First Baptist Church of El Dorado - Sermons
Tune in each week as Pastor Taylor Geurin leads us into a study of God's Word.
First Baptist Church of El Dorado - Sermons
An Unlikely Arrival: Exploring the Advent Story Through New Eyes | Luke 1:26-38
Have you ever pondered the astonishing events that mark the beginning of the Christmas story? Join us as we explore the Advent season by stepping into the narrative of Jesus's birth from a fresh perspective. We'll navigate the themes of "Arrival" and "An Unlikely Announcement and Response," focusing on the angel Gabriel's unexpected message to Mary and the profound faith she displayed. This episode promises to illuminate how God's extraordinary plans often unfold in the most humble circumstances, reminding us that familiarity can sometimes blind us to the true wonder of the story.
As we journey through the miraculous events in Bethlehem, our conversation touches on the unlikely visitors, such as shepherds, who symbolized God's unique plan. By examining Mary's story, we highlight how God can use anyone, regardless of their worldly status, for His divine purpose. Reflect on the eternal hope and promises fulfilled through Jesus's life, death, and resurrection. As we enter the festive season, we encourage you to contemplate the personal significance of knowing Christ and challenge yourself to embrace the timeless message of Christmas with renewed faith and joy.
1st Baptist, baptist El Dorado, will you join me now in listening to our sermon from this week If you'll turn in your Bibles to Luke, chapter 1,? We have already had our text read this morning. We're in today Luke 1, 26 through 38. As we begin a series today that walks us through Advent, called Arrival, talking about the arrival of Jesus, the first arrival at Bethlehem some 2,000 years ago. There is another arrival that will come in the future and we await that day and we say come, lord Jesus. But for now we discuss the arrival that has already come in these weeks leading up to December the 25th, and so I'm excited about the weeks ahead. And today I want to talk about an unlikely arrival. An unlikely arrival. Let me pray for us and we'll begin. Lord Jesus, thank you for your word. Would you speak, move and transform? This morning we ask this in Christ's name, amen.
Speaker 1:Familiarity with anything can be a really good thing. It can also become a dangerous thing. Familiarity, it's a good thing. It can be a dangerous thing If you've ever maybe read a book that you love many, many times, to the point where you don't really want to read it anymore. An album you bought, a movie you've seen and you know every line, you know every word to the point where, if it comes on, you don't really even recognize it's even on, it's just kind of background music. At this point you have a familiarity with it To our kids still in the room. You have a familiarity with Christmas Eve and all that comes with it. Maybe you're like me as a child. You know what is involved in Christmas Eve. You know you'll come here for the service. You know you'll go have dinner with family. You know maybe you'll read the Christmas story together, maybe you'll set out milk and cookies, whatever that looks like at your house. But because of your familiarity with what happens the next morning, it may be dangerous because you'll struggle to get to sleep. I remember laying in bed for hours wondering how in the world am I going to get to sleep Some nights, christmas Eve, thinking, do I just need to stay up? Go into my parents' room far too early, far too early to invite them to join me and wake up with me.
Speaker 1:But familiarity with all that's going on can be dangerous at times and as we come to this series and we look through the Christmas story and these stories leading up to Christmas, it may be that you have some familiarity with these stories. It may be that you've heard them before. It may be that you've heard them 10,000 times before. And, side note, if you've never heard any of them before, I want you to know. You're in the right place today. This is for you, this is for all of us. But maybe you know these stories very well, and that's a good thing. But there's also this temptation to just pass through them again, just to say I kind of know how the story goes, I know how they get to Bethlehem. I know that there's some shepherds that come and just kind of say I've been this way before. But I encourage us in these weeks ahead to maybe see these passages with fresh eyes, to see what the Lord has for us this time around, and look with me at an unlikely arrival, as we begin really with an unlikely visit. Look with me in verse 26.
Speaker 1: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. So, first of all, the text begins in the sixth month. In the sixth month of what? In the sixth month of actually one of Mary's relatives, elizabeth's pregnancy. There's really two arrivals that are announced in Luke, chapter 1. The first one, gabriel, comes maybe to the person we'd a little bit more expect In the beginning of chapter 1, we see that Gabriel comes to Zechariah.
Speaker 1:Now Zechariah is the priest. That makes sense that the angel would visit the priest. Where does he visit Zechariah? He visits the priest in the temple. The priest is offering incense, doing what priests do. That kind of makes sense. If you're going to think of Gabriel coming and announcing anything. The priest in the temple seems like the right place. But we're going to compare that in a moment to a different arrival in chapter 1. But it just so happens that the angel tells Zechariah that his wife Elizabeth, who was barren, could not have children, is now pregnant. She will give birth to a son named John. This is John the Baptist, the one who was promised to prepare the way of the Lord. So there's this first announcement of an arrival. But in the sixth month of Elizabeth's pregnancy we now see another announcement, another unlikely arrival, because the angel Gabriel, as we see in 26, was sent from God he's busy in chapter one to a city of Galilee named Nazareth.
Speaker 1:Now, it's likely that Luke had to get pretty specific here. Luke is a Gentile, a doctor, a physician, also a historian, the writer of this gospel. Physician, also a historian, the writer of this gospel, and he's writing, likely, to a Gentile audience, and it may be that they didn't quite know where Nazareth was. So he said, hey, it's in the region of Galilee. And if you kind of know where that is on the map, there's this town, this little bitty town called Nazareth. I remember getting to college freshman year and you'd meet all these new people and you ask where they're from and they, you know, some would tell you this like tiny town of 150 people. But you want to, you know, you want to connect with and say, hey, what's the, what's the closest little bit bigger town to you? And then they tell you a town of 250 people next door and you said, well, what state is it in? Well, what can, what can we work with? Nazareth is one of these places that, if it's brought up, you might not know where it is. We think that maybe Nazareth had 400 to 500 people. If you come to the gift next week or to our Christmas Eve service, we're going to have a Nazareth in this room. We're going to have a Nazareth in this room. It's not a super large town.
Speaker 1:It's never mentioned in the Old Testament. Think about the Old Testament and these lists of people and places. Nazareth isn't even accidentally brought up in any of those places. It's never mentioned in the Old Testament. In John, chapter 1, jesus is calling his disciples and Nathaniel runs to Philip and says Philip, we found the one we've been waiting for. It's Jesus of Nazareth. And what's Philip's response? Can anything good come out of Nazareth? It's kind of a nowhere place.
Speaker 1:It's a nowhere town, and in the middle of nowhere to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, there's this virgin girl named Mary. Now, in verse 27 it mentions twice that Mary is a virgin and Luke does not want you to miss that because that has everything to do with the miraculous nature of what's about to unfold. But there's this we imagine teenage girl named Mary who is betrothed to a man named Joseph. He's a carpenter in Nazareth and Mary is betrothed to him. The betrothal process is somewhat like our engagement, with a little more legal standing behind it about a year-long process. But the wedding ceremony comes at the end of that process. The consummation of the marriage comes at the end of that process. But during that time they are legally bound but not quite married yet. But Mary is betrothed, is engaged to Joseph. And look at this of the house of David. Now we'll see in a minute just how important that little fact is, but I don't want you to miss this.
Speaker 1:This is a teenage girl engaged to a carpenter in the middle of Nazareth, somewhat a nowhere town, somewhat what the world would call insignificant. Can anything good come out of Nazareth? Could God do anything with anyone in a place like Nazareth? But I want us to see this morning in the kingdom of God, there are no forgotten people. There are no forgotten places. In the kingdom of God, there are no forgotten people. There are no forgotten places. Think about it.
Speaker 1:This morning, all through Scripture, we see the story of what the world would call insignificant people and places that God uses for his glory. In fact, god almost exclusively uses the seemingly forgotten so that he can be most glorified. Think of Joseph. Joseph sold into slavery. He finally gets a break in Potiphar's house, but then that goes south, not of his own doing. He's sitting in prison for a very, very long time, probably wondering am I forgotten? And yet in God's good time, he raises him up. I think about Moses, who gets into a little bind in Egypt and so he flees to the wilderness, the place of forgottenness, but yet God sends this burning bush and finds Moses in the wilderness to raise him up for his glory. I think of someone like Ruth, this Moabite woman who is married to an individual but he passes away. Her father-in-law passes away and it's just her and her mother-in-law and they're kind of taken on the world by themselves, seemingly forgotten, and yet God does a mighty work.
Speaker 1:I think about David. David, when Samuel comes to the house of Jesse to find the next king, jesse lines up his sons, one by one, the ones who look the part, the one who are so impressive. He lines them up and Samuel says none of these guys are the king. And Samuel says are there any more sons here? And Jesse says well, there's one out in the field, but you probably don't want anything to do with him. And Samuel says well, bring him in, I'm not leaving until you bring him in. And who does he bring in? He brings David, the future king of Israel. These are forgotten people in forgotten places, and yet in the kingdom of God no one is forgotten.
Speaker 1:I wonder if there's been a temptation in your own life to at times feel a little bit forgotten. Maybe the story of your life, in one way or the other, hasn't quite gone the way you thought it would. Or there's been seasons of joy, but you've also had some seasons of difficulty where you had to wonder God, have you forgotten me? God, do you hear from me? Are my prayers reaching you? Are they falling short? Do I feel a little bit forgotten?
Speaker 1:I'm thankful that we serve a God that does not forget. He doesn't lose sight of you, he doesn't leave you just sitting in his inbox an unread message. He knows you, he knows you well, he knows your circumstance. And though the world at times might call us forgotten, though the world at times might say, hey, can God really use Taylor? Can God really use you? Can God really use you? Can God really use you because of your experience or past? Or can God use your gifts and ability? We serve a God that can do what he wants with who he wants. We serve a God that brings glory to himself by using anyone and everyone for his glory. That's the good news we see here. In the kingdom of God there's no forgotten people. There's no forgotten places. So we see an unlikely visit.
Speaker 1:Now we see an unlikely announcement Verse 28,. He came to her and said Greetings, o favored one. The Lord is with you. The angel says Mary. We see from the rest of the text and from her prayer later on in this chapter she knows her Bible, she knows the Scripture, she knows the Old Testament, she knows what it means to be one who is favored by God, she knows what it means to be called one for whom the Lord is with. But she probably knows this that those people she reads about in the Old Testament, who have the Lord's favor placed upon them, who are known by God, those are like the big names of the Old Testament, those are like the big people, those are the impressive ones that we read about and we tell our kids about in Sunday school. And yet now Gabriel's in my living room in the middle of nowhere, nazareth telling me that I'm a favored one, that the Lord knows me. This all seems very unlikely in the world's eyes. Verse 30,. The angel said to her do not be afraid, mary, for you have found favor with God. This favor not based on Mary's doing. Mary didn't earn this favor. This favor was placed on her by God for God's glory.
Speaker 1:Verse 31, 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. Imagine with me, you're a teenage girl in Nazareth and Gabriel comes to your living room and tells you this piece of news, this piece of news first of all and Mary will ask about this, I mean, you'll conceive in your womb. We've got biological questions that must be answered and that'll be asked in a moment. But let's get to the theological here. You're going to call his name Jesus, but look now at 32 again. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. Well, who is the Most High? That's God. That's the God Mary worships, that's the God you and I worship. And so this is the son of the most high. This is the son of God who will come from my womb, and the Lord will give to him the throne of his father David. Now we saw a moment ago that Joseph, from his line, is descended from David. So Jesus, humanly speaking, is from the line of David. Now why is this important? It's important because in 2 Samuel, chapter 7, god makes a really big promise with David that from the line of David an eternal king will come, that from the line of David an eternal king will come, that someone will come forth, a son of David, who will sit upon the throne forever, and this house will be established, this kingdom will be established, this throne will be established forevermore. And so now Gabriel is coming to Mary and saying hey, this son who will be born to you, that's who. This is the son of God, the one who will sit on the throne of his father, david, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, over the people of God and look at this and of his kingdom there will be no end. And so this baby who is coming is one who will reign eternally. This is big news. This is quite the announcement for young Mary here in a town called Nazareth.
Speaker 1:I'm so fascinated by what's next, verse 34,. And Mary said to the angel how will this be, since I am a virgin, now, angel. How will this be, since I am a virgin? Now, that's a good question. That's the right question. That's what we're all wondering. God, how is this actually possible? How are you going to do this? This doesn't quite make sense. But I'm interested in this that even in Mary's questioning here, I actually see a mountain of faith in the life of Mary.
Speaker 1:Think about this for a second. Mary, this young girl in Nazareth, has just been told that she will bring forth a son. He'll be the son of the Most High. He'll sit on the throne of David. He'll reign over the house of Jacob. His kingdom will have no end. And here's what's fascinating. Mary's okay with the theology. It's just the biology I've got to figure out. Nothing in Mary's life says about the theology of this that this can't be done. There's nothing in Mary that leads her to say God, how in the world are you bringing the son we've been waiting for? How is this going to be the one who reigns on David's throne? How is he going to reign eternally, forevermore? She doesn't ask those questions. She just asked the practical question of God. Quite literally, how is this possible? I actually see a mountain of faith in this moment on the part of Mary. God, I trust you that you can do it. I trust you to be able to do it. Just tell me exactly how are you going to do this.
Speaker 1:Mary's a virgin. She hasn't known a man, she hasn't known Joseph. So how will this happen? Verse 35,. The angel answered her. The Holy Spirit will come upon you. The power of the most high will overshadow you. Therefore, the child to be born will be called holy the son of God. How will this happen? The Holy spirit will make it happen. The holy spirit will come upon you.
Speaker 1:The doctrine of the virgin birth. It really is an important one, because it shows us the miraculous nature of what's going on. This is not just the work of mere humans. This is God intervening in human history in a way that has never happened before, hasn't happened since. This is the work of God, in this moment, that the Holy Spirit will come and place this child into the womb of Mary, and from her womb this child will come into the world.
Speaker 1:Verse 36, and behold, your relative, elizabeth, in her old age, has also conceived a son. This is the sixth month with her, who was called barren. Gabriel's telling her God is already up to some impossible things. God is already at work in this moment. In your relative, elizabeth, the one who is barren is now having a child. How can that happen? How can this situation happen? Verse 37, for nothing will be impossible with God. Here's the good news In the kingdom of God, nothing is impossible, even the impossible things, even what you and I call the absolute impossibilities in this world that we would move well past unlikely and say that God is an impossibility, god says actually, I can handle it.
Speaker 1:All throughout Scripture, think about the barren women of Scripture, all the patriarchs Abraham, isaac, jacob, their three wives, sarah, rebecca, rachel, all barren, all barren. At the very time God think about, told Abraham from you, I'm going to make a family and a nation, and at the time he's nearing 100 years old and his wife is nearing that age and is also barren. This is impossible. Yet nothing is impossible with God. Think of Hannah praying in the temple, first, samuel 1,. Day after day after day, she's barren, she wants to have this child, and then God comes and gives her Samuel. Why? Because nothing is impossible with God and all throughout Scripture.
Speaker 1:Again, we read Scripture about God doing the impossible things, and we've talked about this before that I'm convinced that God stacks the deck against himself If things are unlikely. He puts things in place to make it impossible so that the impossible can be done, and that you and I have nowhere else to look but to him, to say to God be the glory, great things he has done, because I couldn't do it, because you couldn't do it, because only God can do it. Only God can bring life from a virgin's womb, only God can bring God himself in flesh into the world to save us. It's an unlikely announcement. But then we see this an unlikely response, an unlikely response from a young girl in the town of Nazareth. Mary's asked one important question God, how is this going to happen? But don't you know?
Speaker 1:Maybe in this moment, maybe in the days following she had many more questions, a lot of the practicalities of this. What does this look like? Probably a lot of concern. What does this look like for me and Joseph? Probably a lot of concern. What does this look like for me and Joseph? How in the world do you come before Joseph and explain any of this? Joseph, we're betrothed and I'm pregnant. That's hard news to hear. Joseph could have been done with her. Joseph could have brought her before the town and embarrassed her and told the whole town what she had done. There's so much that could have happened to this young girl who now finds herself pregnant.
Speaker 1:But now look at verse 38. And Mary said Behold, I am the servant of the Lord. Let it be to me, according to your word, the angel. And the angel of the Lord departed from her. Behold, I am the servant of the Lord. Let me tell you what Mary did in response, this unlikely response. Mary pulled out her checkbook and started filling in the date, her name paid to the order of the Lord, god. But where it was time to put a number there, she just left it blank. She slid it across the table to the Lord and said here's the blank check and whatever it looks like, whatever it costs all these unanswered questions, whatever your answer is, in your good time, god, I'm just putting my yes on the table now and I'll let you answer the questions as this thing goes forward. Why? Because I am the servant of the Lord. So, god, I'm just placing this in your hands.
Speaker 1:I think about our own lives. I think about the fact that there is a who that can encourage us even when we don't know the where, the when, the why, the how. There is a who that we can trust, even when none of our other questions are answered. That's what Mary's doing here. She probably has a thousand more questions. She's probably thinking about what's ahead and yet, because she knows the who of this story is faithful, she knows I can trust him with the where, the when, the why, the how.
Speaker 1:I think about our own lives, I think about your own lives and maybe the impossible circumstances that you feel like lie ahead. Maybe the impossible circumstances, maybe as the calendar hit December. This morning there was a little bit of sorrow there as you're heading into maybe your first Christmas season without that loved one and you don't know what this will look like. What do we look like when traditions look different than they used to? What do we look like when this individual isn't in the chair? They're always in at the holidays. What does all this look like? Maybe the impossibility is, as you know. I know my family has done in the past with loved ones, but spent holidays in hospital rooms. And, lord, how is this all going to pan out? What do these days ahead look like?
Speaker 1:Maybe the impossibilities of prayers you've brought before the Lord and wondered, like we talked about earlier. God, can you hear me? Am I forgotten? God, are you going to answer these prayers? Or at least show me, lord, some sign of life that you're hearing me and we're bringing these prayers before God? And all of these situations seem impossible and we wish God would just show us the steps ahead and maybe start putting the puzzle together and give us the blueprint so we can know what's next. But even in those moments, can we trust the who? Even when we don't have the where, the when, the why all figured out? Can we trust the character and the faithfulness of God, even when everything else might not make sense? At this exact moment, even when God has not answered every question and there's a lot of questions to be answered can we trust the who?
Speaker 1:Because the reality is this in the kingdom of God, promises are kept, promises are kept. Gabriel made some promises this day, god, through Gabriel, that you're going to have a son, coming of the Holy Spirit, will sit on the throne of David, will reign forever, whose kingdom has no end. And every one of those promises was kept. That nine months later in the town of Bethlehem, and even when the hotel manager said we can't come in here tonight, there was a place out back for him and this little baby was born, where promises were kept, as 33 years later, this little baby grew into the man Jesus Christ and took our sins upon himself, and even the promise of our salvation was fully kept as Christ Jesus died on the cross for sins and went to the grave. And then here's what's interesting, the most unlikely story of all in the world's eyes, because dead men don't come back from the grave. 33 years after this moment, christ Jesus rose from the grave to defeat sin and death. Promises kept once again by the Lord God. In the kingdom of God, promises are kept, and so in your own life, I just think about this that if God can keep the ultimate promise of the coming redemption of all mankind and the redemption of you for your sins and your forgiveness, if God can keep that grand promise, I think about this, that any of these other things I bring before him, no matter how big, no matter how small, I can trust the who, even when I don't have everything else figured out, because in the kingdom of God, promises are kept.
Speaker 1:In these coming weeks, the unlikely nature of this arrival is not going away. In fact, it gets more and more unlikely. I don't want to spoil things, but next week we'll see the story of Jesus' birth. That's fairly unlikely in and of itself. They find themselves to this town of Bethlehem, this child comes, and then the next week we see this unlikely moment where the shepherds come. That's an unlikely visitor on the first night of the birth of the king of the universe. But all throughout this, the unlikely nature, at least in the world's eyes, is not going anywhere, because I'm convinced of this, in the kingdom of God, god gets the glory by doing what only God can do. God gets the glory by doing what only God can do, and at Christmas we simply celebrate this that God has done what only he can do. When you and I needed salvation, god did what only God can do and God sent his son, god himself, to us in the person of Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1:I wonder this morning, as we begin this month of December, december, as we think of the birth of Jesus. We even use Christmas at times to look towards Easter, as we've already done this morning. I wonder in this moment if, at the beginning of this Advent series, it may be a day for you to come to know this Christ personally. That maybe today is an unlikely arrival for you, that maybe today is an unlikely arrival for you, that it's an unlikely arrival that you find yourself in this place at this moment, at this time, and the Spirit is speaking to your heart. Today, I hope you'll come talk to me. You don't have to talk to me to come to know the Lord, but I'd sure love to talk to you about it. Maybe you want to join our church family. Maybe you want to make this church your home. Maybe you want someone on our staff to pray with you. However, you'd like to respond, I hope you will respond and I hope that, as we begin our Advent season, that you will consider over and over again this unlikely Savior, who came to an unlikely individual in an unlikely town, and yet, in God's sovereign plan, promises were kept.
Speaker 1:Christ has come, and that is our hope. In this Advent season, let's pray together. Lord Jesus, thank you for the hope of the gospel. Thank you that in your kingdom, we are not forgotten. In your kingdom, promises are kept. In your kingdom, nothing is impossible. Lord, we give you praise for that reality. I just pray.
Speaker 1:At every time of the year, lord, we celebrate the Savior. Every day of the year we celebrate the Savior, but certainly here in this month of December, in these days of Advent, would we take time to consider just how much you love us, that you would send your son to us to be born of a virgin, to live a perfect life, to die the death that we deserve, to be raised from the grave, defeating sin and death. Lord, we are so unworthy of that. But, lord, at this time of year and every time of year, we celebrate what you've done. Lord, if there is one who needs to respond now, I pray that they would come. Lord, let us worship you now and I pray this in Christ's name Amen. Would you stand and I'll be down front.