Sermon for Christmas Eve, December 24th, 2025 at First Presbyterian Church at Unionville, NY (BPC)
Sermon Text:
[Luke 1:26-38 ESV] 26 In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, 27 to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary. 28 And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” 29 But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. 30 And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 31 And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. 32 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, 33 and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” 34 And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” 35 And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy–the Son of God. 36 And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. 37 For nothing will be impossible with God.” 38 And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.
Introduction
As I was looking at the Gospel of Luke to prepare a sermon for Christmas Eve and for this coming Christmas Sunday, it struck me that there is here in Luke chapter 1 a passage on “The Birth of Jesus Foretold” and then in Luke chapter 2 a passage on “The Birth of Jesus Told.”
So those will be the two sermons.
Sunday we’ll have “The Birth of Jesus TOLD.”
And this evening we’ll have “The Birth of Jesus FORETOLD.”
ANYONE can foretell, can prophesy, can venture a guess at the future.
But only God, GETS IT RIGHT. Only God – often speaking through his prophets – can TELL of something BEFORE it is going to happen, and get it right.
In our text, we have not the foretelling through a prophet, but through an angel of the Lord.
I. The Prophets Foretell the Birth of Jesus
Of course, before this episode of the angel Gabriel FORETELLING Mary of the birth of Jesus, we have the Old Testament, and it is replete with prophecies FORETELLING the coming messiah.
As we’ve been going through Matthew’s Gospel on Sunday morning we’ve seen the fulfillment of many of those prophecies.
Many of the things Jesus does in Life and in Death are prophesied in the Old Testament. Jesus, in a sense, summarizes those in Matthew 10 when he says “What do you see?” All those miracles of healing were prophesied in the Old Testament and Jesus completed them.
But the subject this evening is the BIRTH OF CHRIST. And that in a certain sense is a greater fulfillment of prophecy, for no one can say that Jesus tried to fulfill that prophecy. He was born. And no man is born of their own accord. No one can choose his place of birth, nor the timing of his birth.
These were all FORETOLD by the prophets of Old. And fulfilled in Jesus Christ.
So when we talk about the Birth of Jesus Foretold (its timing, its place, its meaning) we have that all in the Old Testament.
But now we have a special FORETELLING of Jesus’s birth to Mary, his mother, the angel Gabriel.
II. Luke Tells Theophilus of the Christ
Before we get to that text however, I want to note something that comes before and gives us context.
The beginning of the Gospel according to Luke is incredibly astounding to me.
And that is the better way to describe one of the four gospels of the New Testament. They are “The Gospel ACCORDING TO…” It is not Matthew’s Gospel, Mark’s Gospel, Luke’s Gospel, and John’s Gospel as if there were four gospels. There is only one gospel! It is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And each of these four men write of that Gospel, that Good News. The four gospels, in fact, were not even originally given a title. It was only later that they were titled, and they were done so in that fashion – “The Gospel ACCORDING TO” Luke. Much simpler in the Greek: Kata Lucan.
This is a person – one of four – to give an account of what happens regarding the Jesus. His is, no doubt, like the rest INSPIRED of the Holy Spirit in writing this Gospel. But the existence of four Gospels helps us to understand that these accounts are not the product of 1 man. This is what actually happened, and it is attested to by multiple witnesses.
So Luke writes to Theophilus to tell him of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, including the Foretelling and Telling of the Birth of Jesus Christ.
There are different theories of who Theophilus was. His name is obviously Greek: it means Lover of God. And if he was a proselyte – a Greek believer in the Lord – he naturally would be interested to know that Jesus has come and fulfilled those prophecies of Old, and that Jesus IS THE MESSIAH.
The way Luke writes this introduction to Theophilus it is clear that Luke is not the first to write. There is an area of study called “The Synoptic Problem” that some people spend their entire careers on. It is the question the order in which the Gospels were written. A very complex question, though I think the answer is relatively easy. The church from the earliest days believed that the Gospels were written in the same order as we have them: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Few believe that today, but I’ve never been one for agreeing with the majority just for the sake of agreeing with the majority.
What we know in the text though is that Luke isn’t the first written. He says “many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us.”
We know of Matthew and Mark writing before. It would be hard to call them “many.” Perhaps others wrote and the material was lost. And there are other speculative early Gospels – one of Matthew written in Hebrew, which may be the same as the Gospel of the Ebionites, and “scholars” sometimes make up others like one called “Q” for which they have no evidence of, but that doesn’t stop them from making it up.
But Luke is a detailed physician, a doctor. And he wants to “write an orderly account” for Theophilus. Luke has been “following all things closely for some time past.” He’s not a new convert. He’s a thorough historian. In fact, he even writes a second history, the book of Acts, also written to Theophilus.
He cares about Theophilus, and anyone else who will read his book, that they would know of the things of Jesus Christ.
Now, included in Luke’s Gospels is this foretelling from the Angel Gabriel of the birth of Jesus Christ.
It has been told before in the Old Testament, but it is to the advantage of Mary that she hears herself the truth from Gabriel, and knows that SHE is to be the mother of Christ. And it is the advantage of all Christians to have this additional information – adding to dozens of others truths proving that Jesus IS THE MESSIAH.
III. The Angel Gabriel Foretells the Birth of Jesus
So we have the Angel Gabriel.
And he brings a message to Mary.
In fact that’s what an angel — an angelos (in Greek) is — a messenger of God.
We don’t have a lot of angels in the Bible. They show up only occasionally.
And we should never worship them or make a whole religion out of it, as I’ve known people to do.
The Bible doesn’t say we have personal Guardian Angels.
And it definitely doesn’t say that every time a bell rings an angel gets its wings. I calculated once that our church bell has chimed a million or more times since it was installed. That would be a lot of angels, or a few angels with a lot of wings.
Well, angels show up somewhat rarely, but when they do show up, it is notable. It is like a wake-up call from God. A messenger from God WITH A MESSAGE FROM GOD! Sometimes we just need to pause and consider how profound that is; a message from the very living God.
So we have the angel Gabriel bringing a message to Mary.
Nowhere in what is recorded of his message does he say his name is Gabriel. But Luke knows somehow that it is the angel Gabriel.
In Luke 1:19 Gabriel had come to Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist, and said “I am Gabriel, I stand in the presence of God, and I was sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news.”
Perhaps Gabriel said something similar to Mary, and later Mary told Luke.
It is the message then that this angel – Gabriel – brings that is important as it is a FORETELLING of the birth of Christ. A FORETELLING to Mary, the mother of Jesus.
There are three parts to his message. 1. A GREETING. 2. An explanation of WHAT is about to happen. 3. And an explanation of HOW it is going to happen.
A. Greeting
First, the greeting:
28 And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!”
Imagine that. It would be shocking! Saying “The Lord is with you” might be normal enough. We say “May the Lord be with you.” Gabriel can more confidently say “The Lord IS with you.” But what could be more shocking is to be called “favored one.” The King James is less pronounced, saying “Hail, thou that art highly favored.” And that is a better translation of the Greek χαριτόω khar-ee-to’-o; to be highly favored.
We have to be careful here. We don’t go with Rome and make Mary to be something more than human. In fact, recently, the current Pope of Rome actually made a retraction of sorts – rare for Rome – that Mary is not a co-redemptor with Jesus. That is good. But they should also stop praying to her.
But on the other side, we have to be careful, because we don’t want to diminish the great role of Mary. She was a human, but she was a very blessed human, the very Mother of Jesus. The fact that Gabriel says “You will conceive” means that she has not conceived yet, and so that phrase “The Lord is with you” isn’t to be taken literally, in the sense that the baby Jesus was already within her, but rather it is to be understand as a declaration that the Lord is greatly blessing Mary.
Naturally, she was surprised – perhaps even afraid – by this appearance of an angel and the words he gave.
29 But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be.
B. Explanation of What
So Gabriel gives then, the explanation of what is about to happen:
30 And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 31 And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. 32 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, 33 and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”
How did Mary find favor with God?
This doesn’t mean that Mary did anything. To “find favor” (or grace – χάρις) with God is an expression that means God looks upon the person favorably but has no suggesting that the person did anything to earn that favor. Grace rather is UNMERITED favor.
Mary may have been pious, but she was a sinner like every human. For ALL have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
When Mary “found favor” with God, it was an act of God and not of Mary. God sovereignly chose her to be the mother of the Jesus. That she is “highly favored” is not a reference to any holiness, but a reference to the great uniqueness of her pending task, giving birth to the Christ.
Gabriel then goes on to speak about Jesus. Indeed, Gabriel is the first to call the messiah “Jesus.” “You shall call his name Jesus.” And then he describes the greatness of Christ: the Son of the Most High, ruling on the throne of David, and his kingdom will have no end.
34 And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?”
C. Explanation of How
So then comes the explanation of HOW:
35 And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy–the Son of God. 36 And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. 37 For nothing will be impossible with God.”
How? It is a miracle. As simple as that. The Birth of Jesus Christ includes the MIRACLE of it being a virgin birth, just as the prophet Isaiah had said it would be.
Now, look at Mary’s response:
38 And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.
THAT is a pious response. A believing, faithful, trusting response. And it is what our response should be to ALL THINGS.
“I am a servant of the Lord.”
and
“Let it be to me.”
Now, our life events are not specified in the prophets, like this one is for Mary. But we should yet trust in God, IN ALL THINGS. Let them be SO AS GOD HAS ORDAINED. Let us trust in His plan.
Conclusion
So the prophets foretell of his birth, Luke tells of his birth, and the Angel Gabriel foretells of his birth. Everyone wants to get in on the act!
And what God FORETELLS is going to take place. It is “as good as done.”
That which is FORETOLD here will then be TOLD as it occurs in history.
Both this foretelling and the telling to come is OF the birth of Jesus Christ. And that we proclaim, the great news that a savior IS born.
That indeed is “good news.”
And what a blessing it is to bring good news.
Isaiah 61:1 speaks of that joy of the messenger:
[Isaiah 61:1 ESV] 1 The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound;
And the Angel Gabriel then brings good news to Mary.
And I am privileged with bringing that same good news to you. It may be old news, but it never gets old. The savior is born! Praise be to God.