Luke1:26-38
Christmas Service – 25 Dec 2017 11:18:14 am – Pastor James Yang
“Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. And having come in, the angel said to her, “Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!” But when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and considered what manner of greeting this was. Then 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 bring forth a Son, and shall call His name JESUS. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give 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.” Then Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I do not know a man?” And the angel answered and said to her, “ The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God. Now indeed, Elizabeth your relative has also conceived a son in her old age; and this is now the sixth month for her who was called barren. For with God nothing will be impossible.” Then Mary said, “Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.”
Luke 1:26-38 NKJV
Today is Christmas. The bible does not have the Word, “Christmas”.
For those who own a bottle shop, when they feel bad, or happy, or when it rains or when it doesn’t, they drink.
For us, however, we don’t drink. We are people who tell each other that “we are evil” all seasons. This is the way we become comfortable.
When I used to work in the company, there was a very heavy drinking culture that it was the social norm. However, I used to feel so stressed about it. My manager coerced me to join in so I can release my stress. But I said it does not work for me. So he asked me how I could release my stress and I said, “By going to church”. He could not understand at all. Later on, my manager begged me to pray for him so he could get promoted to the next level of management. I told him that I would pray for his spirit rather than anything else. So that’s how we ended the conversation.
Today I am going to tell you something very important. Jesus had to be born into this world but he could not just be born just like that. Firstly, he has to be born in your heart. He has to be born in your heart. Literally, he has to be born in the heart of Mary. But it’s not easy. Think about it.
Mary is a virgin. How can she beget a child when she is a virgin? But the will of God was for Jesus to be born through Virgin Mary. So before Jesus was born through Mary, God had to work in her heart.
“Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.”
Isaiah 7:14 NKJV
Isaiah was someone who was born approximately 750 BC – i.e. before Christ. God had already prophesied that Jesus would be born through a virgin.
“And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel.””
Genesis 3:15 NKJV
God had in fact prophesied before the birth of Jesus Christ. The angel said that she would bring forth a son. If Mary had received the word of God through the book of Isaiah prior to the angel speaking to her, and if she could have also received the Word of God through the book of Genesis, then she would have immediately just accepted the word from the angel. But what was her reaction? “Me? How can this be possible? For I am a virgin”
In October in Hong Kong church, they had the Christian Leaders’ Forum. Many pastors came and listened to pastor Park’s word. One of the senior pastor said, “I cannot dare speak of salvation. Of course, it is important that we have it but it is not something easy to say “I have received salvation” for it is a vague concept”. So pastor Park said, “Well, if you read the bible, there are many things we cannot comprehend. Think about the Virgin Mary who conceived a child – this is vague, too isn’t it? Or the wedding in Cana of Galilee where the water turned into wine. This too is vague. Can we understand it?”
The senior pastor then stopped his words. He realised that he did not believe in the bible.
When Jesus comes to us, first, He has to be born into our hearts. As Mary conversed with the angel, she doubted and wondered how it would be possible for her to have a child without knowing a man. This of course, is all based on her experiences. All the knowledge based in the world is of course all meaningless before the Lord. This is what Apostle Paul said. He regards the knowledge of this world as a total waste. This means that our head is full of this “waste” as well if we are all accumulated with knowledge.
I thought about why Apostle Paul said this. I could see that knowledge actually blocks the gospel. This is why apostle Paul regarded it as waste.
By looking at the conversation between Mary and the angel, we can see how Mary converses with the angel and how her heart was flowing.
“Then Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I do not know a man?” And the angel answered and said to her, “ The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God. Now indeed, Elizabeth your relative has also conceived a son in her old age; and this is now the sixth month for her who was called barren. For with God nothing will be impossible.””
Luke 1:34-37 NKJV
Mary’s knowledge and experiences were blocking the Words of God from entering her. Yet, the Word pierced through and entered her heart.
When I was in the army, I had fellowship for three months but I still could not receive salvation. In the end, I thought that I am not the one who is chosen by God as God has his own set of chosen people. Then later on, I happened to go to a bible seminar at a church when I had a holiday from the army. The brother in the church there told me “Look, from the time of Adam to the end of the world, all your sins are taken away by Jesus Christ. Therefore, you have no more sin”. So that was so easy and I believed it. Then he told me that I had received salvation. I thought so too as he said it.
So I went home and gathered all my brothers “Stop whatever you are doing and just come now. Listen to me, “Jesus has taken away all your sins, ok? You have no more sins!” Then my brother asked “What about our future sins?” And I said that I did not know.
When I returned back to the army pastor Kim Hak Cheol told asked me if I had received salvation. So I told him that I did. And I explained to him how Jesus took all my sins away. He asked, “Is that it? This is your salvation?” And he replied after a while “That’s not salvation! You have not received salvation” for he knew that the word had not entered my heart but only my head. The word had not pierced through my heart. Let me explain further.
One time, a man who was congenially blind, the president of the Blind People’s Association came to visit an island. He was walking and he had black dark shades on him. Being congenially blind, he does not know how the world looks like. Yet he said, “Wow, the sky is so blue and nice today”. Fact is, on that day, it was a clear, nice and blue sky. The man said it right, but deep in his heart, he has no knowledge of what blue means.
Brothers, sisters, I fear this one thing – you may say you are saved. But what if you cannot enter the kingdom of God? Next year, I wish to hear your personal salvation testimonies. With the short-term missionaries, some have even attended church since they were very young. But it does not necessarily mean that they are saved.
Take the case of brother Daniel. He had attended our church for 9 years and as I heard his heart, he had not received salvation. So I told him so. And he raised his fist and wanted to punch me. So I fellowshipped with him showing him scriptures of how he was an enemy before God. Then he received salvation.
People without clear line about the Spirit of God are clearly not saved. You cannot just say that you have no sin and that you have received salvation; there should be the clear guidance of God. You must be able to draw a clear line in your heart.
We used to call brother Daniel as “Brother” for nine years. But when I fellowshipped with him, I called him “Mr. Kim, you have not received salvation”.
If the opportunity arises, please do write your salvation testimony and give it to me.
If you consider the case of Cornelius and Peter, Apostle Peter initially did not have the heart to preach the gospel to the Gentiles. The Jews back then reckoned of the Gentiles as dirty as pigs and like animals. Thus God had to first change the heart of Peter. This was when Peter saw the vision and the sheet descending with full of four-footed animals. To Peter, it was very expensive, but as God said to Peter to kill and eat, Peter was very surprised to hear that. If God has made it clean, then it is clean. Do you know the puffer fish?
The will of God was for the Gentiles to hear the gospel. God had to work so that the gospel could be preached through humans rather than Angels. Angels in fact, appreciate how humans preach the gospel. Have you ever known anyone who received salvation through an angel? No, it is we humans – pastors, brothers and sisters who preach the gospel.
Those who are humble-hearted can hear the word of God.
Folks, if you have the Word in your heart, then you will not have darkness within. For instance, if you hate a brother, that is not the spirit of God. But if you have the Word of God, then that brother is not a problem to you at all.
If you have hatred, judgemental hearts and things like that then you do not have the Word in your heart. You may have the Word in your head, but not in your heart.
People without the Word have distrustful hearts towards the servant of God, and towards brothers and sisters in the church. Such people continually want to make themselves the right person and distance themselves from the church. The gospel cannot be preached through such people. For such people, firstly, their hearts need to be opened to the Word.
When Mary opened her heart, then only the Word could enter her and Jesus could be born.
In order for your family and relatives to be saved, you first must have your heart open to the Word first.
During this Christmas Eve party, I was very thankful because the entire hall packed with people who were new. Brothers and sisters had to sit downstairs or at the back. There are people who attend only once a year. They come really joyfully. As they come every year and ten times in a row, they can receive salvation. I am truly hopeful. I think around 200 people came this year. Such people can see the atmosphere in our church, listen to conversations of brothers and sisters, listen to the Word and the gospel and so on. If such Words stay in their hearts then I am sure that they can also receive great hope through the gospel.
Brother Ken’s brother Victor said to me that he is preaching the gospel these days. At the Christmas party, he told me this – “These days I am preaching the gospel to my family and relatives. There is a relative of mine who recently died. There was nothing I could say to comfort them, but I could only share the gospel with them”. This was really huge in my heart. This is the sign of people who have received salvation – they cannot help but want to preach the gospel.
When we abandon our thoughts, then we can preach the gospel as well to all around us.