This year’s series on Advent will focus on the acts of Advent: adoration, activism, community, and expansion. Each week will be dedicated to one of these themes, and this week — the first week of Advent — we will focus on adoration.

Our text this morning is Luke 1:26-38 (below), where we see the Savior, Jesus, who is to be adored:

1. Because he is Savior.
2. Because he is Great.
3. Because he is Son of the Most High God.
4. Because he is the Davidic King.
5. Because he is the Eternal King.
6. Because he is the virginally-conceived Son of God.

Perhaps we need to be reminded that Christmas is not about us; it is about Jesus Christ.
Perhaps we need to be reminded that Christmas is not about what we get out of it; it is about what we give to God in adoration.
Perhaps we need to pause to see just how Jesus-centered Christmas is.

Luke 1:

26 In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, 27 to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28 The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”

29 Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. 30 But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. 31 You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. 32 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, 33 and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.”

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

35 The
angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of
the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be
called [fn3] the Son of God. 36 Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be barren is in her sixth month. 37 For nothing is impossible with God.”

38 “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May it be to me as you have said.” Then the angel left her.