Mary: Blessed Among Women

Children’s Bible Page 1099.

Last week we began our summer series on women in the Bible called “Her Story, His Plan.”

We are considering some women in the Bible, and as we learn their stories, we are seeing what they teach us about God, about ourselves, and about the gospel.

We first considered the first woman Eve: the mother of all living and we saw how God’s creation of woman taught us about his glory for women and their roles.

Now, I am going to toggle between some Old Testament and some New Testament women throughout this series, so today, we are going to consider Mary, the mother of Jesus, blessed among women.

We are going to take a big picture approach to Mary’s life in the Scripture, and I find that focusing on Mary in the Scripture apart from the Christmas season helps us to see some parts of her story from a different yet helpful perspective.

With the appointment of the new pope, the catholic church has been in the news a lot recently.

And one way we completely differ from the Catholic church is our views and understanding of Mary, the mother of Jesus.

Roman Catholicism seems to deify Mary.

They offer prayers to Mary and they teach that Mary makes intercession on our behalf.

I believe wholeheartedly that if Mary could speak to us today, she would tell us how horrified she is that anyone would point glory to her that only Jesus Christ deserves.

While Mary does stand out as blessed and highly favored of God, and while she is universally admired and an extraordinary woman, her story points all glory to God and his Son Jesus Christ and no glory to herself.

Mary was a Jewish girl from the town of Nazareth, a town with a poor reputation.

While Mary did come from the line of King David, her family lived a poor life in a poor community as a Jew under Roman rule.

We pick up her story in

Luke 1:26–38 ESV

26 In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, 27 to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary. 28 And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” 29 But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. 30 And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 31 And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. 32 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, 33 and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” 34 And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” 35 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. 36 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. 37 For nothing will be impossible with God.” 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.

1. Receive God’s Word With Faith

Looking in from the outside, there was nothing special about Mary.

Mary was one of the most common Jewish names of that time.

She was a poor Jewish girl living in a disreputable town.

She was most likely hard working and living in difficult conditions.

She was most likely in her early teen years as poor Jewish girls were betrothed to marry early on to relieve the family’s financial burden.

Being betrothed to a man named Joseph meant they were legally married to one another, but a betrothal period was a year in between being married and actually coming to live together.

This time gave the man time to build them a home to live in.

It also provided time to prove the fidelity of both the man and the woman.

So, in the midst of Mary’s very ordinary day in her very ordinary life came the most extraordinary of experiences, when the angel Gabriel was sent from God to her.

Notice, how the angel addresses Mary as a favored one and one whom the Lord is present with.

And he goes on to explain why she is so favored.

She will bear a son and call his name Jesus.

He will be great and the Son of the Most High God.

He will be given the throne of his father David and will reign forever.

In order to understand the full weight of this news from the angel, you have to remember that last week we saw that way back in Genesis 3, God promises Eve that one of her seed would come and crush the serpent’s head.

And one of the reasons there are so many lists of genealogies throughout the Old Testament is for the reader to keep asking, “Which seed of the woman is going to crush Satan’s head?”

By the time of King David, God has promised that this serpent crusher will reign on David’s throne forever.

So, the message this teenage girl has just received from the angel is the answer to the great question the whole Old Testament has asked, “What seed of woman will come and crush Satan’s head?”

Now, I’ve said before, there are some questions we can ask God that honor him and some that don’t honor him.

Mary asks a question God honors, because she is not questioning his word, but believing and wondering how in the world this is going to take place since she has never been with a man.

The angel goes on to explain that the Holy Spirit of God will come upon her and cause her to become pregnant with the Son of God.

He also tells her that her relative Elizabeth who is old and barren is going to have a son as well.

For nothing will be impossible with God.

Mary’s response is simply: “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.

This first scene that we see of Mary’s life challenges us with something about faith in God’s word that we desperately need in our day.

I know I desperately need it.

You know, we live in a day of so many options.

It used to be that a child would grow up learning whatever the family business or trade was, and they knew from the time they were little that they were going to do that same thing too.

Moving to a whole new place wasn’t really an option.

The parents were even going to make decisions on who they would marry.

Nowadays, it is wild to think about how many choices an eighteen year old has to make that impact their lives in such dramatic ways and it seems the options are endless.

Add on to that, we live in the digital age coming right off the information age, so not only do we have all this incredible amount of information available to us, but we have it in a more easily accessible way than ever before.

Like, I remember having to go to the city library in elementary school for a report, because we didn’t have a computer at my house yet.

What I mean by saying all this is that our age gives us the allusion that we can choose our own path in life and that we can get the answers to any and every question.

And I believe these two things give us this allusion of control which leads us to actually worry more about the future things we can’t control.

Now think about Mary: when the angel gave her this news, she asked one question. One!

I think us in our day would have had at least one hundred questions we need answering!

Starting with, umm… are you going to show up to Joseph and to my parents, and to my other relatives and neighbors and share this bit of news with them so they don’t all just assume happened what must of happened when my little teenage self winds up pregnant?

Is Joseph still going to marry me?

Will the community choose to stone me to death like we read in Old Testament law?

And what about my baby son being the Son of God?

Is he even going to need a mother?

Will I ever be able to teach him anything?

Is he going to be like a toddler walking around judging me for my sin?

And I’m just getting started here.

But back to how Mary’s encounter went:

Mary, you are going to become pregnant with the Son of God.

How? I’m a virgin.

The Holy Spirit of God will make it so.

Nothing is impossible with him.

Enough said. I am the Lord’s servant. Let it be to me according to your word.

Think about how a commitment to faith in God’s word set Mary up to accept this message from the angel without anxiety and a million questions.

The angel told Mary that God highly favored her.

And then the angel promised that she was going to be the very instrument to bring about the Messiah whom the Old Testament had already promised for centuries.

Well, if God is for me, who can be against me?

And if God’s word is sure, then it will surely come to pass.

Now, you and I may not have an angel coming down to us, but we do have God’s word that promises us that in Christ, we are highly favored of God, and in Christ, we are his workmanship for good works, and God is the one who is sovereign over time and boundaries and where people live.

So, we can put aside so many questions of am I where God wants me? Did I make the right choice here or there? Is this or that a sign that I went the wrong way?

Instead, we can believe God’s word, trust in his sovereignty and wake up every morning and say, “Lord, I am your servant, may it be done according to your word.”

I don’t know how it is all going to play out.

I can’t control the outcomes, so I’m not going to fret about every question I can’t answer.

I am going to trust and obey and leave the results up to you.

When things are presented in my life that I have to deal with, I can receive them under the hand of the sovereign God, and I can seek to please him in the best way I know how,

Because I trust God’s word that he is in control and he is for me.

Receive God’s word with faith.

Even with all the anxiety inducing questions not answered, Mary not only received God’s word, but she received it as good.

Mary’s story continues as she goes to see Elizabeth, the relative who the angel said had also become pregnant.

Luke 1:39–56 ESV

39 In those days Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country, to a town in Judah, 40 and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. 41 And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, 42 and she exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! 43 And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? 44 For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. 45 And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.” 46 And Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord, 47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, 48 for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant. For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed; 49 for he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name. 50 And his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. 51 He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts; 52 he has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate; 53 he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty. 54 He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, 55 as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his offspring forever.” 56 And Mary remained with her about three months and returned to her home.

2. Be Filled With Worship Through The Word

When Mary comes to Elizabeth, they don’t focus on the difficulty of the situation she now finds herself in.

Not at all!

Instead, they are focused on how blessed Mary is for believing God’s word and on worshipping God for who he is and what he has done!

If I were Mary, I’d be tempted to sit down with Elizabeth and be like, “What am I going to do? How is this going to work? What about Joseph?”

But instead, Mary is like, “Let me write a worship song to God for who he is and what he has done.”

And as you study Mary’s worship song that she writes, every line of it comes from somewhere out of the Old Testament Scriptures.

In other words, Mary was able to be so filled with worship in the midst of her situation because she was so filled with God’s word.

How could Mary so believe and rejoice in God, because she knows God’s word enough to know that this is who God is and how God works.

He magnifies himself by doing things that seem impossible with the humblest of people.

He is holy so his ways and thoughts are not like man’s ways or thoughts.

He has made a promise to bring the Messiah through His people, so why not through Mary?

You see, because Mary was filled with God’s word, she was prepared to worship in the midst of her situation.

I would like to commend you as a church body: you are a people who love, value, and treasure God’s word well.

May you always keep that heart.

There are many who are tempted to believe that all they really need is to have a bare bones understanding that God is love, that Jesus died and rose again, and that they need to believe.

And maybe they expect the pastor or a few really serious Christians to know the Bible better, but us regular Christians just need the bare minimum of God’s word.

There are many who do not realize that God’s word not only teaches us what to believe in church, but how to be a church and what that is supposed to look like.

There are many, especially women, who have been tempted to believe that doctrine and theology are dry and boring things that have no relevance to their everyday lives.

But I want to commend you.

I have almost been your pastor for four years, and I am weekly, Sunday after Sunday, told by you how much you appreciate God’s word preached.

Just think about the last three weeks.

I preach two sermons from Romans 9 on God’s election then a sermon on the creation and role of women, and you still tell me how much you appreciate the word being preached.

I do not take that for granted.

All the Scripture is God breathed, all the Scripture is necessary, all the Scripture applies to all of life as we know and follow Christ.

And the more you are filled with the Scriptures, the more you will be prepared to worship no matter what comes in your life because you know who God is, you know what kinds of things God does, you know what kinds of people God uses, and you know that God favors and loves you and nothing can separate you from his love in Christ.

Be filled with worship through the word.

And listen, if you were to say to me, I don’t really get anything out of my time in God’s word.

I don’t know enough to really understand it or apply it.

Let me give you some encouragement:

The whole mission of the church is to follow Jesus and help others follow Jesus, and you have people sitting all around you who have years and year of experience in God’s word.

You come to me, or another pastor, or another member of the church, and we will help you get into God’s word.

One good thing about our information and digital age is we do have good resources to help you learn the Scriptures that we can point you to.

Now, there are not many other places Mary shows up in the Scripture outside of the account of the birth of Jesus, which shows us that God did not mean for us to overly exalt her.

But, the few other places we do see her are extremely instructive for us.

The gospel of Luke tells of the event when twelve year old Jesus had traveled to Jerusalem with His parents.

On the return trip, they traveled in big crowds, so Mary just assumed Jesus was in the crowd with them.

After some time when she and Joseph couldn’t find Jesus, they travel back to Jerusalem and find Jesus in the temple.

And listen to the conversation Mary has with Jesus:

Luke 2:48–49 ESV

48 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.” 49 And he said to them, “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?”

When Jesus and his disciples attend a wedding feast that Mary was helping host we read this exchange between Jesus and Mary:

John 2:3–5 ESV

3 When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” 4 And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.” 5 His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”

Finally, at another point in Jesus’ early ministry, Mark tells us that he was so busy ministering to so many people, that he did not even stop to eat.

Mary and some of her other sons were worried to hear this about Jesus, so they go to talk to him:

Mark 3:31–35 ESV

31 And his mother and his brothers came, and standing outside they sent to him and called him. 32 And a crowd was sitting around him, and they said to him, “Your mother and your brothers are outside, seeking you.” 33 And he answered them, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” 34 And looking about at those who sat around him, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! 35 For whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother.”

3. Submit To Christ As Lord

In these three places we see Mary outside of the birth story, they all point us to see how Mary had to make the adjustment from seeing Jesus as her son to seeing Jesus as her Lord.

While Mary was graciously given by God such a significant role in being the mother of Jesus, she had to learn that Jesus was not here to do Mary’s will, Mary was here to accomplish God’s will.

We all have moments where we think of Jesus as someone who we want to fix all of our problems, never make us uncomfortable, and do what we expect him to do in a given situation.

Yet, all these scenes in Mary’s life lead her to make the adjustment from seeing Jesus as a positive addition to Mary’s life to seeing Jesus as the Lord of all to whom she must submit and lay down her life.

It’s the same kind of transition we all must make.

We have to put away thoughts of I want Jesus so he can help me be successful at work, and help me find a spouse, and help me have a good marriage and good kids.

And we have to understand that saying, “Jesus is Lord” means, Jesus, you are not here for me, I am here for you.

I lay myself before you and say, “God, have your way!”

Well, my life isn’t going the way I want it to go.

My relationships are not what I want them to be.

I thought I’d be someplace totally different and my life would look totally different!

But, submitting to Jesus as Lord means saying, “God, you have me exactly where you want me, I am the Lord’s servant, do as you wish, give me grace to honor you in the place that I’m at.

We see Mary’s story play out in one other place in the Scriptures, and that is at the cross where Jesus died.

Very early on in Jesus’ infancy, Mary had heard Simeon the prophet say:

Luke 2:34–35 ESV

34 And Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, “Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed 35 (and a sword will pierce through your own soul also), so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.”

And Jesus had told her and the others who follow him many times that his sacrificial death would come.

So, throughout Jesus’ life and ministry, Mary had learned to submit to Christ as lord to the point where she was ready to stand and honor him as he gave up his life and died for our sins.

Even from the cross, it was not ultimately the mother providing for the son, but the suffering son providing for his mother.

As Jesus hung from the cross, we read

John 19:26–27 ESV

26 When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son!” 27 Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home.

4. Be Cut To The Heart At Christ’s Loving Sacrifice

We read that there were not many followers of Jesus who were willing to place themselves among the evil mob as Jesus hung on the cross, but Jesus mother Mary was there along with John, the beloved disciple.

And as Mary stood there in agony as her firstborn son was tortured and dying, as she stood there to honor his life and his death, as she stood there unable to help him or keep him safe,

It was Jesus who was still loving and providing for his mother.

We all have a tendency to want to help others, be there for others, solve others problems, be the hero, no one does that better than mothers do.

But, Mary standing at the cross reminds us that in our sin, we all stand helpless to do anything to save ourselves or anyone else.

Our sin has separated us from God and from one another.

It has led us to deserve death and punishment.

But, on the cross, Jesus took the punishment and death we deserved.

And just like for Mary, Jesus provided for everyone who will believe in him the opportunity to be reconciled to God and adopted into His family, that your soul would be safe, loved, and cared for, for both now and eternity.

Would you be cut to the heart at Christ’s loving sacrifice for you today?

As we close, I want to encourage you that placing faith in God’s word does not mean you will get all your questions answered, but it does mean you can trust him and walk forward with him.

I want to encourage you to take daily time to fill yourself with God’s word in order to worship him in every circumstance.

To submit yourself to Jesus as your Lord for His glory.

And to always honor his sacrifice that he made to provide you salvation and adoption for both now and eternity.

Let’s pray.