sent his son for me? Yes, I believe he sent his son. But then like Zechariah and Mary, we look at ourselves. And if we get stuck there, that becomes a problem. Because we say, but how? My service is spotty at best when it's there. Christ tells us, if you love me, you'll keep my commandments. See, the thing is that it's easy for us or for any man to say, I believe. That's an easy thing to do. It's easy to answer a catechism question. Any person can do that. But see, to see your inadequacies, to see your sin, and to really look at them and to not look away, but then yet to turn to God and say, I see your love and I believe. I believe that you have delivered even me. Now see, that's something that no man can do. That's the work of God. Nothing's impossible with God. You know, it's interesting that Luke is the only gospel to record these accounts of Zechariah and Mary. And it's not an accident, of course, we know that. These accounts are so similar. Luke is writing this for a particular reason. And even though they're similar, there's two totally different responses. And so it's important to know why is Luke writing this? Well, in verse four of chapter one, he tells us the point that the reason he's recording this account at all. He says that you may have certainty in what you've been taught. In other words, these probably Gentile people that he was talking to had heard the gospel, had heard Christ had come, that he had accomplished salvation, but then, you know, it had been a while, Christ hadn't returned yet, he said he was gonna return, and they started to wonder, well, is Christ a man? Yeah, they knew that, they knew he existed, no question, but was he more than a man, see? That's what they're not so sure about. So Luke is writing to them, these accounts, he's recording to them, recording it for them, so that they may have certainty Was it enough, what Christ did, to save each and every one that believes their sins, my sins? Well, we say to that, yes. And why? The point I've been making the whole time, because man had nothing to do with it. 35, the angel said, I'll read it again, the Holy Spirit, 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 who? Not the son of Mary, He doesn't say that, or the son of Joseph, the son of God. Because man had nothing to do with it. It was God alone, and it would take nothing less. There is not a single person in history that could have bore the weight of the suffering Christ for even a day and come close to his perfect obedience. Jesus, in the original language, was Yeshua. That's what we'd be calling him, Yeshua or Joshua. God saves. Our eternal king was the son of God. This is why we celebrate Christmas. Not because it's a cute story of a little baby. Of course he was cute. He was a person like anyone else. But that's not the reason. But rather, it's the reality that our king, the king of kings, came down. As what? He didn't come in his divine majesty with a flaming sword, with a rod to break the nations. Because if Jesus had come down in that way, then everyone would be judged. No, this is the reality. that our king of kings came down to be the servant of servants. He emptied himself of his divine majesty to take the form of man. And what does that mean? Because he's our representative, that means that Jesus came down as the guilty one. Think about that. The perfect, holy, and righteous king, now in Jesus, this baby, a guilty servant to pay the price for the sins of his people. That's what we say with God, nothing is impossible. So I ask that you remember this, then, when questions come, your own questions of yourself, when you look at yourself. Yes, I believe the gospel. But how can I believe that I'm saved, me, with the anger issues, or laziness issues, or lust issues, me who forgets to pray because they'd rather be doing anything else? They'd rather find comfort in something else. They'd rather something is more interesting to them. Anything we put there is going to be shameful for us. But it's true. How can I believe that I am saved? That's the question that comes. And then we have two ways of reacting to that, Zechariah and Mary. Zechariah says, how can I believe this? And Mary, she says, I believe, but Lord, tell me again how. Well, I'll tell you. We have this in God's word. I'll just read a couple passages. Isaiah 44, I have blotted out your transgressions like a cloud and your sins like mist. Return to me for I have redeemed you. Isaiah 45, was it not I the Lord and there is no God apart from me, a righteous God and a savior? There is none but me. Turn to me and be saved. All you ends of the earth for I am God and there is no other. John 14, Jesus answered, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. John 3, 16, for God so loved the world that he gave his only son. We don't celebrate today because it's a cute story, because we know a cute story doesn't heal our problems. Death has struck us. It's taken our loved ones. It's in our bodies. And more than that, we have seen unbelief in our loved ones and ourselves. the ultimate and eternal death. We need to be delivered. We don't need stories. We need a victor, a king who rules over our enemies. And we celebrate because God did just that in his son, Yeshua. That is, God saves, God delivers. And so now on our part, we don't keep serving him because our lives are all buttoned up, because we are better people than other people. That's a temptation for us to think. It's ugly, but it's true. We don't keep serving him because our faith never wavers. Rather, we keep serving because we see our lack. We see that we can't do it. So we look back at him and we see his love for us. And that love for us is most clearly seen in his son. And then we remember again, Lord willing daily, nothing is impossible with God. And it's painful for us to admit it, but God's love can be most clearly seen in our sin and our shortcomings. And so this is our relationship with God, a loving king, and by reaction, a loving people. And as we said before, to the world, this is alien, this is foreign, something they won't understand. But to us, we know the truth of it. To us, it's like finding a treasure in a field, isn't it? a valueless treasure that we would then go and sell everything in response to finding the treasure. It's nothing in ourselves. We're not putting value in the treasure. The treasure in and of itself is the most valuable treasure. And our response then, of course, is an obvious response, to sell all we have for it. Well, to serve God, that is to be owned by God, to be a part of his kingdom, is the most valuable gift ever given to man. So I encourage you again to press on In whatever way you are serving God, keep going, only don't do it on your own, but do it by looking to him. And remember that he came as the lowest of servants, ministering to us to the point of death. And if you do feel insignificant or unloved, by the world, yes, but by God, no, you're not that way to him. He rejoiced to send his son on your account that you are of such value to him. So keep serving, first and only by his love, but second, because you love him too, so that you can say boldly with Mary that we can say it together. Behold, I am the servant of the Lord. Let it be to me according to your word. Amen. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, we thank you that you have gifted to us the most valuable treasure to all mankind, that is our Savior and King Jesus. We praise his name above all others We also pray this in his name, amen. Well, we'll rise just in a second to sing hymn number 462, Take My Life and Let It Be. We'll sing hymn number 462.