Sermon in Phoenix 23.03.2014

May the grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the love of God our Father, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us now and forever. Amen.

Let us quieten this morning in opening prayer and thanksgiving. Holy and righteous God, our beloved Heavenly Father, we have been granted grace to awaken to a beautiful new day. And we have awakened with this knowledge and joy in our hearts that we have been protected through the night until this day as your children.

Father, you have sought fit, dear Father, to call us out of the multitudes of this world to be your own. Father, you have revealed unto us the mysteries of living faith. And you have shown to us the merit works of your Son. Dear Father, for these gifts we are most thankful. But also this day we pause to thank you for the abundance of temporal gifts and blessings you have given to us. An abundance of food and clothing. Our homes, families, and our loved ones. All of these have come from your loving hand.

So on this day, dear Father, as we have gathered before your holy and precious word, we pray for your service blessing. That you would send your word unto us so that each one of us would be strengthened in our own personal place of watching. You know each of us perfectly, dear Father. You are our creator. You are our God. When you know us so well, you know of our joys. You know of our sorrows and worries. You know of our temptations and our doubts. You see into the innermost corners of our heart.

Therefore, dear Father, we ask that you would send now your word so that each of us would be nourished according to your holy and righteous will. We also remember on this day loved ones who are not with us. Those who are sick and unable to be in the hearing of your word. Those who, because of infirmities or situations in life, or those ones who are in the faraway corners of this world, remember them and comfort them also. Guide them and lead them to our final and eternal destination, there in the glory of heaven.

Break those crumbs of grace for each of us today. And we enclose our heart in that prayer that Jesus himself taught when we say, Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen.

Before reading our text this morning, I thought to bring greetings to you brothers and sisters from Prescott where I was last weekend for services. And those believers there asked that their greetings would be returned here also to our midst here in Phoenix.

Today, for our mutual study of God's Word, I will read from the first chapter of the Gospel according to St. Luke. And I will read verses 39 through 45. And you may, as you hear these words, wonder and ponder the meaning of these words because it speaks about the time when Mary, the mother of Jesus, was visited by the angel Gabriel.

And we know that we're living now this time of Lent leading up to the time of Easter. And the Lenten season is that kind of a season where it is a time of prayer and a time of fasting. A time when we remember the end of Jesus' life. The texts and the sermons around Lenten season are often with that kind of heaviness, if you will, of considering those trials and difficulties that Jesus experienced.

So in the middle of the Lenten season, we have what we call Mary's Day. It is a time of hope. It is a time when we remember those events that took place when Jesus, as I mentioned, was visited by the angel Gabriel.

So I will read these words as follows in Jesus' name. And Mary arose in those days and went into the hill country with haste into a city of Judah and entered into the house of Zacharias and saluted Elizabeth. And it came to pass that when Elizabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the baby leapt in her womb and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost. And she spake out with a loud voice and said, Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb. And whence is this to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For lo, as soon as the voice of thy salutation sounded in mine ears, the baby leapt in my womb for joy. And blessed is she that believed. For there shall be a performance of those things which were told her from the Lord. Amen.

We remember, especially during the time of Christmas, when we remember Mary and Joseph and all of the events that transpired around the Christmas season, we remember a little bit about Mary and Joseph and also Elizabeth and Zacharias.

Mary, the mother of Jesus, was just a young lady. We might even call her a girl in our present day. It doesn't say in the Bible how old Mary was when she was called to be the mother of Jesus. But during those times that Mary and Joseph lived, it was not uncommon that girls or young ladies were married at a young age, 16, 17 years old. So it could be that this Mary was a very young lady.

But we do know this, that in God's Word, she was a virgin. Meaning that she had never known a man. She had never been married. And so this Mary, of whom was called to be in a very special place in history, would have been that kind of a young lady who would have, I'm sure, pondered, as it says in God's Word, pondered many things and kept them in her heart.

We can only imagine what it would have been for this young lady. Let's say 16 years old. There are some of you here today who are 16 or 17 years old. As you're making plans for your life, and Mary had been making plans for her life in that she was espoused or she was engaged to Joseph. She was making those kinds of plans that would have been exciting and I'm sure with hope and hope in her life that what would God have in store for her.

She was a believing girl. She would have been taught about God's Word. She would have learned similarly to what we as young ones would learn. We would learn about God's Word and the hope of salvation. She would have heard perhaps and even read of those words of the Scriptures that promised a Savior. And from year to year and from generation to generation, those Old Testament believers had waited in anticipation for the coming Savior.

And now it was that Mary was that one whom God chose to allow His Son to be born into this world. I wonder what Mary would have thought when angel Gabriel appeared to her. And the angel told her that thou art highly favored among women.

The believer's heart is this kind of heart that we marvel as to God's goodness and His grace and His forgiveness. We also marvel as to why and how God has called us to be His children. Have you ever wondered that why has God saw reason that you would be one of His own and not others?

We know in the world around us that there are countless numbers of people that we come into contact with. You children at school who have those kinds of classmates who are not born in believing homes. They don't have that opportunity in their homes to hear the teaching of God's Word, the instruction that comes from God's Kingdom. And they don't have in their homes that opportunity even when they're being tucked into bed at night to hear the sweet message of the Gospel.

Those friends of yours at school have been given a different kind of life to live. Or those of you who are in the workplace who come into contact with many different people even in the course of one day or in the course of a long career how many people you've come into contact with and so few have been called to be God's own.

There is a word that I think of often that describes I think very well the feeling that comes when we realize or when we remember that we have been called to be one of God's own and that word is humbling.

There is nothing that we've been able to do of ourselves. We cannot boast of our goodness. We cannot boast of how good we've lived our lives or we cannot boast and say that it is because of this or that reason that I've been called to be one of God's own children. But rather this has been reserved for God to choose.

And if God has saw fit to call you brother and sister into his kingdom it is a humbling place to be. This Mary was a humble child of God. She accepted that call. But God chose her for this kind of miraculous way that Jesus would be sent into this world.

The reason that Jesus was sent was already established thousands of years before when the first human pair in the garden of Eden fell into sin. And when we read from the first pages of the Bible of that which took place there, Eve being tempted by sin, the serpent came and beguiled her, tempted her, and she fell. And not only her, but also her husband Adam.

And it says in God's word when they fell into sin that they went and hid themselves. That hasn't changed, has it? But to this day, each of us, when we fall into sin, we would often try to hide ourselves from God. Adam and Eve did.

And it says in the third chapter of Genesis, after their fall into sin, and the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked, that they sewed fig leaves together. And in this portion of God's word, these fig leaves, is that kind of clothing that man tries to hide behind. It is the clothing of self-righteousness.

And they tried to hide themselves because they were naked. And when they were there and had been clothed with those fig leaves, it is that they heard the voice of the Lord walking in the garden in the cool of the day. And then you remember of that discussion that was there when God asked of them that, where art thou? They said that now they are naked and they are afraid.

And God asked them that, how did you know that you are naked? Did you eat of that which you were commanded not to? And then the woman said, it was so that I ate. And also then the man said that the woman that thou gavest me also gave me to eat and I did.

And then God cursed that serpent but he gave hope before Adam and Eve. Where he says, I will put enmity between thee and the woman and between thy seed and her seed. It shall bruise thy head and thou shall bruise his heel.

It was the first promise of Jesus being sent into this world to heal them from their nakedness and from their sinfulness.

Perhaps it was so that Mary and Joseph both would have read from scriptures. Perhaps they would have been able to hear of this promise not only of this but also the promises that came through the prophets of how a savior would be sent into this world to redeem man from sin.

We learn don't we as God's children the message of scriptures that gives us hope and promises us those things that God has in store for us.

What do we today as God's children read from God's word? And what do we hope for? It is according to God's word that Jesus was sent into this world and we know that he was born to this Mary. Mary and Joseph were Jesus' parents.

We know that he suffered and died on the middle cross of Golgotha. But we also know it is according to God's word that he will return one day for us.

When we read these things from scriptures years, it seems like that must be that time when Jesus will return so far away. When will it come? Do any of us know when Jesus will return? We don't know any more of that date that he would return than the Old Testament believers knew when he would be born.

It is a mystery to us. It is even a mystery to Jesus. When he was asked this question that when would he return? He said, it is not for me to know, but it is only for my Father in heaven to know.

But by faith, Mary believed that Jesus would be sent into this world we also by faith believe that Jesus will return at his second coming.

So now we go back to this that Mary had known as a girl. And she had perhaps even known and heard from scriptures that prophet Isaiah writes that Jesus would be born to a virgin.

But now this message was given it to her. That Mary, you are that one.

I can't help but think of what kind of joy would Mary's heart have been when she heard that message that you are that one.

Have you pondered these things as well when you've heard the same kind of message that dear brother and sister, you are that one that God has called to be his own.

We can only understand that message so little. It's seemingly impossible with our own corruption to be able to comprehend that message that God sends even today.

That dear brothers and sisters, you are that one that has been called to be one of his own.

The same kind of incredulous, the same kind of question maybe even that same kind of doubt. Mary would have doubted. She did in fact doubt it. She said, how can I because I have not known a man?

She wasn't married. And we know that in order for a child to be born, there has to be a man and woman. And if this is God's order, creation, this is how God has allowed things to be.

We know it is God who has opened and closed the womb of any of us. Any of you who have been given the gift of a child, it is a blessing that God has given. He has opened the womb and He has given life.

It is according to God's word. If we read in many parts of scriptures, but one part that often comes to mind when we consider this is the first book of Samuel.

When in the first part, the first chapter of that book, it speaks about a husband and a wife named Elkanah and Hannah. They didn't have any children. Hannah was barren. Her womb had been closed.

God hadn't allowed her a gift, a child to be born. But this same Hannah prayed. And she was there praying and God heard her prayer. And she opened Hannah's womb. And to her was Elkanah born the boy Samuel.

And when this baby was born, after many years of being childless, there would have been that kind of joy in her heart that would have been magnifying or praising God for his goodness.

In those days, which is much different than our day, today, in society, children are not so well liked. It's sad to say this. But many can find reasons not to have children.

God has other plans, of course. These children that God has given into our midst are blessings from the hand of the Heavenly Father.

The psalmist writes in the 127th psalm of how blessed that man is that has his quiver full of these children or these blessings that come.

The world doesn't see it to be so. But rather, in the world, these children are burdens, they cost money, they take energy, they can take away from the freedoms that individuals have.

But how is it for you, brothers and sisters? And of course, it hasn't always been easy, has it, for you dear mothers, from year to year and from decade to decade to accept those children.

Children. And it hasn't always been so easy for you fathers to support your wives and your children.

You have experienced those doubts and those worries and those fears that come in accepting those children that God gives.

Yet when Hannah, after being barren for those years, in the second chapter of Samuel, 1st Samuel. And it would be well for us to read these words from time to time.

Because there it contains a prayer of thanksgiving that Hannah kept for this gift that God has given.

But now not only was there this rejoicing in her heart, but also this realization salvation, where in the sixth verse, the Lord killeth and maketh alive, and bringeth down to the grave, and bringeth up.

It is God who gives life. It is God who takes life away. God is the Lord of life and death.

May we, brothers and sisters, always allow this place to be God's. May it be that we so humbly accept this mighty work that God gives as His blessing and His blessing alone.

That we wouldn't do even as those in the world do to take into their own hands that which is rightfully God's. The giving and taking of life.

When Mary also with, I'm sure, those kinds of doubts where she said, after angel Gabriel came to her and told her, and we can read them from the 26th verse, because I think this is God's word, and it's not often that we can make God's word better with our own words.

In fact, it's never that we can make God's word better with our own words.

So when Luke writes, he says, it was in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God onto the city of Galilee named Nazareth to a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph of the house of David, and the virgin's name was Mary.

And the angel came in unto her and said, Hail, thou art highly favored, the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou among women.

And when she saw him, she was troubled at his thing, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be.

And the angel said unto her, Fear not Mary, for thou hast found favor with God.

And behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb and bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus.

He shall be great, and shall be called the son of the highest, and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David.

And he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there shall be no end.

And then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be? Seeing I know not a man.

And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the highest shall overshadow thee.

Therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.

And behold thy cousin Elizabeth. She hath also conceived a son in her old age.

And this is the sixth month with her, who was called barren.

For with God nothing shall be impossible.

And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it unto me according to thy word.

And the angel departed from her.

Mary was visited by this kind of angel that told her a few two very important things that we also today are told through God's word.

That we are also found to be highly favored by God. We are his children. We have been called to be his own, to travel in his kingdom.

So in our text then, when it was so that Mary in her joy, and this is so also typical, I'm sure for you mothers who had to wait for a period of time before a baby came into your home, when you first found out that you were with child, you would have been that kind of a joy that you would want to share it with everybody around you.

It is the same for us as God's children when we hear those kinds of joyful messages that we hear through God's word. The message of this promise that we are on our way to heaven.

And when perhaps even in a time of heavy difficulty, struggles, and that time has been eased, or matters have been resolved, we would want to share that news, especially with those brothers and sisters in faith.

Our hearts bubble with that joy that look what God has done for me. Look what God has done for us.

This was the same that this Mary owned in her heart.

Now this baby child, not only a normal baby, but a special gift, baby Jesus.

Can you, can we, possibly imagine the joy that would have been there?

One, that God was sending his son into this world. This promise that had been for thousands of years now was going to take place.

But also, second to this, that God is so fit, to allow me to serve him in this way.

When God has called us into this kingdom to be his own, he has also called us into this place of service.

And don't you, for example, mothers and fathers rejoice? Faith. And I know it is so.

When, in raising a large family, we have those kinds of opportunities in our homes for both those times of joy, plenty of them, but also those times of sorrow.

Those times of sorrow can be for many reasons. It could be health-related, it could be the sickness or illness of an individual child, it could be a long trial with health or with finances, whatever the case might be.

But maybe one of the saddest and most difficult trials that a parent has or faces is when he sees his child struggling with matters of faith.

When the world has come close to our child, our child starts to go down that road to travel after the ungodliness of this world, being tempted with their own flesh, with honor and with glory and with praise of men, those are all so pleasing and so nice for our flesh to hear and to know.

And as the parent struggles with the child, to remind them of the joys that come through believing, and how when a child of God has their sins forgiven, this is the greatest blessing in this life.

But there are those times when unfortunately the enemy has snared our loved ones from us.

And there isn't the greater pain in the heart of a loving parent than to feel the effect that that sin has had in my child.

That that sin was able to take him from God's kingdom into the kingdom of this world.

And there is prayer. And what else can we do when we're to that depth? What else can we do but pray on behalf of that child?

God through his grace has been able to strengthen and call one of those who has either struggled mightily to speak of those matters that have troubled them, to bring into light those sins that have been troubling and burdening the conscience and making the journey slow.

And we're able to speak of those things that trouble us. Or that one who is in unbelief is called back to God's kingdom and the gospel of forgiveness has been preached, life has been restored.

At that point, doesn't the parent's heart rejoice and bubble over in such a way that we want the whole world to know, look what God has done for us.

There are many reasons for joy in God's kingdom.

So when Mary heard this salutation, it would have been the same for her. Not only was the Savior being born into this world, but also that God had called this chosen vessel to be that kind of a messenger, that kind of a tool, that kind of an instrument that God was going to use in his work.

Mary then did go. She went to her cousin, Elizabeth, who was already for six months expecting. Elizabeth had also been that kind of a mother, a lady as Hannah was. She was barren. She was already old.

And her husband Zacharias was also old. Her womb hadn't been opened until that time.

We remember when Zacharias, he was a priest doing the work there in the tabernacle, in the temple. Angel came to him and told him that you're going to also have a son. Zacharias said, how can it be, but I'm an old man.

So also was Elizabeth. But in that text it says, with man things are difficult, but with God nothing is impossible.

So it was that this Elizabeth was also given this gift of life.

So when Mary went to her home, knocked on the door, maybe didn't even knock, who knows, when she got there, Mary and Elizabeth were cousins.

Sometimes cousins of that kind of close family, they don't even bother knocking on the door. You just barge in and announce that you're here.

Whatever the case was, Mary went there to Elizabeth's home, entered into her home, and then we see the joy that was also there.

When Mary saluted her cousin, Elizabeth had this kind of experience, that baby in her womb leapt when she heard Mary's salutation.

This was John the Baptist that Elizabeth was carrying.

It also gives us this kind of assurance when John, there in the womb of his mother, heard this salutation of Mary.

This baby leapt there. It gives us this kind of place in scriptures that tells us that these children that are in the womb are not only living, but they're God's own children.

Those children in the womb hear the voice of their creator. Those children hear their living and they are God's own children.

John the Baptist leapt in his mother's womb when he heard that salutation.

Brothers and sisters, we can with such courage even speak to this. That even those children who are born or not born aborted, unfortunately there are those kinds of thousands and millions of babies every year aborted in our societies.

But they are God's own children. They are heaven acceptable. When they are aborted, when they are killed, they are called by the angels to the glory of heaven.

This also gives us hope, brothers and sisters, even for those of us who have lost those little ones in infancy or even in the womb, that they are remembered and known by God.

So it was then as Mary and Elizabeth had this kind of discussion, Elizabeth, she spoke out with a loud voice and told Mary, Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb.

And whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For lo, as soon as the voice of thy salutation sounded in mine ears, the baby leapt in my womb for joy.

And blessed is she that believed, for there shall be a performance of those things which were told her from the Lord.

If we were to have read them, and you can read them at your own leisure, those next words that came, it speaks about Mary's joyfulness and her salutation and her thankfulness that she gave to God for blessing her and granting her that opportunity to be that kind of a servant in God's kingdom.

Today, brothers and sisters, we are also God's own. We are on our way to heaven. God has given us different kinds of duties.

There was only one Mary. Mary was the same as we are. She was a believing mother. She did the work of her father. We also do the work in our day of that which God has ordained for us to do.

For you parents, may God give you strength and courage to accept those children as God's gift. May he also strengthen you to teach them, to rear them, love them, forgive them.

They need your forgiveness. They need your love. They are weak travelers as you are. We are all the same in this work. We are all the same in this kingdom. We are all needful of God's grace and forgiveness.

Whatever station and position, young ones, dear brothers and sisters, so dear, struggling through those years of youth, battling against those temptations that come.

May you be mindful of that great blessing and hope that waits for you there also in the glory of heaven.

Heaven waits for each of us. And all that is required, is the same that was required of Mary. Faith and trust in God's goodness.

Can you today believe that you are one of God's own? Can you also trust in His goodness? Can you also believe that your own sins are forgiven? It is true and so.

Remain even now believing wherever and whatever position and station of life you're in, that your sins are forgiven in the name and precious atoning blood of Jesus.

That assurance of the gospel grants us strength and comfort. God's love you. And through this, we will one day make it to the glory of heaven.

I also came this morning filled with those kinds of doubts that especially you speaker brothers understand, but doubts nonetheless. Many shortcomings and sins.

Can I also hear the gospel? I so want to believe with each of you. May God protect us and carry us all the way one day to the glory of heaven.

Let us close these services with the Lord's benediction. Peace. The Lord bless us and keep us. The Lord make his face shine upon us and be gracious unto us. The Lord lift up his countenance upon us and give us peace. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.