Watch With Wonder!

4th Sunday in Advent, 12/21/14
Luke 1:26-38


Watch With Wonder!
I. At the Gift God is sending
II. How he’s sending it


It’s nearly Christmas and, as far as seasonal displays go, there’s no other time of year like it, not even close. I saw a TV report the other day about a family’s outdoor display that took 500 hours to complete. It was incredible! Perhaps there’s one similar to it in your neighborhood. In some neighborhoods these displays are the result of friendly competition. Which one is the best this year? Viewing most of them is free of charge, but scattered here and there in the Miami Valley are displays that charge a fee to view them.

A few weeks ago you may have watched a tree lighting. There was several in our area. There’s something magical about standing before an unlit tree and then watching the moment the switch is thrown and this magnificent tree lights up for the first time.

Remember when large department stores had the winter wonderland displays in their store windows? I arrived in Dayton too late to see the display at Rikes in downtown Dayton, but I’m sure some of you recall it fondly. Department stores still try to create visual displays for shoppers but nothing quite like that. They were magical and we watched in quiet wonder.

We have a similar opportunity to do that this morning. Before the rush of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day hits us, we have an opportunity this morning to view what Christmas really is. We have an opportunity to consider what Christmas is all about without all the distractions that Christmas brings.

That opportunity comes to us this morning as we ponder with Mary the announcement that she is going to be the mother of the Savior. The angel Gabriel shares with us exactly what Christmas is nine months before the first Christmas occurred.

So let’s watch it happen. Like a child standing before an outstanding Christmas display, watch with wonder!

Part I.

So, will there be a surprise under the Christmas tree for you, or do you know exactly what’s going to be there? There are pros and cons to both extremes. Some of you enjoy a surprise. There’s nothing quite like unwrapping a gift and being completely clueless about what it is. Then again, I’ll bet you’ve received more than one surprise gift that you never used. It happens. So, knowing exactly what’s inside the wrapping paper can be a good thing. You specified exactly what you wanted. You indicated color or model number or where to buy it. There will be no doubt about whether you’re going to enjoy that gift or not. It’s exactly what you wanted.

We don’t have to wait until Christmas to see what our God is giving us. Gabriel tells us exactly what to expect. Listen again to his words, “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.”

Those words are packed with Christmas truths for us to look at this morning. Watch with wonder as we look at each one.

While some parents spend months trying to choose a name for their unborn child, Mary didn’t spend a second on it. Gabriel told her that her Child’s name would be Jesus. In Hebrew his name would have been Joshua. The name Jesus means, “The Lord saves.” That says it all, doesn’t it? At Christmas God sent a Gift into the world not simply to occupy the world’s attention temporarily, but to do for every sinner what no sinner can do for himself. The Lord came to save sinners. That’s who this Gift is.

When Gabriel tells Mary that her Son will be great, he’s not kidding. The full-blown truth is that he will be the Son of the Most High. Seven hundred years earlier Isaiah had foretold that the Savior would be Immanuel, God with us. Gabriel’s words to Mary bring about the fulfillment of that promise. Think about this for a moment: when that conception occurred—and it could have happened while Gabriel was speaking to her or right afterwards—the Son of God was in Mary’s womb. Incredible!

But there’s more. “The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David.” We heard the Lord promising King David that very thing in today’s first lesson. God promised David a descendant who would rule forever. Did you ever consider that your child might become a king some day? Probably not. None of us are royalty. Neither was Mary. But God chose her to bring not just some king, but an eternal King, into this world. And wonder of wonders, God has brought you and me into his kingdom by faith in Jesus! We have a King who is committed to blessing us eternally.

Nine months later the angel appears in the night sky over Bethlehem and tells the shepherds their Gift has arrived. It’s exactly the one Gabriel had announced. His name is Jesus. He is both true God and true man, the eternal King promised to David. Don’t look for Christmas to be anything other than that. It doesn’t need to be anything other than that because Jesus is the only Gift we need.

Watch with wonder! Watch with wonder at the Gift God is sending.

This Wednesday night and/or this Thursday morning as you open the boxes with your name on it the following thoughts might run through your mind: “What is this and how do you use it? Well, it’s nice, but I already have one. I told him not to buy me anything that plugs into a wall socket. Nice, but it’s not my color. This will never fit me. Why did she buy this? We can’t afford it!” Believe it or not, there are some people who will react to the birth of a Savior named Jesus in much the same way. And that concerns us deeply. But it ought to appall us when that’s our attitude. We might not be so crass as to declare that we don’t need Jesus or he costs us too much, but if we start and finish celebrating Christmas without any wonder or awe that God would send such a Gift to me, to you, then we’ve missed the point of Christmas completely. Then it becomes just another holiday. Don’t let that happen! It won’t when you ponder why God had to send us his Gift. God had to come to us because we can’t go to him. Our sins have separated us from him. But he comes to us as our Lord, our Savior, our King. Watch with wonder!

Part II.

I’m going to guess that you don’t literally sit and watch for the Christmas gifts you’ve ordered online or over the phone to be delivered. Perhaps you hear the doorbell ring or you hear a package being placed at your front door, but you don’t sit and watch. I’ll bet that will change, though, if and when Amazon starts using drones to deliver packages. Then the delivery will be something to watch!

God didn’t send his Christmas Gift to us via UPS or FedEx. He didn’t even consider using a drone. He had something far more amazing in mind—the one and only virgin birth.

When Jesus carried out his ministry, many of his fellow Jews considered him only to be the son of Joseph the carpenter. Many still do. It will be that way until Jesus returns.

But it won’t change the fact that the virgin birth happened. God had promised it. One of the most well-known promises of the Savior came from God through Isaiah the prophet. “A virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel” (Is. 7:14). Isaiah spoke those words to a wicked king who refused to trust the power of God to protect his kingdom. God spoke these words to him to assert that he had far more in mind than just protecting his people with his almighty power. He would use that power to bring about a virgin birth.

I can’t help but wonder if Mary recalled those words as Gabriel spoke to her that day. Mary asserted before the holy angel that, indeed, she was a virgin. She knew her facts. She couldn’t understand how she could become pregnant. Gabriel informed her it would be by the power of the Holy Spirit.

And that’s how it happened. In some of the most astounding words spoken by a sinful human in all of the Bible, Mary stated, “I am the Lord’s servant. May it be to me as you have said.” It’s not likely that God waited to put his plan into motion. It’s not likely that the Holy Spirit delayed. In short order God fulfilled his promise and a virgin conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit. God became man. The holy God became our brother. If the virgin birth didn’t occur, then God is a liar. If the virgin birth didn’t occur, then we’re hopeless, helpless, Satan’s slaves forever.

But God didn’t send us his Gift in the ordinary way. Instead, it came via a virgin birth. Watch with wonder!

A gift tends to state something about what the giver thinks of the recipient. So what does the virgin birth state about what God thinks about you?

There are times when we wonder how God feels about us. When life has become unbearable, when we think we’re at the breaking point, we easily assume God has it in for us, that he’s getting even with us, that he doesn’t love us. If that were ever the case, then he wouldn’t have bothered to send his Christmas Gift to you. But Christmas proclaims God loves you. And just to make you sure how much he loves you, he sent his Gift in an astounding way—via a virgin birth so that you can be eternally confident that this Gift is not Joseph’s son, but God’s Son. And because he is God’s Son, he is your Savior.

Don’t miss seeing those saving truths unfold this week as you celebrate Christmas. Watch with wonder and be filled with faith and joy! Amen.