4 Lessons I Learned from the Characters in Luke 1:26-38 (Short Bible Study)

Bible Study #3 @ Luke 1:26-38,

In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”

Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”

“How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”

The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called[a] the Son of God. Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month. For no word from God will ever fail.”

“I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Then the angel left her.

4 Lessons from the Characters that I Learned:

#1 Gabriel: Be Faithful with The Message

#2 Joseph: Be Responsible for The Message

#3 Mary: Be Obedience to The Message

#4 Jesus Christ: The Essence of The Message

Want to Watch Previous Videos?

Episode #1: https://youtu.be/PVorOCQqOVM

Episode #2: https://youtu.be/F5Kp-JU-c90

Blog: www.richardangelus.me

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THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.

Young Men and Women, Be Christ's Ambassadors (End)

"[We] are Christ's ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us.
We speak for Christ when we plead, ‘Come back to God!'"

(2 Corinthians 5:20, NLT)

Paul used many metaphors to illustrate the privileged ministry to which God had called him. One of the most impressive is that of "Christ's ambassadors." An ambassador, in Dictionary.com, is a "diplomatic official of the highest rank." It is rightly considered one of the highest honors any country can grant on one of its citizens. Even in chain, Paul delighted to use this term for himself: "I am in chain now, still preaching this message as God's ambassador" (Ephesians 6:20). It is told of John R. Mott, the YMCA leader, that he was once offered the post of ambassador of the United States to Japan. In declining the honor, he said to President Coolidge, "Mr. President, since God called me as a student to be His ambassador, my ears have been deaf to all other calls."

An ambassador has both privileges and responsibilities. First, as to privileges, he actually represents his absent king or president or prime minister, whose honor is in his hands. He does not go aboard at his own expense. All the resources of his country are behind him. He has personal fellowship with and access to the highest authority. While on nation's business, his personal safety is guaranteed. It is not difficult to relate these privileges to the post of an ambassador for Jesus Christ, the King of kings.

Then, as to responsibilities, he is required to have no associations, however seemingly innocent, that would any way compromise his country. He must keep in constant communication with his higher authority. He must live and conduct himself in a manner worthy of the one he represents. He is expected to watch over and protect the interests of fellow-citizens living in the country to which he has been empowered.

And this is important: he has no right to either add to or subtract from the message of his government but must deliver it as it is. Nor he needs to apologize for his message. He is not expected to originate his own message, but to receive his government's instructions. He is to present his government's viewpoint – not his own. He may use persuasion but not manipulation.

It is not difficult to connect this worldly ambassador's responsibilities to the ambassador of Christ. Do you qualify for the post?

We Are Christ's Ambassadors

THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.

It Was the Day When the Man's World Made Good (Genesis 2:18-22)

I use this picture because the almost-real first humans in the internet are not appropriate :P

“God said, ‘It’s not good for the Man to be alone; I’ll make him a helper, a companion.’ So God formed from the dirt of the ground all the animals of the field and all the birds of the air… but he didn’t find a suitable companion. God put the Man into a deep sleep. As he slept he removed one of his ribs and replaced it with flesh. God then used the rib that he had taken from the Man to make Woman and presented her to the Man. The Man said, ‘Finally! ...’
(Genesis 2:18, 20-22, The Message)

Throughout the Creation story, a phrase repeats over and over again: “God saw that it was good.” The day was good. The night was good. The seas were good. The dry land was good. The trees, the plants, the mountains, the rivers, the birds, the fishes, the land animals, human beings – God saw all of it and affirmed that it was good (Imagine “like” and “love” bubbles come out through Creation FB page).

So I was a little curious when God declares that something is not right, not good. “‘It’s not good for the Man to be alone,” God says. He healed the Man’s loneliness by creating a companion out of the Man’s very flesh and bone. His rib. “Finally!” the Man said (or in other translation “At last!”). That little exclamation is telling. It is the day when the Man’s world was made good!

This was before the Fall, remember.

The Man had the delights of the Garden of Eden spread out before him. He even had the full presence of God. And yet in the absence of another human being with whom to enjoy it all, the Man couldn’t truly enjoy it! Everything is good, but not enough. Something was missing until… the Woman.

This is the story of humankind that God creates in His own image. Because God is the God of Trinity (or more accurately, (3) Tri- (1) Unity), we are made to display His being, His relationshipness. We are made for relationship, not for self-sufficiency. It’s not good for us to be alone.

THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.

Made to Reflect the Original (Genesis 1:26-27, 31)

“God spoke: ‘Let us make human beings in our image, make them reflecting our nature so they can be responsible for the fish in the sea, the birds in the air, the cattle, and, yes, Earth itself, and every animal that moves on the face of Earth.’ God created human beings; he created them godlike, reflecting God’s nature. He created them male and female… God looked over everything he had made; it was so good, so very good!”
(Genesis 1:26-27, 31, The Message)

Being human mean we are prone to do errors, to sin. But there’s a lot more than that! We are all made in the image of God. That urge to create, to bring order out of chaos, to make our mark on the world; the anger we feel in the face of injustice, the pleasure we feel in the face of beauty, the hope we feel for a better future – all of that is the image of God finding expression in us, human beings.

It is true that the image of God we express is distorted, even fractured. But there it is nevertheless, shown when we interact with one another, burst forth in our longings for more. God’s image in us forever calls us back to the One who is its original.

That realization changes the way we look at ourselves (Look at you!). It also changes the way we look at others. “There are no ordinary people,” C. S. Lewis wrote, “You have never met a mere mortal.” Once you open your eyes to see the original God and start seeing the image of God in yourself and others, the world will never looks the same again. Yes!

THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.

The Life still Speaks, The Light still Shine (Genesis 1:1-5)

“First this: God created the Heavens and Earth – all you see, all you don’t see. Earth was a soup of nothingness, a bottomless emptiness, an inky blackness. God’s Spirit brooded like a bird above the watery abyss. God spoke: ‘Light!’ And light appeared. God saw that light was good and separated light from dark. God named the light Day, he named the dark Night. It was evening, it was morning – Day One”
(Genesis 1:1-5, The Message)

There was only “a soup of nothingness, a bottomless emptiness, an inky blackness.” There was only dark. And then there was everything, spoken by God into existence only by His voice: “Light!” or “Let there be light!” With those words, light shone out of the darkness, order out of chaos, and the emptiness was filled with good, beautiful things – thing that gave God pleasure.

“It was so good, so very good!” (1:31) God said. It wouldn’t be long before the perfection of the natural order would be contaminated by sin and death, but this first two chapters – Genesis 1 and 2 – reminds me (in fact all of us) of my longing to see God and for the perfection of Heaven. The Creation story also tells me that everything in this universe – every single thing – is of supernatural origin. Everything created echo God’s voice that says, “Let there be…”

“First this: God…” reminds me of “The Word was first, the Word present to God, God present to the Word. The Word was God, in readiness for God from day one. Everything was created through him, nothing – not one thing! – came into being without him. What came into existence was Life, and the Life was Light to live by. The Life-Light blazed out of the darkness; the darkness couldn’t put it out” (John 1:1-5, The Message). Oh, now we know, that it was the Word that set things in motion, and that Word still speaks… for the Word is “The Life-Light” Christ. He was with God from the beginning – first. Indeed, He was God, shining in “a soup of nothingness, a bottomless emptiness, an inky blackness.” The Word, the Life still speaks. The Light still shines. Halleluiah!

THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.