Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction:

Last week we discussed the persevering promise.

We talked about how long Zechariah and Elizabeth awaited the birth of a son to them.

This week we are going to learn about the impossible promise.

I am sure that most of us know that it takes a mom and a dad to have a baby.

We won’t go into details about that, but it is clear scientifically that both genders are required for the formation of offspring.

Yet, today we are going to see an impossibility become a reality.

God delivered on a miraculous birth last week with an older couple well beyond their childbearing years having a child.

This birth was a pretty big deal.

But it was something that we had seen before in Genesis with Abraham and Sarah.

This week we will see a promise that seems even more impossible than that!

We will see God create a baby in the womb supernaturally by the Holy Spirit.

Join me as we learn more about the God of the impossible!

Prayer

Before we dive in, I want us to understand that Luke’s Gospel is so important to us today.

We would not have this account or the last account that we saw regarding Gabriel revealing the birth of John the Baptist without his thorough research and the inspiration and guidance of the Holy Spirit.

Many accounts in the Gospels overlap, but there are certain accounts that are unique to each one.

And these two are amazing examples of that.

As we get moving into this exciting section of Scripture we are going to see four different ways that we should be prepared for God to act.

The first is...

I.

Because Nothing is Impossible with God… We Should Be Prepared for God to Send (26-27)

Here we see that Gabriel is a pretty big deal when it comes to the Messiah coming to earth.

He is sent on yet another mission possibly as shortly as 6 months later!

We just saw him reveal the plan for the John the Baptist as the forerunner of Jesus Christ and reveal the miraculous way that he would be born to an aged couple.

Now we see him being sent to a young lady named Mary.

The two women we see in this account and the preceeding account are actually relatives.

We will see this in verse 36.

Although Mary has her lineage traced from the tribe of Judah and down through the lineage of David (see Luke 3:23-38) while we are informed that Elizabeth is a Levite among the daughters of Aaron - there has been a marriage between two in their family to make them relatives.

We are not told exactly how closely they are related, but we are told that they are.

And although many years separate the two in age, they both likely understand what it is like to have reproach.

We saw Elizabeth facing reproach because she was barren in our last sermon.

But it also clear that there is at least some reproach for Mary just because of where she is growing up.

Nazareth isn’t exactly known as the place of honor among the the Israelites.

In fact, we see Nathanael ask the following question in John 1:46 when told about Jesus:

We see that Nazareth was not exactly the Beverly Hills of Israel.

And yet in this small town of low esteem, something amazing is about to be revealed.

In verse 27 we are given some more information regarding whom Gabriel was being sent to.

We see the word virgin used twice to describe this young lady named Mary.

Why does Luke find it so important to stress the virginity of Mary?

Hold on for a couple of points and we will get to that.

But we are told that this virgin is betrothed to a man named Joseph and that he was of the house of David.

Luke tips his hand a little early here by mentioning Joseph being of the house of David (as we already mentioned - Mary was also of the house of David as seen in Luke 3).

This is an important fact because the Messiah was to come from the tribe of Judah and the line of David.

See the following two prophesies regarding this:

Here we see God speaking this covenant to King David.

And in Jeremiah 23:5 we see:

We get a sense that something big is about to come.

But what of this betrothal to Joseph that we see in Luke 1:27?

What we understand about betrothals is that they were much different than engagements that we see today.

A betrothal was arranged by parents in which the son’s family would pay a bride price because the wife would eventually go and live in the area where the husband lived.

There would be a period of around a year where the husband would work on finding or building a home suitable for their family.

Afterward there would be a wedding feast followed by the two being officially married and consummating the marriage.

This betrothal was a big deal however.

In order to break a betrothal, there would have to be an official divorce.

The couple was understood to have a legally binding contract almost equivalent to marriage.

And if there was any unfaithfulness found during this year, it was treated as adultery and could be punishable by death.

Continue to reflect on this as this account moves forward.

God is sending quite a message to Mary.

As we will see soon, she is prepared to hear this message.

Her life had been spent in a place where nothing big seemed to ever happen.

And now there is angel being sent to her personally!

But as we will see by her response later in this section - she was prepared to hear a message from the Lord in humility.

May we be prepared for what God sends to us brothers and sisters.

It might not an angel of the Lord that comes and brings you a message.

But God has something to speak to you through His Word and the Holy Spirit.

He has places that He desires to send you.

He has jobs for you to do that His Word says He prepared beforehand for you to walk in them (Ephesians 2:10).

Your job is to be prepared for what He might send your way.

Be in the Word and in prayer.

Be in close relationship with your Savior.

Be ready my friends.

Next we see...

Scripture References: Luke 3:23-38, John 1:46, 2 Samuel 7:12, Jeremiah 23:5, Ephesians 2:10

II.

Because Nothing is Impossible with God… We Should Be Prepared for God to Speak (28-30)

Picture Mary here.

She is likely a teenager and she lives in a town of low esteem and the angel Gabriel appears and calls her ‘O favored one.’

I can’t image how she must have felt at that moment!

She hadn’t been favored her whole life on earth.

She grew up in a town of low esteem.

She was living under the insane and paranoid era of Herod the Great.

Life probably didn’t seem like she was too favored at that moment.

And we come to the word that we saw when Zechariah saw Gabriel - troubled.

The word troubled is the same word we saw with Zechariah - however this Greek word here has the prefix -di which means two or double.

Hence she was greatly troubled or greatly disturbed or doubly disturbed or troubled!

Zechariah was fearful and disturbed - but Mary, being a young teenager, was even moreso!

Again we see Gabriel use the phrase ‘do not be afraid.’

Like we saw with Zechariah as well, Gabriel knows the immediate impact of his presence and dispels fear with encouragement and kind words.

Gabriel uses this word favor again and lets her know that she has found favor with God.

The Greek word for favor here is charin (kah-rin or ha-rin) which is a variant of the same word we see for grace.

You see, Mary was not more special than everyone else.

Contrary to the false teaching of the Roman Catholic Church, Mary was a sinner.

We must not miss the fact that she was righteous as well.

We don’t want to swing the pendulum so far from the Roman Catholic Church that we miss the fact that Luke does highlight Mary’s obedience, her thoughtfulness, and her worship.

We will see much of this in Luke 1:46-56 as we see Mary’s Song of Praise - also called Mary’s Magnificat.

But we also can’t miss Romans 3:23:

and Romans 3:10

In fact, Jesus said this exact same thing on earth while Mary was still living in Luke 18:19

The Catholic Church teaches that Mary is the dispenser of God’s grace (Pope Pius X, Leo XIII).