Luke 1:26-39
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What we don’t Know - teach us by your word
What we don’t have- Please give us by your grace
Where we are not holy- God I pray that you would make us by your Spirit.
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The Christmas I was unsatisfied. Sinful covetous.
This story Illustrates a bigger idea.
I was given a stack of gifts, but I was unsatisfied.
Looked at my brothers and what they had received and became unsatisfied with what I had been given.
Here is where I really want you to understand this morning.
Nothing in this world will be able to satisfy us.
Nothing in this world will be able to give us more than a temporary fix or good feeling.
In order for us to truly be satisfied, we are going to need something not of this world, and this morning, we are going to look and see if we can find Him here in .
Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the descendants of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary.
I want to stop here an just make mention of the anticipation of this moment.
The world has waited on this.
From and the fall of man, this moment was anticipated.
In the OT, It has been prophesied over and over again, becoming more clear with every prophecy.
But I can imagine the anticipation
And now, we have what would be the final prophecy before THE GREATEST promise that has ever been given will be kept.
There is not a more significant moment in history up to this point.
The birth of Christ is bigger than the flood.
Bigger than the Babylonian Empire
Bigger than the invention of the wheel.
Bigger than the Mayan calendar
Bigger than the Egyptian pyramids.
Bigger than Julius Caesar’s assassination.
Bigger than all of that, is the announcement of Jesus’s birth.
I want you to see that every moment in history up to that point pales in comparison to what is about to happen.
Verse 26 tells usGabriel is sent from God to Nazareth, a city in Galilee.
And the angel Gabriel is sent to a virgin, named Mary.
A woman committed to her sexual purity.
Never once having sexual contact with a man, although she is engaged to be married.
The word in verse 27 is actually betrothed.
My translation says engaged, but this is more than engagement.
Betrothal means something different than what we think of when we hear the word engaged.
Engaged in our culture means very little, officially.
Socially and emotionally, it means a good deal, but legally engagement means nothing.
(Eiji)
You can be engaged today and not be engaged tomorrow, and never have to make one trip to the DMV, courthouse, or any other government building.
I’ve seen this happen several times.
a guy meets a girl and to try and keep her from breaking up with him because he knows he out punted his coverage. he goes ahead and engages way too early, and the relationship ends.
You can go on craigslist or to a pawn shop right now and I’m sure find an engagement ring for sale. Somebody is selling that joker and buying them a gun or somehting else.
But engagement in our culture is nothing more than a public statement of intent. There’s nothing legal about it.
But with betrothal it was different.
The man and woman were betrothed after they became engaged. Just to give you a little explanation here.
This betrothal period was normally a year before they would actually get married.
And the difference between OUR engagement in and their betrothal is, from the time of the betrothal, the woman betrothed was regarded as the lawful wife of the man to whom she was betrothed.
But they would not live together, sleep together, until they were actually married.
Easton’s Bible Dictionary Betroth
Men and women were betrothed when they were engaged to be married. This usually took place a year or more before marriage. From the time of betrothal the woman was regarded as the lawful wife of the man to whom she was betrothed (Deut. 28:30; Judg. 14:2, 8; Matt. 1:18–21).
Boy that’s different.
During that betrothal period, there was to be no sexual contact and Scripture tells us here that Mary was faithful to this.
to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the descendants of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary.
She was a virgin.
And here is where we must see that:
The birth of Jesus, from the very beginning is absolutely supernatural.
Naturally, Virgins don’t have babies. It just doesn’t happen.
But this birth will be supernatural.
I want you to know that this doctrine of the virgin birth of Christ is under attack to. There are people who seek deny the virgin birth of Christ.
But I want you to understand, This aspect of Christ’s incarnation is a non-negotiable for the Christian. Jesus is born of a virgin.
If someone were trying to present Jesus Christ as not born of a virgin, they are not believe or presenting the Jesus Christ found in the Bible.
And in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord; who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary...
Christians have believed this from its earliest history.
And coming in, he said to her, “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.”
The Apostle’s Creed, the earliest statement of faith, of the essentials of the Christian faith says this.
I believe in God, the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth; And in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord; who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary...
One of the earliest Baptist confessions and one of the confession of faith
This is earliest document of the non negotiables of the Christian faith.
The 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith says it this way:
“He was conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary.”
But its also a fulfillment of prophecy.
This doctrine of the virgin birth is clear. This is supernatural. To reject it, I believe is to reject Jesus.
He mentions here of the descendants of David.
We know this. Why are you making such a big deal?
Because in order to be truly satisfied, we must believe in the Jesus Christ the Bible presents… Pause
An angel delivers the message that a Virgin will bear a Son.
Verse 26-27 tell us that And angel tells mary, A Virgin, that she will bear a Son.
Look what he says in verse 28
And coming in, he said to her, “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.”
The Word here in my translation is translated “Greetings.” Your may say, “Hail”!
And it is a type of Greeting, but the Word that is used here is much more rich than that.
I don’t do this much, because I realize you may not care about the Greek, but the Greek word here that is translated “Greetings” here is the Word for rejoice, be glad.
That means something because This Greeting to Mary is a message of joy and grace and favor.
He says here “Greetings favored one.”
And this Greek word is the Word for Grace.
So just follow along with me here.
This could be translated
“Greetings favored one! The Lord is with you.” as it has been translated.
But the words used carry with it this meaning.
“Rejoice, Be glad, one who has been given grace! The Lord is with you.”
And that understanding explains why Mary was confused in verse 29
Look what it says in verse 29
But she was very perplexed at this statement, and kept pondering what kind of salutation this was.
Some suggest here that she was caught off guard and confused the prospect of the angel being there, but thats not what it says. Look what it says.
She not confused about the messenger. I think this was pretty clear.
She is confused about the message.
Read Verse 29
But she was very perplexed at this statement, and kept pondering what kind of salutation this was.
This story is not about the angel. verse 29 is not telling us that Gabriel frightened Mary.
This story is not about Gabriel.
Its not about Mary.
This story is about the message that the angel is about deliver to Mary.
I think the confusion is this:
Why should she rejoice and be glad?
What does he mean that you have recieved grace? That you have been favored? I think Mary is wrestling with this...
The angel is about to answer her questions:
Look at the Angel’s message: We will read it whole and go back through it.
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 name Him Jesus. “He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David; and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end.”
He repeats the fact that she has found favor.
Gabriel is not there to carry out judgment on Mary. He isn’t there to deliver bad news.
He is there to deliver the news of joy and gladness. She has no reason to fear. Remember verse 28, the Lord is with her not against her. Thats why the angel says
The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; for you have found favor with God.
Don’t be afraid Mary. You’ve found favor or grace with God.
The word favor here again is the word for Grace.
In other words, the favor Mary finds is not because of something Mary is that someone else isn’t.
God’s grace and favor don’t work that way.
Mary is simply the one God chose to bless with this opportunity. In other words, this isn’t something Mary deserves more any other woman.
It’s God grace. It wasn’t something Mary did that warranted this. This was God’s prerogative. Mary is just like anyone else.
Mary would need Jesus to live a perfect life in perfect obedience to the Law of God.
Mary would need Jesus to pay the debt she owed for sin at the cross.
Mary would need Jesus to raise from the grave to guarantee her life.
And Mary will need Jesus to stand between her and the Father as her advocate and plead her case as well as well as every other sinner.
The blessing Mary is given is that she is one of the first to know that the time for the Messiah has come
also, she gets the privilege of carrying the Lord OF her womb IN her womb.
I’m not minimizing the blessing Mary recieved. I do want to maximize the blesser rather than the one who is blessed.
Look at Mary is told in verse 31
“And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name Him Jesus.
You will conceive, bear, and name and God’s sovereignty and providence will ensure that this whole event will happen exactly as he has planned it.
But who will the special son be? I think Mary may still be confused at this point.
“He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David; and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end.”
Luke 1:
The angel gives 5 descriptors of Jesus.
First He will be great.
The word here is the word of comparison
He will be greater, better, larger than any other.
In his being and nature, he will be the greatest human being to ever live.
There has been no once before nor anyone since who has or will come close.
There is not equivalent.
Second, He is the Son of the Most High (the Son of God).
This is going technical, but this is important. If we get Christ wrong, we get everything wrong.
This baby Mary will bear, will be fully God, and Fully man.
He will be God in the flesh.
There is a mystery here, but one thing is clear.
Jesus is God. Of the same substance and equal in glory as the Father and Spirit.
He has eternally existed the Second person of the Trinity. He was not created at Christmas.
He took on flesh in Christmas
What this means is that, in the incarnation, nothing of his deity was lost.He subtracted nothing. He simply added humanity to his deity and he took on human flesh without the sinfulness of it, through the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit
The Virgin birth protected him from being born in sin.
He is the Son of God.
Thirdly, The Lord will give him the throne of His Father David.
This is what I meant earlier when I said Jesus’s birth was not only supernatural but it was foretold and His birth, how it happened was, exactly according to plan.
God had given David a promise
“When your days are complete and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your descendant after you, who will come forth from you, and I will establish his kingdom. “He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.
That passage initially speaks of and is partially
fulfilled Solomon.
He will raise up a Son. David had A son. His name was Solomon.
The covenant said his son would build a house. Solomon did build a temple (a house)
But then we see the last part of the covenant. Then we scratch our heads, because Just like every other king, Solomon will fail and Solomon will die and his reign will come to an end.
So there has to be another Son of David. Solomon doesn’t have the kingdom forever. So who will?
And here is where we see the reason for the joy.
Jesus is that Son. He is a descendant of David.
Jesus will build the house, but his house will be much better than Solomon’s.
“But I say to you that something greater than the temple is here.
“But I say to you that something greater than the temple is here.
As Stephen was being stoned in , he pointed to the insufficiencies of Solomon’s temple, and the true and better temple that was found in Christ.
“But it was Solomon who built a house for Him. “However, the Most High does not dwell in houses made by human hands; as the prophet says: ‘Heaven is My throne, And earth is the footstool of My feet; What kind of house will you build for Me?’ says the Lord, ‘Or what place is there for My repose? ‘Was it not My hand which made all these things?’
in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit.
Jesus is building his house in himself. Jesus is the fulfillment of the temple. The purpose of the temple was God being in the midst of his people. Jesus fulfills the purpose of the temple in that he has come to dwell with and in His people. In other words, a physical earthly house would never do. It was always pointing to a true and better temple.
Its why Peter says what he says in . Its why Paul says what he says in
So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit.
you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For this is contained in Scripture: “Behold, I lay in Zion a choice stone, a precious corner stone, And he who believes in Him will not be disappointed.” This precious value, then, is for you who believe; but for those who disbelieve, “The stone which the builders rejected, This became the very corner stone,” and, “A stone of stumbling and a rock of offense”; for they stumble because they are disobedient to the word, and to this doom they were also appointed.
Jesus is our forever temple.
And the twelve gates were twelve pearls; each one of the gates was a single pearl. And the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass. I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.
I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.
In other words, Jesus built the house.
Thirdly, unlike Solomon, He will reign forever.
Verse 33
and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end.”
He’s the long awaited Messiah King of the Old Testament.
He is the King of Israel.
The King of His people.
And even though he will appear to die like every other King, His reign was only just beginning at His death.
He is the fulfillment of daniel 7:14
“And to Him was given dominion, Glory and a kingdom, That all the peoples, nations and men of every language Might serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion Which will not pass away; And His kingdom is one Which will not be destroyed.
Do you see why this is a joyful greeting?
T
What an announcement! The King has come and no one will ever dethrone him.
Mary this is why you should be joyful.
Mary knows why now.. But How?
Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?”
Mary asks the million dollar question at this point.
How? Look what the angel says.
The angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason the holy Child shall be called the Son of God. “And behold, even your relative Elizabeth has also conceived a son in her old age; and she who was called barren is now in her sixth month. “For nothing will be impossible with God.”
In other words, Mary, this doesn’t depend on your ability and your strength or human wisdom.
God will do this. He will sovereignly orchestrate everything.
And Mary responds how all who are genuine believers must respond.
Submission.
And Mary said, “Behold, the bondslave of the Lord; may it be done to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.
Mary submits to the Lord, and he will satisfy her.
Application
This message is not just a message of joy for Mary, but also for every believer. There is no joy apart from this message and this Savior. There is no satisfaction apart from Jesus.
We celebrate Christmas, because Christmas is at the heart of the Gospel. God has come to us. Every other religion, You try your best to get to God. We have been given Christ as a result of God’s favor.
Because he is King forever, we must submit our lives to him.
