God's Grace is All Sufficient

In Luke 1:26-38, we encounter God's stunning announcement through the angel, Gabriel, to Mary that she would bear the Messiah as a virgin. This passage invites us to recover the sense of wonder and bewilderment that should accompany our understanding of Christmas. This sermon walks us through three perplexing aspects of this announcement: the declaration itself, the description of who this Child would be, and the divine design behind it all. What strikes us most is that Mary was an ordinary teenager from an insignificant town, yet God chose her to be the vessel for the extraordinary. The angel Gabriel's greeting emphasizes that Mary is the recipient of grace, not the source of it—a crucial distinction that keeps our worship focused on Christ alone. As we trace the thread from perplexity to pondering to praise, we're reminded that removing the mystery from Christmas diminishes our worship. This Child would be called 'great' without qualification, 'Son of the Most High,' and would reign on David's throne forever. The impossibility of a virgin birth points us to the central truth: nothing is impossible with God. Mary's response becomes our model—complete surrender to God's will even when we don't understand all the details. This Christmas, may we rediscover the perplexing nature of the incarnation and allow it to drive us to deeper worship of the God-man, Jesus Christ.