A Simple Yes
Heaven Meets Earth • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Intro
Intro
So if you were here last week we started our christmas series off with the story of Abraham…
This promise of God that one day these people would be a great nation.
The promise was that Abraham’s family would one day be a blessing to the whole earth
And it was going good for a while but for years it looked like that promise would never be fulfilled.
In fact because of the sin of israel it looked like Israel was more likely to be completely destroyed and forgotten from history
Until one day through Mary, the mother of Jesus, she got a divine birth announcement
and she had the biblical and theological chops to say, wow! this is how the promise to Abraham is fulfilled!
In Mary’s Life heaven met earth
and that is what christmas is about
Christmas is about Heaven and Earth meeting up.
It is about God stepping out of his privileged place in heaven and coming to earth
So it is my hope that as we get into the text today you will continually see moments of heaven and earth meeting.
Today
Today as we think about Christmas, I have one point to make… but in order to make that one point about Christmas I will need to do what I did last week and take us on a bit of a journey though the scriptures.
And it will take us a few minutes to do it so I am going to just jump right in
There are moments when God shows up and uses people in profound ways…We can call these moments when Heaven and Earth Meet…
In the book of Judges we come across Gideon.
And where we find him is in a wine press threshing wheat…
I know that sounds odd to 21st century ears so I’ll just tell you, he is hiding
You dont thresh wheat on a wine press, thats crazy.
A group called the Midianites had been raiding israel and taking all of their food and killing them
So this is where we are showing up to the scene……
The angel of the Lord came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites. When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he said, “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior.”
“Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our ancestors told us about when they said, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up out of Egypt?’ But now the Lord has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian.”
The Lord turned to him and said, “Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand. Am I not sending you?”
“Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.”
Gideon is a very human guy…
The Lord says…God is with you mighty warrior
and Gideon says…how is God with us? We are just getting slaughtered out there
Then God says go in the strength you have and save all of israel…
And Gideon’s first response to the Angel of the Lord is an objection…Gideon Objects to God’s plan because he doesn't believe he has it in him to cary out God’s plan …
He is almost like…You picked the wrong guy… ME? My clan is weak and I am like the worst of my clan
Come on God you should know that …
Well the story of Gideon is that God uses him to save israel.
And God takes 300 of the tactically worst people that he has and saves Israel out of the hands of Midian
Now there is a point to this story…and the point is that God can use anyone but he chose to use the least exceptional person as a leader…and the warriors he chose were the least brave, the least tactically aware, the most likely to fail on the battlefield…
Now God could have just saved Israel. He didn't need Gideon, but he chose Gideon because he was the weakest…No one would ever think Gideon could do something like this….
There is no way for Gideon to take the credit…
Ok this is Gideon, and one day we will have to walk though his whole story because it is so good
But what we get out of his story is that he was weak and he was out of a weak family and God used him even though he objected
He was socially and militarily insignificant.
He was nobody he was ordinary…until God showed up…
And although Gideon needed assurances…He obeyed God and because he did he became powerful and extraordinary…
One more quick story before we get to christmas and this might be familiar to you
In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphim, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another:
“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty;
the whole earth is full of his glory.”
At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.
“Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.”
Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.”
Ok So unlike Gideon, Isaiah doesn't have an encounter with the Angel of the Lord, he is in the throne room of God
And Gideon was like…How can I save Israel I’m sinful…and you know what I come from a whole tribe of sinful people!
So the Lord right then and there atoned for his sin, forgave him and made him new
And then God used Isaiah as a messenger to Israel.
We all have reasons to object to God using us right?
God I’m just not strong enough
God I’m just messed up, you have to choose someone else…
Ok lets look at some of the christmas text now, flip with me to Luke 1 …
SO Isiah is this ordinary guy until God does something
God used Isaiah over his objection
Isnt that fascinating..>Whatever objections we have toward God he knows we are just humans and need re-assurances. He knows that……
In the time of Herod king of Judea there was a priest named Zechariah, who belonged to the priestly division of Abijah; his wife Elizabeth was also a descendant of Aaron. Both of them were righteous in the sight of God, observing all the Lord’s commands and decrees blamelessly. But they were childless because Elizabeth was not able to conceive, and they were both very old.
Ah! This is a priestly man…
Like that old grey hair pastor that has been doing it forever
And the story tells us that they always follow the Lord’s decrees and that they are blameless!
But they are childless
Zechariah and his wife were about as good of people as you can find…Blameless in the sight of God…Sounds like he is a good priest and he follows Torah and yet…He is childless
In the ancient world being childless was a sign of God’s punishment
Now God has a plan for them here in this area……
But first lets keep reading
Once when Zechariah’s division was on duty and he was serving as priest before God, he was chosen by lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, to go into the temple of the Lord and burn incense. And when the time for the burning of incense came, all the assembled worshipers were praying outside.
So the ancient records, of which there are many says that there are probably 18,000 priest
So Many many priest will go their whole lives without serving like Zechariah did here
We know this was Zechariah’s first time at this moment because there was a rule that said, “only priests who had never served before were eligible to have their names picked to burn the incense before the Lord.”
Zechariah had likely been waiting for this moment his whole life to go stand in the presence of God and offer incense
And you have to understand that this time was so serious that everyone else stands outside the building and prays
according to Jewish tradition, they chanted, “God of mercy, come into your holy sanctuary and receive with pleasure the offering of your people.”
And one last impotrant point to remember before we read this next section
for 400 years there was a period of silence. God had not spoken
So there was this anticipation…every time when someone goes in to light the incense….…Maybe God will speak this time…
Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right side of the altar of incense. When Zechariah saw him, he was startled and was gripped with fear. But the angel said to him: “Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to call him John. He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth, for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He is never to take wine or other fermented drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even before he is born. He will bring back many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God. And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”
Zechariah asked the angel, “How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well along in years.”
The angel said to him, “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to tell you this good news. And now you will be silent and not able to speak until the day this happens, because you did not believe my words, which will come true at their appointed time.”
So now this holy man, is standing in a holy place and a holy angel shows up with a holy announcement
This angel of God says: Your prayer has been heard
What a moment right?
This guy who the minute before he walked into this room there had been 400 years of silence from this place and now’
Everyone outside is praying and Zechariah has been praying and waiting and the silence breaks with this angel saying
Do Not be afraid, your prayer has been heard
Your wife will have a child
and you are going to have a remarkable child!
A child that will go before the Lord and will get people prepared for the coming of God!
This is huge because the angel of God is confirming what I am sure Zechariah already knows…Words from the prophet Malachi…
“I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come,” says the Lord Almighty.
So all of this
And Zechariah shows his humanity…He has been a priest his whole life
He has waited for this moment his entire adult life
He’s not like Gideon though…he has a stature in the community…He is strong
And he is not like Isaiah…He and his wife are blameless before the lord
But zechariah still has this one objection to God using him
And its is sort of the one thing that you want in a priest
It’s his Faith
He’s blameless…he has stature…But if he is going to move forward with God’s plan he has to be sure!
Do any of us here totally understand this?
Now I dont want to deceive you there are a few stories in the old testament where the angel of the Lord shows up and people listen and do exactly what God says
But often times even the most faithful in the scriptures have an objection to what God is asking them to do
If were honest…We get that because we have been there…
God you want me to show mercy to him?
You want me to forgive that person? Do you know what they did to my family? Do you even get the pain they caused?
You’re calling me into ministry?
See we are constantly comparing ourselves against other people thinking there is always someone better suited for the Job
But this is not something that God does, he sees us where we are and knows everything about us. He has no need to compare you to anyone else!
Because God knows your potential. He created you
Now all of these men said “yes” to God but it wasn’t a simple yes…It was a qualified Yes…
Only after offering some kind of complaint
I’m not strong enough
I am a sinner
I need to know for certain…
But right after this divine announcement where John the baptist is foretold
There is another announcement
In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, 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. But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him 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 Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”
“How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”
The angel answered, “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 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 unable to conceive is in her sixth month. For no word from God will ever fail.”
“I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Then the angel left her.
Now dont mistake Mary’s question of, “How can this be” as a protest.
She is not protesting God’s plan, she just knows where babies come from…
She is simply wondering about the mechanics of how she can have a baby when she has never had sex before
And once Gabriel explains that she will become pregnant supernaturally
Look at her reply
I am the Lord’s Servant….”May your words be fulfilled”…
Zechariah had been training his whole life to stand in God’s presence and when he is there, he doesn't have the faith to just believe what the angel says....Instead he wants assurances!
Isaiah is a prophet and he says how can I do it God I’m Sinful
Gideon is just a scared man when God asks him to be a military leader and he’s like you’ve got the wrong guy, I am the weakest in a long line of weak people!
They are all ordinary people who are used by God, in spite of their objections
And then we have Mary, the mother of Jesus
She isn’t in a temple…She is not a priest…
She is in Nazareth which Luke must have know was obscure at the time because he had to add a geographical distinction that it was a town in Galilee…Luke knew his readers would never know this backcountry, hick town…
As you mighty know there is already a reputation alive that nothing Good can come from Galilee and Nazareth was just an obscure ordinary place...Certainly nothing extraordinary ever happened there
She isn’t a priest
And listen to how the angel addresses Mary
I told you at the beginning that I had really one point today and I do…and guess what, I am finally getting to it
Gideon despite his objection was used by God
Isaiah despite his objection was used by God
Zechariah despite his objection was used by God
But Mary shows us something totally different
Mary has no objection…she has “a simple yes”…
Mary show us that, the ordinary is made to be a receptacle of the divine, a place where the life of God flows.
Mary show us that, the ordinary is made to be a receptacle of the divine, a place where the life of God flows.
Its one point with 4 fill-in’s because we just have one point today I thought I’d make you write a lot
God has a special affection for the ordinary
She’s not a priest, prophet or military leader
She has nothing, no standing
She is an ordinary woman from the backcountry who was used by God
Who when God showed up she said yes!
I love what Dallas Willard has to say about the ordinary:
See Jesus slipped into our world through the backroads and outlying districts of one of the least important places on earth
and has allowed his program for human history to unfold ever so slowly through the centuries.
He lived for thirty years among socially insignificant members of a negligible nation—though one with a rich tradition of divine covenant and interaction.
He grew up in the home of the carpenter for the little Middle-Eastern village of Nazareth. After his father, Joseph, died, he became “the man of the house” and helped his mother raise the rest of the family.
He was an ordinary workman: a “blue-collar” worker.
He did all this to be with us, to be one of us, to “arrange for the delivery” of his life to us.
It is no simple thing to make it possible for human beings to receive the eternal kind of life.
Mary, and ordinary woman…who comes from a place which is basically forgotten, it has no significance!
She becomes extraordinary because in her relationship with God she doesn't object to what God is trying to do
her response is a simple “yes”
Yes to a relationship with God
Yes to being a pregnant unwed teenager
Yes to investing her whole life into this boy who is destined to save humanity
Yes to all that God is asking her to do…
RESPONSE
RESPONSE
I really believe that God values the ordinary, the over looked, those who dont think they are worthy…Those are the ones that are like yes! They can handle my plan!
In the same way that God took Mary and made her a receptacle of the Divine …
He wants to do the same thing with you
He wants your life to become the delivery vehicle of eternal life to anyone around you
He wants to take your ordinary life and makes something out of it and the question really is…
Will you have objections for God?
I want you to close your eyes and lets pretend for a second that God comes and stands before you and says…I want you to do this…
What are your objections?
God I’m not strong enough?
God I’m sinful?
Lord I am old?
God I want assurance that it will work?
See I think the first thing that Jesus wants from us is a relationship.
See when God and ordinary people come into relationship then something extraordinary happens
Heaven Meets Earth
Let’s Pray
Let’s Pray
God take away my objections
Lord I want to start a relationship with you
Take my ordinary life and make something out of it!