Pastor Frank Bowden
November 29, 2015

Sermon Notes

I want you to think with me about the last time that you heard breaking news nationwide or globally. The kind of breaking news that you remember exactly where you were, what you were doing, and maybe even what you were wearing when you heard it. Did you hear it across the radio? Maybe you saw it on the TV at home or at the office. Maybe the notification alert on your iPhone let you know that something major had just happened like the death of the superstar, maybe a terrorist attack on a city, or a dramatic rescue. Maybe this breaking news that you’re thinking of is more personal and close to home for you. The company that you’re working for announces they’re making layoffs and you’re worried you’re going to get swept up in these cutbacks. Maybe up you got the phone call from the doctor that the news you’ve been waiting to hear that you’re finally in remission from the cancer. Or, how many of you have heard this news before “Surprise we’re going to have a baby!”? That was my news one year 11 months and 19 days ago and I’m still getting over that news. I want you to think about your reaction to that breaking news because I believe we can learn a lot from how someone responds to situations like these.

A long time ago in a town far, far away something major happened that impacted your life. For nearly 400 years God had been silent following the prophet Malachi. I don’t want you to mistake this silence for God not preparing or for God not doing anything. God was hard at work preparing for the day that we’re going to read about in Luke chapter 1. (Side note come back in a couple weeks and we’re going look at how all of these pieces came together that we’re reading about today.) Twenty centuries ago in a small town far, far away there was a young girl probably 12 or 13 years old. We know that this girl was engaged. It was not uncommon for a Jewish girl back then to be engaged this young. These engagements could last a year or longer. We also know that this young girl was still a virgin. Her and her husband though technically married they weren’t living together or consummated their marriage. In Luke chapter 1 this young girl is told some earth shattering news. Her name was Mary. What Mary does after receiving this news is what I want us to look at for a few minutes this morning because her reaction to this is a remarkable testament to this young girl’s faith.

I. Mary responded in faith.

Mary received some astounding news and the first reaction we see from this young girl is a glimpse from her heart. Mary responded in faith to what she was told.

Luke 1:26-38
26 In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a village in Galilee, 27 to a virgin named Mary. She was engaged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of King David. 28 Gabriel appeared to her and said, “Greetings, favored woman! The Lord is with you![a]” 29 Confused and disturbed, Mary tried to think what the angel could mean. 30 “Don’t be afraid, Mary,” the angel told her, “for you have found favor with God! 31 You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus. 32 He will be very great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David. 33 And he will reign over Israel[b] forever; his Kingdom will never end!” 34 Mary asked the angel, “But how can this happen? I am a virgin.” 35 The angel replied, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the baby to be born will be holy, and he will be called the Son of God. 36 What’s more, your relative Elizabeth has become pregnant in her old age! People used to say she was barren, but she has conceived a son and is now in her sixth month. 37 For the word of God will never fail.[c]” 38 Mary responded, “I am the Lord’s servant. May everything you have said about me come true.” And then the angel left her.

Last week we talked about how this same angel, Gabriel, visited Zechariah and told him that he and his wife Elizabeth were going to have a baby. This would’ve been big news to them because they had no children and they were both really old. Elizabeth was well past childbearing years. The news that they were going to have a baby would’ve been really hard for Zechariah to believe. Everyone who they knew would tell them, “You’re crazy! You can’t have a baby. You know how this thing works. Your way past that time in your life.” Six months later Gabriel is here talking with Mary.

Every birth is a miracle and every child is a gift from God. This birth to be is the miracle of miracles. Luke gives us a lot of details that we need to sift through. Gabriel calls Mary a ‘favored woman’. This seemed real strange to her given her response that she was confused by it. So let’s consider a few things about Mary and why she would think it strange to be called favored by God. Mary was young, we’re talking teenager or maybe 12 – 13 years old. She was poor. She was likely unlearned and uneducated. She was female. In her culture 2000 years ago all of these characteristics to the people of her day would made her unusable by God for any major task much less a small task. Even still God chose her for one the most important acts of obedience he’s ever demanded of anyone. When I look at this I start to think about us today. I start thinking about some of the excuses that we make when God may be leading or calling us to do something. We think about our abilities, our education, our experiences, and our upbringing as what makes us likely or unlikely for God to use us. The term ‘favor’ here is literally grace. It’s a term that could also mean ‘full of grace’. In Ephesians chapter 1 Paul uses it to describe all believers, all Christians, as as favored by God. That tells me that my excuses that I bring to being likely or unlikely really aren’t warranted because as a believer in Jesus Christ we’re already the recipient of his full grace and faith. We have no excuse to bring to the table other than obedience to God. The one thing to consider here is not to limit God’s ability to use us based on these unfounded excuses. We are really the recipients of his full grace and his full favor just as Mary was.

Gabriel tells Mary something else. That she’s not going have any baby but she’s going to have the Son of God. So if we were to read the visit Gabriel had with Zechariah and with Mary side-by-side, we would see that these two encounters and conversations were really similar. Gabriel greeted them both. They were both immediately in distress and afraid. That’s kind of a common reaction I guess when an angel appears to somebody they’re immediately terrified. Gabriel has to reassure them both by saying, “Do not be afraid!” Like I’m not here to kill you. It’s okay. Calm down for a second I have something I need to tell you. He told Mary and Zechariah in both of their encounters that they’re going to have a son. What’s interesting is what happened next. Zechariah and Mary both asked Gabriel a question. I started to look at these two questions. If you were here with us last week, after Zechariah asked his question to the angel he was left mute until the baby came. That was the punishment for him asking it. Mary asked a question but nothing happened with her. She’s not punished for asking. So what’s the big difference between Zechariah and Mary’s questions? I think we have to look at the motive or the heart behind why they asked. Zechariah asked his question out of unbelief and out of doubt. “What do you mean Gabriel that Elizabeth and I are going to have a baby? You know how old we are. God knows how old we are. You know it doesn’t work this way. There is no way we’re going to have a kid.” He asked his question out of unbelief and out of the lack of faith.

Mary asked from a different motive. Mary asked from a sense of wonder. Look again at verse 34. She asked, “How can this happen? I am a virgin.” The text here is assuming that Mary believes it is going to happen. She assumes this is real. The language reads that she had no issues with what was told to her just the fact of how it was going to come about. She wasn’t asking from a sense of doubt or a lack of faith. She was asking from the sense of wonder. I find it neat that Luke makes sure to mention over and over again that Mary was a virgin. Her and Joseph weren’t living together. She had not had sex with him or any other man. She’s still going to conceive and have a child. Let’s pause here. Church, it’s okay when we get to a passage of Scripture that’s hard to believe. You may say, “That there is tough. I’m going to have to step back and personally wrestle with this one for a little bit.” It is perfectly fine to do that with Scripture.

Consider who Luke was. He was a professional medical doctor. Luke knows full well how babies come about. Yet I’m sure it was hard for him to believe in a virgin birth as it is for us today yet he reported it as fact here. He says, “Given everything I know about medicine and given everything I’ve heard from the people I’ve talked with, I believe this. Even though it goes against what I know as my profession as a doctor, I’m okay. I believe this is how it came about. It makes sense to me that the miracle birth of John the Baptist and the great ministry that he was going to have being the forerunner to Jesus would be surpassed by the greater miracle birth of Jesus and the greater ministry of Jesus being born of the virgin girl by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Let’s look at some comparisons and contrasts for a second. Where John the Baptist is described as ‘great’; Jesus in verse 32 is described as ‘very great’. John the Baptist as the ‘prophet of the Most High’; later Jesus is described as the ‘Son of the Most High’ which gave Jesus equality with God. John’s task was to prepare for the coming; Jesus is the coming One whose kingdom we read in verse 33 will never end.

This news, as exciting as it was, put Mary in an extremely embarrassing and difficult situation. Think about this. She’s engaged to Joseph. She’s just been told she’s going to have a baby. It’s not going to come from Joseph but from the Holy Spirit literally putting a baby inside her womb. She’s going to have to face the stigma and probably the ridicule of being an unwed mother. She also had to face the danger of being accused of adultery and having to go through that legal process which she knew would be punishment by stoning if she was convicted. Given all of that look at her response in verse 38. She says, “I am the Lord’s servant. May everything you have said about me come true.” Despite the good that this was going to be and also the inherent risk that this brought, Mary responded in faith. However, it didn’t stop with this internal process of her faith and also lead to action in that Mary acted on her faith.

II. Mary acted on her faith.

Luke 1:39-44
39 A few days later Mary hurried to the hill country of Judea, to the town 40 where Zechariah lived. She entered the house and greeted Elizabeth. 41 At the sound of Mary’s greeting, Elizabeth’s child leaped within her, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. 42 Elizabeth gave a glad cry and exclaimed to Mary, “God has blessed you above all women, and your child is blessed. 43 Why am I so honored, that the mother of my Lord should visit me? 44 When I heard your greeting, the baby in my womb jumped for joy. 45 You are blessed because you believed that the Lord would do what he said.”

Mary takes a journey. In Jewish customs it was very unusual and could be seen as improper for a single or betrothed female to travel alone. This hill country in Judea isn’t around the corner for Mary. She has to travel 80-100 miles from Nazareth. It could take her as long as five days to get there. So, somebody can see this as an attempt for Mary to run away and try to hide this pregnancy from her neighbors in Nazareth. Or, maybe even to run away and hide this pregnancy from Joseph until she wrapped her head around this whole situation and how she was going to explain things to people. That is one way you could look at it but I don’t believe this is what we are reading here. I don’t believe we’re seeing Mary on the run. In fact, I see the exact opposite. I believe we are seeing her put her faith into action. There’s a little clue or hint of this earlier in this dialogue. I don’t think it was by mistake that in verse 36 Gabriel tells Mary about Elizabeth’s pregnancy. I believe it provided Mary the opportunity to further solidify and have further confirmation of what she already believed and of her own faith. I think it was her saying, “God, I believe what you are doing to me. You’re telling me about Elizabeth and she’s old. I’ve got to see this too. So, I’m going to go and I want my faith to be strengthened by what I’m seeing.”

Did you notice what happened when Mary arrived at Elizabeth’s house? Verse 41 says, “At the sound of Mary’s greeting, Elizabeth’s child leaped within her, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. She gave a glad cry.” Right away Elizabeth understood what was happening. Earlier in chapter 1 verse 15 God promised that the baby John would be filled with the Holy Spirit even while in his mother’s womb. Elizabeth understood that promise God made to Zechariah was being fulfilled by what was happening inside her belly when Mary came into the house and greeted her. I think Elizabeth and baby John were the first two people to realize that this child that Mary was carrying was the Messiah. Listen to how Elizabeth greets Mary and how she describes Mary. “God has blessed you above all women, and your child is blessed. Why am I so honored, that the mother of my Lord should visit me?” There is this thought in Jewish custom that a woman’s greatness was measured by the greatness of the children that she bore. So one mom would look at another mom and see what her kids grew up to become and they would rank each other. It was a cruel process but something we still continue to do today. Knowing this Elizabeth recognizes that what God had done in Mary greatly overshadowed and greatly outshone even what he had done in her own life with her miracle pregnancy in her old age. Elizabeth greeted Mary with this tremendous spiritual insight and joy that Mary’s blessed not because of her faith but because entirely on who her Son is and his greatness.  It was a great privilege for Mary to bear the Son of God. How would a young teenage girl react to such praise and also such pressure?

I’m a dad. My little boy’s name is Austin. He will turn two in a week and a couple of days. I feel the pressure every day with Austin not to mess him up. I’m looking at him in his innocence, joy, happiness, and all the things that I just love about him. My fear is that as I raise this child I don’t want to mess this it up. What we have here is good. I want this to still be good when he’s an adult. How do I not get in the way of what God’s doing in his life? I feel that every single day. If any of you more seasoned parents who have grown children can help me out with this I would gladly take any advice that you could give me. That would be awesome!

III. Give glory and praise to God.

What I see here from Mary is a beautiful picture that she is showing all believers of how to respond when God’s doing something really big in your life through no real doing of your own. Simply his favor being given to them to accomplish his will. I think she gives us a beautiful picture of how to react to this. She shows us to give glory and praise back to God. For some people having a baby is super exciting. It is something you prayed for and prayed over for so long and the day you find out you’re having a baby is a great day for you. For others it’s a scary and terrifying day because maybe this pregnancy is going to come with risks. Mary knew that while this baby was a great thing the risk that came with it because Joseph was not the dad. It made it really difficult but yet she still chooses to react in a way that is honoring and glorifying to God despite the good and the difficult that comes with this.

Luke 1:46-56
46 Mary responded, “Oh, how my soul praises the Lord. 47 How my spirit rejoices in God my Savior! 48 For he took notice of his lowly servant girl, and from now on all generations will call me blessed. 49 For the Mighty One is holy, and he has done great things for me.  50 He shows mercy from generation to generation to all who fear him. 51 His mighty arm has done tremendous things! He has scattered the proud and haughty ones. 52 He has brought down princes from their thrones and exalted the humble. 53 He has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away with empty hands. 54 He has helped his servant Israel and remembered to be merciful. 55 For he made this promise to our ancestors, to Abraham and his children forever.” 56 Mary stayed with Elizabeth about three months and then went back to her own home.

This passage is the first of three hymns that we read in Luke chapters one and two.  It is known as the Magnificat or Mary’s song. We can really spend an entire morning just dissecting the depth of these verses and the lyrics here. We just don’t have that time to give it the attention it really deserves. This passage takes us deep into the heart of this young girl and into the depth of her faith and belief in God. As you read through these verses, these lines, these stanzas, and these lyrics this isn’t a rebuttal to what Elizabeth had said. This isn’t Mary trying react to Elizabeth’s claim about Mary being blessed above all women. This is Mary responding out the overflow of her heart in genuine worship back to God. It is spontaneous! It’s vulnerable! It was emotional because of the overwhelming nature that the unbelievable had come to pass and she was going to be the mother of the Messiah. I think this is the moment when all of those emotions really sank in for Mary and she understood the gravity of what was going on. The overflow of all of those emotions was this song of worship back to God. I find that remarkably mature for such a young girl to have that type of grip in her spiritual like to say, “Man this is big! God, you chose me for no reason of my own doing and thank you.” Her response was giving all the glory and all the praise back to him.

Even at a youthful age, we can see that Mary’s mind and her heart have been immersed in the Scriptures. As you read this there’s echoes from Hannah’s prayer in First Samuel and over a dozen different Old Testament quotes and allusions. Eight different times she talked about things that God has done reminding us that the God that we get to serve today and the Jesus that we know is the Promise Keeper. Mary’s recounting all of this. What I find very insightful is what she says in verse 47, “How my spirit rejoices in God my Savior!” The language she uses is representative of someone who understands that their hope for salvation is divine grace. “I know that I need a Savior and it’s not me,” is the language that she’s using.

Also, what I like about this is that Mary recognized not only her need for a Savior but who her Savior is. Nowhere here or anywhere else in Scripture gives the idea that Mary thought of herself as sinless, immaculate, or deserving of this great adoration or praise that some build her up to be. Mainly she says, “I’m accepting this gift and this opportunity that God’s given me. He’s fully deserving of all the glory and all the praise for it his favor shown on me.” He gets all the praise and glory for what’s about to happen in her life. It doesn’t matter the outcome. At this moment Mary doesn’t know what the outcome is going to be. She knows the gravity and the nature of this but she doesn’t know how this baby’s life is going to pan out fully. She’s got some ideas that this is going be more special than anything else that this Earth has ever seen or ever will see. This a beautiful picture worship for the believer. Praise should be the result of our actions that are deeply rooted in our faith in Jesus. The faith that I have in Jesus Christ produces these great actions, no matter the risks they may bring. Or, the sneers or the glares they may bring from my coworkers or from family. I want you to take this faith and to live it out in public among people. Let whatever happens happen. The result of all of that happening will be you praising Jesus for good, bad, difficult, or easy doesn’t matter. Give Jesus the praise and the worship for what he’s doing in your life just as Mary did – genuine, heartfelt, and unbridled praise.

Next Steps

• Please pray for me to demonstrate faith like Mary as I seek to serve Jesus in my community this week.
• I have had difficulty trusting God with certain areas of my life lately. From this point forward, I commit to trust God with all areas of my life.
• My faith has been rooted in worldly idols. Today, I commit my life to Jesus for the first time.

Discussion Questions

1. When you hear “breaking news,” what is your typical first reaction: belief, skepticism, or disbelief? Why?
2. What do you believe was hardest for Mary to comprehend about the angel’s message: being favored by God, pregnant as a virgin, who her child was going to be, or how to explain her pregnancy to others?
3. Why do you think the angel Gabriel told Mary about Elizabeth’s condition?
4. What do we learn about Jesus from the angel Gabriel?
5. In what area of your life do you need to believe that nothing is impossible with God? What keeps you from believing this?