Luke 1:26-38 – Listen!

Luke 1:26-38 – Listen!

By Pastor Lee Hemen

December 4, 2022

One of my least favorite Christmas songs is “Do You Hear What I Hear?” Sorry if it is one of your favorites, but I’ve never liked it that much except for the last verse when the King commands, “Listen to what I say! Pray for peace, people everywhere! Listen to what I say! The Child, the Child, sleeping in the night He will bring us goodness and light, He will bring us goodness and light.” Now don’t get me wrong the message of the song is great, the night wind whispering to a little lamb about a “star with a tail as big as a kite.” The lamb asking a shepherd boy if he can hear the same song he hears, and the shepherd boy asking the mighty king, “Do you know what I know?” Now if you listen closely at the words, you will notice that each phrase is contingent upon one thing: listening!

In our day and age where everything demands our immediate attention it is often hard to get people to simply listen. In the verses we will look at this morning we will notice that the one thing Mary had to do is listen. And what she hears changes not only her life but ours as well. As we take a closer look at this week in Advent, we will learn to listen to the voice of the Lord in our lives. Let discover what Mary listened to, shall we?

Responsive Reading – Luke 1:26-38

Listening is a difficult skill to learn for some of us. My mother used to ask us all the time, “Are you listening to me?” To make sure we were, she would often want us to repeat back what she had just told us. Like Mary, we need to…

I. Listen to the message God has for us!

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 greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. (Luke 1:26-29 NIV84)

  1. God’s messenger, Gabriel is sent to the tiny town of Nazareth to a young girl who was already pledged to be married to a man named Joseph. Most of us are familiar with the story. But can you imagine what occurred? Here is a young girl, perhaps only 14 years old, who is in the process of getting ready to be married. She is already pledged, so it was quite serious. In fact, for all intense and purpose she is a married woman. And this young girl is given a message by a messenger from God! Now I do not know about you but this would be pretty startling for anyone. Yet this young girl has the maturity to listen to the words of the messenger’s greeting. She had found favor in the eyes of the Lord God! Like Noah, Moses, or Abraham before her, this little girl had God’s esteem; Mary had found grace in the eyes of the Lord! Mary understood what that meant but she was “greatly troubled at his words”. Why? Simply because she “wondered what kind of greeting this might be”! Mary listens but what she heard did not make any sense because how could a young woman in a backwater village find grace with God, and that He would send one of his messengers to her? Her ears heard the message, but her mind simply could not conceive what it might mean for her life! And isn’t this often the case when God speaks to us? We hear the message, but we may not fully understand what it means for our lives. God speaks to us through the Holy Spirit in our lives through His word, through our prayers, through fellow believers, and through our life experiences but are we actually listening to what God is trying to tell us? Like Mary we need to listen to the message God has for us!

EXAMPLE: I often find humor in the pages of Scripture. Remember when Elisha ran from Jezebel and God found him hiding in a cave? Here is this great man of God who faced down 450 false prophets of Baal, destroyed them all by calling down fire from heaven, but ran from one woman and is found cowering in a cold, dank, cave! God sends a mighty wind, then an earthquake, and finally a great fire but God is not in any of these but instead He is found by Elisha in “a gentle whisper”. Like Mary, Elisha needed to listen to the message God had for him. When life gets way too complicated and noisy it can be hard to find a quiet time to listen to the Lord, but right now, today, during the hustle and bustle of the holiday season we need to, like Mary, listen to the message God has for us!

We all have some kind of plans for our lives. College, perhaps a trade school, or maybe even starting your own business! Getting married, having children, or traveling around the world doing missions or ministry! Perhaps even retirement. Some of us old folks will tell you that life has a way of throwing curve balls and just like Mary…

II. What we hear from God may not always be what we want!

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." (Luke 1:30-33 NIV84)

  1. In the midst of Mary’s concern, God is right there by her side providing the peace that surpasses all understanding. His messenger who has stood before others, now stands before the mother of the Messiah and calms her fears with these words: “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God.” Over and over throughout the pages of Scripture we find these words spoken by God to his people when they are afraid, “Fear not.” He gives us light in the darkest situations; He calms the stormy waters that rage around us, and He gives us peace when all else fails and fear wants to force us into making the wrong choices in life. To live is Him and to even die is gain! Mary found grace with God and in that grace, she discovers peace. She is given something she never ever expected: “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.” What? You’ve got to be kidding me? Right! A little Jewish girl barely old enough to know all she needed to know about cooking, cleaning, and keeping a house, who was just getting used to the idea of being pledged to be married, was now expected to be the mother of a child, a boy, and he is going to be called “the Son of the Most High”! What? Mary realized in that moment that what we hear from God may not always be what we want! Become a missionary? Go witness to whom? Go volunteer doing what where? Lord, You want me to be what for You? I’m too old, I’m too young, and I do not know enough! I’d have to move, give up my time, my talent, my treasure; and are you actually sure this is what you want of me? Yet in the midst of all our fears, like Mary, God says, “Do not be afraid.” What we hear from God may not always be what we want!

  EXAMPLE: I am reminded of the little boy who when he did not like what he heard he would cover his ears with his hands and sing as loud as he could, “I can’t hear you!” And wouldn’t you know it, it never worked for him. He still had to do what his parents wanted him to do. Remember Jonah and how he tried to plug his ears with a boat ride but ended up being fish fodder. What we hear from God may not always be what we want!

It can be frightening when things do not work out as we planned. An unexpected pregnancy, falling in love with someone we never expected, going to school in another city or being transferred halfway around the world! Being called to ministry or missions as a senior adult! All kinds of things can happen in our lives but just like Mary…

III. We can trust the Lord with what we’ve heard!

"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." Then the angel left her. (Luke 1:34-38 NIV84)

  1. Mary is perplexed because she understood the facts of life. It takes two to make a baby, a momma and a papa. Yet God’s messenger was telling her something quite different. So, as the mature young lady she was she asks, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” God never minds the tough questions because He always has the simple answer: He will do it! Just like that Mary would have this baby boy by the power of the Holy Spirit. Not by some “force”, not by some ghost, not by mystical or magical means, but by “the power of the Most High”! God Himself would “overshadow” Mary. God would do what He said He would do. Now if Mary doubted what she was being told, Gabriel responds by telling Mary that “Elizabeth” her aunt was “going o have a child in her old age, and she who said to be barren (was) in her sixth month”! Mary’s baby boy would be through the power of God, and he would be God, born of a virgin, into the world because just as God can have a barren aunt have child in her advanced age, a young virgin can conceive through the power of the Most High and therefore “nothing is impossible with God”! Now we often want to try and thoroughly explain what occurs here and some have come up with some really stupid and silly notions, but for me I am content to follow Mary’s lead. She was satisfied to allow God to do whatever He had planned for her life and tells Gabriel, “May it be to me as you have said”! This indicates to me that Mary did not doubt the angel’s words but merely wanted to know how such a thing could be accomplished! The answer was that the Holy Spirit would creatively bring about the physical conception of her son Jesus. That’s all Gabe needed to hear, and he immediately leaves her where he found her. Mary shows us that we can trust the Lord with what we’ve heard!

EXAMPLE: Picture in your mind the scene: A small village that hardly anyone even notices when traveling through it. A dusty road, not more than a path really, winds through its center and there in the midst of its streets, houses, and fields is a young Jewish girl, barely 14 years old. Perhaps she is working in the field next to her house, perhaps she is sweeping the dusty floor of her family’s one room, or she is doing some other chore of sewing or mending, and a messenger comes to her. Not any person but an angel of God. He has a special message for a special young girl: She has found grace with God and has been chosen by Him to be His mother. “Impossible!” “Improbable!” you say. Yet it is true, every word of it. And how do I know it to be true, because nothing is impossible with God. And like Mary we can trust the Lord with what we’ve heard. 

Conclusion:

During this Christmas season, this time of Advent, when God came to earth born as a baby boy perhaps we need to be more like Mary: Listen to the message God has for us! Realize that what we hear from God may not always be what we want! Yet, in the midst of life we can trust the Lord with what we’ve heard! Now, do you hear what He is saying?

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This article is copyrighted © 2022 by Lee Hemen and is the sole property of Lee Hemen and may not be used unless you quote the entire article and have my permission.