The Angel Gabriel

Merry Christmas. So good to see all of you that are joining us in person. Those of you that are streaming in online. we know there’s a lot of places that you can be right now, and we are just humbled and honored that you are with us this afternoon. In fact, I can tell you this confidently from our staff and those that have helped put this service together. that we really don’t want anything from you. We simply want Jesus for you. And so every aspect of our service, that’s what we’re pointing to. We want you to know that Jesus is real, that he is our risen Savior and Lord. And we hope that this service continues to be a blessing to you. we also recognize there’s some different groups of people that we actually have here today. some of you, this is your church. this is where you attend on a weekly basis. And so, of course, you would be part of our services today. So we’re glad that you’re joining us. we know that maybe some of you are here because you were invited by a friend or a relative. And so we just want to thank you for responding to that invitation and entrusting us and coming here and giving up an hour of your time.

but we also recognize that there may be a third group of people here. And maybe you’re here because can we just say it? This way? You were, like, strongly encouraged to get in the car and to come to church with grandma or mom or a crazy aunt or whatever the case may be. and you’re not really a church person. You’re not really sure if you buy into all of this. And so we just want to know that we recognize that. And we’re also honored and glad that you’re with us as well. And there’s actually one last group of people that we want to recognize, this afternoon. And Ben just talked about it a few minutes ago, but we know we have our kids with us. And so, kids, could you just wave at me so I can see all of you? we love to do this. Every year we put something in the serve ice for you. And so there’s going to be a moment, that I’m going to need your help identifying some things. So, parents, if your kids get squirrely, just, you know, if you’ve never been here before, we’re okay with that. We love kids, and we’re so glad that they’re part of our Christmas services. here at Shepherds Gate for this last month, we’ve been on a Christmas sermon series, which we’ve been looking at some of the characters that are found in Scripture that often don’t get mentioned. And so I’m going to show you this list here. these are people that are actually included in the Christmas account.

And what I want to ask you today is this how many of you you look at this list, you see these characters, how many of you you have these people included in your manger scenes? Nobody. All right. I’m going to give you another minutes. And you know why? It’s because we’re not as familiar with them. And what’s interesting is a lot of us have wisemen. How many of you have wisemen in your nativity scene? Do you know the wisemen didn’t come until two years after Jesus was born? You could actually make the case that all of these people actually deserve to be in your manger scene, even more than the wise men. And what we want to do is get to the heart of it. Today, we want to look at what Scripture actually teaches us. And we have one more aspect of this whole story that we thought would be a kind of a cool approach to our Christmas series. And it’s this what would it look like to look at the Christmas account through the eyes of the angels, and specifically one angel in particular that’s actually named in scripture, the angel Gabriel. And I’ve been one that’s read Scripture over and over again. I was raised in the church, and what I find fascinating is when you read the Bible over and over again, and then you just kind of say, I’m going to do it through this lens or through this perspective. There’s some things that kind of bubble up. You begin to look at things just a little bit differently.

Even if you are familiar and you’ve heard the story over and over again. Now before we get into our text, kids, you still with me? Still waving at me? I need your help on this first one. Okay, I want to know if there’s a kid in this room that can identify what movie this is from. Any kids know what movie this is from? Hint it’s on their shirt. So thank you. Thank you for that. Can we give her a hand? That was awesome. Now I know kids this movie is a little bit older. How many? How old do you think this movie is? What do you guys think this movie came out 1984 is a good guess. 1994. So 20 years ago. 30 years ago, aging some of us in this room on purpose. This movie about an angel that helps a baseball team in California. The Californians need all the help they can get. Amen. All right, where are my hallmark people at? Usually, this is the ladies you love. Your romantic movies. You’ve already watched 100 Christmas, hallmark or whatever the heck they are. I’m going to need your help on this one. Okay, ladies. So tell me, ladies, what movie is this from? And did you see there was the ladies voices City of Angels. And when we did this movie come out. Oh, close, 1998. Let me just give you a piece of advice. Do not go home and watch this movie. It’s very depressing. It has a really terrible ending to it. It’s really sad. You won’t even sleep tonight. You’ll be in such anguish and it’ll ruin your Christmas.

But the important thing in this is that here’s Nicolas Cage, this incredible actor who plays an angel and interacts with humans. And it’s kind of interesting to watch. You know how that unfolds, at least according to Hollywood. Well, let me give you one more. And of course, this is Christmas time. So we want to end with a Christmas movie. How many of you know what this movie is like? Oh, and when did this movie come out? 1700s. 1800s. Anybody know? Oh my goodness. We got like, a historian here at night. I don’t even know where you’re at. But that was incredible night. Anybody alive in 1946. And look, it’s black and white. And who’s the dad? Who’s the dad? Who knows? George. And think of this movie. Who ends up? Who does God end up using to save his life? You’re an angel. This is toward the end of the movie. I’m not going to spoil it for anyone because you should have all seen it by now. It’s been up since 1946. This little girl gets to the very end and she looks at her dad. She says, daddy, teacher said every time a bell rings. So we’ve been talking about angels for a long time in our society. But you ever thought about how this plays out when it comes to the biblical story? Just a couple more for you kids. I know you’re so excited. There’s snow on the ground. Those of you that came here and you’re from warm weather states. First of all, we don’t really like you, right? We are jealous of you. I’m just joking. We’re jealous of you. But man, kids love snow and kids. How much fun is it to be able to go out in the snow and to do what you’re able to make?

And some of us that are older parents, right? We really struggled to get our snow gear on and to want to go out and lay in the snow. You know, just the winter just hits you differently as you get older. But I know this about the men in the room. Every single one of you. When you were a boy, you dreamed that maybe, just maybe, one day that you could play in the snow for the NFL. Now, I also know that some of you actually think that Dan Campbell is an angel, right? You’re obsessed with the Detroit Lions, and you know that they’re going to win the Super Bowl. And he’s going to have prestigious, you know, awards and all of that for doing it. But I want you to think about this. Think of the songs that we sing. Sing a song that we just sang earlier, angels we have heard on High angels from the realm of Glory. Hark the herald angels sing. We sing all sorts of songs about angels. But do we even realize what we are singing? In fact, all three of these songs were written less than 300 years ago. And yet we’re celebrating something tonight that happened 2000 years ago. I mean, who is Harold and why is he harking for that really cool song we sang? Which it goes glory. what other song do we sing that sounds like that? But it gets us in the Christmas spirit, in the Christmas mood. Even if we don’t know what in Excelsis Deo actually means. It’s just sounds cool to sing, right?

It’s. You know, if you don’t know me, if this is your first time here, maybe you’re getting to know me a little bit. I’m a person that just ask a lot of questions. I question everything I have my entire life. My favorite word is why? And as we look at the Christmas account, even I’ve done this so many times. Why do we sing the things that we sing? Why do we even do the things that we do? During this time of the year? Most of us, we live in the suburbs and we will pack our families into our cars, and we will drive out to the country to like places like Romeo and Almont, and we will pretend to go into the woods and we will chop down perfectly fine pine trees or Christmas trees, drag them back into our car, put them in the corner of our house, give them a little bit of water, and then watch them die for the next 30 days. And I say every year, that makes no sense. Why would we do that? Why don’t we just go find the trees that are already dying and leave the beautiful ones at peace? Where do these traditions come from? If you take a step further, if you go a little bit deeper, maybe tonight we could ask this question. What is it that we actually truly believe?

Is this all just made up? Is it just to make us feel good this time of the year? And who doesn’t like a baby and who doesn’t like a Mary and Joseph? I mean, at the heart of it, what is really, truly in your heart? It’s kind of three options for you today. You may be here and you’re like, you’re right. I don’t believe any of this. I know bits and pieces of it. Or maybe you were raised in the church and you’ve kind of walked away from it because you just go. It’s just too unbelievable. Like, it’s just I don’t really need God. My life is fine. I’m kind of better off without them. Or maybe you believe some things, but you don’t believe other things. And so you read certain scriptures. You’re like, well, I like the scriptures where Jesus talks about giving to the poor and being nice to each other and treating others better than yourself. But, you know, there’s some things over here that the church uses in quotes, and I’m not really comfortable with that. I really don’t like the way that they use that. Maybe to tell other people how they should live their life. Or maybe you’re here and you’re like, man, I’m all in. If God says it, I believe it. It’s his word. And I’ll sing the songs and I’ll quote the scriptures and I’ll be completely immersed in the Christmas story. What I find today is a lot of people use this line.

They’ll tell you that they’re spiritual, but they’re not religious. I have family members. I have friends that will say, well, I’m spiritual, but I’m not religious. And then I’m always like, because I’m asking the questions, well, what does it mean to be spiritual? If you’re spiritual, you can kind of get to decide what you believe. Like you create God in your own mind and you believe what you believe, and I’ll believe what I believe as long as we all get along and as long as there’s peace on earth, I mean, that really is what everyone should do for one another. And then people will ask, well, what does it mean to be religious? And oftentimes people think, well, to be religious, you have to have a list that you have to accomplish. And so here’s the things you can say and not say. This is how you should behave and this is how you should belong. And if you can meet all of these requirements, then maybe God will allow you to be in his family. And maybe you could be connected to a local church and you would be accepted. There. Wherever you’re at, be honest. Be honest in this moment. Be honest as we go through this service. See, we actually believe that God is a spiritual being, and sometimes that’s what makes it so difficult to completely understand him, because we can’t necessarily see him or touch him.

We also believe that angels are spiritual beings, and we’re going to see just how much God uses these messengers to convey an important message to us of how much he actually fact loves each and every one of us. The angel Gabriel. If you didn’t know, he actually first shows up on the scene back in an Old Testament book of Daniel. And if you grew up in the church and you went to Sunday school, you might remember that Daniel was the the guy that was thrown into a lion’s den. And was so intriguing as Daniel lived at a time when he had a stand up for the one true God, even though almost everybody around him believed in other things. They worshiped the King at the time, and so the way that Daniel would connect with God is he would spend time in prayer to God in one of the moments so that he was in prayer. The angel Gabriel actually came to him and he told them, God sees you. He understands the hardship that you’re going through. He sees the pain that you have in your life. He has you exactly where he wants you to be and all. By the way, just so you know, you are greatly loved by him. It’s not going to get easier, but God is not going to leave you or forsake you. Now, as you heard in the kids video, which is incredible. The angel Gabriel, actually the first time he appears in the Gospels is not to Mary. It’s to this guy named Zechariah, who was a priest who was married to Elizabeth, and they could not have children. And they’re advanced in years. They’re beyond the age of bearing children. And the angel shows up to him when he’s just trying to do his job in the temple and says, hey, Zechariah, good news for you. Your wife is going to be pregnant.

She’s going to have a boy, and you are to name him John. Now look at how cool this is from Gabriel’s perspective. Look at how Gabriel gets a front row seat to all of this. He actually tells Zechariah, I stand in the presence of God, and I was sent to speak to you to bring you this good news. I mean, how incredible to be to be tapped on the shoulder and to have that responsibility from God Almighty. This is how it ties into the Christmas story, because as you read the text and you continue to read the tax, his wife does become pregnant. And six months later, God sends the angel Gabriel again, this time to Nazareth, to a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph. The virgin’s name was Mary. Thus Mary and Joseph and Mary begins to have a conversation with this angel. Gabriel goes to Mary and says, greetings, you who are highly favored. The Lord is with you. She has the same response as Zachariah. Wait a second. There’s an angel in front of me. Like there’s a there’s a physical being, but I really can’t truly comprehend what is happening in this moment. And so Gabriel once again has to say, do not be afraid. You have actually found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son and you are to call him Jesus. You know, by the way, Mary, just in case there’s any doubt he’s going to be great, he’s going to be called the son of the Most High.

The Lord God will give him the throne of his father, David. He will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever, his kingdom. Remember, this will never end. Mary, make no mistake, what you have learned about what all of your people know to be true. Waiting for the Messiah. The Messiah is coming and the Messiah is going to come in and through you. God is going to use you as his instrument to bring him into the world. And I love it because Mary is still a human being. She’s still questioning. She still has questions of her own. She’s like, well, how is this going to happen? I’m a virgin. And when you know that Gabriel is gracious enough to tell her how this is all going to happen, the Holy Spirit’s going to come on you, the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the Holy One to be born will be called the Son of God. He repeats and confirms what he’s already told her. And after they have this conversation, she does say she said, well, let it be to me like this is what God has for me. This is his plan for my life. Then I accept that. And the angel departure promise. She has to go and tell her husband, Joseph, that she’s engaged to you. And when she goes and tells Joseph, he’s doubting her, I mean, he literally is trying to figure out, is she really telling me the truth? And did an angel really visit her? Because that just doesn’t happen. That doesn’t happen to people. And it’s many, many days and weeks later that an angel actually shows up to to Joseph in a dream and confirms and says, yes, this is of God, and you are to take her as your wife.

And in that same time frame, when you know the rulers, the government at the time said, we need to take a census and you have to go back to your hometown. So here goes Mary and Joseph from Nazareth, all the way to Bethlehem and they get to Bethlehem. They have lots of struggles and hardships along the way. They get there. There’s more struggles and hardships along the way, until finally we get to verse seven, which is one of our favorite verses in the whole Christmas account says this. It says Mary gave birth to her firstborn son. She wrapped him in swaddling clothes. She lays him in a manger because there’s no place for them. In the end. It’s so beautiful, isn’t it? There’s something so innocent about the biblical Christmas account, this idea that Jesus was born into poverty, born into this young couple that really didn’t truly understand all that was about to unfold in their lives, and that ultimately Jesus would be placed in a feeding trough. The King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, would start his earthly time being placed in the most humble of ways. I mean, honestly, think about it. What is not to like about the Christmas account? I mean, I don’t meet too many people, even if they don’t believe in the Bible or the church or God. They’re like, they’re kind of okay with baby Jesus. I mean, there’s there’s kind of a really cool, compelling thing to think about this time of year because it’s connected to innocence, because it’s connected to this idea that we all love, this idea that that we just think there should be this peace on earth.

Here’s the problem. The Christmas account is only found in two of the four Gospels. It’s found in Matthew and Luke. And out of those two Gospels, out of 50% of the Gospels, it’s only found in the first couple of chapters. There’s also much more written about Jesus in all four Gospels, including Matthew and Luke. And as you read the accounts, Jesus goes very quickly from being a baby to a boy, from a boy to a teenager, from a teenager to a grown man. In fact, almost all of the writings are about when he turned 30 years old and he went to his hometown and declared that he was the Messiah. He got a group of guys together, his disciples, and he began to go town to town, village by village. And he was teaching people and he was healing people. He was feeding people. He started this in incredible movement and he would say outlandish things, very direct statements. He would say things like this I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the father except through me. And then he would pause and he would wait to see how people responded. And there were people that that the Holy Spirit worked in them, and they were brought to faith, and they cling to him. And they said, we want to follow you. And in that same moment, in that same teaching, the other the other group of people would say, you’re crazy. You’re not you are not the Messiah. And they would turn and they would walk away. So here’s the reality for us Christmas is awesome, and celebrating the birth of Jesus is awesome, but it’s such a small part of the whole narrative of what it is that God has for you and has for me.

In fact, one of the other bold statements that Jesus makes goes like this. These are his words. Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Jesus had no problem talking about the difference between a real heaven and a real hell. His teachings focused on our souls, his teachings focused on what it is that he actually came to do to redeem lost people back to himself. I want you to think about that, because we live in a world where everyone’s just busy. Is that not true? I mean, some of you, you had to, like, orchestrate a whole lot of things to get your whole family to the service. And it’s borderline a miracle that you’re all here together, worshiping together. Amen. Right. I mean, it’s pretty cool that that you were able to do that because everyone’s got schedules and maybe some people aren’t here because he couldn’t figure out the schedule. They got the wrong time, or they have something else they got to do. We are so distracted. In our culture. Metro Detroit is nuts, by the way. I mean the area in which we live and all of the things that that come upon us all of the time, that so often we don’t think in spiritual terms, we don’t think about spiritual matters.

Instead it’s like, well, what’s on my schedule? And what do I gotta do? And how do I get to fulfill this? Scripture will actually put it this way. And I’ll tell you this, that the struggles that we have in life aren’t actually against flesh and blood. It’s not about what happens to each other. The struggles that we have are against the powers of the dark world and against spiritual forces of evil, and all of these things that are happening in the spiritual and the heavenly realms. And until you come to church or until maybe you read a book about these things, or until something major happens in your life that shifts your perspective and forces you to think about it. We all just go about our day, not even thinking about the fact that we, in fact, have a soul. Again, Jesus’s words bold statement. What good would it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? What is he doing? He’s taking the people of his time from an earthly human perspective, and he’s raising it up to a heavenly and a spiritual perspective. You can work hard, you can build that business. You can. You can get those accounts. You can create this lifestyle here on earth and have a beautiful home and have cars and kids and send them to college and send them off on their weddings and, and do all of these incredible things and just spend all of your earthly existence doing that.

And Jesus comes along and says, okay, that’s great, but what are you giving in exchange for it? Your soul is more valuable than you realize every single day. There’s actually a battle for your soul and for my soul. And it happens in a spiritual realm. Now, I want you to think about this for a moment. I want you to think about how much time we spend on these physical bodies that God has given us. I mean, they’re a lot of work, aren’t they? I mean, you got to feed this thing three times a day. It needs to be showered. You got to get your hair cut. You got to brush your teeth. I mean, so and then if you have kids, you’ve got to do it for them as well. I gotta admit something to you. Day. I hate. And I use the word hate on purpose. I absolutely hate going to the gym. Anybody else with me? I go to the gym and I run into people who are smiling while they’re lifting weights. And I’m like, what is your problem? This is this is not fun. This hurts. How in the world is it that you could enjoy this? I’ve actually prayed and said to God, God, could you just give me a love for lifting weights and working out? That has never happened. Do you know why I go to the gym? Because I have a loving wife that drags me to the gym because we have two young boys and she says, I want you around for them.

I want you to be able to see them grow up and grow into the men that we’re praying that they will become. I go to the gym because high blood pressure runs in my family, and so that’s something that I have to monitor and keep track of. And in fact, now I’m on all of these supplements and I’m so close to getting one of those pillboxes just to keep them all straight. Getting old stinks, doesn’t it? There’s so many things. But yeah, I think about all the time that I invest my wife, invest in the gym and what and what we eat and all of these things that go into our physical bodies. How about this one? Number two, think of how much we invest in our minds. It starts with our kids. We don’t send our kids to school. We start sending our kids to pre school. Man, you gotta go before school even exists to preschool and then to school all of the time, learning and growing in their head. They get to that age where we send them off to college because we want them to get degrees, and we want them to be independent.

We want them to be able to go get jobs, and we want them to succeed in life, and we want them to obviously integrate into society. And so much time, money and energy is spent on their minds as we age. Think about how much time we spent in front of televisions and cell phones and tablets and reading the news and all the political stuff that we get way too involved in. In my opinion. We are obsessed with knowledge, and now we live in a time where everything is available at our fingertips. More information and more information and more information and more information. But let me ask you this. What about this last area of your life? What about your soul? How much time do you spend investing in the eternal part of who you are? At the core? How much time do you spend investing in yourself as a spiritual, eternal being? And here comes Jesus. Jesus sees that the world is dark. Jesus sees that people have have kind of turned their affection and their their time on themselves. And he says something has to be done about that. I am not going to leave my people in that situation.

I created them and I love them too much, because here’s two realities. For every single person that’s in this room, every person that’s watching online. Number one, we’re all going to die. Our time on this earth, and it’s determined by God will come to an end. Some of you, you’re grieving this Christmas because you’ve lost a loved one. Some of you, this is a tough time of year because because you know that the weight of not having that person in your life and it’s forced you to think about their soul, and it’s also forced you to think about your soul. Second thing is this is that Jesus is coming back. He says it in his word. When he departed, the disciples, he said, I will come back in the way that you have seen me go. I love the way Matthew catches it at the end of his gospel, he says this When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. Who’s he bringing with them? Not some of them. I mean, all of them are coming. You can see how important they are in this whole thing. Then he will say, depart from me, you who are cast into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. And again, this isn’t a condemnation on us. It’s a reminder that God did not create hell for us. God created hell for one of the fallen angels, Lucifer the devil, and for the third of the angels that fell with him. You and I were never created. We’re never designed to go to hell. The reason Jesus came, the reason he was born, was so that he could ultimately become that man, so that he could ultimately go to a cross and stretch out his arms and take all of our combined sins upon himself. That he’s the one that would take the wrath and the punishment for our sins.

It was the greatest act of love the world has ever seen. This is such good news for you today. If you’ve never heard this before, you need to hear it again. There is absolutely nothing that you can do for God. Did you know that you can’t become good enough? You can’t have a checklist for him. There’s nothing that you can do to earn God’s favor. He’s the one that hung on the cross all by himself. He’s the one that looked down on on humanity and said, father, forgive them. They don’t even know what they’re doing. That while we were dead in our sins, Christ died for us. Don’t ever question if you are loved by God. Don’t ever question if you are valuable to God. He loves you. He sees you. He knows you. He knows the hurting, the pain that you experienced in this life. He knows everything about you. Guess what? He knows more about you than you even know about yourself. And he’s so loving and gracious that he calls you tenderly to himself and says, here, come here. You don’t have to go through life alone. You don’t have to figure out your marriage by yourself. You don’t have to figure out your family by yourself. You don’t have to figure out your place of work or whatever life is throwing at you. Hey, I’ll come alongside you. I’ll give you wisdom. I’ll give you instruction. I’ll give you peace.

Let me read this one last verse to you to show you how much you are valued by him. It’s from Peter. Peter, one of his closest disciples, if not the closest one to him other than John. Peter was kind of the leader of the pack, and this is what he said when he wrote his letter. The Lord is patient with you. He doesn’t want anyone to perish. He wants everyone to come to repentance. Repentance is a change of heart. It’s what the Holy Spirit can do in your life. Hear me, dear friend, you’re not here. Within the sound of my voice on accident. God knew that you were going to be here. God orchestrated the events of your family members, and however that came to be for you to be here right now, to hear these words from our heavenly Father, you are loved. You are valued. He has been chasing you and pursuing you, and he wants nothing else than to take your sins from you and to give you his grace and his mercy and forgiveness, and for you to walk out the doors of this church with an unbelievable sense of his peace and his joy overflowing you because you are a redeemed child of God.

That’s why you’re here. That’s the full Christmas story. And again, I’m so glad that you’re here. And I just believe that God’s at work in this place. I believe that the Holy Spirit is here right now, and he’s speaking to some of you. He’s speaking the hearts of the lives of people that maybe you’ve fallen away from him. Maybe you stopped going to church. And isn’t it interesting? The more you stay away from church, the easier it is to stop going. And God saying, no, no, no, come back. I want you to invest in your spiritual life. I want you to invest in your soul. I want to connect with you on a personal basis each and every day. That’s how much I love you. And so now what do we do? We surrender to him, and we receive this incredible gift of his grace and mercy into our lives over and over again. Because that’s what Christmas is all about. Amen.