Insight for Living

Bill Meyer: Have you ever looked at your circumstances and concluded that the timing is just all wrong? That the situation is too messy, too complicated, too far gone for anything good to come from it? We've all been there. But what if the very moment that looks most impossible to you is precisely the moment God has been waiting for?

Today on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindoll begins a message that will challenge everything you think you know about impossible situations. This is the final message in Chuck's 12-part series called "How Great is Our God."

Pastor Chuck Swindoll: If you have a copy of the scriptures with you today, will you open your Bible to the third Gospel, named the Gospel by Luke. First chapter, beginning at verse 26 through verse 38. We have one of the early accounts of that scene where Mary was informed of the plan of God for the bringing of His Son, the Messiah.

Luke 1:26. "Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the descendants of David; and the virgin's name was Mary. And coming in, he said to her, 'Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.' She was very perplexed at this statement, and kept pondering what kind of salutation this was."

"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 bear a son, and you shall name Him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David; and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end.' Mary said to the angel, 'How can this be, since I am a virgin?'"

"The angel answered and said to her, 'The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason the holy Child shall be called the Son of God. And behold, even your relative Elizabeth has also conceived a son in her old age; and she who was called barren is now in her sixth month. For nothing will be impossible with God.' And Mary said, 'Behold, the bondslave of the Lord; may it be done to me according to your word.' And the angel departed from her."

Bill Meyer: You're listening to Insight for Living. To dig deeper into today's topic on your own, be sure to purchase our Searching the Scriptures Bible study workbook by going to insight.org/offer. Chuck titled today's message "The Spirit’s Most Significant Mission." It's the final installment in Chuck's 12-part teaching series called "How Great is Our God."

Pastor Chuck Swindoll: The old college professor loved to ask each entering class the same question. "What would you recommend?" And then he spelled out the situation. A middle-aged man was rather ill-tempered and sometimes brutal. According to some reports, he drank too much. He had a hard time holding a job, and he was weak-willed.

His wife was not well physically. Ultimately she died of the disease that had plagued her for years, tuberculosis. Of the eight children born to her, only three lived to adulthood. At this particular time and in that region of the world, the death rate among children was high. Only three out of five made it to adulthood. They died of typhoid fever, diphtheria, smallpox, and the most dread of all diseases at the time, syphilis.

The woman now discovers she is again pregnant. Chances are good she will not live through childbirth. All right class, what would you recommend? Not surprisingly, the great majority, year after year, almost in unison and without hesitation, in one word announced: abortion. And as they had a chance to explain it, the woman has no reason to give birth, to struggle through the birth and possibly die. "Congratulations," said the prof. "You have just killed Ludwig van Beethoven."

On the 16th of December each year, music lovers the world over pause and recognize the enduring music of this genius who, in less than 60 years on this earth, left us with music we love to hear to this day. Most of us had little if any awareness of the threatening situation that surrounded his birth. And by the way, his mother lived on, which is often the case.

We celebrate the lives of great men and women, some of them having been borderline geniuses during their earthly life, having left great contributions to this earth. Seldom do we pause and think about that which surrounded the pregnancy of their mother and the early childhood of their life.

Travel from the 1770s back a number of centuries to another era and another time. A time when most women needed to think twice before they even gave thought to a new birth. Sherwood Wirt, now gone from us, leaves this in his legacy as he describes the times:

"The people were being heavily taxed and faced every prospect of sharp increases to cover the expanding military expenses. The threat of world domination by a cruel, ungodly, power-intoxicated band of terrorists was ever just below the threshold of consciousness. Moral deterioration had corrupted the upper levels of society and was moving rapidly into the broad base of the populace."

"Intense nationalistic feeling was clashing openly with new and sinister forms of imperialism. Conformity was the spirit of the age. Government handouts were being issued with increased lavishness to keep the population from rising up and throwing out its leaders. Interest rates were spiraling upward in the midst of an inflated economy. External religious observances were considered a political asset, and an abnormal emphasis was being placed on sports and athletic competitions."

"Racial tensions were at the breaking point. The one in charge of the nation was now approving the deaths of babies. In such a time and amid such a people, a child was born to a migrant couple who just signed up for a fresh round of taxation."

It doesn't sound like the kind of setting into which you would want anyone to be born. And if given the opportunity to offer our recommendation, we would probably say get out of the country at best, or don't even have that child at worst. But God's opinion, which is always greater than ours, stated so clearly in Galatians 4 and verse 4, "When the fullness of time came, God sent forth His Son."

I like the way one of the paraphrases renders it: "When the right time came, the time God decided on, He sent His Son." It's easy to forget the kind of times into which Jesus was born. And what makes His birth all the more amazing is that it was, in God's estimation, the right moment, though in the world's eyes, there would have been a hundred reasons to choose another time, either before then or after the fact.

But those prophecies waited to be fulfilled, and that is what was accomplished according to God's promise, just as He planned. Some dear friend of our family told Cynthia and me even before we started having children, "If you wait till you can afford them, you'll never have children." Wise words.

If God were to wait until time was just right, there would never have been a Son sent. But against all the odds and in spite of the threatening situation that even this young couple faced after the birth, God brought forth His Son. And by the way, He had all of the arrangements put together before time ever began.

I've provided you in my outline today, on the reverse side, a chart I want you to look at. Sometimes it is difficult to track the original events when they are packed together and covered in various books of the Bible. So I've not only given you the event, but I've also given you the scriptures that you can track from one to the other. There are ten of them, and they climax, of course, at Luke 2 with the birth of the baby in Bethlehem.

The events began with the angel's visit with Zacharias. And then following that, Elizabeth, his wife, has the wonderful news that she will conceive in her old age. Following that, the angel visits with Mary to tell her of this miraculous conception that would soon happen. After that, Mary actually conceives. And then she has this visit with Joseph, which is implied in Matthew's account.

Following that, Joseph's initial reaction, which imagination helps us understand, is full of all the struggles any one of us could identify with. And then there's Mary's trip to visit her relative Elizabeth, followed by Joseph's dream and his decision. Early on, he chose that he will simply divorce her, just put her away.

In the dream, he realizes from the presence of the angel who visits with him that this is of God. Joseph and Mary are then married, and then shortly thereafter, they're on their way to Bethlehem where she comes to term and has the child. Those events will help you put the pieces together as various times are mentioned during these next few days regarding our Savior's arrival.

What we want to do today is focus on the third of those ten events, and that would be the visit of Gabriel with Mary, the mother-to-be. The account is in Luke chapter one, and the main part we're considering is verses 26 to 38, which really identifies two people and focuses on them. One is an angel named Gabriel, and one is a young woman who was a virgin named Mary.

Understand, men and women, that this is a first. This is a first. I know that every year we return to these scenes, and every time we return, if you're not careful, it's sort of a ho-hum, here we go again with the same story. Though it's the same story, the event surrounding it and the thoughts related to it are all fresh if you will allow your mind to ponder them.

The angel, we read in verse 26, is sent from God to a city in Galilee called Nazareth. But before that is mentioned, we're told it was in the sixth month. If a person is reading the Gospel by Luke for the first time, there is only one question that individual would ask: the sixth month of what? The sixth month of the year? The sixth month since he had already told Mary there would be a visit?

No, neither of the two. This is the sixth month of Elizabeth's pregnancy. Her relative, up in years, has already been told and has had the thrill of her life to know that she would conceive. She conceives a child, and now the baby's been growing six months in her womb. It's in that sixth month the angel Gabriel comes to Mary.

I'm sure Mary, the relative of Elizabeth, has had a great delight in thinking what fun it will be to hold that little baby in her arms. Little does Mary realize she'll have her own baby to hold in her arms in nine months. She would never have anticipated it. But before we get there, look, this appears to be a sudden event. The angel Gabriel is sent from God to a city in Galilee. But it isn't sudden.

In the counsel of divine decrees, before there was ever time on earth, before there was ever matter, before there was a sun, moon, or stars, the Godhead together planned salvation. And in the plan of salvation, it was ordained that this angel be sent on this particular day to this particular woman living in this particular place.

The reason I overwork this is because we have no business thinking that because something happens suddenly on earth, that it's sort of a surprise to God. It's as though the heavens are going, "Wow, we didn't know that was going to happen! Look at this!" As a matter of fact, nothing is a surprise to our God.

Planning our salvation, knowing our need for the Savior, our God already has put together the plan that on this very day at this particular time, this angel, the messenger angel, would leave the throne room of the Father and come to this earth. And we read he would come to the city in Galilee called Nazareth.

The reason Luke writes it like that is because there were people reading it for the first time who would not know where Nazareth was. His gospel would spread across the whole known world, but who ever heard of Nazareth? It's a tiny place. And if you think Nazareth is small, Bethlehem is even smaller. I mean, to us, Bethlehem is "Whoa, Bethlehem!" And then you go there and you say, as you look at it, "That's it? Is that all there is to Bethlehem?"

And Nazareth. He has to tell them it's in Galilee. And if that's obscure, think of trying to find the woman there that he was... Oh, there was no trouble finding her. Remember, he is sent from God. And never forget when something occurs in your life, it's been allowed by God. Don't look upon it as a coincidence. Don't think of it as just being in the right place at the right time.

I spoke last week on unidentified inner promptings, I called them UIPs. Oh, you should read my emails this week. People have got UIPs all over the place. Some of them, I'm not sure they're UIPs, but that's okay. Others, they have genuinely been. One lady stood in tears this morning to tell me about an event that she said, "You would not believe how this occurred." I said, "I believe it. As a matter of fact, God planned it."

Mary knows nothing of it. She's never read Luke 1. She's just living her life, doing whatever a young Jewish teenager would be doing. But never doubt it: the destination is determined, the person is selected, the situation is complicated, and the mission is humanly impossible. All four are true. Let me unpack them.

First, the destination. The angel was to go to the city called—really we would call it a village—called Nazareth. Nazareth is where Mary lived, it's where Joseph lived, it's where they have been betrothed. Unlike today, in those days in a Jewish marriage, there was the commitment to one another followed by the signing of a betrothal covenant which lasted usually about a year.

During that year, they were known as husband and wife, though they didn't live together, they were not intimate with one another, they were seen as husband and wife, which explains why he is called her husband on occasion, though they've not actually been married. But the betrothal was a permanent engagement, could be broken only by divorce or in the case of unfaithfulness, stoning.

They are committed to one another in this betrothal, and the angel is to find her in the city of Nazareth, and he does so. So the person is selected. She is a virgin. *Parthenos* is the Greek term, one who has never been intimate with a man. *Parthenos*. It's used also by Matthew in his account, and here it's used in Luke. She is the virgin. Never knew a man.

Now the situation is complicated. Why? Because the plan of God required depositing on this earth a sinless but very human individual. How do you get a child born without sin who comes from the womb of his mother? How do you do that? The possibilities get a little bit complicated. I took my time this week to think through what those possibilities were.

Listen to them. First, God could have chosen a human mother and a human father and then put the baby there and have them have the child. The problem is you've got a sinful product. I know, I know—everyone but your grandchild falls in the category, but trust me: every person born on this earth is a sinner except Jesus.

How do you do that? It can't come from just an average man and woman that's the result of intercourse and then the baby nine months later is born. You'd have a sinful child. And through God's plan, all the way back to the fall of Adam, sin entered into the world and death by sin, so death passed upon all men and women. We are sinners by birth, by choice, and by nature.

So He can't use even a good or godly man and woman together. So that won't work. Well, the second possibility is neither one. Just leave a divinely given gift on a doorstep. Mary finds the baby and claims it. The problem there—He's not truly human, hasn't had a birth. So that won't work.

The third possibility is to send a soul and spirit to live in a person already on earth. The problem is it would not be His own body, nor could it be said that He is truly human, but has in fact been brought into a life. So this leaves only the option number four: the supernatural conception.

The womb of Mary would be that earthly vehicle. However, the embryo would bypass the contamination with sin, since the tiny speck of life within Mary's womb would have been made possible, as we're going to read, by the Holy Spirit. The miracle is often called the virgin birth miracle. It's the virgin conception that is miraculous.

The fact that a virgin could conceive is the miracle. The birth is very normal after the full nine months have run their course. Never before, never since has this ever occurred. So now we come to this impossible situation, and I love it that it's impossible. I love it when God does the impossible.

G. Campbell Morgan writes this: "He was the God-man, not God indwelling a man—of such there had been many; not a man deified—of such there had been none save in the myths of the pagan systems of thought—but God and man combining in one personality the two natures, a perpetual enigma and mystery baffling the possibility of explanation."

Having read that, I'm now going to explain what baffles the possibility of explanation. Always makes me smile when I think about that. Like the statement, "Thanks be to God for His gift too wonderful for words," and then I speak on it for 30 minutes to give you the words that are too wonderful for us to grasp.

How do we really put it all together? How do we make sense out of what is absolutely impossible? You just keep reading the text. You keep reading the Holy Word of God. She was very perplexed at this statement, but not resistant, just completely overwhelmed by something she never saw coming.

Bill Meyer: Mary was puzzled, but not resistant. Just completely overwhelmed by something she never saw coming. If you've ever stood in a moment like that, wondering how God could possibly work through circumstances this unexpected, keep listening as Chuck Swindoll continues to let this beautiful story unfold.

This is Insight for Living. Chuck titled his message "The Spirit's Most Significant Mission." It's the final installment in Chuck's 12-part teaching series called "How Great is Our God." To learn more about our Heavenly Father and His amazing character traits, be sure to access the helpful resources from Insight for Living. We have the encouraging Bible study workbook and the CDs or MP3s that accompany this series. You can find them, along with a special bundle of related resources, at insight.org/offer.

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I'm Bill Meyer. Join us when Chuck Swindoll continues his message called "The Spirit's Most Significant Mission" Thursday on Insight for Living.