The Faith of Mary of Nazareth
Notes
Transcript
INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION
A few weeks ago, CatholicAnswers.com released their virtual priest, Father Justin.
You could go online and ask him questions
Some people were even confessing their sins to him
After a bit of an outcry from the Catholic community and the priests themselves, Father Justin was defrocked.
He showed up the next day in a non-threatening button down and had the name, “Justin the Catholic Apologist.”
No longer a priest. Just an AI Friend ready to answer all your Catholic questions!
Now I was actually fascinated by this new technology and I spent some time asking him some questions about justification by faith alone and cultural issues.
I also had some questions for him about Mary.
He told me that she is “mother of the church”
He told me that she is the “new Eve”
He told me that she never sinned
And he told me that I should pray to the blessed Virgin Mary and ask her to pray for me in heaven
Now, here is the thing—I don’t believe any of that.
And if you are a Protestant, you shouldn’t believe any of that either.
We believe in Sola Scriptura—that Scripture alone has the authority to teach us the truth about God and the Bible does not affirm these Roman Catholic teachings about Mary
However, I think in an effort to not be confused with our Catholic friends, a lot of Protestants shy away from talking about Mary.
We relegate her as a hero of the faith for the holidays.
But the reality is that she holds a massively important place in the redemption history
She leaves us with a great example in her conduct
And she leaves us with a great example in her creed—her faith
There is no need to shy away from her.
In fact, we will do the opposite morning.
We will draw close and examine her life and I want us to see the great faith that she possessed as a servant of the Lord.
We will see her faith in the promises of God
We will see her faith in the power of God
And in Mary’s example, we see a faith that we must have.
Faith in God’s promised Word and His ability to carry it out.
CONTEXT
CONTEXT
Before I read the passage—a little context.
Gabriel’s visit to Mary is his second in the book of Luke.
This account of the visit with Mary comes after his visit to Zechariah in the temple.
He found out that he and his wife, much like Abraham and Sarah before them, would be having a child in advanced years after years of barrenness.
The child that comes from Zechariah and Elizabeth will be the forerunner to the Messiah.
He will be the Prophet that goes before the Messiah
And in the 6th month of his mother’s pregnancy, the angel Gabriel makes his visit to Mary.
We pick it up there.
In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”
And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?”
And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God. And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. For nothing will be impossible with God.” And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.
FAITH IN THE PROMISES OF GOD
FAITH IN THE PROMISES OF GOD
Let’s start this morning by talking about Mary’s faith in the promises of God.
1. Mary had faith in the promises of God (v. 31-33, 38, 45)
1. Mary had faith in the promises of God (v. 31-33, 38, 45)
Mary’s first reaction to the visit from Gabriel is fear and to be “greatly troubled” (v. 29)
But after the angel relieves that initial concern, he tells her that she has found the favor of God and then with the word “behold,” he emphatically draws her attention to dramatic news, which has an importance that cannot be overstated.
In verses 31-33, we learn that Mary will:
Conceive in her womb and bear a son
His name is to be Jesus (the Lord saves)
He will be great
He will be called the Son of the Most High (God)
God will give him the throne of his father David
He will reign over the house of Jacob—true Israel—forever
There will be no end to His Kingdom
SHE KNOWS HE IS MESSIAH
SHE KNOWS HE IS MESSIAH
Now, do we think that Mary understand the full weight of what is being said to her, here?
No—I don’t think so.
Remember how it became cool to make fun of “Mary, Did You Know?” on the internet a few years ago and people would say, “YES! She knew.”
Well—kind of.
She knew He was special and that what she was being told meant the Child was unique...
But did she understand Him as God Incarnate as soon as Gabriel uttered these words?
Probably not.
Did she understand the doctrine of the hypostatic union on the spot?
It is unlikely.
We have indications here that, as the Son of God, Jesus shares the identity and nature of God, though Mary probably does not understand the importance of Jesus’ being called the Son of God at this juncture.
Tom Schreiner
So what did she know?
As a Jewish woman, betrothed to a man from the house of David, she would have understood that her son was the Messiah.
Gabriel says that he will have the throne of His father, David.
When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.
A Son of David who would rule over the people of God forever...
This is exactly what the angel promises Mary that her son will do.
He will have David’s throne and He will rule over God’s people, the house of Jacob, forever.
Mary knew that God had promised a Messiah.
Now she is being promised that she will be that Messiah’s mother.
HER SONG SAYS A LOT
HER SONG SAYS A LOT
We can also glean a bit about Mary’s understanding from the song that she sings later in chapter 1.
And Mary said,
“My soul magnifies the Lord,
and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant.
For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
for he who is mighty has done great things for me,
and holy is his name.
And his mercy is for those who fear him
from generation to generation.
He has shown strength with his arm;
he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts;
he has brought down the mighty from their thrones
and exalted those of humble estate;
he has filled the hungry with good things,
and the rich he has sent away empty.
He has helped his servant Israel,
in remembrance of his mercy,
as he spoke to our fathers,
to Abraham and to his offspring forever.”
Mary’s song is often called “The Magnificat,” because that is the first few words of her song being translated into Latin.
And in these verses, we can see how she is a young woman with a heart that is knitted to the Scriptures.
And we get a clue into what she understood after Gabriel’s visit.
First of all, the entire song is based on Hannah’s song after dedicating Samuel to the Lord
Secondly, she refers to the Psalms.
Psalm 103:17 in v. 50
Psalm 107:9 in v. 53
And thirdly, she recalls how God has shown His strength for Israel in the past.
And in this third point, we really see the key to understanding just how much Mary was believing in the promises of God’s Word.
ABRAHAM TO DAVID
ABRAHAM TO DAVID
She says that God has helped His people in v. 54.
He has remembered His mercy, which he promised to Abraham and His offspring forever (v. 55).
Let’s briefly go back and look at God’s covenant with Abraham.
In Genesis 12, God promises Abraham that he will become a great nation, he will have a land, a great name and that through him, all the nations of the earth will be blessed.
In Genesis 15, God reiterates this to Abraham and Abraham says, “That’s all great, but I am still childless. Forget about a nation, I don’t have a son. The heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus.”
God says this to him:
And behold, the word of the Lord came to him: “This man shall not be your heir; your very own son shall be your heir.” And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.
And then, afterwards, God tells Abraham to bring Him:
A three year old cow
A three year old goat
A three year old ram
A turtledove
A young pigeon
Abraham cut all but the birds in half and laid them out and drove away predatory birds until he fell asleep.
After he falls asleep, God has a fire pot and a smoking torch pass between the cut up animals.
This was God speaking to Abraham in the language of the customs of the ancient world.
To pass through these sliced up animals is like God saying to Abraham, “Let Me be cut up like these animals if I don’t make good on my promise to you.”
But we can see from Mary’s words that the remembered mercy does not just apply to Abraham but to his offspring forever.
God remembers anyone who believes Him and fears Him like Abraham.
The promises made to Abraham and the covenant made with Abraham is not just for Abraham, but for all of his children forever.
Now, why is Mary bringing up Abraham and God’s promises to him and his offspring so important to understanding Mary’s faith?
Because it connects to what she was promised in the conversation with Gabriel.
Through Gabriel, Mary received the Lord’s Word that she would bear a Son who will sit on David’s throne forever, ruling over the house of Jacob.
Who is the Jacob?
He is Abraham’s grandson, the son of Isaac, Abraham’s heir
And from his 12 sons come all of the people of Israel
So Mary’s Son will rule over that house—the descendants of Abraham
In other words:
God has mercifully remembered Abraham’s people by sending His Son to be born of Mary, ruling over His people forever.
Mary believes that.
Her song shows it.
By these words Mary shows, that the covenant which God had made with the fathers was of free grace; for she traces the salvation promised in it to the fountain of unmixed mercy. Hence too we infer, that she was well acquainted with the doctrine of Scripture. The expectation of the Messiah was at that time, indeed, very general, but few had their faith established on so pure a knowledge of Scripture.
John Calvin
She may not understand all of the theological in’s and out’s.
We can get out our books about Covenant Theology and we can see that:
God’s promises to Abraham regarding being a great nation are continuing to be fulfilled in the church as soul by soul believes God and it is counted to them as righteousness, thus making them citizens of the Messiah’s kingdom
God’s promises to Abraham about the nations being blessed through Him are continuing to be fulfilled in the church as people from every nation believe and are brought into God’s covenant community by faith
God’s promises to Abraham regarding land will be fulfilled in the end, when the whole of creation is under the kingly scepter of Christ and His people fill the New Earth.
Mary may not have fully understood these things.
But what she did understand is that God has not forgotten His promises and He is fulfilling them through the Child in her womb—the Son of the Most High who will sit on David’s throne and rule Abraham’s people forever.
He would be their Savior.
God promised it by His Word and she believes it.
Mary believed in the promises of God.
She says it explicitly in v. 38:
And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.
Elizabeth blesses her for it in v. 45:
And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.”
FAITH IN THE POWER OF GOD
FAITH IN THE POWER OF GOD
Now let’s move to our second observation this morning:
2. Mary had faith in the power of God (v. 34-37).
2. Mary had faith in the power of God (v. 34-37).
IMPOSSIBILITY
IMPOSSIBILITY
The question that she asks in v. 34 shows the impossibility of what Gabriel has said.
How will this be, since I am a virgin?
She is asking for the science behind this.
Now Mary is betrothed to Joseph, which is much more unbreakable than our modern idea of engagement.
Betrothals took place in front of witnesses. There was the giving of a bride price. The wedding would not happen for another year, but the betrothal was a binding contract.
And it was serious.
“If there is a betrothed virgin, and a man meets her in the city and lies with her, then you shall bring them both out to the gate of that city, and you shall stone them to death with stones, the young woman because she did not cry for help though she was in the city, and the man because he violated his neighbor’s wife. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.
Notice how the betrothed is counted as a wife and the death penalty is involved for adulterous transgressions of the betrothal.
Mary, being the faith-filled Jewish woman that she was, has not broken her vow. She has been faithful to Joseph as she waited on him.
So in light of that, she is asking Gabriel, “How exactly am I going to conceive?”
MYSTERY
MYSTERY
Now I would not say that the answer she is given is a scientific response in the technical sense. His response shows the mystery of what Gabriel is saying.
And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God.
The Holy Spirit will come upon you...
The Most High will overshadow you...
When Gabriel says, “overshadow,” it reminds us of God overshadowing His people in His wings or the cloud overshadowing the tabernacle
We would not say that any of this is language of the lab. It is supernatural. There is mystery in it.
Gabriel is describing a miracle.
CS Lewis defined a miracle as divine power interfering with that which we understand to be natural.
That is exactly what we have here.
God is interfering with what we know to be natural.
Usually if there is going to be a baby, a man and a woman must know each—in the biblical sense.
But here—by the overshadowing power of God and by His Spirit, Mary will conceive a child.
LOGIC
LOGIC
Hearing this, you might say, “This is illogical.”
But Gabriel’s words in v. 36-37 show the logic of the mysterious impossibility that is the virginal conception of Christ.
Gabriel tells Mary that her relative, Elizabeth, is also pregnant.
Now, this was not a virginal conception.
But to Mary, it seemed like just as much of an impossibility because Elizabeth was both barren and advanced in years, much like Sarah before her.
And yet, she is six months pregnant.
How can all of this be?
Because of what v. 37 says:
For nothing will be impossible with God.”
For you and I—yes—these are impossibilities.
But for God—the One who creates the Universe and rules over nature—it is not an impossibility.
I mentioned Abraham’s wife, Sarah. Gabriel’s words are meant to take us back to a conversation between three visitors and Abraham that involved Sarah.
In Genesis 18, these three visitors come and they are described as “the Lord.”
They said to him, “Where is Sarah your wife?” And he said, “She is in the tent.” The Lord said, “I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife shall have a son.” And Sarah was listening at the tent door behind him. Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in years. The way of women had ceased to be with Sarah. So Sarah laughed to herself, saying, “After I am worn out, and my lord is old, shall I have pleasure?”
But the visitors hear it and they say:
The Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Shall I indeed bear a child, now that I am old?’ Is anything too hard for the Lord? At the appointed time I will return to you, about this time next year, and Sarah shall have a son.”
“For nothing is impossible with God,” is just another way of saying, “Is anything too hard for the Lord?”
The virginal conception and virgin birth might not make much sense to us in a lab, but they are completely logical in light of God’s power and authority.
That being said, notice that Mary is not like Sarah.
She isn’t laughing, is she?
Mary believes what Gabriel has spoken. More than that, she is submissive and surrendered to it.
“Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” (v. 38)
And this is especially impressive, considering the fact that in many ways, Mary’s virginal conception is harder to believe in than what took place with Sarah.
Sarah was older and barren, but she had a husband.
While they had not been blessed with a child thus far, you at least have a man and a woman.
In Mary’s case, she is trusting God for something that is truly unimaginable—a woman becoming pregnant without sexual relations with a man.
Such is the test of Mary’s faith; not the rare, the hard, the improbable, but that which is impossible to nature, to man, to angel; and possible only to the omnipotence of Jehovah. it is foolishness to sight, to reason, to human wisdom; and can be apprehended and received only by simple, unquestioning faith in the unseen and almighty God. Yet the youthful maiden does not doubt like Zacharias; but believes and staggers not, even like her father Abraham of old.
Alexander Moody Stuart, The Three Marys
FAITH IN GOD’S POWER TO FULFILL GOD’S PROMISES
FAITH IN GOD’S POWER TO FULFILL GOD’S PROMISES
So then, what we have in Mary, much like Abraham, is a servant of the Lord who believes in God’s power to fulfill His promises.
She believed in a Messiah to come.
And she believed in God’s power to bring the Messiah from her womb by miraculous means.
This is an exemplary sort of faith that we need. Unshakable faith in God’s promises and His ability to fulfill them.
And this is more than just considering the promises of God and His power to accomplish them once in a while or even once in a day.
This is more than opening your Bible in the morning, reading about the promises of God and then walking away into your day, only to think about it no more.
Joel Beeke asks:
Do we expect to empty a well by drawing a single bucketful or mine a river of all its gold by washing a single panful of water and soil? Neither should we expect to empty a promise of all its worth, comfort, consolation, encouragement, and assurance with a cursory look at it.
Joel Beeke
What this means is that we must meditate upon God’s Word and the promises found inside of it.
Christian meditation is not like the Eastern meditation that is mainly being referred to today.
We are not trying to empty our minds—we are filling them. Specifically, we are filing them with the Word of God—like the Psalmist in Psalm 119.
I will meditate on your precepts
and fix my eyes on your ways.
Even though princes sit plotting against me,
your servant will meditate on your statutes.
Make me understand the way of your precepts,
and I will meditate on your wondrous works.
As we do indeed fill our minds with God’s Word, and meditate upon God’s promises, we get the spiritual nutrients from them that Beeke is talking about.
For instance, let’s say you spend your morning reading Isaiah 60 and throughout the day, you are meditating upon God’s promises about the New Earth that His people will dwell on in the end—which is the subject matter of Isaiah 60.
Maybe an anniversary of a loved one’s death is coming up and you dread it.
But you meditate upon Isaiah 60 and you think—it’s okay—we will be together in the presence of Christ in glory, one day soon.
Maybe you are also tired from work. You really need a vacation but there isn’t anything on the books for a while.
But you remember Isaiah 60 and you think—I am consoled by the fact that I will not work this job forever and I will have rest in Christ in the age to come.
And maybe at lunch you think about how tired you are of watching what you eat.
But you meditate upon the words of Isaiah 60 again and you think—a day is coming when this perishable body that inflates if I eat a carb will be replaced with the imperishable.
And maybe on the way home you are in despair over a harsh text from a friend who misunderstood you.
Once more, you recall Isaiah 60 and you long for the day when misunderstanding and strained relationships are replaced with peace and harmony forever.
And so, in each instance, as you mediate upon God’s promises from His Word and you are consoled and comforted and assured by the truth, and you are convinced that He will accomplish these things by His power...
What happens to your faith in God’s promises?
It grows.
What happens to your confidence in God’s Word?
It expands.
What happens to your belief that God will accomplish these things in His power?
It gets stronger.
Why?
Because as you mediate upon the Word, you are already benefiting from it and tasting His transforming power.
And that only compels you to trust Him for the ultimate fulfillment of each and every promise He has made to you.
We believe what He says and we believe He will do what He says.
And the more we meditate upon what He says, the more our faith in Him and His promise-answering power grows.
Meditating upon the promises of God is like turning your heart into a winepress, but instead of grapes, you are squeezing the promises of God’s Word and drinking up the benefits of them as you trust in His power to do what He has said.
This will grow your faith abundantly like the Thessalonians that Paul was so thankful for:
We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers, as is right, because your faith is growing abundantly, and the love of every one of you for one another is increasing.
I even think we catch Mary meditating upon the promises of God she received in Luke 2. After Mary and Joseph lose track of Jesus and then find Him back in Jerusalem in the temple, they have this exchange.
And when his parents saw him, they were astonished. And his mother said to him, “Son, why have you treated us so? Behold, your father and I have been searching for you in great distress.” And he said to them, “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” And they did not understand the saying that he spoke to them.
So there is this initial confusion at what Jesus has said. There is initial confusion as to why He would be so comfortable to be separated from his mother and father.
But after He goes with them and is submissive to them in returning to Nazareth, Mary has not stopped thinking it all over.
And he went down with them and came to Nazareth and was submissive to them. And his mother treasured up all these things in her heart.
Is not this treasuring her meditating upon the promises of God?
Surely she is remember what Gabriel had said to her about Jesus being the Son of the Most High.
Surely she is considering those words as she recalls the scary moments in which she couldn’t find her son.
And surely as she watched Jesus grow up and increase in wisdom and stature, her own faith must have been growing as she was watching hundreds of years of promises come true before her eyes—including the ones God made to her through Gabriel.
THE ESSENCE OF TRUE FAITH
THE ESSENCE OF TRUE FAITH
So indeed—there is no reason to shy away from Mary.
We don’t pray to her.
But we can look to her and see the sort of faith we need.
She has that Hebrews 11:1 faith:
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
In Mary we see the essence of true faith:
Trusting in the promises of God’s Word and believing in His power to carry them out.
And if we want our faith to grow as we wait upon the Lord’s timing, the best thing we can do is to meditate upon the promises of God.
They will comfort us, console us, lift us, carry us, assure us, strengthen us and humble us.
And as they do, our faith will only grow as those who are being transformed day by day.
And as those who believe, when the Lord comes to us and give us our crosses that we carry for Him, no matter how impossible a thing may seem, we will hopefully say with Mary:
Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.