Guests At The Best Baby Shower

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"Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favour with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus." Luke 1:17

Main Readings: Acts 2:14-41 & Luke 1:26-38; 46-56

Supporting Readings: Psalm 89 & Daniel 7

Six months after John’s conception, God sent the angel Gabriel with another message.

Just like with John, the angel’s message this time is a baby announcement too.

But unlike the announcement of John’s birth, this message comes directly to the mother. To a woman whose family lineage traces ancestry through the Israel’s great hero – King David.

Her name is Mary of course. And she is pledged to be married to a man named Joseph – also a descendent of David.

Now I can’t claim to have been to any baby showers in my life. But as I understand it, a baby shower is a party to announce that a baby is to be born.

And surely, the reason they exist is because babies represent new life.

Even in our culture of today – a culture that tells us we’re evolutionary animals; that tells us that life in the womb is a lifestyle choice; that tells us that elective death is a matter of dignity – yet without any sense of inconsistency, people recognise the incredible miracle and preciousness of new life.

From the moment a child comes into the world, every possible safeguard, and medical intervention, and precaution will be made to, as far as is possible, preserve its life. More than that – to make it feel loved, cared for and valued.

Well imagine, then, if, at one of these baby showers the parents were able to tell ahead of time all the ways the child would excel in life.

What accomplishments they would make; what job they would have; what home they would own. Who they’d marry; and what their children would turn out like.

That would make for quite the baby shower!

Well, if that were possible, even with the best child in the world, any parent would need to do quite a bit of whitewashing to make sure the baby shower remained a party and didn’t turn into a lament.

Because we know that all our lives are daubed with achievements and slip ups, with good choices and terrible ones, with rejoicing and sorrow.

Well, I doubt they had baby showers in the ancient near east. And even if they did, there’s no way Mary was getting one!

She was from Nazareth; she was evidently poor. Testified to, by the fact that her offering at the temple was that designed for a poor person.

So, she’s not having any parties!

But now, out of nowhere – with zero forewarning – she has this angelic visitation!

Don’t think to yourself that Mary knew what we know – namely that her relative had the same visitation six months earlier.

No, she had to be told that by the angel - in verse 36. He says, ‘I’ll tell you this Mary, by way of confirmation of my word, your relative Elizabeth is going to have a child in her old age’.

So that’s news to Mary!

And so, when she gets this angelic visitation, it’s coming to her in the same context as it came to Zechariah last time - right out of 400 years of silence!

Zachariah was a priest of God. Long in the tooth. And he knew a lotabout the temple, and the law, and the offerings. Mary’s just a very ordinary teenage girl, when this angel of God appears to her out of nowhere.

And yet Mary gets the best baby shower any mother has ever had in the whole history of the world!

And it’s that baby shower that I want us to focus on this morning.

We could go looking at Mary’s Godly responses to all that the angel says – that would be good, but it’s for another time.

We could look at all the ways this announcement compares and contrasts with the announcement of John’s birth – that would be good, but it’s for another time.

What we’re going to zero in on this morning is the content of this baby shower.

Through Luke’s account, we’ve all be invited along to the party. We’ve been made guests at the greatest baby shower ever.

And just like every happy guest who rejoices at the prospect of a baby coming into the world. We’re going to rejoice and marvel at the prospect of this baby coming into the world.

I dare say there may have been baby showers, other than this one, attended by angels.

Especially if strangers were invited along.

Hospitality shown to strangers by godly people has at one time or another, included hospitality to angels unawares, Hebrews says.

That’s a good incentive to show hospitality to strangers – maybe this Christmas, even.

Whether angels have attended baby showers isn’t the point, the point is: no angel ever attended a baby shower like this angel did!

Visibly, audibly, sensitively, boldly, favourably, joyously, tellingly.

‘Greetings you who are highly favoured’.

Who? Me?

‘Yes you. The Lord is with you’.

There is perhaps no more comforting sentence a human being can hear than that one sentence.

There are maybe some as comforting as that one – not many.

‘The Lord is with you’. ‘The creator God has seen you, has come closeto you, is actually with you!’

That’s a foretaste of something big!

‘Don’t be afraid Mary, you have found favour with God’. That’s one of the other most comforting sentences in all our human experience.

Not surprising, since the first sentence can’t exist without the second. You can’t have ‘God with you’ unless you’ve found ‘favour with God’.

God’s not coming near to anyone he doesn’t favour!

Mary found favour with God, and God came near to her. Amazing!

‘Mary, you’re going to conceive and give birth to a son. And here’s what you’re going to do when he’s born – you’re going to call him Jesus’. That’s it.

Obviously, there were other things she was going to do too – she was going to feed him, and swaddle him, and take him in her arms!

‘But the one thing you’re going to do Mary that is instructed by God, is you’re going to give him the name Jesus’.

In other words, the name by which he will be known amongst his fellow man is the name Jesus.

But, that’s not the only name he’ll have. He’ll also be called, ‘Son of the Most High’.

Why? Because he’ll be ‘great’ – Gabriel says.

One baby, then, and two names. One name given by Mary. The other by God. The first one – the one given by Mary – means ‘God saves’.

‘Mary, you’re to give the child the name: God saves’. ‘Why Gabriel? Why that name?’

‘For this reason: he will save his people from their sins’.

What is this name? Does it really mean that this baby will save people from the scale of sin they have racked up in the ledgers of their lives?

From acts, and thoughts, and words, and attitudes of rebellion towards God?

Yes, that’s what his name means.

As Jesus comes into the world, God tells Mary through the angel onething to do – give him the name which speaks to his mission. Jesus’ birth is a mission birth to deal with sin.

All over the world, down through the generations, billions and billions of people caught in the grip of sin – destined to pay the ultimate penalty, in hell for ever! And now this!

This Reprieve! This Hope! This Salvation! All in the form of a baby, born to a virgin girl.

His name speaks to his mission – in the world.

That’s why Mary’s to be the one to give him this name. His humanname is for the salvation of human beings.

He's got another name too. ‘Son of the Most High’. That’s not for Mary to give. That’s a name that speaks to his origin.

How do we know that? Because of verse 35. Which is, itself, the answer to Mary’s question in verse 34: ‘How will this be – that I’ll conceive a child – since I am a virgin?’

Gabriel’s answer: ‘The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called Son of God!’

The origin of Jesus [I’m choosing my words carefully here – the origin of Jesus not the origin of the Son; the Son is from everlasting]. The origin of Jesus will be the power of the Most High God overshadowing and conceiving in Mary a baby boy.

Therefore, he will not only have the earthly name Jesus – he will have the heavenly name: Son of the Most High and Son of God!

This is the name that captures the divinity of Jesus. It’s the name that explains why – not how but why – Mary had to be a virgin, where Elizabeth her relative did not.

The eternal Son of God – he was always that; he will always be that – took on flesh.

That happened when the Holy Spirit came on Mary and conceived in her Jesus.

He will be ‘great’ Gabriel says. ‘Great’ like he said John would be great? No, not like that.

Great like God is great – that’s what Gabriel means! The greatness of God found in human likeness leads to a name like this: Son of the Most High!

Leave it there, though, and we’ve got very little.

We can’t leave it there!

You’ve got a baby – real flesh and blood. Eating, breathing, crying. That’s pretty much what babies do at the beginning, right?

Yet he’s the saviour of sinners, according to the angel.

How?

Baby’s just a baby, isn’t he? He’s going to grow up and sin – just like everyone else. What use is a sinner as a saviour of sinners? Answer: no use!

That’s why baby’s not just a baby. Baby’s the divine Son of the Most High God.

No sin. No imperfection. Great! in sinlessness. And therefore, great! to save sinners.

But sin’s got to be dealt with, right? Sin’s got consequences and consequences got to be imposed, haven’t they? We all learnt thatgrowing up, didn’t we?

If baby’s divine and holy, then what’s he going to do with his Father’s consequences?

And that’s why the Son of the Most High has got to be human.

The wages owing to sin are death Romans 6:23 says. So, if ‘Son of the Most High’ is going to save, then Son of the Most High is going to have to bear the punishment for the people. Otherwise, no salvation!

Which, if Romans 6:23 is true – and it is – then Son of the Most High has got to die.

And that’s why he had come in the flesh. Born just like every human being is born. So that he could die, just like every human being dies.

That’s profound! It’s beyond any other birth in the history of the world – that’s for sure!

No humanity – no death for sins. No divinity – no sinless qualification.

God’s effective solution to save us has to be both or else this is all in vain.

It’s not all in vain, because the babe’s name is both Jesus and Son of the Most High!

‘Mary, you are highly favoured because God has chosen you to carry the saviour of the world who is Son of the Most High God’.

What a baby shower this is turning out to be!

‘But Mary, there’s more’. What we just encountered leaves a questionin our minds – maybe.

‘What, God, will you do with these people you’re sending your Son into the world to save?’

‘Will they die? Will you come and live with them? Will Jesus stay with them forever? What’s your plan here God?’

Garbiel says, ‘The Lord your God, Mary, will give him the throne of his earthly father (your ancestor) David’.

The baby to be born will occupy the throne of Israel like his human father David did of old.

When God said to David in Psalm 89: ‘I have made a covenant with my chosen one, I have sworn to David my servant, “I will establish your line forever and make your throne firm through all generations”’ - this is what he had in mind.

Who was David? He was a lowly shepherd boy who God raised up and made king over all Isreal.

So, in that pattern, Jesus - saviour of God’s people - will be first a shepherd – ‘I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep’. And then, second, he will be an exalted king.

In the pattern of his earthly father David, he will lay down his life for his sheep.

And then he will rise from the dead, will ascend into heaven, and will be crowned king of their lives.

Grabriel says, Jesus will be a shepherd-saviour.

He’ll go and find the lost sheep and bring them into his fold.

To do that he’ll lay down his life for the sheep.

He’ll fulfil that function of a shepherd making sure all the sheep are folded in.

But that’s for nothing, if the sheep then starve whilst they’re in the pen.

Gabriel shows, through the picture of Israel’s great shepherd David: Jesus will shepherd his people.

He will care for them. He will tend to them. He will protect them. He will feed them. And lead them into green pastures.

Expect that Riverside. Expect that Jesus came not just to save you, but to care for you.

How does that work?

Jesus said, ‘My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they followme’. He’s shepherd-saviour and he’s shepherd-king.

The sheep listen and they follow the voice of their shepherd-king. Which is another way of saying, he has the dominion over the hearts of his people. He rules where once sin ruled.

Did you know: a human heart is a throne?

Whoever, or whatever, is on that throne at any given moment is king.

And since there’s only one heart-throne, whoever or whatever is on it is not just king, but is really god.

Put clothes, or work, or football, or houses on that throne – that’s your god. Put Jesus on that throne – he’s your God.

And since he is God, you’ve then got him in his rightful place.

According to Gabriel, Jesus didn’t come into the world only to be saviour of our souls, but to be king of our hearts also.

I remember when I got saved, aged 12, my favourite hymn quickly became, ‘king of my life I crown thee now, thine shall the glory be, lest I forget Gethsemane, lead me to Calvary’. Even at 12, I knew Jesus saved me to be king of my life.

It's not just my life he’s come to reign over though, but all God’s people.

‘Mary, this child of yours will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever’. What does that mean?

It means: Jesus came only to seek and to save God’s people – Gabriel calls them Jacob’s descendants.

He didn’t come to save everyone.

So, what makes the difference? And the answer is: faith.

Jesus came to seek and to save those who put their faith in him.

God demands faith. And Jesus comes into the world to do God’s will. So, faith is what connects us to the coming of Jesus.

Jacob’s grandad was Abraham. And it’s Abrahams’ faith that God sets up as THE example of saving faith.

That’s what it means in verse 55 when Mary sang about God’s mercy to Abraham’s decedents.

She meant Abrahams physical descendants, but the Holy Spirit alsomeant Abraham’s spiritual descendants who have faith like he had – Galatians 3:7.

That’s why, if we believe in the baby God sent to save us, we are counted Jacob’s descendants.

Because we have the faith of his grandfather Abraham.

‘Therefore, Mary, your child will reign over all who believe in him and are counted as God’s chosen and faithful people’.

How quickly do you think Christmas comes and goes? How excited will we get for Christmas - only for it to be snatched from us in a flash? Like a bubble caught on our finger for the briefest second and then ‘pop’ – it’s gone.

Every one of us will feel it the first day we have to get up in the dark to go back to work.

‘Is that what Jesus is going to be like Gabriel?’ ‘A moment of supreme excitement and promise, and then gone like a puff of smoke?’

Gabriel says, ‘not a chance’. He says, when he comes, he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end’.

I love that – don’t you?

Kings come and go – I dare say our king will make a few more Christmas speeches and then one day he’ll be gone.

Not so with Jesus. His reign knows no end. He reigns with us, for us, over us, forever.

It looks something like this – see if you track with this:

The Holy Spirit comes and overshadows Mary – there’s mystery in that- but that’s what the angel says and so we should believe it.

The virgin is pregnant with the God-man Christ Jesus. God comes into the world and dwells with us – Emmanuel means ‘God with us’.

The child grows up and he lays down his life willingly aged just 33.

Only, to rise again 3 days later - we’ve got to believe that bit too – it’s crucial.

That’s his victory over death - not only for himself but for everyone, who by faith is united to him in his death.

And now, the power of that victorious death and resurrection gets applied, by God, to every single heart, that, by faith, trusts that Jesus went to that death for them.

Each and every individual, like that, is saved, and is reigned over.

And so far, as each Christian dies, Jesus is still ascended on high and reigning from heaven over an expanding kingdom.

A kingdom made up of all the Christians alive on earth and alive in heaven.

But, so far, it’s an incomplete kingdom.

It won’t be complete until the last of Jacob’s descendants is added to it. Then it’ll be complete. And then Jesus will come a second time into this world, and he will resurrect all the dead who have died in him by faith.

And he will transform the bodies of all the Christians who are still alive when he appears.

And then he will come and reign with them. ‘If we endure to the end of this life or until he comes – whichever is first – we will reign with him’ Paul says. It’s a mind boggling promise, but that’s what it says.

‘Gabriel. Will the first Christmas fizzle out like all the other shadows of Christmas are destined to?’

He says, ‘this first Christmas is the real thing – it’s going to last forever. It will never fizzle out!’

In fact, how much do we grasp about Christmas now?

It’s a fragment of what we will know Christmas was for when we come into the light of Jesus’ completed kingdom.

‘For we know in part now…we see in a mirror dimly now, but then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part, then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known’.

Are you longing to know the full meaning of Christmas? You will when he comes the second time.

Until then, the angel Gabriel – sent from God – has given you lots of foresight of what this child to be born means for you.

You’ve been an invited guest at the greatest baby shower ever given.

Most people invited to baby showers have little to nothing to do with the child for the rest of its life.

Jesus says, ‘I want to be a part of every guest’s life at my baby shower – not just for a moment but for the rest of their lives, and then on into eternity.

He says, ‘I want to be your saviour’.

He says, ‘I want to be your shepherd-king’.

He says, ‘I want to create for you a kingdom to be a part of forever more’.

That means Christmas is for right now if you need your sins forgiving. I mean right now.

It means Christmas is for your protection, your care, your nourishment all the rest of your life. He’ll never leave you.

And it means Christmas is for your resurrection, your inheritance, and your joy on into all eternity.

God’s Christmas is a full package. God’s Christmas is for you as deep as you can go, for as long as you can go.

And when you’ve got eternity and a soul made for God, there are no limits on either of those dimensions!

The lasting encouragement from Gabriel is this – from verse 37 – ‘no word of God will ever fail’.

There’s no idle words at this baby shower. This is the word of God from top to bottom!

None of these words will fail. He will save; he will shepherd; he willreign - for eternity.

Why? Because God has said so!

What would a fitting response be to all that the angel Gabriel has said about Jesus?

Well, there’s no need to guess. Mary’s response is our template.

You go to the average baby shower and all the people gush about this baby to be born.

That’s how they respond.

They don’t know it, but it’s because they believe the baby to be born, will be born. And it’s with that expectation that they gush.

Mary says, ‘I’m the Lord’s servant…may your word to me be fulfilled’.

That’s a faith response to all that Gabriel has said about the baby Jesus.

And our response has to start with faith in the baby Jesus, and all the promises made to us, through him.

Our response has to be faith that he came to save me. Faith that he came to shepherd me. Faith that he came to reign over me forever.

And you know what, that faith will make every single carol we sing this Christmas a gush of our hearts.

When we sing them, they won’t just be warm Christmas sounds – they will be deep, meaningful, joyous gushes of hearts that are in love with, none less than ‘the saviour of the world’.