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Thanks, Paul and Lynn and Lydia. That was, uh, that was great singing, and I'm sure everyone else enjoyed it as much as I did. So we've been, uh, looking at First Timothy over the past few weeks, and we interrupt that for Christmas, and, uh, I guess that's okay because we're still going to speak from the Bible. Um, and, uh, next week we're going to continue the interruption with a new Year's message, but today it's Christmas. Um... and um... so I found a passage about Christmas, or at least that's associated with Christmas, and uh...
well, the word Christmas isn't really found in the Bible, and uh... I remember my dad saying, um, Jesus asked us to remember his death, not his birth. Um, but it's okay, even if it's more of a cultural thing than a Bible thing. Um, the Bible speaks about Christ's birth. Um, it talks about the birth of Jesus. It speaks, uh, certainly in Matthew and in the book of Luke about Christ being born, and why, why is it necessary for Matthew and Luke to record that?
Uh, perhaps for starters, there may have been some ideas going around in the early church or the early years of Christianity about who Jesus was, who Christ was. Perhaps some people thought he was, uh, as amazing as he was, and the following that he gained, perhaps he was an angel, perhaps he was more of a spiritual being, um, a divine being, and perhaps people needed to re- be reminded that he was a man, as well as divine, and that he was born as a human, that he was a baby, a child, a twelve-year-old, as we see in Luke.
He was physically born of a physical woman, and so we have that record. I'd like to look, uh, with you at, uh, part of the story, uh, in Luke chapter 1, so take your bibles or take your, take a borrowed Bible or take your device that has a Bible app and, and turn with me to Luke chapter one if you can, uh, and we'll look at a passage in Luke chapter one, And I think we'll find that, uh, some encouragement, something to learn from here.
And of course, these, these passages about the Christ's birth are, are fairly well worn. There's been a lot said about them. Perhaps I won't say anything new, but I think there's value anytime you have a chance to look at the word of God and to learn something from it, because God speaks to us through his word, and this Christmas, um... We're hoping for a good time. We're hoping for, uh, perhaps getting together with some family and loved ones, and, uh, to share some time and other things together, and, uh, perhaps for some of us, it's, it's, uh, there's some challenges that go along with Christmas time as well, some, some difficulties, and I think that as we look at some verses in Luke chapter one, we'll find that, uh, uh, despite the challenges that may come to us this time, that, uh, nothing is impossible with God.
And let's read in Luke chapter 1, verse 8. Once, when Zechariah's division was on duty and he was serving as priest before God, he was chosen by lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, to go into the temple of the Lord and burn incense. And when the time for the burning of incense came, all the assembled worshippers were praying outside. Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right side of the altar of incense. When Zechariah saw him, he was startled and was gripped with fear.
But the angel said to him, "Do not be afraid, Zechariah. Your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to give him the name John. He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth, for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He is never to take wine or other fermented drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even from birth. Many of the people of Israel will he bring back to the Lord their God, and he will go on before the Lord in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.
Over to verse twenty three. When his time of service was completed, he returned home. After this, his wife Elizabeth became pregnant and for five months remained in seclusion. The Lord has done this for me, she said. In these days he has shown his favor and taken away my disgrace among the people. 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 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 was 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. And the angel left her. At that time, Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea, where she entered Zechariah's home and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. In a loud voice, she exclaimed, Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear.
But why am I so favored that the mother of my Lord should come to me? As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed is she who has believed what the Lord has said to her will be accomplished. And Mary said, my soul glorifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant. From now on, all generations will call me blessed, for the Mighty One has done great things for me. Holy is his name. His mercy extends to those who fear him from generation to generation. He has performed mighty deeds with his arm.
He has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts. He has brought down rulers from their thrones, but has lifted up the humble. He has filled the hungry with good things, but has sent the rich away empty. He has helped his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful to Abraham and his descendants forever, even as he said to our fathers. I'd like to look at, uh, this passage this morning with you, and, um... and, uh, I think it'll be a, uh, an encouragement to us that, as the Bible says, as the angel said, nothing is impossible with God.
And that's true for us today. And it's a bit of a step sometimes to look at an ancient document like the book of Luke, and for us living in Edmonton in twenty fifteen to understand, for us to understand what that meant to them, what went on for them, what that meant for Elizabeth, what, what it was like for her, what, what it was like for Mary, that experience for her. And we have to look, uh, sometimes we have to look a little more carefully. Sometimes the things we read in the Bible are fairly straightforward, and sometimes we have to, uh, take a little bit of a closer look for us to understand.
And, uh... And so we have Zachariah and Elizabeth. Perhaps a little bit old. It says well along in years. Zechariah calls himself old, and it says they had no children. Um, and what does that mean for them? Um, I think it was a lot worse for them than it would be considered for us today and in the world, the world today, um, having children, uh, certainly in popular culture, I think nowadays, is, uh, a little underrated, maybe.
Uh, these are the days of, uh, contraception and abortion. Uh, so that tells us that some, a lot of people don't think children are that valuable, perhaps. But back in, uh, Elizabeth's day, Mary's day, and Zechariah's day, and before that, uh, children were valuable. You had children, in some ways out of necessity, because your children were going to take care of you later on, or were going to, um, make sure you were okay, or, or prolong whatever, if it was an occupation, if it was a mission, if it was a, uh, a battle.
Uh, children were seen as a necessity. Children were seen a- as a blessing. And so, uh, for a couple not to have children was, was, was not good. Coming into old age, it was, it was not good, and sometimes even more so for women. And, uh, that's not, it seems quite the same today, but for women it was, uh, it was, it was a terrible thing not to have kids because, once again, uh, they were dependent upon their kids, and in old age, what were you gonna do?
Widowhood, having no children, it was, it was bad news back in those days. And so we, we come to Elizabeth, and uh, it says she was barren. And then we come to Mary, and, uh, Mary was in a different situation, probably fairly young, and, uh, once again, things were different in those days. So it was different than today's engagement. It was different with Mary and Joseph. Um, in those days, an engagement, you call it a betrothal, or they were to be married.
It was more, uh, that was more of a... more of an official thing. It was more official, and if you were to break that off as we, if you were to look in Matthew, Joseph was considering that because Mary was with child. That was a scandal, and um... It was... You don't become engaged lightly. It was almost the same as being married. You'd have to have a divorce, even if you were engaged and not married, you'd, you'd pretty much have to have a legal divorce to, to be, to call that off. It's different than it is today. Uh, so Mary was in a diff- different position, uh, than we would find today.
Mary and Joseph were... were in a, were in a good position starting off, but as they went along and found themselves, uh, expecting a child before they came together, I expect things got difficult for them from there. People would quite likely look down on them, uh, uh, both Mary and Joseph, and uh, look down on their reputation and all the bad things you associate with, uh, uh, birth out of wedlock or single motherhood today, but worse.
Uh, any, any negative connotation, they would begin to suffer at this. And so that's, um, what we're looking at in the lives of Elizabeth and Mary. And, uh... As it turns out with Elizabeth, things started looking up. And so... we see in verse twenty five Elizabeth responding to what was promised by the angel, and she said, uh, in verse twenty five, the Lord has done this for me, she said, in these days he has shown his favor and taken away my disgrace among the people, because it was a disgrace for her not to have children.
And so, I think it's appropriate to, uh, take the message from the passage today. Nothing is impossible with God. Nothing is impossible with God because God's all powerful. So what is possible with God? I believe we're, uh, taught from this passage that new life is possible with God. And so it may be physical life in the case of, um, Elizabeth and Mary. We have physical new life. We, we have John, John the Baptizer coming. New life is possible with God.
And it's true for us today. New life is possible with God, not just physical life, but spiritual life. And so, when the angel spoke to Joseph in Matthew, he said that Jesus would save his people from their sins. And so, not only was this a new physical life, this was a spiritual mission that Jesus was going to undertake. So he wasn't so much a political leader that Joseph may have thought of the Messiah or a king in, in the line of David's throne, uh, not in the same way, certainly not right away.
And, uh, they may have been looking for a political leader or king in the Messiah. They may have been looking for, um, someone to save them from the evil Romans, just like many of us today look for political solutions to our problems, whether it's, uh, more government spending, someone to save us from the evil Stephen Harper or George Bush, or depending on where you sit, uh, someone to save us from, uh, the evil Hillary Clinton. But, uh, Jesus didn't come to solve a political problem. He came to save his people from their sins, and so new life is possible with God, especially spiritual new life.
And so, it is spiritual. That's what Jesus came to give us, spiritual new life. And Jesus told, uh, Nicodemus later on, and those of you who were, uh, here earlier this morning would have heard that whoever believes in Jesus shall have eternal life. John three sixteen. Um... Jesus offers eternal life. So new life is possible with God, spiritual new life, eternal life through Jesus. And... we need to repent and believe in Jesus.
We need to... uh, place our faith in Jesus. Repent and believe. Uh, our brother Luke says, let's not forget the repentance part of putting our faith in Christ. If we're turning toward the light, you can't really turn toward the light without turning away from the darkness. That's what repent means. It means turning in your ways. It means changing. It means a change of attitude. Repent and believe. Your faith is in Christ. You believe in who he is and what he's done on your behalf.
Believe in Jesus. Spiritual new life. New life is, is possible with God. Spiritual new life, and it is impossible without faith. As Hebrews says, without faith, it's impossible to please God. So it's faith on our part that matters, because our faith is in what Jesus has done. Our faith isn't in a bunch of things that we do. The only thing we do is repent and believe. And so it's not a list of do's and don'ts that we have to do.
It's not, uh... We're not achieving anything spiritually in order to come to Christ for our spiritual new life. And so it is spiritual new life, as Paul says, anyone in Christ is a new creation, Second Corinthians. New life is possible with God. And so nothing is impossible with God. New life is possible with God. We also see here that blessing is possible with God. Christmas Carol says his, says he comes to make his blessings flow far as the curse is found.
Blessing is possible with God. And if you take a look at verse forty two, El- Elizabeth says to Mary, blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear. And, um, in verse 45, blessed is she who has believed that what the Lord has said to her will be accomplished. Blessing is possible with God this Christmas. What kind of blessing? Uh, is it a blessing of, uh, Christmas presents?
Maybe it is, or maybe it isn't. Is it a blessing of health and wealth? Uh, maybe it is, or maybe it isn't. Uh, we're not really promised health and wealth. Uh, certainly not necessarily in the short term, but long-term blessings. Jesus says a little later on in Luke, blessed are you when men hate you, exclude you, insult you because of the Son of Man. And he says, rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven, for that is how their fathers treated the prophets. The blessing, uh, may not be in the short term.
Uh, in fact, it... sometimes following Christ makes things more difficult in the short term. Sometimes there's more suffering. Sometimes there are, um, insults. Sometimes we are excluded for our faith in Christ and, uh, taking steps of faith, um, spreading the good news. Sometimes people will hate us for that. The blessing is in the long term, and perhaps it's a good warning, um, about, uh, being drawn to short-term blessings. Certainly God is capable of blessing us anytime he likes, but we're encouraged to look at the long term.
Great is your reward in heaven if you're serving Christ. Not so much physical or obvious blessings, blessings that you see and hear necessarily. As it says, how silently, how silently the wondrous gift is given. So God imparts to human hearts the blessings of his heaven. Not so obvious, not so much in the short terms, but blessing is possible with God. What's possible with God?
New life is possible with God. Blessing is possible with God. Fruitfulness is possible with God, as we see from this passage as well. Elizabeth says, the Lord has shown his favor and taken away my disgrace among the people. So instead of disgrace, she now has fruitfulness in bearing a son. Um, she says, she says to Mary in verse forty two, blessed are you among women, blessed is the child. Uh, we apologize for the NIV in this verse.
Maybe should say blessed is the fruit of your womb. That sounds like a strange phrase, but we see that a few times in the Old Testament, and, uh, blessed is the fruit of your womb. So fruitfulness is possible with God. Um, the word that's translated as fruit, it gets translated more generally, and the idea is it could be a literal fruit or it could be figurative as well. It could be a crop, it could be some type of, uh, proceeds, or it could be some kind of profit or some type of benefit. Fruit, fruit of your labor, and that's, uh, pretty common to most English speakers as well.
And it's that sort of fruitfulness, long-term fruitfulness. Fruitfulness is possible with God. Not only the fruit of Mary's womb physically, uh, but spiritually. And of course, Jesus went on, and he went on to encourage his followers to bear fruit, to be fruitful, and he says in, in John chapter fifteen, he says, I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, long-term fruit.
And to bear long-term fruit as believers and followers in Christ, it's necessary for us to, as it says in John fifteen, to abide in Christ, to remain in Christ, to remain connected to Christ, and uh, that's a sermon in itself. But we see from this passage fruitfulness instead of barrenness, instead of disgrace, is possible with God. So, may that be an encouragement for us this morning, regardless of what our Christmas may bring, that, uh, nothing is impossible with God, even though, uh, for some of us, uh, no doubt, uh, we may face, whether it's at Christmas or beyond, some situations or some challenges that seem impossible.
Uh, whether it's, uh, getting together with some impossible relatives, um, maybe we're getting together with people that, uh, aren't believers, that don't share our faith. Uh, uh, it's perhaps not just a, in some case, personality difficulties, but people that fundamentally don't, don't agree, uh, that don't share our faith. Uh, how's that gonna be? How are we gonna interact? Is there gonna be something positive come out of that? Uh, and uh, nothing is impossible with God. Um, sometimes for some people, Christmas isn't as joyous as maybe it used to be, or they expect it to be.
For whatever reason, you- you're not with the, uh, same person or persons or people that, that brought you joy. Um, for some people, uh, unfortunately, maybe Christmas can be a lonely time because, uh, uh, once again, they're not with the people they would like to be with. Um, perhaps you've lost someone. Perhaps, uh, um, at a time where family gets together, the family's a little bit small. Sometimes the family's non-existent. Sometimes it's a lonely time, but it's not impossible for God to bless you, even in spite of that.
And, uh, perhaps people hear about Christ at Christmas time, but they're in reality quite a long way away from Christ. Perhaps they're not believers. Um, if anyone isn't a believer in Christ, you feel far away, but you can be brought near. It's not impossible. Um, new life in Christ is possible. Is possible for everyone who wants to receive it. Um... For those that have a challenging time at Christmas. For those that aren't, praise the Lord, and let's enjoy it.
For those that are. Ye beneath life's crushing load, whose forms are bending low, who toil along the climbing way with painful steps and slow. Look now, for glad and golden hours come swiftly on the wing. Oh, rest beside the weary road and hear the angels sing. Hear the angels speak. What is the angel saying? Nothing is impossible with God. Let's pray. Father in heaven, we thank you for that promise. We thank you for your word that encourages those who have been discouraged for a long time.
Your word encourages those who are poor in spirit, those who have difficult circumstances, those who perhaps have had disgrace, those who have suffered barrenness, those who have suffered a lack, those who are feeling insignificant, and we ask that, uh, that you would, uh, speak to them through your word, and you, you would help them understand that nothing is impossible with God, and they can have new life through Christ, they can have blessing, and they can have fruitfulness.
That everyone here would, uh, take the next few days and weeks and beyond, take the opportunities that you give us as believers, uh, to be light in your world, in the world of darkness, and that we may bear true spiritual fruit and fruit that would last, that you would make us a blessing, that you would help us, and that we would grow, and that we would cling to your word, be thankful for our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, and we ask this in his name. Amen.