Take your Bibles with me and turn again to Luke 1. Today we are going to look at a very familiar story - a story I've preached from dozens of times - but we are going to look at it in a different context and with a different emphasis.
This story, and the stories that come after it, are usually thought of as "Christmas Stories." That's why I've preached on them so many times. People generally expect a preacher to preach on these stories every Christmas and I do.
So in a sense, we are going to be having "Christmas in July" as we look at these stories. (And no, Matt, that does not mean it's ok to break out the Christmas music.)
Obviously, it's not Christmastime. I mean, we have our VBS stuff out here. So I think maybe the different context can help us think differently about this story today.
Let's go ahead and read Luke 1 verses 26-38 this morning:
[!bible] Luke 1:26-38 - KJV 26. And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth, 27. To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary. 28. And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women. 29. And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be. 30. And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God. 31. And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS. 32. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: 33. And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end. 34. Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man? 35. And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. 36. And, behold, thy cousin Elisabeth, she hath also conceived a son in her old age: and this is the sixth month with her, who was called barren. 37. For with God nothing shall be impossible. 38. And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word. And the angel departed from her.
What is the greatest event in the history of the world?
In 1893 - Chicago tried to put on the greatest event. They wanted to be the greatest city in America and so they hosted the Columbian Expedition. They cleared off 600 acres of land and built a beautiful fairgrounds with 14 massive buildings designed by the greatest architects alive. (If you've ever been to the Museum of Science and Industry - that was just one of those 14 buildings. The Chicago Art Institute building was another - so that will give you an idea of the scale of that.)
It had canals and gardens and live music and the greatest inventions and entertainment in the whole world. It was the greatest "world's fair" ever held - with over 26 million people making the trip to see it in it's six months being open. That 26 million people came before there were cars or airplanes.
When we think of the greatest event in human history - we think of something like that. Big city, big names, big crowds, big fanfaire.
But I want to tell you we just read about the greatest event in human history - and it couldn't be more different.
It wasn't in a big place. Nazareth was a nowhere town. It was a little stopover place for Gentiles who were travelling between Jerusalem and Tyre and Sidon in Lebanon.
It was so unimportant that it was never mentioned one time in the whole Old Testament, never once in the whole Apocrypha, never once in the writings of Josephus.
It didn't even have it's own source of water. No rivers or lakes went through it. It just had a well in the middle of town.
The jews despised the people from Galilee because their were so many Gentiles there and they thought they were unclean or not kosher because they had to rub shoulders with all these Gentiles.
And even when people from Judea thought about Galilee - they were probably thinking of the bigger towns around the sea of Galilee - towns like Corazin and Capurnahum. They were definitely not thinking about Nazareth - which was 14 miles from the sea of Galilee and basically in the middle of nowhere.
So the place is nowhere - a nothingburger. The only reason we know about it is because of this story.
What about the people involved in this story? Were there big crowds? No. There was one girl and one angel.
And she would have been a girl. That's what we would call her. She would have been a teenager - perhaps as young as 13 or 14 when this happened. Girls married super young then.
She was a poor girl. Engaged to a poor carpenter. No doubt, if this story never happened, she would have married young, had lots of poor children and faded from history. We would never know her name.
So why is this the greatest event in Human History? Because this is when God came down to man and took on human flesh. This is when the promises of the Old Testament began to be fulfilled.
Last week we talked about John the Baptist's birth. That was amazing. An aged couple having a baby. A visit from an angel.
But John the Baptist was just the forerunner. He was just the opening act. Jesus is the main event of Human History and His birth would be even more special.
Look at the text again:
[!bible] Luke 1:26-27 - KJV 26. And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth, 27. To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary.
This story takes place six months after the story from last week. Elizabeth is now six months along and the angel Gabriel makes another visit, this time to a girl named Mary.
We don't know where this visit happened. We don't know if Mary was in her house or somewhere else. But we know it was private. It was just Mary and Gabriel.
Mary was just minding her business. Likely doing some routine chore. When suddenly an angel was with her.
And the angel just starts out the conversation with this line:
Hail.
Hail? Hail?? That's what you say to a king. Hail Caesar! Hail the Queen!
Gabriel says:
Hail, thou that art highly favored, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women.
Now listen, there are two extremes when it comes to Mary.
The first extreme is to make too much of her. To worship her. To say things about her that the Bible never says.
The Catholic tradition takes this verse and makes Mary sinless. They pray to Mary. They venerate Mary.
They get that primarily from this verse, which the Latin Vulgate translated "Hail Mary, full of grace."
Now, Mary was full of grace. She was graced by God. But that doesn't mean she was sinless or that she herself had a virgin birth.
In fact, the greek phrase translated in our Bible here as thou that art highly favored and translated as "full of grace" in the vulgate is found one other place in the Bible.
[!bible] Ephesians 1:6 - KJV 6. To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.
That phrase "accepted in the beloved" is the exact same greek translated word "thou that art highly favored."
Mary was full of grace - but according to Ephesians 1 so is every believer. So too much can be made of Mary.
But there is another extreme and one that I think we baptists tend to fall into and that is not thinking enough of Mary.
Mary was highly favored and blessed among all of the women who have ever lived.
Mary is called "the mother of our Lord" in the scripture. She is the only woman who ever got that title.
Think about this: Jesus would have had some of Mary's physical features. Mary would have had the privilege of nursing Jesus, of holding baby Jesus, of raising Jesus. She would have had Jesus in her house and around her table.
Of the billions of woman who have ever lived, God chose this woman - this special woman for this unique and special task.
So we do not pray to Mary. We do not bow to statues of Mary. But we do honor Mary.
This story is obviously related to last weeks story. There are obvious similarities:
But Zachariah took his news very different than Mary took it. Mary is an example for us of faith, humility and submission.
There are two things I think we need to think about in this story this morning, the first is Mary's Example, and the second is Mary's Meaning - or why we needed a virgin birth.
Let's pray and we'll jump into those.
The first thing I want to talk about this morning is...
You see, Mary is important. But Mary isn't the star of this passage. Mary's importance is derived importance. It is importance by proximity.
Mary is important in the same way the first lady is important, or the way a restaurant across the street from the capitol is important - she is important because of how close she was to Christ.
Look at verse 31 again:
[!bible] Luke 1:31-33 - KJV 31. And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS. 32. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: 33. And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.
Mary was important because she was the mother of Christ.
Look at what the angel tells Mary here:
First, he tells her what to name him: Jesus.
Jesus is a name that means "Jehovah is salvation." When the angel appeared to Joseph in Matthew he said:
[!bible] Matthew 1:21 - KJV 21. And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins.
So Jesus would come and be a savior.
But that isn't all He would be. He would also be the fulfillment of all of the promises to Israel.
That's why the angel told Mary that He would be given the throne of David and reign on that throne forever. Jesus was the Christ. Jesus was the Messiah. Jesus was the fulfillment of all of those prophecies given over a thousand years to the nation of Israel.
And by the way, those prophecies are still unfulfilled. Jesus is reigning in heaven, but not in Jerusalem. So someday Christ will come back and setup His kingdom and reign from Jerusalem forever.
So Jesus would be a savior. Jesus would be Messiah. But the most interesting thing the angel said about Jesus is that He would be the son of God.
The angel said in verse 32 He shall be called the Son of the Highest.
When Mary asked how this was going to be, because she was a virgin, the angel clarified in verse 35:
[!bible] Luke 1:35 - KJV 35. And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.
Jesus would be born like no other human was ever born. He was born without a human father. He was born of a virgin.
And that means Jesus was born without a sin nature. You see, our sin nature comes to us through our Father - through Adam.
[!bible] Romans 5:12 - KJV 12. Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:
That is a doctrine called "Federal Headship." It is the doctrine of our father being being our representative.
We are born sinners and that comes to us through our relation to Adam. He is our Federal Head and from Him we get our sin nature.
But Jesus, born of a virgin, was not born with a sin nature. So He could be a new Federal Head for us.
[!bible] Romans 5:19 - KJV 19. For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.
So it is important that Jesus was born of a virgin so He wouldn't be associated with Adam and wouldn't be born with a sin nature. He is called "the second Adam." The first Adam failed God's test - the Second Adam passed it.
But there is another important reason why Jesus had to be born of a virgin: Jesus was God in human flesh. He was 100% human and 100% God.
Why could Jesus die as our substitute? He had to be human. He had to be one of us.
We don't allow substitutes in our country for punishments, but if we did, and you were sentenced to death - no judge would let you kill your dog instead of you. That wouldn't be a fair substitute. It would have to be another human and an innocent human.
But that would only be a one for one. Because Jesus was God and man - His death counts for us all.
So it was very important that Jesus be born of a virgin, not just because it fulfilled the prophecies of the Old Testament, but so that He could be our Savior.
And Mary was the one person chosen by God to be that virgin. That is where her importance lies.
How foolish would it be for us to venerate Mary and honor Mary but to fail to grasp the reason why Mary is important and to fail to accept Jesus as our Savior.
How silly would it be to honor Mary and miss the very reason why she was important by not accepting Christ's free gift of salvation.
Have you trusted Christ? Have you believed the gospel? Why not do that today?
So we've looked at this passage and talked about Mary's meaning. But there is one other thing I want you to see here and that is...
You see, Mary is an example for us of how to respond to God.
There are four things I want you to see in this story we can learn from.
The first is...
When the angel appeared to Mary and said she was "highly favored among women" it very obvious that it surprised her. She was not expecting this - who would be. She did not think of herself as something special or someone who was highly favored.
So when the angel said "Hail to her" that is what she was thinking about.
There is a lesson for us here: God chose to do His greatest work on this earth through the humblest of people.
A nobody girl from a nowhere place. A person no one would have thought much of. A poor teenaged girl from Nazareth.
There is a way to get God's grace and there is a way to remove God's grace - and it has to do with your pride and humilty.
James 4 says:
[!bible] James 4:6 - KJV 6. But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.
Then in verse 10 it says:
[!bible] James 4:10 - KJV 10. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.
If you want God to bless you - be humble. Don't think too highly of yourself.
When we come to Christ for salvation, we must come as poor in Spirit. We must come as spiritually bankrupt people. We must come in humility.
Mary reminds us of that in the way she responded to God.
The second thing that stands out to me about Mary's response to God is...
Verse 29 of our text says:
[!bible] Luke 1:29 - KJV 29. And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be.
Mary was not a flighty girl. She was thoughtful. She was contemplative.
In Luke 2:51 it says:
[!bible] Luke 2:51 - KJV 51. And he went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject unto them: but his mother kept all these sayings in her heart.
Mary was a thoughtful person. She may have never been educated, but she was a thinker.
Responding to God in faith doesn't mean we turn our brain off. God doesn't want us to be thoughtless. He wants us to ponder His word, to meditate on it, to think on it.
God isn't like the shady used car salesman - who tries to offer us something and doesn't want us to look too closely at it.
He want us to take His word and ponder it, to chew on it, to meditate on it. We can look at it from every angle. We can examine it every which way.
She was humble. Mary was thoughtful.
A third way Mary is an example to us in the way she responded to God is...
When the angel came to Zacharias in the beginning of this chapter, and told him he was going to have a son, he doubted God. He doubted He said whereby shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife well stricken in years? (Verse 18)
And the thing is, God had miraculously provided children to people in old age before. Abraham is the most famous example. He still doubted.
But when the angel told Mary, she believed. She believed right away.
She had questions, but they were "how is this going to work?" questions, not "how could this even work?" questions. Mary responded in faith.
She believed. She didn't know about Elizabeth. She didn't know about Zacharias. As far as she knew, this was the first time God had spoken to someone in 400 years. Yet she believed.
It was the first and only time in human history a virgin gave birth - but she trusted the word of God.
So she responded with humility, with thoughtfulness, with faith. One more thing...
Look at verse 38:
[!bible] Luke 1:38 - KJV 38. And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word. And the angel departed from her.
In this one verse, we see all of it. We see her faith - she believed. We see her humility - she calls herself God's handmaid. But we really see her submissive attitude. Her attitude was "God, whatever you want from me, I'll do it."
Mary's job wouldn't be easy. She would be misunderstood for the rest of her life. People would think she was crazy. You would too. No doubt this caused a lot of family drama and pain. But Mary's attitude is "whatever God wants from me, I'll do."
Let me ask you: are you coming to God humbly? Are you thinking over God's word? Are you believing? Are you submitting to God?
This is what God wants from all of us: humility, thoughtful belief and submission. These three things are like the currency of heaven.
Let's stand for prayer and invitation.