#3 Lu.
l:26-38; AN ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE BIRTH OF JESUS
Introduction:
In our text last Sunday the angel, Gabriel, came to
Zacharias in the temple and announced to
him that his wife,
"John." In our text today, that same angel came to
Mary and
announces
to her that she would give birth to a son whom she
should
name "Jesus."
Luke's record of this event is the Scripture that is
most frequently read in
connection with the Christmas season.
Yet this text is much more than just a
beautiful Scripture to
help us celebrate the
Christmas. It is placed in the Bible,
Luke said, so that we could know of a
certainty that Jesus is
the Christ, the Son of God and
that He is sent to the world
to be the Savior of those who
put their faith in Him.
I.
Gabriel's mission to
V. 26-27, "And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was
sent from God unto a city of
virgin
espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house
of David; and the virgin's
name was Mary." Six months from
the time that
Gabriel was sent to the little city of
was located in the upper
regions of
least,
it was not a very godly place. It was
the kind of
city that Nathanael asked the
question, "Can any good thing
come out of
Once Gabriel reached
virgin
woman by the name of Mary. There are two
extreme
views
regarding Mary. Some view Mary as being
much better
than she is. They claim her to
be a perpetual virgin. They
also claim her to be virtually
equal with God. They believe
that Mary has the power to hear
and answer prayers. They
pray to her on a regular basis.
Others view Mary to the other extreme.
They view Mary
as being much worse than she
is. They claim that she was an
immoral
wayward woman and that she conceived Jesus as an
illegitimate
child out of wedlock. They claim that
Mary
committed
adultery with a German soldier who was stationed
just outside of
Neither of these views corresponds with Scripture. Mary
is not a perpetual
virgin. After she gave birth to Jesus
she
had several other children by Joseph. There is no reason
whatsoever
that she hears anybody when they pray.
But even
if she could, she has no power
whatsoever to answer prayer.
The Bible teaches no such thing.
On the other hand, Luke makes it clear that she was a
virgin
at the time that Jesus was conceived and until after
Jesus was born.
Also in this verse, Luke calls our attention to Joseph,
the man that Mary was espoused
to marry. That is, she was
engaged
to marry Joseph. Luke said that Joseph
was of the
family
of David. Before that Jesus is born Mary
and Joseph
will be wed. That means then, that when Jesus is born into
the home of Joseph, even though
Joseph did not conceive Him,
yet from the legal standpoint
he would be considered as a son
of Joseph. Since Joseph was a descendant of David, this
then
would
give Jesus all the legal rights that would belong to
the descendants of David. This is important to us in this
respect,
only by being legally a descendant of
David could
He have the legal
right to the throne of David. In other
words,
the prophets of old had promised that the Messiah
would
be
a descendant of David and
therefore the Messiah of God must
be born into the family of
David.
II. Gabriel's greeting to Mary
V. 28, "And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail,
thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee:
blessed
art thou among women." The angel,
Gabriel, said that
Mary was highly favored. That is, she was highly favored of
God. She found favor in the sight of God. That is what all
of us would like to do. We would all, men, women, boys and
girls
like to find favor in the sight of God.
Wouldn't we?
I would.
Wouldn't you? I think we all
would. We would all
want God to accept us and
approve of us and bless us.
It must have been good news to Mary that she was
accepted
of God. That must have taken a big load
off of her
mind. I remember that I was sixteen years of age
when I was
saved. I was sixteen when God accepted me and I was
counted
in the number who would escape
the fires of hell and go to
heaven. It was a great relief to be accepted of
God. Of
course,
in order for me to be accepted I had to repent of my
sin and trust the saving grace
of God. That is what Mary had
to do and that is what anybody
has to do. .
But Mary was not only a saved woman; she was a godly
woman. She was morally clean. She tried to do what was
right. When she knew a thing to be wrong, she did
not engage
in that kind of conduct. Her lifestyle was acceptable in the
eyes of the Lord. God saw her as the kind of woman who was a
suitable
person to give birth to His beloved Son, Jesus
Christ.
And she was highly blessed of God in that she was
chosen
to have that privilege. a lot of women who have live
godly,
but they were not given the privilege of giving birth
to Jesus. She was chosen to give birth to Jesus Christ
the
Son of God. Of all the godly women of the world, Mary was
chosen. What a privilege!
V. 29, "And when she saw him, she was troubled at his
saying,
and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this
should
be." The word, salutation, means
greeting. What kind
of greeting was this? What did the angel mean that she was
highly
favored of God? What did he mean that
she was of all
women
highly blessed? She was puzzled by it
all and somewhat
disturbed
because she did not know what he meant.
III. Gabriel's reassurance to Mary and his
announcement of
the birth of Jesus.
She did not have long to wonder what it was all about.
V. 30-33, "And the angel said unto
her, Fear not, Mary: for
thou hast found favour with God.
And, behold, thou shalt
conceive
in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call
his name JESUS. He shall be great, and shall be called the
Son of the Highest :
and the Lord God shall give unto him the
throne
of his father David: And he shall reign over the house
of Jacob for ever; and of his
kingdom there shall be no end."
The first thing the angel did when he saw that she was
troubled
was to calm her fears. He was not there
to hurt
her. He was there to bring the blessings of God
upon her.
He was there to inform her that she had
been chosen of God to
give birth to the Son of God.
The angel said that she would conceive in her womb and
forth
a son. That is, she would carry the
conceived child to
full term and would give birth
to a son.
He said that Mary was to name her Son "Jesus." Just as
Zacharias had been told what to name his
son, even so Mary is
now told what to name her
Son. He is to be named Jesus.
Someone may say, "What difference does it make what He
is named? What's in a name?" It makes a great deal of
difference. There is a great deal of meaning in the word,
Jesus.
The word Jesus is a Greek spelling of the Hebrew
word, Joshua. The word, Jesus, is generally said to mean
"Savior."
But technically, it means more than that.
The word
Joshua literally means "Jehovah
saves" or "Jehovah, the
Savior." That is what the name as applied to Jesus. It
means
"Jehovah, the Savior." In
Matthew's account we learn
that Joseph also had a visit
from an angel and was told,
"Thou shalt call his name Jesus
because he shall save his
people
from their sin." Or to put it another way, "Thou shalt
call His name Jehovah the Savior
because He is Jehovah God
dwelling
in human flesh and because He is the Savior of men."
The angel Gabriel said further that Jesus would be great
and would be called the Son of
the Highest. That is, He
shall
be called the Son of God. The reason
that He is called
the Son of the Highest is
because He is the Son of the
Highest. He is the Son of God.
The angel Gabriel also told Mary that the throne of
David would be given to her son,
Jesus. This means that He
would
sit upon the throne in
whole
nation of
come to and end and Jesus would
rule. This prophecy never
came to pass during His lifetime
here on earth. But when He
comes
again, it will come to pass then. He
will not only
rule the nation
Revelation, He will rule the entire world.
IV. Mary's question and Gabriel's answer
V. 34, "Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this
be, seeing I know not a
man?" It would seem at first glance
that just as Zacharias had
doubted the word of God, even so
Mary doubted the word of the Lord. But such is not the case.
If Mary had doubted like Zacharias did,
she would have been
rebuked
like Zacharias was and would have been punished in
some way for her disbelief. It was not that Mary doubted the
word of the Lord, it was just
that she did not understand and
she sought for understanding.
There is one thing that we need to understand here. We
need to understand that Mary had
never been sexually active
with any man. Doubters and skeptics can argue all day long
about
the meaning of the word which here is translated
"virgin." Some say that the word does not necessarily
mean
that she had not been sexually
active. They try to twist the
meaning
of the word, saying that it means simply "young
woman."
The skeptics have such a strong influence that at
least
one of the modern versions of the Bible has
mistranslated
the word in such passages as this to read
simply
"young woman." They
deliberately allow room for
argument
that she may have been pregnant by a man.
But argue
about
the meaning of the Hebrew and Greek words all you want.
Mary said that she had not had sex with a
man and that is
that. She was indeed a virgin in the purest sense
of the
word. She had never had sex with any man.
Mary knew enough about the birds-and-the-bees to know
that it usually took the sperm
of a man to fertilize the egg
of the woman to bring about conception
of a child. Mary was
not ignorant or stupid.
Some folks may think that Mary was still a virgin
because
she was stupid. No. She was not
stupid. She knew
about
the birds-and-the-bees. Mary was a
virgin because she
was smart. She was smart enough to have high moral
standards
and to live the way that God
would have her to live. If a
lot of people today were as
smart as Mary in that respect
there
would be a lot less aids and a lot less other dreadful
disease
going around.
But the point that Mary was making did not deal with
morality. Her point was that she simply did not
understand
how she could have a son
without a man to germinate the egg.
V. 35, "And the angel answered and said unto her, The
Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the
power of the
Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore
also that holy thing
which
shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God."
Gabriel said that in Mary's case the sperm
of a man was not
needed
to produce pregnancy." That is the
usual procedure
that God Himself has set
up. But God is able to bypass the
usual
law of nature and to produce conception by the power of
the Holy Spirit of God.
In the process of natural childbirth the mother produces
an egg which in effect is to
be the physical body of the
child. The father produces the sperm which gives
life to the
egg and thus to the child. In the case of Mary, however, it
was not the sperm of a man
which would give life to the egg
and thus to the body of the
child. It was the Holy Spirit of
God. The Holy Spirit of God would overshadow Mary
and the
Holy Spirit of God would give life to the
egg within her
womb. Let me tell you that you ought not have any difficulty
believing
that. If you believe that the sperm of a
man can
give life to an egg you ought
not have any problem believing
that the Holy Spirit of God can
give life to an egg. God's
power
is greater than man's power any day. If
a man is able
to give life then how much
more God is able to give life!
For that reason, this child shall be
called the Son of God
because
it is God who conceived this child.
But now, here is a little something for you to think
about. The egg that was in Mary's womb furnished a
body that
was brand new. This would be a brand new human body in
infant
size and form when it would be born, but the Spirit
that indwelt that little child
is not new at all. He is
Eternal God. As Spirit God, He was older than the earth
itself. He was here when the earth was created. He is the
One who created the earth. He, as Jesus the man, did not
exist. But there was never a time that He did not
exist as
Spirit God. He has always been. There has never been a time
that He did not exist.
V. 36, "And, behold, thy cousin Elisabeth, she hath also
conceived
a son in her old age: and this is the sixth month
with her, who was called
barren." Since Mary and Elisabeth
were close kin, Mary was
acquainted with Elisabeth. She knew
that Elisabeth was well up in
years. If God could produce a
child
within the womb of
natural
means of an aged earthly father, it would surely be
no problem for God to produce
a child in the womb of Mary
without
an earthly father. This information was
given to
Mary to encourage her and to strengthen
her faith.
Then the
angel
added (V. 37), "For with God nothing shall be
impossible."
V.
Mary's belief and submission to God's will
V. 38, "And Mary said, Behold the handmaid
of the Lord;
be it unto me according to thy
word. And the angel departed
from her." Mary believed God. But she nor only believed,
she was submissive to His
will. What submission to the will
of God! We can think of many reasons why Mary might
have
said, "Thanks, but not
thanks! I just do not want the job of
going
to my fiance and trying to explain to him why I am
pregnant. I do not want to try to explain that I have
not
been unfaithful to him. I am not pregnant by some man. I am
pregnant
by the Holy Spirit of God. Neither do I
want all
the innuendos and rumors that
will float around the community
when the news breaks that I am
pregnant. And for another
thing,
I do not want the awesome responsibility of rearing up
a child who is my Creator and
My God. How would I treat a
child
like that? How must the other children
in the home
treat
Him? How could I get them to treat Him
with the
respect
that He is due? How should I react
around the
neighbors? Can I act natural around others as if I have
an
ordinary
child? Thanks, but no thanks. I just don't want
that much responsibility.
I strongly suspect that there is many a mother who would
have said "No" to the
whole idea. At least there are those
who turn down much easier jobs
than that. There are those
who will not teach Sunday
School. There are those who will
not teach
being
the mother to Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
But what did Mary do? Mary said,
"I am the handmaid of
the Lord. I am His servant. I am His slave servant. I
willingly
make myself His slave servant. God has
not made a
slave
servant out of me. I have given myself
as a slave
servant
to the Lord. Whatever the Lord wants me
to do, that
is what I am willing to
do." What submission!
Conclusion:
Now listen to me my Christian friends.
That is the kind
of submission that every one
of us ought to have. Whatever
the Lord wants me to do, that
is what I will do. I will live
a clean moral life like He
wants me to do. I will serve Him
in any position lowly or
great. I will render any service to
Him that He wants me to do no matter how
much it might
inconvenience
me. No matter what it will cost me. No matter
how hard it is to do. No matter where He wants me to go. No
matter
how much criticism it may bring on me, I will do my
dead level best to do what the
Lord wants me to do. May God
give each one of us the grace to
say that. As far as I know
my heart, that is what I am
willing to do. How about you?
But I speak not only to my Christian
friends; I speak
also to my friends who are not
Christians. I speak to my
friends
who are lost and hell bound. My friends,
Jesus
Christ is the virgin born Son of God. He is the Savior of
men. He is the only chance you have of staying out
of the
fires
of hell. He is the only way in the world
you will ever
get to heaven. Will you turn to Him and ask Jesus to save
your soul? Will you trust Him to cleanse you from every sin
and take care of your eternal
destiny? If so, won't you do
it right now? We are all going to bow our heads and while
these
Christians here pray for you, won't you talk to the
Lord yourself and ask Him to save
you? Let us pray.