Advent Study Guide: Week Four
December 22, 2024 Messengers – Annunciations
The pivotal announcement to an engaged virgin
Monday 12.23.24 Luke 1:26-38
Mary lived in Nazareth, a minor hamlet that didn’t appear on any known maps of Palestine from that time. Given what we know of her culture, she was perhaps 14 years old. She had no reason to expect we’d even know her name today! Yet God sent Gabriel to call her to a truly momentous life mission— not to lead a great army, hold a powerful political office or shape the social life of a major center like Jerusalem. No— “just” give birth to and raise a son, God’s Son, the promised Savior of the world.
- Why did God choose Mary? What qualities would you have looked for in the Messiah’s mother— high social status? An established, stable marriage? Economic security? The angel confused her by calling her “favored one.” “Mary’s blessing…. brought hardship, confusion, and grief but it was still a blessing.”* Her simple reply to the angel dwarfed all else: “I am the Lord’s servant…. Let it be with me just as you have said.” How did Mary’s willing response change the world?
- God’s call to Mary was unique in all of history, just as the person of her son Jesus was. But through your gifts, talents and circumstances, God calls you to fill a particular place in the divine mission of restoring the world to God’s intention. How do you respond when you sense a divine “nudge” in your heart when a fitting path of service opens before you? What does it take for you to respond, as Mary did, “Let it be with me as you have said”?
Prayer: Lord Jesus, you entered our world, not rich and powerful, but as a newborn infant, wholly dependent at first on your mother. How grateful I am that you chose Mary to be your mother and that she willingly did such a good job. Amen.
* Ginger Gaines-Cirelli, sidebar “Blessing” in The CEB Women’s Bible. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2016, p. 1288.
Two faithful women who believed the angel
Tuesday 12.24.24 Luke 1:39-56
Elizabeth and Mary, at different ages, were living through amazing experiences that they couldn’t have imagined they would have. Mary’s route in the Holy Land would have taken her eight to ten days.” Clearly Mary urgently needed to be with a person who could understand and encourage her. Gabriel pointed her in that direction when he told her what God was calling her to do (cf. Luke 1:36- 37). Against their culture’s patriarchal background, Mary and Elizabeth had believed the angel’s message. “The courage and strength of [Mary and Elizabeth] provide encouragement for all who are called to bear new life into the world, whether through childbirth, creative leadership, healing work, friendship or any other vocation. When what we are to do seems impossible, overwhelming, or frightening, remember the words of Elizabeth to Mary [“Happy is she who believed”].”*
- Even before Jesus’ birth, Elizabeth called him “Lord”: “Why do I have this honor, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” (verse 43) Do you call Jesus “Lord”? If so, in what ways has Jesus’ lordship changed your life, and brought a different kind of joy into it? If not, what is stopping you from joining the family of people of faith who call him Lord? In Mary and Elizabeth’s culture, women were second-class citizens. But Mary poetically shared an expression of praise that said God had “looked with favor on the low status of his servant.” They were both living examples of that. God valued who they really were, no matter what their status in human society! Mary said, “With all my heart I glorify the Lord,” and rejoiced that her child would fulfill God’s promise to bring justice to an unjust world. How can you use your God-given gifts of time, talent, and/or finance to lift the burdens of those who are lowly in parts of life where you are strong?
Prayer: Lord, there’s still so much suffering and injustice in our world. Teach me how to sing “With all my heart I glorify the Lord,” not to deny the darkness, but to defy and challenge it in your power. Amen.
* Ginger Gaines-Cirelli, introductory note to Luke 1 in The CEB Women’s Bible. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2016, p. 1286.
Celebrating a king’s birth
WEDNESDAY 12.25.24 Luke 2:1-14
When Rome crowned an emperor, they gave him the titles “Savior” and “Lord,” choirs sang, and they affirmed the emperor divine. Luke wrote his story of Jesus’ birth to say that Jesus, not Caesar, was truly Savior, King and God.* Shepherds were not “A-listers”—they’d never be called to an emperor’s coronation. Hebrews scorned them because they couldn’t observe the detailed rituals it took to be “holy.” But God made these shepherds the first to hear the “wonderful joyous news for all people.”
- We’ve read the angel’s words so many times we may miss how astounding they were. Listen to them as if for the first time (as the shepherds did): “I bring good news to you wonderful, joyous news for all people. Your savior is born today in David’s city. He is Christ the Lord. This is a sign for you: you will find a newborn baby wrapped snugly and lying in a manger.” What part of this message is most “wonderful” and “joyous” for you?
- Was Jesus born on December 25? It’s not likely. “That shepherds were watching their flocks outside at night, rather than having them in pens, suggests that the season was warm. (The date of Dec. 25 was selected later, probably to fit a Roman festival.)”** How can the story of the shepherds watching their flocks outdoors, probably on a warmer night, remind you that the good news of Jesus’ birth applies all year, not just on wintry December nights?
Prayer: Lord Jesus, I do not want to give my ultimate allegiance to any of today’s “Caesars.” Help my life and actions to reflect my trust and confidence in you. Amen.
* This is a short summary of a more detailed historical analysis by scholar Craig Keener at NIV, Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible (p. 8955). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.
** NIV, Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, (p. 8958). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.
“Let’s go right now”
THURSDAY 12.26.24 Luke 2:15-20
We noted yesterday that religious leaders looked down on shepherds. But later the chief priests and legal experts in Jerusalem were uninterested in the idea of a king born in Bethlehem (cf. Matthew 2:3- 6), unlike the shepherds who were attentive, obedient and joyful. (No Jerusalem leader asked the magi, “Could we go with you?”) In another of God’s great reversals, Jesus would grow up to identify with shepherds, saying, “I am the good shepherd” (John 10:11).
- After hearing the angels’ song, the shepherds said, “Let’s go right now to Bethlehem and see what’s happened. Let’s confirm what the Lord has revealed to us.” How have you “confirmed” what you’ve learned “about” God? What rewards have you found in moving beyond an intellectual to a relational experience where you “taste and see” that Jesus is who he said he was?
- Pastor Bruce Larson wrote, “[Verse 20] says that after the shepherds had seen such wondrous things they went back to the commonplace. That’s true for us each year at Christmas as we celebrate these events. Where will we be when the excitement and fun are over? How do these events change the lives we lead back at our jobs, our homes, our schools?”* It’s December 26— Christmas is “over.” How will Christmas’ great news change your day-to-day life for the better?
Prayer: Lord Jesus, this has become a day for returning unwanted or ill-fitting gifts. I don’t ever want to return your gift of yourself. As I grow a relationship with you that “fits” better and better, help me honor your coming as “the Christ child” every day. Amen.
* Bruce Larson, The Preacher’s Commentary Series, Volume 26: Luke. Nashville: Word, Inc., 1983, p. 52.
What it all meant
FRIDAY 12.27.24 John 1:1-5
When John wrote Jesus’ story, he focused on the event’s deep spiritual meaning rather than on the physical facts of Jesus’ birth. Yet the key truths came through in John (our Christmas Eve reading) as much as in Matthew and Luke. In Matthew, the magi followed a star in the darkness (Matthew 2:10). In Luke, the Lord’s glory shone around the shepherds at night (Luke 2:9). John described Jesus’ coming with the words, “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”
- “In the beginning,” in any language, carries us back to mysterious realms of which even today’s science is just scratching the surface. John didn’t say the Word “began” in the beginning; he said the Word “was.” That meant Jesus has always been here and will always be here. He is eternal; he is God. In what ways does it matter to your faith that Jesus is more than just a good man?
- “Through the Word was life, and the life was the light for all people” (verse 4). So many kinds of darkness try to put out the light in our lives—the death of someone we love, a broken relationship facing unfair or abusive treatment, financial fear and insecurity, and many more. What does I mean to you that Jesus’ light keeps shining even at those times? How can you keep your spiritual eyes open to take in and apply Jesus’ light to all of life?
Prayer: Lord Jesus, you came to earth, not just for some small subset of humanity, but aiming to restore and uplift your entire creation. Help me play my humble part in that vast, saving mission. Amen.
The ultimate revelation of God
SATURDAY 12.28.24 John 1:6-18
“From the phrase ‘In the beginning’… to the language of light and darkness, Genesis is ever present in John. John wants us to perceive that the stuff of earth is the stuff of God.”* Since that beginning, the world had grown dark by turning away from God’s light. John summed up what Jesus meant to the first Christians. Hebrews, likely written before John’s gospel, said, “In the past, God spoke through the prophets to our ancestors in many times and many ways. In these final days, though, he spoke to us through a Son” (Hebrews 1:1-2).
- John’s emphasis on “light” coming to the world was not a new idea. “Scripture and Jewish tradition recognized that God’s word offered life (Deuteronomy 8:1; 11:9; Baruch 4:1) and also light (Psalm 119:105; Baruch 4:2).”** But John’s clear claim that “the Word became flesh” (in the person of Jesus) went beyond what Greek or Hebrew thinkers thought. How does it deepen your gratitude for Jesus that he didn’t just love you from a “safe distance,” but personified God’s light in his life?
- John’s message showed us that the person of Jesus, not a book, was God’s ultimate revelation. One way to approach the scriptures is to hear, examine, and interpret it through the lens and filter of the definitive and unmitigated Word of God, Jesus Christ…. it is Jesus who serves as the final Word by which other words of scripture are to be judged. How can you study the Bible, not as a source of abstract facts, but as a means to get to know Jesus better?
Prayer: God, you have always wanted your human children not just to know about you, but to know YOU. Thank you for coming in Jesus to give us the clearest picture of your loving, forgiving heart. Amen.
* Jamie Clark-Soles, introductory note “Genesis Creation” to John 1 in The CEB Women’s Bible. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2016, p. 1337.
** NIV, Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, eBook (p. 9217). Zondervan. Kindle Edition. The book of Baruch, probably written about 100-200 years before Jesus’ birth, was not included in the Hebrew Scriptures, but reflected Hebrew beliefs at that time. Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Bibles include it; Protestant Bibles list it as an “apocryphal” book.