Sermon Tone Analysis

Pre-Introduction:

For those joining us online, you’re listening to the Services of the Broomfield Baptist Church.

This is the Pastor bringing the Sunday Morning message entitled “Possibility in Impossibility.”

We invite you to follow along with us in your Bible in the Gospel of Luke, chapter One, and verses Twenty-six through Thirty-eight.

Prior to the Message:

For our guests here today, and for our church family, in about 35mins or so, I’m going to ask you to do something unusual.

I’ll be asking you to make a decision based on the information in today’s sermon.

At the end of the service, I’ll invite you to come and kneel front as a sign of God working in your life.

Introduction:

[Start Low]

A. Illustration:

A Christian’s possessions.—A

gentleman one day took an acquaintance upon the leads of his house to show him the extent of his possessions.

Waving his hand about, “There,” says he, “that is my estate.”

Then pointing to a great distance on one side, “Do you see that farm?” “Yes.”

“Well, that is mine.”

Pointing again to the other side, “Do you see that house?” “Yes.”

“Well, that also belongs to me.”

Then said his friend, “Do you see that little village out yonder?” “Yes.”

“Well, there lives a poor woman in that village who can say more than all this.”

“Ah! what can she say?” “Why, she can say, ‘Christ is mine.’

” He looked confounded, and said no more.

[Gray, Biblical Encyclopedia and Museum]

B. Tell the story of Mary in brief, pointing out the possible plans she had before Gabriel arrived, and what it would cost her to let go of all her own dreams.

Note - When God's interruptions attend our way, it becomes the platform upon which He will accomplish the impossible!

“When it comes to Mary, people tend to go to one of two extremes.

They either magnify her so much that Jesus takes second place (Luke 1:32), or they ignore her and fail to give her the esteem she deserves (Luke 1:48).

Elizabeth, filled with the Spirit, called her “the mother of my Lord” (Luke 1:43); and that is reason enough to honor her.” [Wiersbe, BEC]

Main Thought: Never underestimate the eternal difference that one person can make when fully surrendered in faith to the Word and Will of God.

Sub-introduction:

Background.

Jesus lived out his life within an area roughly 50 miles wide and 150 miles long, from Dan in the north to Beersheba in the south.

Apart from Jerusalem, the places he is reported to have visited are not important to the secular history of the region.

He ignored Sepphoris (the most prominent city in Galilee at the time), Tiberias (dominant port on the Sea of Galilee), [and] Caesarea (Roman capital of Palestine)....

He was raised in the humble village of Nazareth, and lived there until about 30 years of age.

Capernaum became the center for his Galilean ministry.

He passed through Samaria on occasion, and ministered in Perea.

He was betrayed and crucified in Jerusalem.

He was raised in triumph on the third day.

Luke writes in retrospect.

His perspective had shifted during the interim—geographically from Palestine to the Roman Empire, politically from Israel to Rome, socially from Jewish society to pagan, and religiously from the temple to the horizon of Christian mission.

It is as if one era were superimposed on the other, so that the significance of the life and ministry of Jesus can be seen for the early church.

Jerusalem rather than Galilee turned out to be the center of outreach for the early church.

However, this too would change.

While Jerusalem remained a sentimental favorite for the Christian community, other cities began to rival and then surpass it as the focus of Christian activity.

Antioch of Syria provided the base for Paul’s extensive missionary endeavors.

Ephesus proved to be the scene of his most impressive success.

Alexandria and Rome were accommodating an increasingly large Christian community.

What had once seemed little more than an unpretentious Jewish sect had now become a universal faith...All this suggests that the redemptive theme in Luke is complex in character.

It points to Jesus as the Christ.

It invites the favorable response of Gentile no less than Jew.

It blends in the empowering of the Holy Spirit for Jesus’ ministry and that of his disciples.

It emphasizes the joy that accompanies the publication of the gospel.

These are simply variations on the one redemptive design of Luke.

[Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible]

Body:

I.

The Angel Appears to Mary on a Mission from God (Lk.

1:26-29)

[Go Slow]

A. Gabriel Goes from the Temple to Galilee (Lk.

1:26)

Note - Discuss the geographical differences between Judea, Jerusalem and Nazareth.Note - On the virginity of Mary:

“The town of Nazareth receives no notice in Scripture, intertestamental literature, Josephus, or rabbinic literature.

This means that the story moves from sacred temple space and Judea to farflung nowheresville in Galilee.”

[ZECNT]

B. Gabriel Comes to the Virgin, Mary (Lk.

1:27)

“Quite possibly Mary was doing the housework when the Angel Gabriel came to her.

Angels prefer to come to people as they are fulfilling their calling and discharging their office.

The angel appeared to the shepherds as they were watching their flocks, to Gideon as he was threshing the grain, to Samson’s mother as she sat in the field.”

[Martin Luther]

“Luke uses the Mariam (or Miriam) form of the name Mary, perhaps to recall the famous sister of Moses and Aaron, and so strengthens the link between Elizabeth (a descendant of Aaron; cf.

Luke 1:5) and Mary.

The other Gospels use the form Marias.” [BKBC]

Illustration:

Archaeology confirms the Bible.

Following the 1993 discovery in Israel of a stone containing the inscriptions “House of David” and “King of Israel,” Time magazine stated, “This writing—dated to the 9th century b.c., only a century after David’s reign—described a victory by a neighboring king over the Israelites … The skeptics’ claim that David never existed is now hard to defend.”

Time, December 18, 1995

“In extraordinary ways, modern archeology is affirming the historical core of the Old and New Testaments, supporting key portions of crucial biblical stories.”

Jeffery L. Sheler, “Is the Bible True?” Reader’s Digest, June 2000 (See also Matthew 26:54 footnote.)

[The Evidence Bible]

“Gabriel appeared to a virgin named Mary.

The word translated as virgin (...parthenos) means ‘virgin’ with all of its implications.

It clearly implies one who has never had sexual intercourse as Mary noted in verse 34.

The groundwork of the virgin conception and virgin birth thus is laid.”

[Sorenson, UTB]

Application: Article

Could the Gospel Writers Withstand the Scrutiny of a Lawyer?

by John Warwick Montgomery

Lawyers distinguish between making claims (almost anyone can file a lawsuit) and proving the case (which is possible only on the basis of good evidence).

Lawyers, therefore, are in the evidence business and will not accept any claims (including religious claims) without good reason to do so.

It is highly significant, then, that throughout history so many great lawyers, judges, and legal scholars have come to Christian belief.

This is due in large part to the solidity of the Gospel testimony to Jesus Christ.

The Gospel records qualify under the “ancient documents rule” and would be admitted as evidence in any common law court.

They assert that they are firsthand, nonhearsay testimony to Jesus Christ (1 Jn 1:1, etc.) or are the product of careful research concerning Him (Lk 1:1–4).

Documents, like defendants, are innocent until proven guilty, and the critics have not been able to impugn the credibility of the Gospels.

The soundness of the four Gospels depends upon their early dating and their authorship by those who knew Jesus personally.

Corroboration from outside the Gospels comes by way of such early writers as Papias, who was a student of the Apostle John.

Papias tells us that the four Gospels were written either by an apostle (Matthew and John) or by an apostle’s associate (Mark with Peter, Luke with Paul).

The Gospels were in circulation, then, while hostile witnesses of Jesus’ ministry were still alive.

As F. F. Bruce has argued, these opponents were the functional equivalent of modern cross-examiners: They had the means, the motive, and the opportunity to refute the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ miraculous ministry if it had not happened just as the Gospel writers said it did.

Since the opposition could not do that, the Gospel narratives stand as powerful evidence that the miraculous picture of Jesus they convey is accurate.