Gabriel came to earth twice in the book of Luke. First, he announced a natural birth. Next, he announced the supernatural virgin birth of Christ to Mary. These births made way for the new birth — the regeneration — that is available to every heart. (Luke 1:11-35)

Speaker(s): Pastor Thomas Schaller
Sermon # 11385
11:00 AM on 12/17/2017

P. Schaller

Thank you, Lord. Amen.

Luke 1:11- The title of the message is One Important Angel. This one that stood in the place of worship and service and is speaking to Zacharias the priest.

vs. 19. The angel gave his name, Gabriel. We have three births I want to point out to you in our message. See on the screen. It’s coming! Let’s go to a testimony I have. There is the box. The box representing the birth of a baby. My wife and I, one of our grandchildren is 1 1/2 years old. She stayed overnight and slept between my wife and me. It reminded us of when we were parents raising our children. We’re fascinated like you are with any child as they learn to talk and walk and move. To think two cells come together to form a human being is remarkable.

“Brain development begins early by the embryo’s fourth week, there is evidence of nervous tissue. 250 thousand cells per minute start migrating outward. They ultimately form six layers. Each neuron knows exactly where to go, what to do, how to link up with as many as 10,000 connections. Any exposure to, okay, – we have an internal calendar, the fetus, as the baby is growing up and learning. “By the second day after birth, the baby should be able to detect its mother by smell, hearing and taste. By one month, the baby will have preference for looking at its mother. By three months, the baby’s eyes will follow movement and they can smile in response to a smile. By six months, they begin to imitate sounds, grasp objects, and roll over. At nine months they sit up and understand the word “no.” By 12 months most babies are saying dada and mama. These language skills improve. They can detect 200 distinct sounds, speaking 6,000 possible languages” and so on.

I’m bringing this up because natural science is one of the wonders of God. God created the universe. I love reading about these things that the world of science tells us about.

“Every bodily action is coordinated by conference calls between millions of neurons in the brain, like 35 billion employees in a company who stay in touch with each other and are capable of making trillions of decisions every millisecond.”

I love that. That’s amazing. Where did this come from? The unbeliever is saying that’s all there is, the material world. What is a human being? How do they form? When? Where? Those questions. There is one question that can’t be answered by science. That is: Why? Why is this the case? Why are the living things on this planet when we travel and do all our technological survey in the universe to find out if there is life out there? So far we have found nothing. Why is it here? Why do we ask the question “why” and isn’t it amazing to study the systems in this box. Two human beings can come together and form a human being. In the third week of an embryo’s life the cells that form the heart they start forming that muscle tissue and start moving, start beating. The electronic sequence in the beat is important. It would start here and go down across the heart. How does the intelligence and transfer of that information happen in a fetus? For this little girl to lie next to me in the bed and she is different from me and my wife but somehow similar. This is quite a study. Quite fascinating and we could say incredible. I heard about this blue whale, largest living animal on earth. 30 yards long. A human being could fit inside a blood vessel. The heart is the size of a Volkswagen. In the world of science, they study it and look at it and describe it and all of these many systems, neurological, immune, muscular, skeletal, the human eye and coming short of saying glory to God! Glory to God! When I was in school studying some of these things that’s how it was in class. Woe! And we don’t say glory to God. We say woe!

The first birth we want to reference today is the one that happens by nature amongst a husband and wife, a human being comes into the world. The second birth is this one when the angel comes from God and is speaking regarding Zacharias and Elizabeth having a child. Months later, this is Luke 1:26. What I want you to see is there is the material but there is more. There is the spiritual. What we can’t see. What is behind everything that is here? This is where the question “why” is answered. It’s in another realm that is also here with us. It is invisible. When the angel came to visit Mary, the angel is coming with a unique message.

vs. 28. Mary could have children by nature, but not married fully, is engaged. She’s a healthy woman and capable but this will happen not by the will of man. There is not a man involved in that sense. It happens from God. The spiritual world enters the natural world and another kind of baby is made. Not a baby like you and me. This kind that is born is extraordinarily different. Way above and beyond the way we are. We have the sin of our fathers and mothers transferred to us and is in our DNA, our material body. When you leave your body, your body drops. That’s the end of our sin and the experience of our sin. We are no longer in a sinful body. Our spirit and soul that has been born again, which is our third word today.

Luke 1:29 sometime when God speaks to you, it is troubling. I would say seeing an angel would be troubled. Hearing what the angel would say. Why is the angel visiting me? I’m not sure what is happening. God clarifies. It would not stop with trouble but we would go on to see more of the invisible. I’d like to know not only the material world but understand the nature and world that God has that we cannot see. Because of our new birth, we are capable of getting ahold of, and experiencing who God is and what he has for us.

vs. 29-30. I know you’re troubled. Don’t be troubled. You have favor with God. I’m here on a good mission. We could say it will blow your mind what I’m going to say to you. You are capable and you can handle it.

vs. 31-32. In our Bible understanding, these are loaded words. Every one of those phrases are a message of themselves. Even Joseph who is not the biological father but the legal father, even he was related to the seed of David. The seed of David is there and Mary is from that family line. She was chosen for this. The Spirit of God did the impregnating. The Spirit of God used her flesh, her humanity without a sin nature except she did not have a man in her life for this to happen.

This was the H.S. It says it here in vs. 35.

vs. 33-34. Not a proud question but a reasonable one. There is a humility. I don’t understand how this could happen. I don’t know a man. This could not happen. This is how she is processing it.

vs. 35. The H.S. shall come upon you. We could stop and think about that. The H.S. Let’s move from this picture. This is Mary and no child, no pregnancy, no way it could happen except for life is more than what you see. Very important. Life is more than us. Life is more than the flesh. All those neurons and all the development of a human being in nature is speaking to us about something invisible. We have not seen it yet. God, the throne of God, the resurrected Christ, the coming of the kingdom of God, the reality of God. When the angel said Mary you will have and she says let it be unto me according to your word. She is interacting with the spiritual world and God is saying I will do this and it will happen. As she believes that, it happens.

vs. 35. It’s amazing. Really? Really? Did God do that? God came in the flesh. Is that true? It is. Glory to God. Where did the whale come from? God! How did it happen? God! How do you and I exist and communicate to each other? You can read all this amazing stuff about human beings. We say God did it. How did Christ come into the world? God did it. God brought Christ into the world.

The third kind of birth I want to bring up is in Titus 3:5, Jn 3:5. Here is the man. He’s like the box. He’s filled with himself. Like we all are. We all have our fears, our plans, and our pleasures, our habits, our unbelief, our families, all of life and the questions about life. That’s what we are. I say what is going on here.

If I have 100 men and asked them all what they believe, I could come up with 130 different ideas. Four or five main religions. Buddhism, Islam, atheism, Christianity. Who will show me? How will I know? We can be sure if you take all the ancient scriptures and put them on this side of the table and put the Bible on the other side, this is very different from these. This one is historical. These are more mythological. These are written from men. This one is written from God. If you take every man who ever lived and all political leaders and you put them on this side, you put this one person Jesus Christ and he is different. He’s the only one raised from the dead. Verily, verily I say to you. Buddha said it’s good for me; I don’t know what is good for you. You find your own way. Christ said verily, verily with all assurance. He would say that when making his point with authority. I am different. He is the one without sin. Overcame death and the devil and his blood washes us from our sin. He is the answer for the world.

Our natural birth, my granddaughter. The birth of Christ very unique and different and now comes our birth, our spiritual birth. It is a thousand times if not a million times even infinity above and beyond our first birth. When you and I were an embryo attached to our mother’s uterus, that was miraculous but when we believe in Christ, it transcends the material. God comes in and says we are children of God. We are born of God. We are saved by God. We are forgiven by God. We’re called by God’s name. We’re not going to live 70 years. Our first birth means 70 years. Our second birth means forever. We will live forever in the presence of God and his angels. We will live with divine purpose without a sin nature. We will live in the R and holiness of God and never die. We’re connected with the infinite God and incredible eternal purpose which unfolds the plan regarding this material world, the earth, the universe, matter and space. We are born to inherit the kingdom of God and never die. It does not yet appear what we shall be but when we see him, we shall be like him. It’s like planting a seed in the ground. You might get them mixed up and don’t know what seed it is. As they germinate and grow, I got a tomato plant mixed up with the geraniums! Not by works of righteousness which we have done but according to his mercy he has saved us… by the regeneration of the H.S. Re-gening. New genus, species. We have genus, a type, and a category of a living thing. And then species. We are a new generation, a new kind, and eternal. What about the people who are lost? They pass into eternity. They go into another phase, a period where it is eternal but without God and grace and forgiveness. Without faith and the mercy of God. You say pastor why is it that way? I can only refer you to God himself. We don’t know God as we could know him. The more we know him, the more we realize there is such a thing. There are people suspended between heaven and hell. God is speaking to them in both ways. The pain you suffer is an indicator of what it meant to sin. Our sin has severely affected us. It produces this affect in our heart and mind where we are lonely, guilty, afraid, and ashamed and can feel that in our soul. God uses it to speak to our hearts and says please come to me. I made you so you would know me and my grace and love and mercy. You’d have my mind. I made you to be like my Son, J.C. There is a plan of God and then our way. Christ came and showed us the difference. He said I am always doing my Father’s will. I am in the plan of my Father. You walk with me and talk with me and lose sight of yourself. My way is better. My way is love and freedom. You walk with me and get to know my heart and mind. He wept over Jerusalem. He had compassion on people. He was busy day and night when he started his public ministry. Christ is the unique one, God in the flesh. He is the minister of God’s wisdom and the severity of God’s mind regarding the lies and deceptive part of our human nature. Christ said there were times when he said, I’m going to embellish it, and he could say what? You don’t believe? Don’t you see it? Can’t you understand it?

Mark 7 and Mt. 10. Lord, what are you talking about? You will understand later. Can’t you see? In his ministry, he is with them and knows there are times they are bright and engaged with them, and times when they were out to lunch. We need to know this. Take it easy on yourself. God is the God of grace. Learn of him. He’s meek and lonely. Start to realize in life our new birth has given us a new way of thinking. We’re able to say I realize how wrong I can be, how hard I can be. I realize who you are and am learning of it little by little. You don’t condemn me. I’m beginning to understand who you are and what you have to say.

Prayer is part of that. We stop talking and start to listen and worship and respect him. I know so little of what is happening. Many prayers I pray is Lord, I know so little about the whole thing. I want to see the big picture. I know this is amazing but I want to know why. I know this is sad but would like to get more insight into what is happening on the earth. He’s always saying I sent my Son so you can know it, listen to him, hear him and walk with him. The Holy Spirit will reveal my Son to you and if you know my Son, you know me. If you have seen him, you have seen the Father. This could not be an accident. You hear the gospel, believe in Christ and are born again. You have a capacity to hear from him and walk with him. Your prayers are heard.

He sees Christ in the person. The person comes to God not with empty hands but with Christ in his hands. God, here I am in your name. I am believing you and walking with you. God will help us and lead us. We’ll have more victory over our temptations because of him. We have more of a sense of direction like when we are getting ready to die. When it’s time to die and say I am ready. Though I go through the valley of the shadow of death, thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. That’s because of him. We have steel, something in our heart that doesn’t move because of him. We have a compass. I get lost in the woods. He is my compass. I have something going on in my heart that is more than flesh and blood.

Three births: our natural one, Christ’s birth so we could be born again and the born again one is the greatest. It couldn’t happen without his birth. Gabriel is saying I am Gabriel that comes from the presence of God. The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the holy thing formed in you will be called the Son of God. The Son of the highest. Thank you, Lord. It’s changed our lives.

We’ll never be ashamed of it. It’s our future. Your way is our way. Thank you, God.

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