R1406 He Will Be Great

God has an encouraging word for you and me Our God and our Father, we are so grateful that we can be alive to be a witness to a time like this. This time called Christmas.

One who came and who was born in Bethlehem. Father, there's so much that we would want to know about Jesus Christ. And today we bow our heads in your presence. We come before you because you are King.

You are God alone. And we would confess our sin to you because so often we get in the way and our sin is ever before us. And today we come to you Lord, all of us laying our lives before you. And right now for these few moments we're going to lay aside our football games and our businesses and our homes and our lives and we're going to bring all of that together.

All of the things that we do in life, we just want to think about you. And so Father, we pray a very special blessing on this time. We're just glad to be together in the house of God like this. In Jesus' name, Amen. Well, it's wonderful to see you. And we, listen, these young men who are out here today, this is as wonderful to me as you can possibly imagine. I love every one of you.

Just thank God for you. You know, all over the world, people want to know about the real meaning of Christmas. What is this? Just the other day I was in Bethlehem, right there where Jesus was born. And they light Christmas trees, the church of the Nativity.

In fact, we took pictures there. And you know, there's so many people, even in the very town in which Jesus was born, who really don't believe the things that God has told us about the Lord Jesus. So let me read to you. This is an amazing story when this all began. This is how it all began.

Because God came down upon Mary, and by his Spirit, she conceived and she had a baby. And his name? Jesus.

Listen, here it is. Luke chapter 1 and verse 26. In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God. All right, everybody, look at me.

Remember these two big young gentlemen here? God. Sent from God. Who's God? Everything that we know about Jesus comes from God. God is Jesus' Father. He's the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, there are many religions in the world.

I've just been all over that part of the world. There are all kinds of religions. People, many times they'll say, now what makes the God of Christmas different? What is it about Jesus? Well, God is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus.

And I don't want you to miss the fact that what is about to happen came from God. One of my favorite verses in the Bible goes like this. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son. That's Jesus. That whoever believes in him.

Now, the whoever part is one of my favorite parts. Because that means everyone. Jesus came so that all people could know him.

Doesn't matter which country, which culture, what food you like, what language you speak, all people. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son. That whosoever believes in him should not die, but will have everlasting life.

I'm going to talk about that in just a minute. So look what happens here. I'm still in verse 26. In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named the the world that he gave his only begotten Son. That whosoever believes in him should not die, but will have everlasting life.

I'm going to talk about that in just a minute. So look what happens here. I'm still in verse 26. In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth to a virgin who was pledged to be married to a man whose name was Joseph of the house of David. And the virgin's name was Mary. And so the angel Gabriel coming to speak God's words came to her and said, greetings, Mary, you are favored in the eyes of God and the Lord is with you. But she was greatly troubled at the same and tried to discern what sort of greeting this is.

Can I just say this by the way? Who wouldn't have been greatly troubled? Number one, suddenly an angel shows up and you'll be interested to know just a little while later, the angels do that all over again. This time they pick on darkness of night and they show up amongst a group of shepherds sitting out in a field, minding their own business, tending over sheep and suddenly they are there. And when the shepherds see the angel and all the light, they become absolutely terrified. So Mary is not only terrified by the presence of an angel, but she's also terrified at some of the things that are being said to her.

What do you mean? I have found favor with God. Now watch what happens here. She was greatly troubled at the saying and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be and 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 you will bear a son and you will call his name Jesus. And he will be great and will be called the son of the most high and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever and of his kingdom there will be no end. Did you know by the way that God is eternal? This God who spoke through the angel is eternal God.

Now it's hard to understand that. God has always been there and he always will be. There was never a time that God was not. Now it's hard for us to wrap our minds around that, isn't it? Because we're on a time machine. You know we're born and then we get older and older and older and then one day we die and we see life in terms of a period of time. God doesn't because God is eternal and God was making an eternal decree when he spoke through the angel telling Mary that Mary was going to have the baby Jesus who would be born in Bethlehem of Judea and the reason eternal God was making an eternal decree concerning his eternal son was that he loved us. He was giving us the greatest hope that we could possibly ever have because this Jesus means that we can live forever.

All fear of life and death is removed. Now here's what I want to speak to you about for just a moment. Just the phrase, he will be great.

So have a look at that again. I want you just to focus in on verse 32. Here's what the angel said. The angel said to Mary, this baby that you're about to have will be great.

What does that mean? What does it mean that Jesus will be great? An interesting statement that Jesus will be great.

How can a little baby be great? Great what? How would Jesus be great? Well Jesus is great first of all because he's God you know. God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself. We're talking about God here and God is great.

He's awesome. There's a lot of great things in life. What are we saying? I wonder what it was that God wanted us to know when the angel Gabriel made this statement to Mary and said Mary you have found favor with a great and an awesome and a holy and a righteous God. I want you to know that you're going to conceive.

You're going to have a son by the name of Jesus and here's what I want you to know about him. He is great. That little word great there is powerful. It's kind of like when I stand with these two young men that I'm so proud of here today. And I look up at them and I see potential and I see athletic ability and they speak and they look you in the eye when they speak at you.

They don't lose their keys on the ground and they act like real men and they are real men and they ready to stand up and they play the game well and hard to the best of their ability and I look at them and they're great. That's what the archangel was saying about God. Look at him.

He's great and then I look into the face of a holy and a righteous God and I ask myself why is Jesus so great? You're listening to Dr. Don Wilton. Please don't go away. We'll be back with more of today's message in just a moment but if you've been by our website tewonline.org you'll see three great things happening. One, the devotional for next year we're so excited about plus the book about Dr. Billy Graham and right now a couple have made a remarkable gift to the ministry to share Christ with more and more people.

Here's Dr. Don with all the details. Wow! God has done incredible things again this year through the encouraging word broadcast ministry. Do you know that over 135,000 people have called us telling us what this ministry means to them in their spiritual life and so many are coming to know Jesus. A friend has just given a $200,000 challenge gift to this ministry and we are asking as he is asking that our listeners will give an additional $300,000 to this ministry by December 31st so that God's word can continue to go out across the world. In London recently someone came up to me and said thank you for the encouraging word and for what it means. Would you help me do this? If all of us participated even at two to three to four dollars each God will help us to reach this goal together.

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Well there are so many reasons as we begin to understand the Christmas story. He's great, this Jesus, because he's the only one who can forgive you and me for our sin. He is great. You know Jesus is the only one who can forgive us for our sin?

That's what makes him so great. I know people in my life who have spent a lot of money, a lot of time, a lot of effort doing everything you could possibly imagine to try and find forgiveness of sin. The Bible says that all of us have sinned and come short of the glory of God. What some of you may not know about me is I was born in Africa, lived on the other side of the world, came from a wonderful family but I needed to be forgiven of my sin. My father a great preacher of the gospel and my mother the most beautiful lady one could ever be around even to this day sings like a bird and loved me with no strings attached and I love my mama with all my heart but neither my mama nor my dad could give to me forgiveness of sin. Lamar Jackson might have won the Heisman Trophy but I believe that the reason why he acknowledged the greatness of God in and through the Lord Jesus Christ is that not even the Heisman Trophy can give him what only Jesus Christ can do.