Mary
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Old Testament Text: 2 Samuel 7:12-16
New Testament Text: Luke 1:46-56
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How Many Kings
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.
Pray
Pray
The past couple weeks, we have been working through the people who have surrounded the birth of Jesus.
This week we will examine the person, who was closest to Jesus for the beginning part of this life.
We will be looking through the lens of Mary.
If I could have a secondary title for this message it would be, “An Unlikely Vessel for God’s Abundant Power”
Since Gods power works in weak vessel’s, you should seek humility.
Since Gods power works in weak vessel’s, you should seek humility.
Regardless of your strength and position, God’s power works in weak vessels
When I say “strength and position” what exactly am I referring to?
Jeremiah 9:23 (ESV)
“Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches,
Jeremiah gives us a helpful framework for understanding what I mean by “strength and position”
because it is in these categories that we are tempted to “find strength”
“Wisdom, Might, and Riches”
“Wisdom, Might, and Riches”
One helpful illustration about what our “Wisdom, Might, and Riches”
In any great forest you will find many huge trees.
They tower above other trees and appear to be the very picture of strength and maturity.
However, loggers will sometimes not even bother to cut down these huge trees.
At first one wonders, “Why leave them? After all, a tree that big must contain twice or thrice the amount of lumber as a smaller tree.”
The reason is simple. Huge trees are often rotten on the inside.
And they are the trees that are often blown over in a strong windstorm because, while they appear to be the picture of strength, in fact their hollowness makes them weak.
This is the essence of trusting in wisdom, might, and riches.
Though you may appear strong on the outside, on the inside it is hollow and rotten.
This matters also because pride is a form of unbelief.
John Piper says it like this...
But deeper than all these forms of unbelief is the unbelief of pride, because self-determination and self-exaltation lie behind all these other sinful dispositions. Every turning from God—for anything—presumes a kind of autonomy or independence that is the essence of pride. Turning from God assumes that one knows better than God. Thus pride lies at the root of every turning from God. It is the root of every act of distrust toward God. Or, more accurately, pride is not so much the root as it is the essence of unbelief, and its remedy is faith in future grace. Thus the battle against pride is the battle against unbelief; and the fight for humility is the fight of faith in future grace.
Since Gods power works in weak vessel’s, you should be humbled.
Since Gods power works in weak vessel’s, you should be humbled.
Regardless of your strength and position, God’s power works in weak vessels
Why does God work within weak vessels?
God’s Power in the Impossible
God’s Power in the Impossible
26 In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth,
“the sixth month”
“the sixth month”
Remember the couple we talked about several weeks again in Zechariah and Elizabeth?
The old backwoods country priest and his wife without children, who God promised through Gabriel that they would have a child.
Luke is directly linking Mary with Elizabeth by saying that it is the sixth month referring to Elizabeth’s pregnancy.
There is also something important about the place....
26 In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth,
God’s Power Among the Outcast (v.26)
God’s Power Among the Outcast (v.26)
“a city of Galilee named Nazareth”
“a city of Galilee named Nazareth”
Several weeks ago we briefly mentioned Nazareth when we heard the town where Jesus came from.
But here we see Mary living in the town of Nazareth, which should be considered the podunk town of the region.
The place where God’s power working is important because the people believed that, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”
Not only does the place show God’s power on display, it is also the situations which show His power....
27 to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary.
“betrothal”
“betrothal”
Unlike in our own day, the marriage covenant was an extremely sacred thing in Israel.
Betrothal was as binding on a person as marriage in our own day.
It actually required divorce for the betrothal bond to be broken.
During the betrothal process, the couple would NOT live together, or consummate the marriage.
Also, people would begin the betrothal process much younger then.
It was highly likely that Mary would have only been a late teenager.
Since Gods power works in weak vessel’s, you should seek humility.
God’s Power in the Impossible
God’s Power in the Impossible
God’s power delights to work in the impossible because it shows His greatness with no competition.
Example of God Working in the Impossible
Over and over again in the Old Testament we see God do this with his people.
He places them in situations which are “impossible” from a human perspective.
We see David reflect on this in Psalm 33.
16 The king is not saved by his great army; a warrior is not delivered by his great strength.
17 The war horse is a false hope for salvation, and by its great might it cannot rescue.
It is not the great army of a king which saves him, nor is it the war horse which brings salvation.
David goes a step further and says that the war horse is actually a “false salvation”
It’s false because it makes the rider believe that IT is bringing salvation.
18 Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear him, on those who hope in his steadfast love,
19 that he may deliver their soul from death and keep them alive in famine.
7 Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.
When God chooses to work in the impossible, humans CANNOT take credit for doing anything.
It is within this situation that we see the angel Gabriel come to 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.
The greeting from the angel is not a comfort for Mary.
It is bone chilling.
Questions like, “What is God getting ready to ask me to do?”
Why is God sending me an angel in this moment?
Not only are you one who is favored by God most High...
He is going to be with you in the task he is about to give.
One Commentator said this...
“the angel” does not direct her attention to (a set of outcomes), but to a person—to the personal agency of the Lord who is with you... the “with-you-God” who breaks into the human arena.
He goes on to say,
The unexpectedness of God choosing one so unlikely and unimportant is confounding and perplexing. It is not something Mary finds assuring.
Obviously, this is a disturbing experience, one that would cause a person to be greatly troubled.
This is NOT something that Mary would have found assuring in the moment.
How do we see God’s power work within weak vessels?
God’s Power Through His King
God’s Power Through His King
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.
Now Jesus’s name means “The Lord is Salvation”
This is an amazing and impossible reality, the young girl who currently has never been with a man will bring forth a child and his name will be “The Lord is Salvation”
The angel Gabriel lists three different qualifications all harkening back to prophesies for the Messiah.
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.”
“He will be great”
“He will be great”
Now unlike John who is said to be, “great before the Lord.”
Jesus on the other hand will “GREAT”
His greatness does not have any qualifications, and it has no limits.
In the Old Testament, this was a clear sign for the divine.
10 For you are great and do wondrous things; you alone are God.
5 For I know that the Lord is great, and that our Lord is above all gods.
“He will be called the Son of the Most High”
“He will be called the Son of the Most High”
This statement is fulfilling the ideal set forward in Isaiah 9
6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
“He will be given the throne of David forever”
“He will be given the throne of David forever”
This is amazing.
If you know your Old Testament, you are aware that King David had several promises made to him which have shaped the entire Bible after him.
12 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.
13 He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.
This promise has reverberated through the Old Testament to show the Messianic hope which was bound to come.
The two great redemptive offices in Israel, the Messiah and Son of God, will in Mary’s womb converge in the incarnation of Jesus, who will finally and fully complete the redemption of Israel.
Do you remember what we talked about in the beginning? The issue of pride and trusting in “riches, wisdom, and strength”
What does that have to do with God’s power through His king?
It has everything to do with it!
2 which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures,
3 concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh
4 and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord,
Paul is saying that, it is through this King that God has appointed, that great power will come to His people.
Okay, Jesus is the king with great power, what does that have to do with me?
Romans 1:16 (ESV)
16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes,
Paul says that it is Jesus’ life, death, burial, and resurrection on behalf of sinners that is the very power of God.
The gospel has NOTHING to do with YOUR ability, or YOUR strength, or YOUR riches.
And Mary is the quintessential picture of that.
There is NO power, or strength, or possibility of what God has said to come to pass in her.
But listen to her response to this amazing declaration....
34 And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?”
Mary is simply asking, “how will this come about?”
Compare that to the unbelief of Zechariah...
18 And Zechariah said to the angel, “How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years.”
Mary is simply asking by faith, how will this happen?
What we should see in Mary is the response of faith.
17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”
The problem with pride is that it hinders faith.
Faith and pride cannot coexist together.
They should be in our minds as oxymorons.
Since Gods power works in weak vessel’s, you should seek humility.
Gabriel gives greater detail to how this will come about...
How else do we see God’s power work within weak vessels?
God’s Power Through His Grace
God’s Power Through His Grace
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.
“The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you”
“The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you”
This phrase is showing that Jesus will not be conceived in a natural manner.
He will not be conceived in the same way other children are conceived.
She is not giving the exact manner of this conception other than to say that the conception will be mysterious and divine.
Louis Berkhof
Christ was set up or appointed to His offices from eternity, but historically His anointing took place when He was conceived by the Holy Spirit, Luke 1:35, and when he received the Holy Spirit, especially at the time of His baptism
“the child to be born will be called holy - the Son of God.”
“the child to be born will be called holy - the Son of God.”
This text IS NOT teaching that God had sex with Mary.
But we are witnessing in this moment what John says, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us”
This same word for “overshadowing” is used in the Old Testament with God’s glory in the temple.
What Luke is painting for us is that God’s glory which represented His presence in the Old Testament is now dwelling in Mary.
14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Brothers and sisters, this should cause us to wonder at the beauty of the gospel.
This should cause us to wonder at the magnificent grace lavished upon us.
This needs more...
Mary doesn’t ask for a sign, but the angel graciously gives her one...
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.
Luke is trying to get us to see the comparison between Mary and Zechariah, and he is urging us to believe.
Similarities between Zechariah and Mary
Zechariah and Elizabeth had the “proper” credentials; Mary has NONE.
The announcement of John happens in the temple (the center of Jewish worship); the second in the podunk town of Nazareth.
Zechariah responds on the basis of human possibility; Mary responds on the basis of divine possibility.
Regardless of your strength and position, God’s power works in weak vessels.
37 For nothing will be impossible with God.”
I love the rendering of another translation in this...
Luke 1:37 (ASV 1901)
37 For no word from God shall be void of power.
The angel is essentially telling Mary that there is nothing that God speaks that does not come to pass.
Everything that He speaks, happens.
The believer who seeks to live the Christian life through self-effort is like the man who, in attempting to sail across the Atlantic Ocean, found his boat becalmed for days.
Finally, frustrated by his lack of progress, he tried to make his stalled boat move by pushing against the mast.
Through strenuous efforts, he succeeded in making the boat rock and so created a few small waves on the otherwise smooth sea.
Seeing the waves and feeling the rocking of the boat, he assumed that he was making progress and so continued his efforts.
Of course, although he exerted himself a great deal, he actually got nowhere.
So it is in the Christian life.
The source of the Christian’s strength lies in God’s grace, not in exertions of will-power, or in efforts of discipline, or any other self-effort.
14 But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.
Who does God’s power come to?
God’s Power Displayed in the Humble
God’s Power Displayed in the Humble
Since Gods power works in weak vessel’s, you should be humbled.
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.
Mary’s response is stunning.
She says that she is a servant of the Lord in this.
In the ancient world, slavery signified total belonging and submission. “Slave” accurately represents Mary’s will, for despite her perplexity, she chooses to comply with grace. Let God’s will be done!
Now we shouldn’t be mistaken, Mary would not have an easy life since this word was spoken.
The remainder of her life would be marked by unjust “shaming” and others looking down on her for her supposed “adultery”
Even as we will see next week, Joseph considered divorcing her because of this…
But she eagerly submitted and embraced the Word which God spoke to her.
The mystery of divine grace is working even amidst the impossibilities and frailties.
23 Thus says the Lord: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches,
In other words, pride is a form of unbelief and does not like to trust in future grace.
Faith admits the need for help.
Pride won’t.
Faith banks on God to give help.
Pride won’t.
Faith casts anxieties on God.
Pride won’t.
Therefore the way to battle the unbelief of pride is to admit freely that you have anxieties, and to cherish the promise of future grace in the words, “He cares for you.”
24 but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the Lord.”