Sermon Central
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How Can This Be?
Contributed by Dean Morgan on May 5, 2008 (message contributor)
Summary: Have you ever been asked to do something and asked HOW? Has the Lord ever asked you to do something and you asked HOW?
Have you ever been asked to do something and asked HOW? Has the Lord ever asked you to do something and you asked HOW?
Pay particular attention to verses 34 and 35: 34 Then Mary said to the angel, "How can this be, since I do not know a man?" 35 And the angel answered and said to her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God.
Six months after Gabriel delivered God’s message to Zechariah (1:11-20), God sent the angel with another message, this time to a virgin named Mary. The angel Gabriel had also appeared to the prophet Daniel more than five hundred years earlier (Daniel 8:15-17; 9:21). Each time Gabriel appeared, he brought important messages from God. This time was no exception.
The angel told her she was “highly favored” that is, the object of special favor from God. Gabriel gave her the good news: she would become the mother of the promised Messiah whom she would name Jesus (Jehovah is salvation).
When it comes to Mary, people tend to go to one of two extremes. They either magnify her so much that Jesus takes second place (v. 32), or they ignore her and fail to give her the esteem she deserves. Elisabeth, filled with the Spirit, called her “the mother of my Lord” (v. 43); and that is reason enough to honor her.
What do we know about Mary? She was a Jewess of the tribe of Judah, a descendent of David, and a virgin (Isaiah 7:14). She was engaged to a carpenter in Nazareth named Joseph (Matthew 13:55), and apparently both of them were poor (Luke 2:24; Leviticus 12:8). In Judaism, “virgins” were young maidens, usually fourteen or younger.
Christmas art depicts Jesus’ family as images (icons) stamped in gold foil, with a calm Mary receiving the tidings of the Annunciation as a kind of benediction. But that is not at all how Luke tells the story. Mary was “greatly troubled” and “afraid” at the angel’s appearance, and when the angel pronounced the sublime words about the Son of the Most High whose kingdom will never end, Mary had something far more mundane on her mind: “But I’m a virgin!”
Notice verse 29: 29 Confused and disturbed, (NLT); She was thoroughly shaken, (MSG). She was scared.
No wonder she asked how. How many times have you as an individual or you as a church asked the Lord how?
You see the Lord has given us a mandate in these last days to carry this gospel to our generation. He has given you the awesome responsibility of reaching Johnsonville and the surrounding area. He has given you the responsibility to reach your children, and your grandchildren and your mothers and fathers as well as all of your family. He has given you the responsibility to build His Kingdom right here. With such a great responsibility it is easy to ask HOW.
As an individual the Lord has given you great responsibilities and you may be asking HOW?
35 And the angel answered and said to her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you
If we are going to accomplish what He wants us to do we must have the power of the Holy Spirit.
6 So he answered and said to me: "This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: ’Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ Says the LORD of hosts. Zech 4:6 (NKJV)
Acts 1:4-8 – “ 4 And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father, "which," He said, "you have heard from Me; 5 for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now." 6 Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, "Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?" 7 And He said to them, "It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority. 8 But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth."
“You shall receive power…” (dunamis) Dunamis (Power) – ability, power, physical or moral as residing in a person or thing. (b) Power in action, as e.g., when put forth in performing miracles. Jesus had given them a commission but He also left them with the power or ability to carry out this commission.
