Luke 1:26-38 Sermon for Dec. 21, 2025

In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man named Joseph, of the house of David. It says, “In the sixth month.” In the sixth month, Elizabeth was 6 months pregnant. This is what is referenced here. It then says that Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth. In the Bible, while there are many angels, only four have names that are known to us. First, there is Gabriel. His role was to be the messenger of God. Not only do we see him here in Luke, but we meet him in Daniel as well, specifically in chapters 8 and 9. Then we have the angel, Michael. Michael, whom we meet in Jude 9, Daniel 10, and Revelation 12, has the distinct role as a warrior and a protector. Then we have the fallen angel, Lucifer. In Isaiah 14:12, we read, “Shining morning star, how you have fallen from the heavens! You destroyer of nations, you have been cut down to the ground. Once exalted, he became rebellious and was cast out of Heaven along with 1/3 of all angels. And finally, we have Abaddon (Hebrew) or Appolyon (Greek), aka the angel of the Abyss, and his role is to bring judgment and destruction in the end times according to Rev. 9:11. Time doesn’t permit us to go through all the ins and outs of Angels here, but I thought it would be good to just give a quick primer. Gabriel is sent by God to deliver a message to a virgin in a town in Galilee called Nazareth. This virgin, Mary, was engaged to a man named Joseph. A quick word about Nazareth is that it wasn’t an impressive town. It was a modest village, overshadowed by a major Roman city known as Sepphoris. Sepphoris was wealthy while Nazareth was rural and poor. Nazareth is also rarely mentioned in historical sources because it’s a village that was eclipsed by other impressive cities. Its obscurity underscores the Gospel writers’ emphasis on Jesus’s humble origins. In fact, in John 1:46, you get the, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” question. And lastly regarding this verse here, Mary was engaged to Joseph. This engagement is different than how we would consider engagement today. Today, you get engaged, have a massive, get-into-debt wedding, and then consummate the marriage. For Mary, she was legally bound to Joseph in a covenant relationship called betrothal, though they did not yet live together and have not consummate the marriage. What’s important here for us is that marriage is when two people have the blessing from God to consummate the marriage and live together. Doing this outside of marriage is something that’s not blessed by God. In Jewish marriages, it came into two stages where there is the betrothal and then the marriage proper. Mary was also likely to be about 12-15 years old when she was engaged to Joseph. Alright, let’s continue. The virgin’s name was Mary. And the angel came to her and said, ‘Greetings, favored woman! The Lord is with you.’ But she was deeply troubled by this statement, wondering what kind of greeting this could be. Then the angel told her, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. Now listen: You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and his kingdom will have no end.’ Mary asked the angel, ‘How can this be, since I have not had sexual relations with a man?’ The angel replied to her, ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore, the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. And consider your relative Elizabeth- even she conceived a son in her old age, and this is the sixth month for her who was called childless. For nothing will be impossible with God.’ ‘See, I am the Lord’s servant,’ said Mary. ‘May it happen to me as you have said.’ Then the angel left her. Alright, now, let me say a quick thing about that title, Son of the Most High and then I’m going to give you 5 things I want you to walk away with tonight. Son of the Most High is a biblical title for God, emphasizing supreme authority. Jesus shares God’s nature. This term, this portion of Scripture also fulfills Old Testament prophecies that the Messiah would reign forever and it identifies Jesus as the long-awaited King. Look at what 2 Sam. 7:12, 16 says: “When your time comes and you rest with your ancestors, I will raise up after you your descendant, who will come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom…Your house and kingdom will endure before me forever, and your throne will be established forever.” One of the beauties of Scripture is the connectedness of it all. Prophecies written hundreds, if not thousands of years before, are now about to be fulfilled! And what’s important is that Jesus, to be born, will be king. And I know that we keep having protests across the country that are known as “No Kings” protests and I am here to tell you that you do have a king and His name is Jesus. There is an urgency to make this known. My prayer is that, if you do not yet know this King Jesus and if you have not submitted yourself to the ruling of Jesus as King over your life, my prayer is that you’ll do so soon. My prayer is that you’ll get right with the King. My prayer is that you can meet the King of grace right now instead of later when it’s too late and you meet the King of wrath. Every one gets one life to live and that’s it. Hebrews 9:27 says, “And just as it is appointed for people to die once- and after this, judgment.” There is this popular saying that’s been around for a while now and it goes like this: “Don’t judge me for only God can judge me.” Mam, sir…you do not want that. If you think judgement from humans is rough. It won’t compare to a judgment from God if you have not yet repented. So, please, meet the King Jesus full of grace now while you still can. With that said, here are four things for you to take home, think about, and wrestle with. 1. God initiates everything, including salvation. Listen, God sent Gabriel to Mary. God chose Mary. God appoints things. God is sovereign. God is King. And what’s important for you and I tonight to know is that God chose you for redemption. You can do nothing to bring this upon yourself. You might say, “Yeah but I responded to the invitation to accept Jesus as Lord of my life.” Sure, but God sent the Holy Spirit to convict you. God broke your heart of stone so that you could respond. John 6:44 says, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day.” John 12:32 says, “As for me, if I am lifted up from the earth I will draw all people to myself.” Why? So that man cannot boast. So that we may praise Him with our lips and our hearts. So that we will worship in full adoration. That is why I get so emotional thinking about what God has done in my life and what He continues to do. Mary was just living an ordinary life until everything changed. You were living an ordinary life until everything changed. Until the Holy Spirit renewed you. Ezekiel 36:26 says, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.” The second thing is this: 2. The Favor of God transcends status. God chose to lavish with his grace and mercy a young virgin from a town that supposedly nothing good could come from. Some of you in this room feel like you’ve got nothing good to offer God and you’re correct. Listen, I’m not gonna sugar coat things here. Some of us think we’ve got a foot in with God and you don’t. If God truly has saved you, He did it of His own will and grace alone. You’ve done nothing to earn it. And when we understand this, there is zero attempt to say, “Therefore, God owes me.” No, God owes you nothing. You can’t buy the grace of God. You can’t earn the grace of God. You can’t sustain the grace of God through your status or reputation with man. No, God has a habit of taking a nobody and turns them into a somebody without asking anybody. And rest assured that God can’t your screwed up past and current predicament and do something amazing with it. If you think you’re far too gone for God to do anything with, you’ve taken on too much power that isn’t yours. I think it’s extraordinary that God broke into humanity through one of the poorest villages around. The third thing: 3. Faith in the Face of the Impossible. The text tells us, “For nothing will be impossible with God.” Yes, this is directly referring to the announcement that Gabriel made that she will be pregnant with the Lord, yet, it is theologically true that all things are possible with God as long as it doesn’t go against His character. And some of you are in impossible situations right now. You don’t know what is going to happen. You don’t know how you’ll get through it. You don’t know how those mounting bills are going to be paid. You don’t know how you’re going to get out of an ugly situation. You don’t know how your marriage is going to be restored. You don’t know how you’ll overcome additions. You don’t know how you’ll pass the bar exam or the finals. And my personal favorite is this: you don’t know how God will use you to do mighty things with the screw ups you’ve got in your life. Yet, nothing you’re going through is a match or a challenge to God. However, when you’re walking through a life that’s sort of not going the way you would want or when life throws you a surprise of disruption, you’ve got two options in the face of trials: That’s to try and control things in your life and realize that that’s a futile attempt. You can try and be god yourself, which is in and of itself, frankly, a really stupid idea. I mean, let me ask you: how’s that working out for you? Trying to control all aspects of your life? It really isn’t working, is it? You and I have absolutely no idea what’s going to come or happen tomorrow? You can plan all you want. You can schedule all you want. You can think all you want. But life has a way of throwing you curveballs, whether good or bad. And, instead of responding with fear, or more control, or anger, or resentment, or bitterness, or despair… Respond the way that Mary did, which is my 4th and final point. 4. The Posture of Surrender. May it be so, Lord. This announcement no doubt turned her life upside down. I mean, it’s a good announcement, but now she has to explain to her fiancé that she’s pregnant, which we will talk about another time. She has to deal with the public scorn and shame and gossip from those who don’t know the full or true story. You ever been in that situation? Where people cast judgment on you without knowing an ounce of the story of what you’re going through? You’ve ever had people slander you and you’ve had to take on the repercussions of it? You’ve ever had people put unreasonable expectations on you and they just don’t know half the stuff you’re battling right now? To that, I say, “Surrender it to the Lord.” It doesn’t mean to minimize what you’re going through but it does mean that you can trust God to deal with it. You see, when we allow the enemy to keep you in a victim mentality, you’re allowing him to win because victim mentality robs you of victory in life. Now, this isn’t to diminish or deny the hardness you’re going through in life, but it is a loving way to say, “Don’t give the Devil the satisfaction of keeping you in shackles.” Rise up and surrender things to the Lord. It will do you no good to live in a poor me mentality. The enemy uses that to rob you of life. As I invite the worship back up here, it is a good reminder that this Christmas, we celebrate an ultimate victory of God coming to be with us out of His great love for us. And He’s come for the sole mission to do for you what you and I couldn’t do ourselves and that’s to redeem us and give us everlasting life.