Message
HIS KINGDOM WILL NEVER END
Luke 1:26-38
Key Verse 1:33
Merry Christmas! This year we thank God that the Lord has given us the opportunity to hear from Luke, for Luke made a research and wrote down in an orderly manner the things that have been fulfilled, that is, God’s promise to save men into His presence. In his gospel, Luke calls this fulfillment “the good news of God's kingdom”.
The title of the Christmas message for today is “His kingdom will never end." In Luke's gospel, the phrase, "the good news of the kingdom of God" is repeated 32 times.
In today's passage then the angel of the Lord says that Jesus came to build a kingdom. He came to build not any kingdoms but the kingdom that is eternal. Worldly kingdoms rise and fall. They come and go. But the kingdom Jesus came to build has no end.
However, although God’s kingdom is eternal, it must first be introduced into this world so people could get in. Specifically then how did the Lord God usher his kingdom into the world of man?
Part I. To a virgin.
God ushered his kingdom into this world by first giving a woman named Mary a great victory of faith.
One might wonder, "Why did Luke put the woman first, in his narrative of the beginning of the work of the gospel?”
According to Luke 1:1, we can say that it was to fulfill what God had promised to do, that is, to send the Savior who is called the offspring of woman. Then the question becomes "Why does the Savior have to be called “woman’s ['her'] offspring?" I think we can find the answer to this question from the context in which the promise was given, that is, the conversation between the Lord God and the serpent. Let us read Genesis 3:14-15. In this passage the Lord God is talking to the serpent which is an instrument of Satan. The serpent deceived the woman into disobeying God. She became the victim of the devil's deception. But the Lord God is going to turn the table around that the victory should come from woman Satan deceived.
Sin and death came through the woman falling first. But the Lord began to work on the woman to restore God’s kingdom for all who come from the offspring of woman. For this reason God sent an angel who helped Mary to open her heard and accept God’s plan to send the Savior to this world.
Practically though it was not easy for Mary to accept the mission. She was pledged to marry. She was a virgin. She did not know any man. Yet, she was to bear a child, even before coming together with Joseph. In Jewish custom the pledge of marriage was as binding as the formal marriage. Once a couple is pledged to marry they are called wife and husband, and they must keep themselves faithful to each other. If a wife sleeps with another man and becomes pregnant, she is to be stoned to death. In order to accept the mission she had to risk her life. Yet, as we will see further, thanks to the Lord's help, she opened her heart. She accepted the mission saying, "I am the Lord's servant. May it be to me as you had said.”
This is the victory the Lord gave her. She found herself as the Lord's servant, not the servant of any one such as Joseph. Mary who accepted the mission stands in strong contrast with the first woman Eve. Eve disobeyed God’s command. Then she became the woman with a cursed desire, for after the fall, the Lord God said to Eve, "Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you."
A blessed woman with blessed desire to serve the Lord produces blessed people bearing blessed fruit - her friends, her husband, if she marries a man, her children, grand-children, and beyond. The other side of the coin is also true. A woman with a cursed desire cause havoc to many. No matter where she goes she ends up becoming a source of problem. And we should not underestimate the importance of woman, for when Eve fell, it took only a few seconds that Adam fell. We see the same phenomenon repeating again and again. Today's message has to do with a kingdom. In regard to a kingdom or a nation, it is the women who cause a kingdom to rise or fall. History tells it better, for when King David became a peeping tom, and messed up with the woman married to another man, his kingdom started to go squeaky. By the time his son Solomon came, despite him to be as wise as he is said to be, due to him getting involved in women with a cursed desire, the kingdom was divided, and then was no more. And the same story is repeated again and again.
But we thank God for the victory given to Mary. She found herself as the Lord's servant. With a humble attitude she accepted the mission to serve the Lord. Thank God for Mary! In our ministry there are many women of faith like Mary. Mother Barry is one, Missionary Grace A. Lee is another, and in our ministry in Downey as well, I see many spiritual women like Mary. I also am thankful that many sisters in our ministry are growing up. They write deep testimonies. They struggle to feed sheep. I pray that the Lord would continue to bless them, that they would be filled with the love and zeal for the Lord, and serve Bible-students, so many brothers and sisters grow through their good service in the Lord.
Part II. To a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph.
God ushered his kingdom into this world by sending his Son into the 'context' of "marriage."
The next question we need to ask is, "Why is it that the Savior came into this world in the context of marriage?" Again, the quick answer is, "It was to fulfill what God had already promised, that is, to send the Savior as the offspring of woman." But, it gives rise to another question, "Why in the context of some else's marriage that is, the marriage between a Jewish virgin named Mary and a Jewish bachelor named Joseph?" They were not just considering to get married. They "were" indeed married, for as I mentioned earlier the pledge of marriage is as binding as the formal marriage.
Again, we go back to Genesis to find the answer, that is, the vessel that remained broken as a result of the fall. And the vessel that remains broken into pieces is the institution called marriage. The marriage is the only institution God created to carry out God's will to bless mankind. It was the only tool God gave to propagate his children. Within the context of marriage, the Lord God can help man to produce children, so they could learn of the love of God, become fruitful and increase in number, so that the whole universe would be filled with children bearing God's image.
Man is the only creation to bear God's image. No other creation was given the privilege to be like God in terms of the image. Even angels, Satan included was NOT created in God's image. To bless man without a limit, instead of God making zillions of people all in one fiat of creation, God made only one person, that is, Adam, then out of Adam Eve. Then God brought them together and built a house church, so beginning with that marriage, children could come out.
For this very reason if your enemy destroys your marriage, your enemy can literally defeat God's purpose. But God did not allow this to happen. Although the devil caused havoc to the marriage life of the first couple, and since then many more became part of the statistics, the Lord God chose to send his Son to be born into a family of God where both Mary and Joseph chose put the Lord first and work together to serve the Lord's purpose first.
Remember how the Lord was with Joseph, for through God's grace he was a righteous person. On learning of Mary's pregnancy, still in obedience to the Lord's instruction, he brought Mary home. And along with her, he served the Lord providing for the Lord Jesus a home. Still in Nazareth today there is a memorial church standing on the place where Joseph maintained his carpentry. This church is adorned with a lot of ark work showing the family life of Joseph and Mary where they nurtured the baby Jesus to grow. These pictures carry one important message: the picture of godly family, for at the center the marriage life between Mary and Joseph there is always Jesus growing up, first in a mother's womb, then as a tiny baby, they young boy, until Jesus grew to be about 30. The paintings, murals, and sculptures found in that church teach us the key to maintaining a blessed marriage, that is, Jesus at the center. In this generation where an increasing number of marriages are added to the statistics of broken marriages, the good news that our Lord Jesus was born into a godly couple, Mary and Joseph, is truly encouraging.
Part III. His kingdom will never end.
God ushered his kingdom into this world by sending his Son who himself is the builder of God’s kingdom.
Now let us think about Jesus, the baby to be born into the family. In his conversation with Mary the angel of the Lord revealed three things about the child she was called to bear: 1) the name Jesus; 2) his origin, that is, the son of the Most High; and 3) His kingdom will never end.
The three revelations on Jesus have one thing in common, that is, the child to be born is uniquely qualified to build God's kingdom. The name Jesus means the one who will save people from their sins. Due to sin man lost God's kingdom. Jesus came to resolve the cause that cost man his relationship with God. Jesus is the Son of the Most High so he can lead man to the life with the Most High. The kingdom Jesus came to build is free of sin. So it endures forever. This is indeed the good news of good news.
The conversation between the angel and Mary deals with technical issues. Mary was a virgin, so she did not know how a virgin can bear a child. The angel clarified that it will happen according to the power of God who works through the Holy Spirit, for with God, nothing is impossible.
Yet this conversation convinces us to truly believe in and rejoice for the good news of God’s kingdom, for although on our own we cannot enter God’s kingdom, as we put trust in the Savior born of virgin, through the work of the Spirit and according to the power of God with him nothing is impossible, we can rest assured that certainly he is able to build His kingdom within us so we would have the joy of the life in his eternal kingdom.
Mary was deeply convicted. The angel's encouraging news on what happened to her relative Elizabeth was particularly convincing. Mary then opened her heart, and said, "I am the Lord's servant. May it be to me as you have said."
In conclusion, we thank and praise the Lord God who sent our Lord Jesus to build His kingdom which is eternal. We thank and praise God who restores God's kingdom by granting the victory of faith to a woman named Mary. We thank God for choosing to be born into a family of Mary and Joseph, so through this humble incarnation, he could give us the hope to redeem the marriage, and the family back to God. We thank God who sent Jesus and through him invites all peoples on earth to His eternal kingdom.
One word: his kingdom will never end