WEBVTT 00:00:03.919 --> 00:00:07.519 Today we celebrate the Annunciation of our Lord. 00:00:09.359 --> 00:00:20.640 Since the early days of the church beginning in the sixth century, the body of Christ has celebrated when our Lord Jesus Christ was conceived. 00:00:22.719 --> 00:00:37.119 She recalls the Word of God spoken, the Holy Spirit overshadowing, the Virgin receiving, the eternal Son of God putting on human flesh, Emmanuel, God with us. 00:00:38.320 --> 00:00:46.240 And so the church commemorates the feast of the Annunciation of our Lord on this date every year. 00:00:47.200 --> 00:01:01.119 The day when the angel Gabriel brought the performative word of the Lord, which conceived the word made flesh nine months before his birth. 00:01:02.159 --> 00:01:16.400 So if the church celebrates the birth of our Lord on the 25th of December, it's only good, right, and salutary that the church should celebrate the conception of our Lord on the 25th of March. 00:01:18.079 --> 00:01:21.840 But why was this feast day so important to consider? 00:01:24.480 --> 00:01:29.760 Because it's important for you to recognize that God keeps his promises. 00:01:31.200 --> 00:01:40.719 Because it's important for us to see this promise kept at the moment that our Lord Jesus Christ was conceived in the womb of Mary. 00:01:41.840 --> 00:01:45.680 Because you can't have a birth without a conception. 00:01:45.920 --> 00:01:56.719 You can't have a God man without the word of God spoken and the Holy Spirit hovering over the one who would conceive and be eternally known as the Mother of God. 00:01:58.159 --> 00:02:16.639 And God tells us in Scriptures that Mary is what the ancients called Theotachos, which means the God-bearer, because the moment Mary conceived the word of the Lord, it was the moment she bore God in her womb. 00:02:17.919 --> 00:02:27.439 This is why her cousin Elizabeth exclaims upon her greeting later in Luke, Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb? 00:02:28.240 --> 00:02:37.199 And why is it granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? 00:02:38.560 --> 00:02:42.080 For what Lord is there to her but God Himself? 00:02:42.319 --> 00:02:50.080 And what else would John the Baptist leap for joy at the sound of Mary's voice than the appearance of Christ Himself? 00:02:50.479 --> 00:02:56.080 And what fruit of the womb would be so exalted but the promised Messiah? 00:02:56.400 --> 00:03:07.599 For the seed of the woman that God promised to Eve was fulfilled, and the one who would crush the head of the devil was now present in time. 00:03:10.479 --> 00:03:13.120 But maybe there's more for us to consider. 00:03:15.280 --> 00:03:36.479 We live in a day and age where everything around us is called into question, where every fact is broadcasted by television and proposed by social media feels so evilly contrived, where the seeds of doubt are planted by the voices and influences of a world directed by Satan. 00:03:37.520 --> 00:03:39.360 We need certainty. 00:03:40.159 --> 00:03:46.639 We need to hear the truth of God spoken and the promises of God kept. 00:03:48.400 --> 00:04:01.599 We need to be reminded of the promises that have no variation or change from the one who does not change with the seasons of culture or the whim of society or with the tide of trend. 00:04:02.800 --> 00:04:06.879 We need the seed of the woman promised right after creation. 00:04:07.439 --> 00:04:12.080 We need what Eve says in Hebrew, a Godman. 00:04:12.800 --> 00:04:31.439 We need one who can crush the head of the serpent, one who can destroy death on our behalf, one who can buy us back from sin, not with money or gold or jewels, but his own precious blood, one by whose stripes we are healed. 00:04:32.560 --> 00:04:41.120 We need the one that was begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made. 00:04:42.240 --> 00:04:43.759 We need Jesus. 00:04:44.959 --> 00:04:56.639 And so we remember on this day the annunciation of our Lord, the day that Gabriel brought the word of the Lord to the Virgin Mary promised by God long ago. 00:04:57.519 --> 00:05:07.519 The sign proclaimed to the face of King Ahaz, amid his cowardice heart and his evil ways, but nonetheless foretold. 00:05:08.160 --> 00:05:12.399 This sign not only for him, but for the people of God. 00:05:12.800 --> 00:05:17.360 This announcement not only for Mary, but for you and me as well. 00:05:18.160 --> 00:05:26.079 The sign and the promise, the Son of God is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. 00:05:27.759 --> 00:05:29.920 Man is sinner. 00:05:31.040 --> 00:05:33.279 God is perfect. 00:05:34.000 --> 00:05:39.519 Because of Adam, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. 00:05:39.759 --> 00:05:42.399 We're all born natural enemies of God. 00:05:44.560 --> 00:06:00.079 This is the reason Mary is troubled at the greeting of Gabriel, the angel of the Lord, at the sight of this heavenly being who is sent to deliver into her ears and into her heart God's perfect word for her. 00:06:01.360 --> 00:06:10.720 A sinless, holy angel that can stand in the presence of the Most High and live, but a sinful human fears for their life. 00:06:12.160 --> 00:06:28.160 She's highly favored, not because she's perfect or without sin, but because God chose her to carry God Himself in her womb at exactly the right time and the right place. 00:06:29.199 --> 00:06:32.639 She needn't fear, she needn't be afraid. 00:06:32.959 --> 00:06:46.160 God is not there to destroy her, but to fulfill his promise to mankind and to her, to you, to give her a future and a hope, and to you. 00:06:47.360 --> 00:06:53.439 For behold, she will conceive in her womb and bear a son, and she shall call his name Jesus. 00:06:53.759 --> 00:07:08.959 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. 00:07:10.560 --> 00:07:15.199 But this is far beyond Mary's comprehension. 00:07:16.160 --> 00:07:24.959 And so she asks the question any woman would rightly ask, How can this be, since I'm still a virgin? 00:07:26.480 --> 00:07:31.360 A maiden cannot give birth unless she is made one with a man. 00:07:32.720 --> 00:07:38.000 But she, like us, neither know nor understand the mind or the works of God. 00:07:39.040 --> 00:07:45.920 For his ways are not our ways, and his thoughts are not our thoughts. 00:07:47.279 --> 00:07:50.560 The Lord will bring about what he has promised. 00:07:51.040 --> 00:07:58.240 He will fulfill the word he speaks to his people, regardless of whether we comprehend it or not. 00:07:59.199 --> 00:08:07.839 So the angel of the Lord tells Mary, The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. 00:08:08.000 --> 00:08:12.800 Therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God. 00:08:13.439 --> 00:08:29.600 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. 00:08:31.680 --> 00:08:39.840 And Mary responds with the faith that the word of God created in her heart. 00:08:40.879 --> 00:08:48.960 Behold, I am the servant of the Lord, let it be to me according to your word. 00:08:51.759 --> 00:09:06.799 Elizabeth and Mary, two seemingly impossible conceptions, one lesser and one greater, one who was barren but conceived with a man, one a virgin but conceived with God. 00:09:07.120 --> 00:09:08.080 And why? 00:09:08.639 --> 00:09:12.159 Because nothing will be impossible with God. 00:09:14.000 --> 00:09:19.039 But what is impossible for man to do, it is possible with God. 00:09:19.919 --> 00:09:29.759 For man cannot atone for his sins with his own machinations, and it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to satisfy the payment of sin. 00:09:30.720 --> 00:09:39.440 We could not give one hair of our heads for it, or our entire lives of in servitude, in order to buy back ourselves. 00:09:39.919 --> 00:09:44.480 We lack what is necessary to appease God's wrath against sin. 00:09:45.120 --> 00:09:47.279 For the wages of sin is death. 00:09:47.600 --> 00:09:50.480 Payment must be made. 00:09:50.879 --> 00:09:53.440 Life is accountable. 00:09:53.919 --> 00:09:59.279 Man cannot pay its price, even if every one of us fell dead. 00:10:00.480 --> 00:10:07.519 If God did not break into time to pay this debt in our place, we would have no hope. 00:10:07.840 --> 00:10:11.600 Indeed, we would not have life or salvation. 00:10:12.000 --> 00:10:15.440 For who can stand before the most holy God and live? 00:10:15.759 --> 00:10:19.360 We are all sentenced to die eternally. 00:10:20.480 --> 00:10:25.200 But God does not desire the death of the sinner. 00:10:26.080 --> 00:10:29.600 Nor does he desire your life to end. 00:10:30.879 --> 00:10:37.039 Although you were born enemies of God, yet while we were still sinners, God loved us with an eternal love. 00:10:37.440 --> 00:10:45.200 Not because we were somehow more special than the rest of creation, each one of you, but because God Himself is love. 00:10:47.200 --> 00:11:06.000 Therefore we celebrate the Annunciation, the Word of God spoken, the Holy Spirit overshadowing, the Virgin receiving, the eternal Son of God putting on human flesh, Emmanuel, God with us. 00:11:07.759 --> 00:11:15.840 But what is even more is that the Lord brings this same word of promise to each one of you. 00:11:17.679 --> 00:11:29.440 Do not be afraid, for you have found favor with God, because He loves you and sacrificed Himself for you on the cross of Calvary. 00:11:29.840 --> 00:11:32.320 He has loved you with an eternal love. 00:11:34.000 --> 00:11:41.120 He took on human flesh for your sake at the moment the word of God was spoken to Mary. 00:11:41.440 --> 00:11:56.240 For the Lord's word is performative, it makes a thing what it is, it delivers what it says, it turns water into wine, it calms the stormy seas, it gives sight to the blind. 00:11:57.120 --> 00:12:08.080 And so it is his word that delivers the forgiveness of your sins to your ears and into your hearts when you are absolved of your sins. 00:12:08.960 --> 00:12:11.519 For nothing is impossible with God. 00:12:12.879 --> 00:12:27.840 So when you hear these words, I forgive you all your sins in the stead and by the command of my Lord Jesus Christ, here on earth, know that they are forgiven before God in heaven. 00:12:28.559 --> 00:12:36.080 And then with a faithful heart respond, let it be to me according to your word. 00:12:37.120 --> 00:12:39.759 For your Lord has delivered on his promises. 00:12:41.519 --> 00:12:43.279 In the name of Jesus. 00:12:43.600 --> 00:12:44.240 Amen. 00:12:47.919 --> 00:12:50.000 We continue with our hymn.