DAY FIFTY-TWO: 

Gabriel's Message 

Luke 1:1-80 

The Annunciation, by Mary Henry

Yesterday we looked at the first chapter of John, where we learned about Jesus before He was born. He is, as the Nicene Creed puts it, "God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God; begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by Whom all things were made." With that background, we're ready to look at the historical record of how "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us." (John 1:14)

First, who is Luke? He wasn't one of the disciples. He was a friend and traveling companion of the Apostle Paul. Paul refers to him as "the beloved physician" in Colossians 4:14, and in 2 Timothy 4:11, written from prison, he said "Only Luke is with me." It appears that Luke accompanied Paul on his journey to Jerusalem and then on his voyage to Rome, as the narrator uses the word "we" from Acts 20 onward. As a physician trained in the tradition of Hippocrates, he learned the value of observation. We read in the first four verses that Luke set out to write "an orderly account" of Jesus' life and work. Acts begins with a similar introduction, both addressed to "Theophilus" (perhaps an individual, but more likely a general readership- the name means "lover of God").

This first chapter concerns the events immediately preceding the birth of Christ. The Angel Gabriel appeared to a priest named Zechariah as he conducted the daily ministry in the Holy Place (the part of the Temple between the outer court and the Holy of Holies, where a priest went in daily to refill the lamps with oil, replace the Bread of the Presence and offer incense to the Lord at the hour of prayer). We're told that Zechariah and Elizabeth are getting up in age and have no children. Most paintings show them as elderly people. But according to the Law of Moses, a priest had to retire from active service in the Temple at age 50 (Numbers 4:3), so Zechariah was in his late 40s. The honor of this service was decided by the casting of lots, and most priests never went into the Holy Place in their careers. While Zechariah was ministering he turned toward the altar of incense and realized that he wasn't alone! There stood an angel! The angel told him not to be afraid, that he was there to announce good news. He and Elizabeth would finally have a baby! You'll call him John, and his job will be to prepare the nation for the coming of the Lord. Great news! But then Zechariah went and opened his big mouth. "How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years." Hearing this from the mouth of an angel just wasn't enough for him. The angel replied, "I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I was sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news. And behold, you will be silent and unable to speak until the day that these things take place, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time." Gabriel means "warrior of God." Gabriel explained to Daniel what his visions meant (Daniel 8:16, 9:21). Because of his doubt Zechariah would lose his voice until all that was foretold happened. And in due time they gave birth to a bouncing baby boy whom they named, as Gabriel commanded, John. Then Zechariah could talk, and his first words in a year were well worth remembering! We'll look at them in little while.

Gabriel's next stop was Nazareth. He appeared to a virgin of marriageable age named Mary. Gabriel visited in the sixth month, in the Hebrew calendar the Month of Elul, which was late summer (August or September). Keep this in mind when we consider when Jesus was born. Mary was engaged to a man named Joseph. Engagement was as binding as marriage itself. Gabriel appeared to her and said, "Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!" And as you would imagine she was afraid! Gabriel went on, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 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." Wow! What an honor! But there's just one hitch: she's not married and she's never been with a man. So she asked how can this be? This question wasn't born of unbelief, like Zechariah's. She just has a question about what God wants of her. Gabriel told her "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God." God Himself will be the father, and Mary will bear His child. This Child will be both God and man. This will change Mary's life, and not necessarily in a good way. She's engaged to Joseph, and they haven't had sex. How will he ever believe that God is the father of her baby? Joseph would be hurt. she and her family would be disgraced, and if the people of Nazareth were in a stoning mood that day it could cost her life! But she trusted God. "Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word."

Gabriel left, but he had told Mary about Elizabeth. Now Elizabeth went into seclusion after the conceived, and Zechariah certainly couldn't tell anyone. So no one knew about this blessing they had received, except for Mary. Mary no sooner said "Hi!" than Elizabeth burst forth into a beautiful prophecy: "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord." This was exactly what Mary needed to hear! God really was behind all of this, and He would make it all work out. Mary responded with a wonderful prayer, praising God for what He is doing. Mary stayed with Zechariah and Elizabeth through the birth of their baby. That little unnamed town in the hill country of Judea was abuzz with the news of their child's birth. No one even knew that they were expecting! Everyone was there on the 8th day to celebrate at his circumcision. They assumed that he'd be Zechariah jr., after his father and probably his father before him. Elizabeth kept saying "No! His name is John." They asked Zechariah and he asked for a tablet (in those days probably a board covered with wax on which words were scratched with a stylus). He wrote "His-name-is-John." All of a sudden Zechariah's voice returned, and his first words were an amazing song of praise! "Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David, as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old..." A new day is dawning for God's people, and a new chapter in the story of how God is setting things right is being written!

Yesterday we saw in the abstract that God would break into our human existence. "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us." Now the specifics of the plan: The Holy Spirit would overshadow the Virgin Mary and she would give birth to God's Son. The doctrine of the Virgin Birth has always been controversial. Even in ancient times people knew enough about biology to know that's not how babies are made. And in the modern worldview the Virgin Birth seems even more absurd- absolutely unscientific! Nothing within the laws of nature allow for such an event. Like all the other miracles of the Bible the Virgin Birth is presumed to be impossible. There's either some natural explanation (like the Israelites crossed not the Red Sea but the Sea of Reeds, a series of shallow lakes, and just waded across) or the story is a myth, the product of human imagination. But what is the definition of a miracle? A true miracle is something that goes beyond the laws of nature to accomplish God's purposes. And true miracles are really very rare. People think that there were lots of miracles in the time of the Bible. But when you consider that we're looking at a sweep of nearly 4,000 years, God didn't very many miracles. God can achieve most of what He wants to accomplish through Providence, His control and arrangement of things within the natural order. It wasn't a miracle, for instance, that Jesus was born in Bethlehem. God put it on Augustus Caesar's heart to call for a census. But the Virgin Birth is a true miracle. It is contrary to what we know about reproduction, human or otherwise. There is no natural or scientific explanation.

This is how God chose to come into our world, so that He would be one of us. Is that so strange that we can't accept it? In Christ God walked in our shoes. He knows what our lives are like because He shared our existence. When Jesus went to the cross He knew just exactly why He had to die. He knew how crushing our sins are and how desperately we needed His forgiveness. Hebrews 4:14-16 says, "Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need."

Tomorrow we'll look at Luke's account of Jesus' birth, one of the most beautiful stories in all of literature. I'll leave you with a blast from the past, a trip back to the 90s. This top-forty song asks the question "What if God was one of us?" The Bible tells us that He WAS one of us. I'm not sure that the songwriter and singer understood the question as we do, but the pictures from the video, of all types of people from all walks of life, show us why God became man.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USR3bX_PtU4