Sermon Tone Analysis

“The Birth Announcement”

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There are many standout announcements in history, Japan has bombed Pearl Harbor; WW 2 is over;

John F Kennedy has been assassinated, Donald J Trump has been elected president of United States of America.

You have made great announcements to your family and friends; we’re getting married, we bought a house, I got saved, we’re going to have a baby!

The announcement of Jesus birth to the Virgin Mary, by the angel Gabriel is by far one of the greatest announcement this world has ever heard.

The greatest announcements that have even been made are all connected to Jesus!

This particular announcement is about the conception of Jesus.

Jesus was to be conceived in a way unlike anyone else has ever been conceived.

Jesus birth was natural, but his conception was supernatural!

We’re told in these verses that Jesus would be virgin-born; this is a truth that is absolutely incredible, awesome and mind-blowing.

Jesus was born of a human mother, without a human father, Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit, He was virgin born!

How does Luke know the story about Gabriel and Mary?

Because he talked with Mary, and got the story first hand.

(V:3).

Luke is a medical doctor, familiar with physical birth; that is why God chose him to give us this detailed record of the miraculous conception of Mary.

He was aware that what he was writing was a scientific, biological miracle!

The virgin birth of Jesus is the foundational doctrine upon which everything else we believe rest.

I know that the unbelieving world laughs at the idea of a virgin birth.

They think it is some religious medieval fictitious fairytale; and they discount it as scientifically impossible.

We are aware that it is scientifically impossible; it is a miracle, it is supernatural.

But it is only natural for God to be supernatural!

The virgin conception is a fact!

Satan hates the virgin birth, because it teaches both the humanity and the deity of Jesus Christ.

But worse than the ridicule of this world, and the hatred of Satan, is the question mark in the mind of many so-called Christians.

There are people who profess to be believers who do not believe in the virgin birth, and doubt the virgin birth, and think it is unimportant.

A modern-day Baptist theologian that believes in the virgin birth said, “If we do not hold-to the virgin birth despite the fact that the Bible teaches it, then we have compromised the authority of the Bible and there is in principle no reason why we should hold to its other teachings.

Thus, rejecting the virgin birth has implications reaching far beyond the doctrine itself”.

There are those who falsely believe, that you can take out the parts of Christianity that are supernatural, and leave the parts that are logical and reasonable.

Like when you have laparoscopic surgery, they make a small incision, go in and take out your gallbladder, stitch you up, and you can get up and walk out.

But Christianity is not like that, you can’t take vital doctrinal organs out of the body of truth; and the body of truth live on!

The virgin birth is at the heart of who Jesus really is!

If you take away the virgin birth of Jesus, then Jesus is just like every other person.

If you take away the virgin birth, you have destroyed the foundation of the Christian faith, and it all comes crumbling down.

The virgin birth is not incidental, it is fundamental!

Jesus is the greatest person to ever live on this earth; everything about Jesus is unique and supernatural; Jesus came into this world and left this world in a supernatural way!

The virgin birth teaches us about, #1:

1.

The Grace of God!

V:26-30.

The angel Gabriel is dispatched from God to go to tell the Virgin Mary that she was to be the mother of the Messiah.

Were told that she was living in Nazareth, and that she was a virgin, she was probably between 13-17 years old.

The word virgin means she had never had sexual relations.

Were told that she was engaged to the town carpenter Joseph.

When the angel spoke to her he said,

V:28-“greetings you are highly favored, the Lord is with you”.

Then again in, V:30-“fear not, Mary: for you have found favor with God”.

The word favor is the word grace!

It is hard to imagine that God could have found a more unlikely person to be the mother of the Messiah than Mary.

Mary was a young, lowly, poor, uneducated peasant girl living in a small country town far from the center of power.

Nazareth was considered a hillbilly town, surrounded by Gentiles.

Mary was in the eyes of the world a nobody, living in a nothing town, in the middle of nowhere.

Yet Mary was given the greatest honor than any woman has ever been given; she was chosen to be the mother of Jesus, and her humble, lowly estate in life was part of God’s plan.

In choosing Mary God shows us what humiliation his son would have to endure for our salvation.

Jesus humbled himself, and stepped out of heaven into the lowest, poorest condition of life on this earth.

Jesus humbled himself and became obedient to death even the death of the cross.

To rescue us from our sin and lift us up to glory, Jesus first enter into the misery of our lost and fallen condition.

What better way to show us grace, than for him to be born to a poor girl like Mary from a town like Nazareth.

God’s grace is for the least, the lost, and the lowly.

God showed grace to Mary; Gabriel told Mary you have found favor, grace in the eyes of the Lord.

God was with her to bless her, not because of her own merit/grace, but because of His grace.

Grace means to be treated with undeserved kindness.

Martin Luther paraphrased Gabriel’s greeting like this: “Oh Mary, you are blessed.

You have a gracious God, no woman has ever lived on earth who God has showed such grace to”

The Angels greeting has been misunderstood, and misinterpreted.

Gabriel was not worshiping Mary; nor did he say that she was “full of grace”.

These false ideas come from a prayer commonly used by Roman Catholics:

“Hail Mary, full of grace; the Lord is with thee Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus, holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of death”.

This is not a biblical prayer, the problem with that prayer is that it treats Mary as the source of grace rather than an object of grace.

V:28-“ highly favored /favored one is in the passive tense, which means that Mary is the one that was given grace by God; and not the one who gives grace to others.

It is clear that she was a recipient of grace, not a giver of grace, Mary did not achieve grace; she received grace.

Grace pursued her, and changed her life forever!

That’s why she later said,V:47-“my soul rejoices in God my Savior”.

Sadly and mistakenly people pray to Mary because they think she has grace to give them.

The Bible never says that Mary was without sin, or that she remained a virgin, or that she’s able to give grace to sinners.

One can only imagine how this must break her heart to see people worshiping her; instead of worshiping the Lord Jesus Christ!

What does the Bible really say about Mary?

She was chosen by the grace of God, to be the mother of Jesus, she was a virgin, and she submitted to the will of God for her life.

Mary was saved by the grace of God, the same way you and I are saved!

V:28-“ Blessed are you among women”.

She was blessed among women; not above women, she was a sinner in need of the grace of God just like every other person!

Mary helps us not by giving us grace, but by showing that God can give us the same grace that He gave to her. Mary teaches us that God shows unmerited favor/grace to lowly sinners.

Even when we might feel small and insignificant, and overlooked by the world, we can know that God is for us.

Do you know why God came to you and saved you?

GRACE!

-“For the grace of God that brings salvation hath appeared to all men”.

-“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God”.

We are saved by Grace; it is grace, not works that removes our fears, V:30-“Fear not, Mary: for you have found grace with God”.

Mary was troubled at his greeting; and wondered what it meant, and why he was there, and what he would say to her.

The Grace of God, the favor of God; the kindness of God had come to her.

God had a very special purpose for her.

And this morning the grace of God offers you salvation, deliverance from fear; and peace.

The virgin birth teaches us about, #2:

2. The Son of God!

V:31-33.

After Gabriel tells her not to be afraid, because God had chosen her by his grace to be the mother of the son of God.

He explains to her the significance of this special child, he tells her about His person and work.

· His name would be Jesus.

(V:31)

The name Jesus means, Jehovah saves, or the Lord is salvation.

This is the first time we are told that Jesus would be the savior in the New Testament.

Jesus would bring salvation to sinners by dying on the cross in shame, and then rising again in victory.