Refresh Church; Sunday January 26, 2020
Pastor Donnie Aldana
With God nothing is impossible
Luke 1:22-38
1. God fulfills His Word always
2. God takes the pain away.
3. Believe what God says you are!
4. Ask the Right question!
Luke 1:22-24
But when he came out, he could not speak to them; and they perceived that he had seen a vision in the temple, for he beckoned to them and remained speechless. So it was, as soon as the days of his service were completed, that he departed to his own house. Now after those days his wife Elizabeth conceived; and she hid herself five months, saying,
So, can you imagine his face? He was dumbfounded and he was probably answering questions with head nods. Yes, with his head going high to the sky and low to ground. And big no’s with head going parallel to his shoulders. Big head turns in both ways.
I’m sure this seemed like a big production. He would have been something to behold and not being able to talk, I bet it might have shaken the people. I bet he tried to talk and he was even frustrated by his words not being able to be spoken. This is a crazy scene. In verse 23 it even says that he completed the days of service and work. In spite of being touched by God and maybe not mentally strong since his meeting with Gabriel, he still completed his duty. Many of us have issues that limit us, but to the best of our ability we finish the duty. That’s so beautiful to see that one is called to duty and they finish the job. Love it. That’s one of our qualifications here, we need to start strong and we need to finish well. We want everyone here at ReFresh to finish well. The key to any kind of quality is consistency. Always has been and always will be- in life and in our walk with Jesus.
Point 1: God fulfills His Word always (comes from verse 24)
God told Zacharias that he would have son. As we get old in life maybe intimacy might slow down. It’s okay, can you imagine how this brother must have felt that maybe the next day, he and his wife showed their affection to one another that a baby would come from that! Don’t forget that his wife would not have known anything. She would have no knowledge of what was told to her husband by the angel Gabriel. He was made mute immediately. This is such a sweet story. Could you imagine the silent joy that would have been exuded in the inner man of Zacharias? I See him doing the jumping up and down scene in Elf when Buddy the Elf hears that Santa is coming, except it would have been silent. He probably grabbed her tightly and held her closely when she gave him the news. How sweet this scene would have been.
Moving on; Luke 1:25 says, “Thus, the Lord has dealt with me, in the days when He looked on me, to take away my reproach among people.
This brings us to our second point.
2.God takes the pain away.
I don’t how many of you have ever been a part or seen someone gain a victory, or be relieved of anything or have such tremendous joy over something that they knew was from God. Like when you go to an orphanage and you feed and give love to kids there. You go expecting to bless however we are the ones who get the blessing as we see the smile on their face and you realize how much you have been given. It’s such an amazing, beautiful thing to witness. Have you guys ever seen the video of the deaf baby who hears for the first time? Please you tube that when you get a chance. It’s a beautiful thing to watch. It’s like when a woman has a baby also. Somehow the pain is remembered but the baby is here and It’s so much better now. In the midst of the pain she knows there is a beautiful baby coming. The pain is worth the gain.
Let’ read…Luke 1:26-29
Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. And having come in, the angel said to her, “Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!” But [when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and considered what manner of greeting this was.
3.Believe what God says you are!
Could you imagine this? This is crazy. An angel comes and says “be so happy highly favored one”. Church this is not a positive confession or name-it-and-claim-it or blab-it and-grab-it type of comment here, but hear me now. God’s power and His Word over you is great and lovely and strong over you.
So, let’s talk a bit more about this. I find it interesting that we study the Bible and we read it for context but we don’t necessarily believe the words that were spoken by Jesus or letters written to us. How about God’s promises? What are some things that you think, “that can’t be for me, Can it”?
“Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father. John 14:12
“But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you. John 14:26
They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. Psalm 126:5
Promise are words and actions that speak into your life.
Whether or not they are true of you and/or you don’t understand, the fact is God says you are what He says you are. Whether or not Mary understood what was being said of her, it was true. She was and is highly favored. Please when you walk with God, your strength is found in Him. He is so in love and so happy with us. God loves you the same when you’re killing it or when your being lame. It’s all the same. What’s stopping you from believing what God says about you? It’s time to let it go and move on. Walk in victory, not in being a victim, walk in love and see who He will put into your life. You are highly favored. If you really think about it, you are a big deal to God. We are all big deals. I really mean this. Everyone remembers John 3:16. He loved us so much that he sent the plan by His son. Any parent in this room would not want to sacrifice their own kid for any one of us. It’s true, a story of truth set forth from the past personally for you and me. If you’re not humbled by that, I would ask that you speak to yourself about why that is really not a big deal to you. Let God love you.
Reading on…Luke 1:30-36
Then 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 bring forth a Son, and shall call His name Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give 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.” Then Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I do not know a man?” And the angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God. Now indeed, Elizabeth your relative has also conceived a son in her old age; and this is now the sixth month for her who was called barren.
4. Ask the right question!
Look at Mary here not doubting but asking the right question. She gets it. There has never been and never will be in the history of the world another human being born of the Spirit of God. She would have never have heard of that. It’s never been told. As a matter of truth. This is the sole truth of mankind. Larry king (famous talk show host of 15 years ago) said that if he could interview and put anyone under a lie detector test it would be Mary. He said if she’s telling the truth then the rest of Jesus’s story has to be true. We know that it is. This is the biggest fish story ever and we are the silliest people on the planet if this is not real and true. For me it’s easy, it’s real and true and these truths are self-evident in my life.
Back to the topic of Mary, she’s asking the right question, the Angel would know that she’s a virgin. The angel would know that she has been pure and she is a virgin. It’s true. It’s okay to ask God the real questions of our lives or how things are going to happen. He might speak to you or he may not, but that’s where the pureness of heart comes into play. If you expect God to be a genie in bottle and get what you want, that’s not him. If you expect Him to do things for you because you are super holy and super lawful, that’s not how He loves. But if you need Him, he will answer. Mary was not questioning as though she didn’t really think it was going to happen. She asked because she wanted to know if she needed to participate in any way in what God was planning with her life. Mary was a woman of Faith. All she wanted to know was- in all that God had in store for her- how could she best fulfill her role.
It’s says in Hebrews 11:1
Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of those things not seen.
NLT say it like this
Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see.
*That is a great description of Mary’s story right there, isn’t it?
Same book a few lines down the Word of God says in Hebrews 11:6-NLT
And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him.
Mary’s faith in God lead her to be rewarded to being the mother of our Savior. How awesome it that? For the next verse speaks truth about this and let’s read it…
Luke 1:37 “For with God nothing will be impossible.”
This impossible miracle speaks the truth of Jesus coming. This impossibility makes it real for us.
Can I give you a few deductive reasons why this impossibility is more than possible for us today?
A. It shows that salvation ultimately must come from the Lord. Just as God had promised that the “seed” of the woman (Gen. 3:15) would ultimately destroy the serpent, so God brought it about by his own power, not through mere human effort. The virgin birth of Christ is an unmistakable reminder that salvation can never come through human effort, but must be the work of God himself.
B. The virgin birth made possible the uniting of full deity and full humanity in one person. This was the means God used to send his Son (John 3:16; Gal. 4:4) into the world as a man. If we think for a moment of other possible ways in which Christ might have come to the earth, none of them would so clearly unite humanity and deity in one person. It probably would have been possible for God to create Jesus as a complete human being in heaven and send him to descend from heaven to earth without the benefit of any human parent. But then it would have been very hard for us to see how Jesus could be fully human as we are, nor would he be a part of the human race that physically descended from Adam. On the other hand, it probably would have been possible for God to have Jesus come into the world with two human parents, both a father and a mother, and with his full divine nature miraculously united to his human nature at some point early in his life. But then it would have been hard for us to understand how Jesus was fully God, since his origin was like ours in every way. When we think of these two other possibilities, it helps us to understand how God, in his wisdom, ordained a combination of human and divine influence in the birth of Christ, so that his full humanity would be evident to us from the fact of his ordinary human birth from a human mother, and his full deity would be evident from the fact of his conception in Mary’s womb by the powerful work of the Holy Spirit.
C. The virgin birth also makes possible Christ’s true humanity without inherited sin. all human beings have inherited legal guilt and a corrupt moral nature from their first father, Adam (this is sometimes called “inherited sin” or “original sin”). Let me add, you don’t have to teach a baby to be rebellious and to say no. But the fact that Jesus did not have a human father means that the line of descent from Adam is partially interrupted. Jesus did not descend from Adam in exactly the same way in which every other human being has descended from Adam. And this helps us to understand why the legal guilt and moral corruption that belongs to all other human beings did not belong to Christ.
This is why with God all things are possible
Luke 1:38 Then Mary said, “Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.
She accepted by faith the answer to her question. Let it be, I am a female slave, bondmaid, handmaid of the Lord.
So, think with me, did she think, “What is it going to feel like when the Holy Spirit comes upon me”? What does the Spirit look like, how will I know?
She understood; she met the angel. She was in fear but did not question. How amazing is this? Faith has power. Faith is real and is a muscle that must be worked out.
Let’s close with verse of faith.
Psalm 149:4
For the Lord takes pleasure in His people; He will beautify the humble with salvation.
This has happened now. Salvation is here.