What would it be like to be visited by an angel? It definitely would be one of the high points of your life! After getting my emotional equilibrium back — at least a little — after seeing an angel standing before me, I’d probably wonder what I'm in for! Whenever angels appeared to someone in the historical record that we call the Bible, it meant big changes in that person's life. That's what happened with a young girl named Mary when an angel came calling.

MARY'S VISITOR CHANGED HER WORLD — AND OURS, TOO!
The event was so amazing that it has been given a special name throughout history. The appearing of the angel to Mary is called the Annunciation. What happened in that encounter changed her world forever — and it changed ours forever, too!

So important was this particular visitation of an angel to earth that the angel is identified by name. The historical record states, “God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee,” (Luke 1:26). That's where Mary lived, so that's where Gabriel went.

After reassuring Mary that she didn't have to be afraid, Gabriel told her the message that he was sent to deliver. (By the way, the word “angel” means “messenger.”) God's message for Mary, delivered by Gabriel, was this: “You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus.” (Luke 1:31) Gabriel went on to describe this unique child, who would grow up to be a unique human being. He said, “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 the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.” (Luke 1:31-33) Mary probably understood that she would give birth to the Messiah: the special anointed one who was to lead the Jewish people.

Mary saw a problem with this. She wasn't married, nor had she been intimate with her fiance Joseph or any other man. She asked the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” (Luke 1:34) Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, a young carpenter of Nazareth. In those days being pledged to be married, or “betrothed,” as the older translations put it, was a more serious relationship than our present idea of engagement. It was a legally binding arrangement that usually lasted about a year. Though Mary and Joseph were engaged, they hadn’t been intimate — and they wouldn't be until they got married. She couldn't understand how Gabriel could say that she would soon be pregnant.

As if the description of the child that she was to bear wasn’t unusual enough, now Mary was told that the child's conception would be unique. (In this description you can see a hint of the Trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.) “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High [the Heavenly Father?] will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.” (Luke 1:35)

The term “Son of God” was a term that Mary and her fellow Jews would have undoubtedly understood to refer to the Messiah. However, Mary probably didn't grasp the full implication of who this child was. The fact that the baby to be born to her, whom she was to name Jesus, was God in the flesh was an astonishing concept which would slowly become clear to her and to other people during His short life on earth and during the immediate years afterwards. What Mary knew now was that she was going to have a baby without the benefit of a man and that He would be the Messiah and rule forever. The baby that she would find miraculously growing in her womb would be unlike any other person on earth. The uniqueness of Jesus goes back to this event nine months before His birth, which we celebrate as Christmas.

An angel appeared to her fiance Joseph in a dream and reassured him that Mary hadn’t been unfaithful to him and that this child was a miracle of God: “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” (Matthew 1:20-21) It would be a most amazing birth of the most amazing person!

It must have been interesting to hear the conversation between Mary and Joseph as they discussed what the angels had told each of them. It had to have astonished them! This Jesus was to be the Messiah, the leader of the people, king, and savior, and He would reign forever!

We live in a time when Jesus is put into the same category as other religious teachers and founders of religions. It's often claimed that Jesus, Buddha, Confucius, Mohammad, the Dali Lama, and other religious leaders are all equal ways to finding God. I want to affirm the absolute uniqueness of Jesus. If you take at all seriously what the historical record says about Jesus and what He said about Himself, you’re left with only two choices: Jesus is totally unique or He isn’t! In your conversations with other people or even for the benefit of your own confidence in Jesus, it’s helpful to be familiar with what we’re sharing in this message about the uniqueness of Jesus.

The historical record of the angel Gabriel’s appearing to Mary, and her pregnancy without benefit of a human father, begins to lay the case for the uniqueness of Jesus. Let's look at some more of the evidence.

JESUS' AMAZING TEACHING ABOUT HIMSELF
Most people who believe that there are many ways to God and that you don't have to just believe in Jesus are at least sure that what Jesus taught was true, and they often agree that He was a great teacher. What follows is what He taught about Himself.

Jesus said that He existed before He was born and that He existed before the ancient patriarch Abraham: “'I tell you the truth,' Jesus answered, 'before Abraham was born, I am!'” (John 8:58) He claimed preexistence! He even used the phrase “I am” to describe Himself, and that was a term used by God in the Old Testament as His name. Jesus claimed to be one with God: “I and the Father are one.” (John 10:30)

Then there's the famous statement by Jesus found in John 14: “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well.” (John 14:6-7) Jesus was saying that there’s one way to God — and that He, Jesus, is it! He went on to say, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.” (John 14:9) Later in the same teaching He stated, “Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves.” (John 14:11) At their essence, Jesus and the Father are the same.

An intriguing incident occurred after Jesus' resurrection when the apostle Thomas finally got to see Jesus a week after the other apostles had seen Him alive. Thomas was confronted with the resurrected Jesus; he was visibly shaken and declared, “My Lord and my God!” It's interesting that Jesus never corrected Thomas' statement. He let it stand, thereby affirming that He — Jesus — is Lord and God!

As the great writer C. S. Lewis put it, when you read statements like that one, made by Jesus about Himself, He must be judged a liar, a lunatic, or Lord. Those people who knew Jesus best, who heard Him in person and knew Him personally, opted to call Him Lord! Let's take a look at what they wrote.

WHAT WAS SAID BY THOSE WHO KNEW HIM
There's a common misconception that the four gospels were written so many years after Jesus lived that the writers weren't historically accurate and that their accounts reflect what the church believed years later. That’s nonsense! All four gospels were written within the first century. Most scholars list the gospel of Mark as having been written the earliest, probably around the late 60’s A.D., with the gospels of Matthew and Luke written in the 70’s to 80’s and the gospel of John in the 90’s. All of them, therefore, were written within a lifetime of Jesus. Even the gospel of John was written within sixty years of Jesus' life. It was still possible to find people, including John himself, who — though they were old — had clear memories of Jesus. We can still find people who remember Pearl Harbor, and that event occurred sixty-six years ago, the same length of time between John's writing his gospel and his life as a disciple of Jesus. John wrote near the end of his gospel, “Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” (John 20:30-31)

Although the gospel writer Luke wasn’t one of the original twelve disciples, he said at the very beginning of that gospel (which he wrote to a Greek man named Theophilus) how he wrote it: “Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word. Therefore, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, it seemed good also to me to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught.” (Luke 1:1-4)

The gospels were written in ways that almost shout accuracy and truthfulness. For instance, if these accounts had been fabricated years later by the early church, they certainly would have painted the apostles in a far better light than they did. They tell about Peter’s saying something stupid at the transfiguration of Jesus on the mountain and Peter’s denying Jesus at His trial. They also tell about Thomas’ doubt. Throughout the gospels the apostles are painted as being thick-headed, not understanding what Jesus said, and being self-promoting, wanting to get ahead of each other.

The first witnesses of Jesus' resurrection were women. In those days women weren’t legal witnesses in a court of law, and a made-up story about the resurrection would certainly NOT have had women as the first to see Jesus alive again!

In all four gospels, and in all the letters of the apostles that follow, including those of John, James, and Paul, there’s a clear, convincing claim of the uniqueness of Jesus Christ!

THE RAMIFICATIONS OF JESUS' UNIQUENESS FOR US
The ultimate question, then, becomes what you and I are going to do with Jesus. If He really is part of the eternal God-head of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit . . . if He really came to earth into human form as God in the flesh . . . if He came to be our Savior by dying on a cross . . . if He is alive again . . . if He is to reign forever and ever . . . what are you and I going to do? We can’t sidestep the issue with nonsense about Jesus’ being one of many ways to God. He’s either THE way or He’s NO way to God!

I’ve bet my life that Jesus is God's unique gift to the world, to me, and to you, too! He deserves to be your Lord and Savior!

Jesus
For all eternity, the second member of the triune God,
Father, Son, and Spirit enjoying perfect holy harmony.
From the timelessness of eternity’s heaven they came
into earth’s time, the perfect time.
Father, Son, and Spirit who dwell all places,
came to a certain place:
land of Galilee, village of Nazareth, home of Mary.

The angel gave explanation to the mystified Mary.
“This is how it happens . . .
the Holy Spirit comes upon you,
the power of the Most High Father will overshadow you.
They leave,
the Son stays.”

Too small to see, an invisible beginning of being human.
Absent from God’s heaven, present in a woman’s womb.
No longer aware of everything in the universe,
now an embryo that has yet to grow to consciousness.

God in the flesh,
forever to be different from eternity before.
God changed to be like us
that we might change, becoming more like Him.

“You are to give Him the name Jesus.”
Jesus,
Name above all names.
Worthy of worship, love, obedience, all I have to offer.
No longer my own, He lives in me. I live for Him.
Jesus!