Series: The Call of Christmas
Message: The Call to Prepare & Provide
Preacher: Japhet De Oliveira
Refresh: Open with prayer. Read or listen to Psalm 40:11-17.
Read: Luke 1:1-38 - As you re-read for the final time this week in the ESV translation, what did you discover new about God’s character?
Reflect: Two questions appear in this passage:
And Zechariah said to the angel, “How shall I know this?
And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?”
The difference between Zechariah and Mary is that Zechariah needed a sign, whereas Mary accepted it. R. T. France in his commentary on Luke, page 16, shares this insight:
“The village teenager is more responsive to the promise of God’s supernatural power than is the Jerusalem priest.”
What makes the difference? Who would you rather be in this narrative? How do you relate the story that Jesus refers to later as quoted in Matthew 18, that we should be like children to enter the kingdom of God with this moment in history? I have often reflected and perhaps you have too about the loss of innocence and the days of my childhood when I knew so much less wrong, less pain, less hurt and less evil. I sense that the annual celebration of Christmas is a way to prepare and remind us that the Trinity through Their provision, in the epic plan of salvation, have one simple desire, that we return to the state of innocence, a state of joy in God. Perhaps that is what children remind us of when they come up front in our services. Perhaps that is what God is trying to remind us of through Luke and Matthew, that pure faith, when embraced, allows you to speak great joy instead of simply watch great joy.
Recalibrate:
Respond: Pray for the soon return of Jesus.
Research: Read one of the books or commentaries for this series on Luke 1:1-38.