The fulfilled promise of this passage has been in the making for generations. After years of waiting, the Advent of the Coming King who will rescue God’s people is about to begin. In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy (carrying John the Baptist), God sends the angel Gabriel to Nazareth to a virgin named Mary, who is engaged to Joseph. The angel tells Mary that God is showing her favor; she will conceive and bear a son, which she is to name Jesus (meaning “Yahweh saves”). Gabriel explains that the child “will be called the Son of the Most High” and rule forever as a Davidic king.
REFLECTION QUESTIONS
THINKING: Questions aimed at our minds to help us understand God’s word.
How do Gabriel’s words to Mary (vs. 30–37) indicate that God is doing something profoundly new in the birth of Jesus?
How does Gabriel describe this coming King who will be born?
Where do you see these descriptions in earlier prophesies of the Old Testament?
FEELING: Questions aimed at our affections to help us love God.
What does this announcement from Gabriel to Mary tell us about the character of God?
What do you think it was like for Mary to hear this message? How can you relate?
DOING: Questions aimed at our hands to help us live for God (Personally, Communally, and Missionally).
We are told here that this child to be born will be - a savior, great, divine, and that he will reign forever. How do these characteristics of King Jesus affect your everyday life? Give examples.
As he reflects on Mary’s response, J.C. Ryle writes: “Let us seek in our daily practical Christianity to exercise the same blessed spirit of faith which we see here in the Virgin Mary. Let us be willing to go anywhere, and do anything, and be anything, whatever be the present and immediate inconvenience, so long as God's will is clear and the path of duty is plain.”
How can you apply this to your life today?
