“There’s something about Mary”
(Luke 1:26-38)
Dr. Richard Koole
Chapel Pointe
May 17, 2009
I. Introduction
A. There’s something about Mary
1. Mary was one of the best
a. An innocent 14 year old girl
b. Spotless reputation
2. The day the rumors started to spread
a. She was pregnant!
b. How people started to treat her
3. They didn’t understand…
4. How could she make her parents believe her?
b. And what about her fiancé?
5. A young lady of virtue….treated like a cheap woman
a. Mocked as she walked the streets of Nazareth
B. Mary is still being “misunderstood”
1. Some consider Mary to be the “co-redemptrix”
a. “Able to save you”
b. “Prayers to Mary”
c. The “mother of God”
d. Some actually elevate her above Jesus
2. Brian and Beth Bill’s experience
While we were living in Mexico for three years, we were amazed and grieved by all the attention given to the Virgin. In fact, today is the Day of the Virgin in Mexico, and millions of people will pay homage to her. Hundreds of thousands will make a pilgrimage to the Basilica in Mexico City from all over the country; many of them will walk on their knees. Beth and I have been to this shrine on several occasions and have observed people climbing the rough cement stairs on their knees, leaving bloodstains behind them.
I’ll never forget an experience Beth and I had shortly after we arrived in Mexico. As part of our attempt to understand the culture, we made it a practice to visit different churches. If we were out walking, and came across a church, we would try to at least look inside. One day, we found an open church and walked in. It was a fairly large building, but pretty plain on the inside. As we walked toward the front, we couldn’t help but see a huge statue of the Virgin, hung prominently right in the middle of the wall, directly above the altar. This image was probably 30 – 40 feet high! As we got closer, we then saw a small statue of Jesus, only about two feet high, placed at the feet of Mary. We just stared with our mouths open in disbelief, while our eyes flooded with tears.
C. But some seem to downplay the importance of Mary
1. A figurine in their nativity scene
2. Afraid to talk much about her
a. Fear being called “Catholic”
3. Misunderstand her role in the birth of our Savior
D. “The Statement of Facts”
1. “Facts” vs. “Opinions”
2. Ten key facts regarding Mary
II. Text
1. She lived on the fulcrum of history (v. 26)
(26) In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee,
a. “In the sixth month”…v.26
1. The 6th month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy
a. Review regarding John the Baptist
2. Which was during the time of Caesar Augustus
3. Rome was at its pinnacle of power
b. Israel’s condition under Rome
1. The heavy hand of Herod the Great
2. No Jewish king of had ruled Israel for 500 years
a. Since “the golden age” of Israel
b. David and Solomon
c. Awaiting their Messiah
1. Dreaming of liberation
2. A king from the line of David
d. It was the “fulcrum of history”
1. How a fulcrum works
2. Like a fulcrum, Mary’s baby would divide our calendar
a. BC = Before Christ
b. AD = Anno Domini (the year of our Lord)
3. AD 2009
a. Literally….“The year of our Lord, 2009”
b. 2009th year since the birth of our Lord
2. She lived in a place called Nazareth (v. 26)
(26) In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee,
a. Nazareth today
*a dirty town on the side of a hill
b. A town known for one thing…..sin!
c. Located four miles from the Roman garrison at Sepphoris
d. Soldiers on leave would go to Nazareth for cheap wine and loose
women
e. It was in Nazareth that Gabriel spoke to a young woman
3. She was a virgin (v. 27)
(27) to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary.
a. The importance of the virgin birth
b. Later
4. She was engaged to a man named Joseph (v. 27)
a. How old were they?
1. She was probably around 14 year old
2. Guys usually older
a. Had to be able to support a wife
b. Usually around 25 years old
b. The marriage process
1. Joseph would ask his father for permission to marry her
2. His father would visit Mary’s dad to negotiate a covenant between both families
3. When details were agreed upon…a formal benediction would be pronounced and they would be legally engaged
a. Called a “legal betrothal”
1. Would last one year
b. Only a “bill of divorce” could break the engagement
d. Why a year long engagement?
1. A test of fidelity
2. No intimacy during engagement
3. Proof the girl was not pregnant prior to engagement
e. If the girl was unfaithful?
1. Joseph could publicly divorce her as an adulterous, in which case she would be stoned to death
5. She was a direct descendent of King David
(27) to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary.
a. Royal blood…..both Mary and Joseph
b. Joseph’s genealogy in Luke 3
c. Mary’s genealogy in Matthew 1
6. Her name was Mary
7. She was highly favored by God….v.28
a. Gabriel’s greeting
(28) The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”
1. “You are highly favored”
b. What being “highly favored” does not mean…
1. That Mary was without sin
2. That Mary is the “mother of God”
3. That Mary can mediate for your sins
4. That she too was born of a virgin
5. That she deserved the honor
a. Brian Bill
“This greeting does not mean that Mary is so full of grace that she can forever bestow grace on others. The context here is that because the Lord is with her, she is favored. That’s what grace is all about.”
c. What being “highly favored” does mean…
1. God had a special plan for her life
2. She would have to choose whether or not to accept his plan
3. Her life would never again be the same
d. You too are favored by God
1. The “favor of God” rests on you
e. Mary understood the consequences of what the angel said
(29) Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be.
1. “Gone were the happy dreams of a beautiful wedding; gone were the days of sweet anticipation; gone were the carefully thought out plans for the wedding feast. She would be married, but not before rumors spread through the countryside.
2. Everyone would suppose her to be a woman of low character.
3. Rumors would swirl regarding who was the father
f. “Poor Joseph”
1. How would she tell him?
(30) But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God.
g. It was God who chose to favor Mary
h. Each of you was created by God for a purpose
1. Six key words
2. “Dream Big…Word Hard…Don’t Quit”
8. She was going to have a very special child (v. 31-33)
(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.”
a. You will become pregnant….v.31
b. Details regarding her child
1. You will name him Jesus….v. 31
2. He is the Son of God…..v. 32-33
3. He will be great….v. 32
4. He is the long sought-after Messiah…..v. 33
a. The two promises of Isaiah
1. God will come to earth as a baby
Isaiah 9:6-7 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom.
2. There will be a sign to recognize which baby
Isaiah 7:14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.
b. Now that’s a sign!
c. Those that try to make “virgin” to mean an innocent young girl
1. And not a supernatural conception
2. That happens all the time
a. Not an unmistakable sign
5. His dominion will never end….v.34
1. This is no ordinary child
2. This is the son of God
3. Now that’s quite the baby!!!
9. She was a true virgin (v. 34)
(34) “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”
a. How can this be possible?
1. Virgins can’t conceive
b. The angelic assurance…..v.35-37
(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 the Son of God.”
c. Two great truths in verse 35
1. It was necessary for the Savior of the World be born of a woman, so that he would be of the same nature as those whom he came to save
2. It was just as imperative that he should be holy, sinless, and blameless
d. Gabriel makes clear in this verse that Jesus would meet both requirements
1. Fully man…yet fully God
e. Man couldn’t go to God….so God came to man
f. Check out your cousin Elizabeth…..v.36-37
(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.”
1. An old woman has miraculously conceived
a. She’s proof this is real
2. The long-expected herald of the long-expected Messiah
a. Promised in the last verse of the Old Testament
g. “For nothing is impossible with God”….v.37
1. Key to your salvation….and your daily life
10. She had a servant’s heart (v. 38)
a. The long pause between verses 37 & 38
a. Mary was chosen….but Mary needed to obey and say yes
b. Frederich Buechner
“Mary struck the angel Gabriel as hardly old enough to have a child at all, let alone this child, but he’d been entrusted with a message to give her, and he gave it. He told her what the child was to be named, and who he was to be, and something about the mystery that was to come upon her. ‘You mustn’t be afraid, Mary,’ he said. And as he said it, he only hoped she wouldn’t notice that beneath his great, golden wings he himself was trembling with fear to think that the whole future of creation now hung on the answer of a teenager.”
c. And then the answer came
(38) “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May it be to me as you have said.” Then the angel left her.
1. “I am the Lord’s servant” ….v.38
Mary’s response is a thoughtful, obedient response to God’s revelation. She believed God, with a single-minded, unwavering commitment. She was available. With her head tilted high, her hands trembling just a bit, wide-eyed, nervous, open-mouthed, questioning but not afraid, wondering but not terrified, unsure but not uncertain…when the angel said, “Nothing is impossible with God,” Mary took a deep breath and said, “May it be to me as you have said.” And with those words, Christmas came to the world.
2. There really was something about Mary
d. Now the next big question
1. What will she tell Joseph and her parents?
2. And what about Elizabeth
III. Summary
A. Our greatest need
1. God knew our greatest need.
If our greatest need had been information, He would have sent us an educator.
If our greatest need had been technology, God would have sent us an engineer.
If our greatest need had been money, God would have sent us an economist.
If our greatest need had been pleasure, God would have sent us an entertainer.
2. But our greatest need was forgiveness, so God sent us a Savior.
B. You too are “highly favored by God”
a. God has a special plan for your life
1. You have to choose whether or not to accept his plan
2. Your life will never again be the same
b. What God wants to hear you say
c. The empty nesters
1. The day the last child left home and the dog died
2. Those who stop running the race and start to skip or walk
d. Only one expiration date on God’s call for your life