Mensa Otabil - A Special Message
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The Christmas week is here, and we are considering the Christmas story as it is recorded in the Gospel of Luke, specifically Luke chapter 1, verses 30 and 31. Then the angel said to her, «Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a son, and you shall call his name Jesus.» I want you to consider the message that the angel brought to Mary. He has been sent by God, and he brings a message to Mary.
The first thing the angel says to her is, «Do not be afraid,» because he is about to break news to this woman that would scare her and throw her out of her orbit. So he says, «Don’t panic. Relax. Take it easy. Something big is coming, but relax about it.» You know, many times God anticipates our actions and gives us the message before something happens. Throughout the Bible, you’ll find that when an angel of the Lord is delivering a message to someone, the first thing they say is «Don’t be afraid.» Essentially, in our time, it would be «Don’t panic. Relax,» and then the message comes. Often, God says things to us that are so huge that our first response is to declare it impossible: «It can’t be done,» «Why me?» «Not me,» and all of that. But God says, «Don’t be afraid. Relax. Something good is coming your way.»
The second thing he says to Mary is, «You have found favor with God. You are highly favored.» This is a very grand greeting to a village girl. She probably thinks that nobody knows her; they know her in her village, but not beyond it. In those days, there was no mass communication as we know it now. So if you were known, it was only by your relatives. But here is a strange creature, a strange being, telling her she is highly favored and important to God. God thinks about her. She is on God’s mind. God has spotted her.
Can you imagine what all of that means? That God knows you, has seen you, has spotted you, and is going to do great things with you? Today, as we hear these salutations to Mary, we can also hear God saying similar things to us. It may not be the same message. We are not going to birth a Messiah, and we are not going to conceive as Mary did. But God is also saying, «You have found favor with me. You are important to me. You are special to me. I want to do something special with you, through you, and with your life.» No matter who you are or what you think you are, God thinks about you and has great plans for you. You are highly favored.
The third thing-this is the shocker-is, «You will conceive and give birth to a child.» He says, «Mary, you’re going to have a child.» Now, that should not be too strange to tell a woman. Every woman who is promised to be married can expect that one day she’ll get pregnant. However, the tone of this salutation and the strangeness of it prompted Mary to realize that this is not a normal thing. The angel is saying something great, something out of the ordinary: she is going to conceive.
Mary sees it not as a future event, but as a present event-something that is going to happen immediately. She knows she’s not married and is not going to be married for probably a year, so this is going to happen before she is married. That’s the big deal about this salutation. We will look at Mary’s response tomorrow. It’s important when God says something great is going to happen with you and through you. You’re going to conceive in your own womb and give birth to a child. Mary knew that this salutation was not ordinary; it was extraordinary. May the Lord visit you in a strange way and speak His words of purpose into your life.
Let us pray. Say with me, «Heavenly Father, I receive the favor to do the impossible. Help me to do the things that You have called me to do. In Jesus' name, amen and amen.» Well, I’ll catch you again tomorrow, and Pastor Mensa Otabil. Shalom, peace and life to you.