June 30, 2000
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Luke 1:26-38
The Greatest Child Ever Born
Luke 1:26-35
What child's life, destiny, impact can be specifically and accurately described before the child has ever been conceived? Well, humanly speaking, none. What child ever had all the details of His nature, His character, His life, His accomplishments and His effect clearly laid out before He was born? Well, humanly speaking, none.
What is it that defines His greatness? First of all, He is God. This child is God. Verse 32, "He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High." Over in verse 35 it says at the end of the verse, "He shall be called the Son of God." Luke refers to God as the Most High because that was a very familiar Jewish title given to God. He was the supreme one, the Most High, stressing His majestic sovereignty. This is a title, by the way, first used of God in Genesis, all the way back in the fourteenth chapter of Genesis, verse 18, He is called El Elyon, God Most High, God the supreme One, God the sovereign One, God who is above all. And from that first usage of El Elyon, it sweeps through the Old Testament and is used repeatedly to define God as the supreme being. No one is higher than God. Deuteronomy 32:8 says, "The Most High divided to the nations their inheritance." Psalm 47:2 says, "The Lord Most High is awesome, He is a great King over all the earth." And Daniel 4 talks about the Most High God being the true King of Kings. It shows us that the Most High God is the sovereign over all peoples and nations.
In 2 Samuel 22:14 it says, "The Lord thundered from heaven and the Most High uttered His voice." And It also speaks of clouds and water and skies and lightnings and thunders indicating that the Most High not only rules over men but He rules over nature. Psalm 7:17, Psalm 9:2 says, "Sing praise to the Most High because He is sovereign over the unrighteous." Psalm 21:7 speaks of the mercy of the Most High which is given to those who trust Him to show He is sovereign over not only the unrighteous but the righteous. Psalm 46:4 refers to the tabernacles of the Most High as places of security and protection. He is the sovereign protector of His people who are called in Daniel 7:18 the saints of the Most High. Lamentations 3:37 and 38 says He is the sovereign over all that is evil and all that is good.
So, it is a title of sovereign majesty over everything, all people, all creation, all that is good, all that is evil, all that exists. He is sovereign over all of it. And this little baby is the Son of that sovereign Most High God.
Jesus bears the same essence as God. "I am My Father's Son, I bear His characteristics, I bear His nature, it's in the DNA, it's in the chromosomes. I am the product genetically of My Father. I have the same nature as My Father. And that's essential what is being said here. This is the Son of the Most High. This is one who bears the essence of God. This is God, fully God. Hebrews 1:3 says He is the exact reproduction of God, exact and that is very, very specific terminology. He is the radiance of God's glory and the exact reproduction of God's nature.
No writer ever made more of an issue of this than John. John tells us that Jesus repeatedly said that He had a right to do what ever He wanted on the Sabbath because He, like God, was Lord of the Sabbath. He said that He and His Father were one. He said that any man who knows Me knows My Father, who knows the Father knows Me. He said anyone who honors Me honors the Father, anyone who truly honors the Father honors Me. He said if you've seen Me you've seen the Father. He said in John chapter 8, chapter 5 both that He was equal in power, equal in authority, equal in judgment, equal in works, equal in honor with God the Father. In every sense Jesus is God. That's why over in verse 43 of Luke 1 it is said, "And how it has happened to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me?" This isn't the mother of just someone human, this is the mother of the Lord Himself. Chapter 2 of Luke and verse 11, "Today in the city of David there has been for you a Savior who is Christ the Lord." When the angel came to Joseph to announce to Joseph the engaged-to-be husband of Mary, the angel said to Joseph, "This child will be called Immanuel," El, those two words, E and L is God in Hebrew, this is God with us...God with us.
Philippians 2 records the apostle Paul writing that He was in the form of God but sought it...thought it not something to hold on to, but gave it up, yielded it up, and took upon Him the form of a man." First Timothy 3:16 says, "Jesus was God manifested in the flesh." That's at the heart of our Christian faith. This child is God.
Secondly, He is God, He is man. Back to verse 31 of this text, the most incredible message ever given to a woman, "Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son and shall name Him Jesus." You will conceive in your womb. This woman was a virgin. It tells us in verse 27, a virgin. As I said, she would have been about 13 years of age, very likely. She affirms her virginity when she asks in verse 34, "Mary said to the angel, 'How can this be since I am a virgin?'" How can it be? Physical conception without a man? How can that be? But that's what happened. Chapter 2 verse 7, "She gave birth to her firstborn son. She wrapped Him in cloths and laid Him in a manger cause there was no room for them at the inn."
The conception was supernatural, the rest followed the normal course. The miracle is in the conception, that a woman would become pregnant without a man. That's the miracle, that the Holy Spirit would overshadow, that the Holy Spirit would do the miracle of fertilizing an egg in the womb of a woman without a man. Unheard of, never happened, never will happen in human history apart from this. Physical conception without a man. But after that there was a normal nine-month development of that little life in the womb of that mother until she gave birth and it was a normal birth, just like every other child is born. Normal nine months, normal birth...this is truly a man, human.
Mary actually had other children later on in the same manner with the exception of the conception. She carried them in her womb and she gave birth to them. They were human and He was human. And so it tells us, verse 7 of chapter 2, she gave birth to her firstborn son, just like all women give birth in the same manner. Verse 12, the shepherds were told you'll find a baby, not an extraterrestrial, a baby in a manger. Verse 21, when eight days were completed, before His circumcision, His name was then called Jesus...the name given by the angel before He was conceived in the womb. He was conceived in the womb, she carried Him for nine months, she gave birth and eight days He was circumcised like all other Jewish children. They wanted Him to be a child of the law. He wa born a man, therefore Galatians 4:4 says He was born of a woman, born under the law.
In verse 40 of chapter 2, the child continued to grow like all children grow, normal bone developed, normal tissue development, cardio-vascular development, became strong and growing increased in wisdom and the grace of God was upon Him, or the favor of God. Verse 52, He kept increasing in wisdom and stature, favor with God and man, growing intellectually, growing physically, growing spiritually, growing socially. Just like all other children grow. His human growth was normal. That's why He can be a sympathetic High Priest, He was in all points tempted as we are. He's touched with the feelings of our infirmities. He knows what it is to be human. He was born just like everyone else is born.
Hebrews 2:17 and 18 says He had to be made like His brethren in all things, He had to be in order that He might be a substitute for us. If there was to be a substitute for men, it had to be a man...a man to die for men...a man to suffer the sufferings that humans suffer. He became our sympathizer, a merciful and faithful High Priest. He was hungry. He was thirsty. He was overcome with fatigue. He slept. He was taught. He grew. He loved. He was astonished. He was glad. He was angry. He was indignant. He was sarcastic. He was grieved. He was troubled. He was overcome by future events. He exercised faith. He read the scriptures. He prayed. He sighed in His heart when He saw someone in illness. He cried when His heart ached, just like we cry. He felt what we feel. He felt physical pain, physical hurt. He bled, He suffered, He died. He felt temptation to a degree that we could not possibly experience because we cave in at some point and He never did, so all temptation ran its full course. That's why 1 Timothy 2:5 calls Him the Man, Christ Jesus. He was not some apparition. He was not some spiritual entity. As I said, He was not someone from another dimension, He was one of us.
His parents actually were astonished and so was everybody else that a son could be born without a human father, conceived by the Holy Spirit and still be human. Verse 37, however, says nothing is impossible with God. God could give a child to Zacharias and Elizabeth when they couldn't bear a child. Why couldn't God give a child to Mary without a husband? This child is fully man...fully man.
Thirdly, this wonderful announcement by Gabriel by Mary tells us that He was not only God and Man but He was sinless, holy. Look at verse 35, toward the end of the verse it says, "The holy offspring,"...the holy offspring, the Most High is going to overshadow you, the Spirit is going to come upon you to make this possible, and this child is called "The holy offspring." All we ever have is unholy offspring. It's true. Never before and never since has a mother held in her arms a holy child. Now John the Baptist was filled with the Holy Spirit, does tell us that even from his mother's womb back in verse 15, but that's not to say he was holy. What is a holy child like?
Never a moment of unhappiness did He cause, never a wrong thought, never a bad attitude, never an unkind word, never an act of disrespect, never a disobedient motion or movement, never a wrong attitude, never a thoughtless, unkind or selfish act. He produced wonder and awe and worship. I can imagine when Jesus was a two-year-old He took whatever was on a shelf...shouldn't have but didn't know that and I cannot imagine though that when His mother said....He put it back. A holy offspring.
No child had ever been without the need of discipline. No child had ever been without the need of correction. No child had ever been without the need of forgiveness and restoration and salvation but this child. Jesus even said, unlike American politicians, which of you convicts me of sin? Look at the record, examine every inch of My life, you won't find any sin. And 2 Corinthians 5:21 calls Him, "Him who knew no sin." And Hebrews 7:26 says, "He was holy, harmless, undefiled and separate from sinners." And Hebrews 4:15 says, "He was without sin." At His birth He entered into full holiness. At our birth we entered into full sinfulness. He began where we will end.
Fourthly, the angel Gabriel introduces to Mary that the child will be sovereign Lord...sovereign Lord or King. In verse 32 it says, "The Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David," and in verse 33, "He will reign over the house of Jacob forever and His Kingdom will have no end." The house of Jacob means Israel. He will not only rule Israel but He will have an eternal Kingdom over all. He will be King. He was born a King. If you look at the genealogy in Matthew chapter 1, it is the genealogy of His father Joseph and it descends from David. If you look at the genealogy of Luke 3, it is most likely the genealogy of His mother Mary and it too descends from David. He was born of royal blood and had there been at the time the Davidic monarchy in place in Israel rather than a stranger, a foreigner, an Edomite king by the name of Herod on the throne and Roman occupation, had there been the throne of David in existence, He would have been one who was in line for the throne. He received royal blood from His mother and a right to rule from His father who carried that right to pass on even to an adopted child. He was born a king in every sense.
The magi from the east, Matthew 2, recognized that and they came all the way from the east, they were the Oriental Chaldean king-makers and they were looking for a great king who could come and rule that part of the world. And they came to the Christ child, led by God by means of a remarkable phenomenon in the sky, the great star that brought them to the King. He was a King. He would be given a Kingdom not only over Israel, but over the world and forever.
This is the fulfillment of the prophecy of 2 Samuel 7 where the prophet Nathan speaks for God to tell David that David will not be allowed to build the temple of God. David won't have that privilege cause David's hands are bloody from as many wars, but God will raise up from David's loins a son, namely Solomon, and Solomon will build God a temple. And Solomon did build the great Solomonic temple, but beyond that there will come one greater than David and greater than Solomon who will build the Davidic house forever, and that is a Messianic prophecy of 2 Samuel chapter 7. Jesus came to fulfill that. He is the Messiah. He is the One who will be given the throne of His father David, and He will have a spiritual Kingdom, an earthly Kingdom, and an eternal Kingdom. And we'll look at that in more detail when we study the specifics of the passage. This child is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, the great Monarch of all monarchs. The word "Christ" means "anointed one," and has primary reference to His kingship. As I said, His father was in the line of David, His mother was in the line of David, He had the right to rule. He had royal blood. He also had authority from God to rule and in the appropriate time He will be the King of a renewed universe. Now He is a King in the spiritual realm, ruling over the hearts and lives of those who are His. Some day He will take His authority in the world and establish an eternal Kingdom.
He came a King, humblest of surrounding. Can you imagine? He was in a stinky, smelly barn lying in a feed trough surrounded by animals. The humblest imaginable condition to a humble non-descript young couple was given the greatest King the world will ever know.
We understand that. We understand that He is a King. Pilate said, "Are you a king?" He said, "You said it, I'm a king. You don't understand My Kingdom cause it's not of this world." They treated Him as a criminal, but He was a King.
Finally, and this is where it has to come for us. He is Savior, verse 31, it says, "You'll bear a Son and you shall name Him Jesus." You shall name Him Jesus and they did. They named Him Jesus when He was born, just as they had been instructed.
When the angel appeared to Joseph, appearing first to Mary and later to Joseph, Joseph was very troubled. How could this sweet young girl who had just reached puberty, a virgin girl be pregnant? Joseph was floored, overwhelmed, no doubt heartsick and was trying to figure out whether he should divorce her or take her life. The Old Testament called for, Deuteronomy, the death of an engaged person who engaged in sexual sin. He decided that his love for her, his respect, wouldn't allow him to see her executed and so he would opt to put her away. And then an angel came and said, "Hold it, that which is in her is conceived by the Holy Spirit. She has not been unfaithful, she is still a virgin and she will bring forth a Son."
And the angel said to Joseph, Matthew chapter 1 verse 21, "You shall call His name Jesus for He shall save His people from their sins." Jesus is a great name. It means...Jesus means Jehovah saves, it's the Old Testament name Joshua, or better Jeshua. You hear people talk about the Messiah as Jeshua. Jeshua, Jehovah saves, the Savior has come. And for the only time in the gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke in chapter 2 and verse 11 it uses that word. "Today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior."
I can stand back and admire God in human flesh. I can stand back and admire the perfect Man Jesus. I can stand back and admire the sinless, holy One. I can admire Him for His sovereign kingship. But the only way I can ever know Him is if He will forgive my sins. And He came to do just that.
There were two old folks in the temple when His parents brought Him there. In Luke 2, an old man by the name of Simeon, and old Simeon took Jesus in His arms, that little baby, in verse 28 and blessed God and said, "Now, Lord, Thou doest let Thy bondservant depart in peace according to Thy word...I can die now...for my eyes have seen Thy salvation which Thou hast prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light of revelation to the Gentiles and the glory of Thy people Israel." Simeon was saying this is not just the Savior of Israel, this is the Savior of the world.
Simeon's peace, the Savior has come. Christ came to the world, 1 Timothy 1:15, to save sinners. Luke 19:10, Jesus said, "I'm come to seek and to save that which is lost." He is the Savior and that meant He had to go to the cross and provide a ransom for sin. He had to be our substitute and die on a cross in our place so that God having been satisfied that our sins were paid for could then give us forgiveness. It never would have been enough if He had just come as the God/Man, the sinless sovereign if He didn't die and rise again.
Who is this child? The most astonishing child ever given to parents is still amazing. Think about it. Mary must have been amazed at what she heard. She must have been amazed when never having known her husband physically she became pregnant. She must have been continually amazed to contemplate and ponder what was in her womb as it grew. She must have been amazed when the day of birth came and that little life came out. She must have been amazed when she wrapped that little life and looked into the face of that God/Man and laid Him in a manger. She must have been amazed as she nursed and cared for that little life in those early days. She must have been amazed when shepherds came, and later when wise men came.
She must have been amazed as she contemplated what was going on in the early years when as a toddler the God/Man moved through her life and the life of her husband Joseph. She must have been astounded at His holiness, at the absence of any sin in His life. She must have been astonished at it all. She must have been amazed that day when her heart was pierced and she stood at the foot of the cross and saw what was going on to this holy offspring. Equally amazed at the resurrection and when she gathered in the Upper Room with the 120 disciples and received the Holy Spirit in the launch of the church she must have continually been amazed. And she must have told the amazing reality of all of that to Luke whom she, no doubt, met and who wrote this account and may well have had first-hand information from Mary herself.
Joseph, too, must have been amazed and astonished all the way along from the very outset when an angel came to him, a remarkable thing that didn't happen to anybody and it happened to him. And he was to be the earthly father, the adopted father of the God/Man, the holy, sovereign Savior. He must have been amazed at everything that the child did, everything that the young man did. He must have been amazed at everything Him. He must have been amazed to see Him pick up a tool and use it in the carpenter shop in Nazareth. He must have been amazed at how He treated His friends and the people and the society around Him.
Elizabeth was amazed and Zacharias was amazed and the family friends were amazed and it was all amazing. If they were amazed, how amazed should we be when they didn't even know the whole story, did they? They were just looking at the front end, here we are, we know it all. They just knew He'd be a Savior at the first, that was amazing enough. They didn't understand all that meant. They didn't understand what it meant yet to go to the cross and to rise from the dead. They didn't understand what it meant to extend the gospel to the ends of the earth. They knew they had one that would be a King, they didn't understand that...what that meant, they hadn't heard Jesus preach the Olivet Discourse. They hadn't read the book of Revelation. There was no book of Revelation till long after they were dead. They didn't know what the fullness of His Kingdom was going to be like. They didn't know that one day He would rule on this earth for 1000 years and following that He would uncreate the world and create a new heaven and a new earth in which He would be the sovereign forever.
If they had reason to be amazed, we have more reason to be amazed. Don't we? Cause we have the fullness of the revelation of the greatness of the child. At some point that amazement must turn to faith in which we embrace Him as the God/Man, the sinless Savior who will some day be the sovereign King of the universe. I trust that you know Him as Savior, the One who forgives your sins by His mercy and His grace.
The Virgin Birth: A Divine Miracle
Luke 1:34-38
"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. And coming in he said to her, 'Hail, favored one, the Lord is with you.' But she was greatly troubled at this statement and kept pondering what kind of salutation this might be. And 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 he 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.' And Mary said to the angel, 'How can this be since I am a virgin?' And 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 offspring 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.' And Mary said, 'Behold the bondslave of the Lord, be it done to me according to your word.' And the angel departed from her."
Two thousand years ago God entered this world as a human being. Deity put on the robe of humanity. The heavenly Son became an earthly baby on a night, a familiar night to us, emblazened by a bright and magnificent star, a child was born not like any other child before or since...the God/Man. This single event was so cataclysmic that it became the apex of history and established he calendar. Everything before this event is B.C., everything after is Anno Domini, the year of our Lord. This was the moment when redemptive history reached its pinnacle and the Son of God, the Savior of the world was born.
Luke, who is careful as a historian, who is thoughtful and profound as a theologian, who is passionate as an evangelist recounts for us the story of the Savior's conception and the Savior's birth with compelling concise and rich detail. The virgin birth is foundational, this is critical to our faith. If Jesus had a human mother and a human father, then Jesus is a man and not God. And if He is a man and not God, then He is not the Savior, there is no salvation, and there is no good news.
The first fact is that the virgin conception was announced by a divine messenger. In verse 26 the angel Gabriel was sent from out of the presence of God. And then is indicated the divine choice, he was sent to an obscure town called Nazareth in the Galilee to a virgin, a 13-year-old girl, probably 12 to 14, 13 years old would be in the middle, who had been engaged or betrothed to a man named Joseph. She was the divine choice.
Then came the divine blessing, "Hail, favored one," in verse 28, "the Lord is with you." At the end of verse 30, "You have found favor with God." Then came the indication of the divine child, verse 31, you will conceive, you will have a Son, He will be Jesus, He will be great, He will be the Son of the Most High, He will be given the throne of His father David, a throne on which He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and He will also have a Kingdom that is eternal. The divine messenger, the divine choice, the divine blessing, the divine child.
Finally in verse 34 to 38 we come to our text for this morning, the divine miracle...how this is to take place. And as it unfolds, five words we will use as the hooks to hang the progress of thought on.
The first word is supplication. Here is this 13-year-old girl, she has heard this immense incomprehensible announcement from an angel from God. It has been more than she could comprehend. That is why it indicates in verse 29 that she was troubled at the statement, kept pondering what kind of salutation this might be. And she even had a great measure of fear, as indicated in the injunction of the angel in verse 30 for her not to be afraid. She was literally shaken to the core of her being over this encounter with an angel and what the angel said to her.
This precipitates the supplication in verse 34. She responds, it says, "And Mary said to the angel, 'How can this be since I am a virgin?" That is her supplication, or her request. In response to the astonishing truth that's been given to her, she asks the question...how? It is not incredulity, it is not that she doubts, it is not that she doesn't believe. She does believe, she doesn't understand how it can happen.
Miracles only happened in very, very unique times in redemptive histories. They didn't happen in her day. God hadn't uttered a revelation for over 400 years. There had been no word from heaven since the completion of the Old Testament canon. There hadn't been any miracles in over 400 years. There hadn't been any series of miracles in well beyond that, since the days of Elijah. No one had seen an angel in over 500 years. No one had seen an angel, heard a word from God, or experienced a miracle in centuries.
All of a sudden it all happens. God speaks through an angel about a miracle. She wasn't used to explaining or understanding miracles in a non-miraculous world like she lived in and we live in. She believed. She's not like Zacharias who didn't believe and consequently when he was told that he and his wife Elizabeth would have a child, he responded to the word from Gabriel with unbelief and he was punished and made deaf and dumb until the child was born as a public testimony to his unbelief. She wasn't like that. She believed, she just couldn't understand how.
She also understood that the angel was not saying to her...you're going to get married to Joseph and when you come together with Joseph you're going to have a child. She knew that that would not be anything miraculous. She knew that that was not what the angel was saying because she asks the question, "How can this be since I am a virgin?" She knew the angel was saying you're going to have a Son and you're going to have that Son now. You're going to conceive now before a marriage ever takes place. And she said, "How can this happen? How is this possible to be pregnant while a virgin?" And thus the supplication is simply a question of how. She gives testimony to her virginity, she gives testimony to the understanding that this was not just a prediction, that she would get married and have a baby. The question indicates she knew she was going to be pregnant as a virgin. That's the supplication.
The angel graciously answers her question about how with a very simple explanation...The Holy Spirit will come upon you. The Holy Spirit is very active, by the way, in Luke's narrative of Christ's birth. He is mentioned in connection with the birth of Christ, or the conception of Christ six times; three times in chapter 1 and three times in chapter 2 of this gospel. The Holy Spirit was instrumental as well, of course, in the life and ministry of Christ all the way along, as we shall see going through the gospel of Luke. But initially the Holy Spirit is very involved in the Messiah coming into the world and being born.
The Holy Spirit is identified in creation. The earth is without form and void, and the Spirit of God begins to move over the face of this formless mass and begin the creative process that issues in the six days of creation described from then on through that first chapter. The Holy Spirit who was the original agent of creation will again become an agent of creation, this time in the womb of this young girl. Nothing in this text, nothing in any other New Testament text, nothing anywhere in Scripture ever remotely suggests any kind of human sexual activity, only divine power acting on Mary. Joseph was shocked that this occurred when she...when he found out she was pregnant which demonstrates his lack of contact with her in any physical way. There is no suggestion in Scripture of any sexual activity at all, only divine power creatively acting on Mary.
It is true John the Baptist, according to verse 15, was filled with the Holy Spirit from his mother's womb, but he was the product of a union between a man and a woman. Zacharias and Elizabeth came together, the miracle was that God gave them the power to conceive together when heretofore they had never been able to do so and were now either in their sixties or seventies and eighties and beyond the capability humanly. The miracle there was that God allowed them to conceive, the child was then filled with the Holy Spirit. But in the case of Jesus Christ there was no human father and the child was conceived by the Holy Spirit.
In a parallel statement to enrich our understanding, the angel then says, this is another way to say it, "The power of the Most High will overshadow you." The Holy Spirit is the same as the Most High. The Holy Spirit is the Most High. Most High, by the way, is in the Hebrew el elyon, God Most High. It's used at least three dozen times in the Old Testament to describe God. It is a title for God. It means sovereign lordship, sovereign ruler, almighty, all powerful...very common Old Testament name for God. The Holy Spirit will come upon you, or saying the same thing another way, the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Genesis 14:19, "The Lord God Most High, the possessor of heaven and earth." That's what it means to be Most High, it means to be the sovereign over everything that exists in heaven and in earth, sovereign over it all...the sovereign almighty creator God who made and upholds the universe will create life out of nothing.
He uses the verb here "He will overshadow you," episkiazo. It means, it's translated "overshadow," there are three times in the New Testament where the transfiguration is described. It's described in Matthew, it's described in Mark and it's described in Luke. And at the time of the transfiguration there was an appearance of the Shekinah glory and it overshadowed them. It uses the same verb and translates it "overshadowing." It means to surround. It means to encompass, or it means in the metaphoric sense to influence.
God Himself, the sovereign creator of the universe, will come and surround and overshadow and influence with creative power the womb of Mary. That's what the angel said. That's the divine strategy to produce in her womb this child. It will not happen through the normal human process, it will be divine and supernatural and apart from any human sexual activity whatsoever. A creating influence of God moves in to Mary's body. For that reason, because of this divine creative miracle, "The holy offspring shall be called the Son of God."
First of all, to note that the child that is going to be born will be unlike any other human in that this child will be holy. Your kids may be cute and cuddly but they are not holy. They are unholy. They are fallen. They are depraved. The seeds of every conceivable iniquity is in their heart, as we have been pointing out in our book on parenting. The greatest challenge you have is to lead that depraved child to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. You have an unholy offspring. All humans are born in sin. David said, "In sin did my mother conceive me," he wasn't talking about an illicit affair, he wasn't talking about some adulterous thing. He wasn't saying he was an illegitimate child. He was saying from the time of conception I was a sinner.
Now there has been through the years a rather strange teaching that somehow because Jesus had a human mother and not a human father, He bypassed the sins...the sin nature which is passed genetically from the blood of the father. That's not true. There's nothing in the Scripture to indicate that, there's certainly nothing in medical science to indicate that because you can't find the sin nature in the DNA. And, ladies, you don't need a man to be sinful or to pass that sin on. You're perfectly capable of passing it on yourself. Sin nature is not in the blood of a man, it's not in male blood, it's not in male chromosomes. I'm not sure where it is. I'm not sure anybody is sure where it is, but it's not isolated to the father.
The point is He was sinless because that's the way God created Him...created Him sinless from conception. That fetus in the womb of Mary was untouched by sin. That's because that's the way God created Him. He was a holy offspring. Gennao is the Greek verb "offspring." It's actually a holy born one. And that's why at the end of verse 35 it days, "He shall be called the Son of God."
Now when you hear the word "Son of God," or the phrase "Son of God," or the title "Son of God," that is filled...for those of you who know the Bible, that is filled with all kinds of meaning. But here it's just really very simple. If you can sort of strip out everything you understand about the great title of the Son of God, and we'll learn a lot about that title as we go through Luke's gospel because he refers to it many times, but just kind of strip it down to its basic significance in this particular word from Gabriel, what he's trying to say here is not everything that could be said about the title "Son of God," but this in particular, because God Himself created this child in the womb of Mary, this holy offspring is the Son of God. He's God's Son, not Mary's Son and not Joseph's Son. It's almost not the technical title of "Son of God" with all that that implies messianic or redemptively, as much as to say it's the "Son of God" with all that that implies in terms of His nature, of His essence. This is God in human flesh.
Yes, He is the Son of Mary, born from here. Yes He's a Son of David because Mary was from David's line. He is the Son of David also legally because His father, though not His father by natural birth was His father by human family identity, he too was a son of David, so He inherited David's royal line from His father, David's royal blood from His mother. He was Son of Mary, Son of Joseph in the legal sense, but He was Son of God in the sense of His nature, in the sense of His essence. He was Son of God in human form.
Nothing says it better than Hebrews 1 where it says, "He is the exact representation of God's nature," Hebrews 1:3. Jesus Christ was the exact duplication of the nature of God. That's why verse 5 God could say of Him, as He does in Psalm 2, "Thou art My Son, today I have begotten Thee. I will be a Father to Him, and He shall be a Son to Me," 2 Samuel 7:14.
This is God's Son. This is essential to the whole of our Christian faith. You have here a child created in a human womb, created by God sinless, holy, and bearing the nature of God, the divine child. That's why in Hebrews 1:8, "To the Son the Father can say, 'Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever.'" This is God's Son, this is God Himself in human form. "We beheld His glory," John 1 says, "the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." This is God's Son. Jesus said it again and again...I and the Father are one. It was for this that the Jews executed Him. It was for this which they perceived as blasphemy, claiming to be the offspring of God, claiming to be the exact representation of God, claiming to bear the divine nature was in their view blasphemous. But this is true. Jesus was the Son of God by conception and by birth miraculously.
This title has importance, as we'll see in Luke. This title was affirmed by Jesus Himself in chapter 2, chapter 10, chapter 22. It was affirmed by God in chapter 3 and chapter 9. It was affirmed by demons in chapter 4 and chapter 8. It was affirmed by Satan in chapter 4 verses 3 and 9. It was affirmed by Paul later on in the writing of Luke and the gospel...in the book of Acts in Acts 9 and chapter 13. So repeatedly He is affirmed as the Son of God by Himself, His own words, by God, by demons, by Satan, and by the apostles. That's the strategy. The Son of God will be born by an act of divine creation.
Thirdly, the sign. Mary doesn't ask for a sign, but God and grace strengthens her faith in giving her one anyway. Miracles didn't usually happen. Angels didn't appear. God didn't speak in this way. Life was just normal. And so this was so unusual, so mind-boggling that the angel graciously gave her a sign that she could look to to strengthen her faith. Verse 36, he says, "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."
Now this probably came to Mary for the first time. She has a relative, some translations say...use the word "cousin" but really you can't be that specific with the Greek term. She was a relative. She had a relative, an old relative. Now remember, this is a 13-year-old girl or so and she's got an old relative who's in her seventies or so and she knows Elizabeth and her husband Zacharias and she knows that she has been barren, which is the greatest stigma a Jewish woman could have...never to have had a child. And Elizabeth has conceived a son in her old age.
This would be shocking and this one who was called barren. I mean, she had a nickname, she was barren Elizabeth. That's...that's the sort of the scorn that was heaped upon a woman who was childless, as if it were some sign that God had cursed her for some iniquity. She must have had to bear the rebuke of that all her life.
But the angel says, "Behold!" explanation point..."your relative Elizabeth." Just a little footnote on that. Elizabeth, according to verse 5 of chapter 1, was a daughter of Aaron, so she came through Aaron's line, the priestly line. Mary was a descendant of David as the genealogy in chapter 3 will demonstrate. So Mary would have been related to Elizabeth through her mother who would have been in Aaron's line and she would have been a descendant of David through her father. So this was a relative on her mother's side, the Aaron side. As the genealogy will show, her father's side was the side of David's line.
So this relative becomes a sign for her. The miracle was a miracle of conception. It wasn't a virgin conception, it was just that God allowed two old people who had been married all those years and now were not only barren but beyond the capability of having children, to conceive and have a child. And remember, miracles didn't happen, but Elizabeth is now six months pregnant. She hid herself for the first five months. Back in verse 24 it says that she hid herself, kept herself in seclusion for five months after she became pregnant. Zacharias, you remember, came home from his priestly duty and they got together and she became pregnant and she stayed in seclusion for five months because if she had come out and was in evidence, they wore those kind of drapey things, and if she went around saying, "I'm pregnant," they would have put her in an asylum. But when she showed up six-months pregnant, there wasn't much to argue with.
She's in her six months...pregnancy...wonderful affirming miracle has already been done by God. No, you don't need to wonder about it, you can go and visit your relative. And verse 39 says she did immediately, she went with haste. I mean, this was overwhelming to her and she would...she wanted to know what it was like to be pregnant under miraculous conditions. And so she entered the house of Zacharias, verse 40 says, and greeted Elizabeth. And we'll say more about that when we get to it next time.
But this was the sign that God was able to do miracles, that God could do the humanly impossible. And this conception anchored faith. She had the faith, she wasn't doubting, but this was just an anchor for her faith.
So the supplication, the strategy, the sign...and then a comment on the sovereignty. It's one thing to say it's going to happen, and something else to be able to do it. And wonderfully verse 37 is just dropped in there, "For nothing will be impossible with God." And, you know, in Mary's mind what's going around in there, this is impossible, this is...this is not possible, this is...how can this be and she is reminded that nothing is impossible with God. And Elizabeth's pregnancy proves it and Mary's conception proves it. This is God's great, limitless power at work.
Luke has a wonderful way of weaving these in. And this case, of course, Gabriel also is a part of all of this and the whole of redemptive history just kind of flows together wonderfully. And Gabriel takes Mary back to Genesis 18, back to Abraham and Sarah. You remember they were old and they were beyond child-bearing years, and Abraham is 100 and she's 90 and they've never been able to have children. And God says you're going to have a son and Sarah laughs. It's...Abraham and Sarah, it's impossible, it can't happen and she laughs. Verse 12, "She laughed to herself saying, 'I've become so old, shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also?" I mean, this isn't going to happen. I'm beyond all this. "Shall I indeed...verse 13...bear a child when I'm so old?" Verse 14, then comes the question, "Is anything too difficult for the Lord? Is anything too difficult for the Lord? At the appointed time I'll return to you at this time next year and Sarah shall have a son."
Now the question is...Is anything too hard for the Lord?...is the negative side of what I just read you. Go back to the text of Luke 1. "Is anything too hard for the Lord?" is the same as saying, "Nothing is impossible with God." If nothing is too hard for the Lord, then everything's possible with God.
So Gabriel draws the attention of Mary back to the classic Old Testament birth miracle which was the miracle of Abraham and Sarah. And God, who according to Psalm 115:3, is in the heavens and does whatever He pleases. And God who made the heavens and the earth by His great power and by His outstretched arm, Jeremiah 32:17 says, "Nothing is too difficult for Thee."
God, who according to Daniel 4:35, does according to His will in the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of earth, and no one can ward off His hand or say to Him...What have You done?...God who can do anything, God whose power has no limit, God who is not bound at all by the laws of nature which He has created as if He were chained by His own creation, God who is omnipotent, all powerful and without limitations can do anything He wants to do. It would be...it would be foolish to believe He couldn't do anything since He created the entire universe and upholds it. But the very reference of Genesis 18:14 takes Mary back to the birth narrative of Abraham and Sarah and reminds her that God has done it in the past. He has demonstrated that nothing is impossible in the past with the conception, did it in Abraham and Sarah's case, did it again in the case of Zacharias and Elizabeth.
And then having said all of that, affirming the great power of God, we come to the fifth point. From supplication, strategy, sign, sovereignty more importantly, submission.
Mary knew the Old Testament. I think when Gabriel referred to Genesis 18 and Mary knew the story of Abraham and Sarah, every Jewish girl knew that story, that story of miracle conception was perhaps as familiar as any story to the Jewish home. But Mary also knew another story. There was another miracle conception in the Old Testament, most notable miracle conception.
It involved a lady by the name of Hannah who was greatly distressed and heart broken because she couldn't conceive and have a child. And you remember, she went to God in 1 Samuel 1 and she cried out to God to give her a child and God gave her a child and his name was Samuel. I mean, these are notable children. Abraham and Sarah were given Isaac who was the child of the divine covenant of God. Zacharias and Elizabeth were given a child John the Baptist, the forerunner of the Messiah. But the wonderful story, I just want to point one thing out of Hannah and Elkanah, her husband, is that God also gave her a child who was a marvelous, notable son named Samuel. But she refers to herself in verse 11 three times as a maidservant...a maidservant. "O Lord, look on the affliction of Your maidservant, remember me, don't forget Your maidservant, give Your maidservant a son." Down in verse 18, "Let Your maidservant find favor in Your sight."
She refers to herself four or five times there as a maidservant. Interestingly enough look at verse 38, "And Mary said," this is her submission, "'Behold the bondslave of the Lord.'" Now what's the importance here? The importance here is that she uses the word bondslave which is the word doule in the Greek which means slave, bondslave. And listen to this, it is the same word used in the Septuagint every time Hannah referred to herself as a maidservant, she used doule. This is the word, the very word that is the same as the word Hannah used. It may indicate Mary's familiarity with the wonderful miracle that God gave to Hannah by which she conceived and bore Samuel. And Mary sees herself also as a slave to God's purposes as a servant, a bondslave. She is standing in the tradition of Hannah and submitting and following Hannah's example of being a willing slave to this incredible unfolding purpose of God. Submission is what characterizes this young girl. She sees herself not as somebody special, but as a bondslave.
Down in verse 48 she says it again. "God in conceiving this child in her has regard for the humble state of His bondslave." She is in her own eyes a bondslave. She's just a young teen-aged girl chosen by God for a special service which she sees as service to God. She is humble, lowly and glad to be this kind of bondslave. So she says, "Let it be done to me according to your word." She understood the implications. She shows up pregnant, chaos, confusion, how did this happen? Joseph, what's he going to think? She doesn't even ask about Joseph, she leaves that to God. She doesn't say, "Well before I say yes to this deal, who's going to explain this to Joseph? Who's going to explain this to my mother and my father? Who's going to explain this to my friends and my neighbors? Who's going to explain this to the righteous people? Who's going to explain this to the parents of Joseph? Wait a minute, there's a lot at stake here. Who's going to explain to everybody that sees me that...and knows I'm not married and sees..." She doesn't ask any of that, she says, "You just do what You want, Lord, I'm Your slave. I leave the rest to You."
And you remember what happened, Matthew 1:20 to 25 says an angel went to Joseph. As soon as Joseph realized that she was pregnant, he immediately was devastated because he thought she was as pure as the driven snow, now she's pregnant, he knows he's never known her. He assumes the worst. He has the option to stone to her to death, or to divorce her. He decides to divorce her because he's merciful.
That night in a dream an angel comes to him and says, "Don't be afraid to take Mary as your wife, that which is conceived in her is by the Holy Spirit." Remember that? And Mary left all of that to God. You can take care of all the details, I submit. She just rested in God's purpose. And that's what you...that's what you want to know about Mary. When you want to know about Mary, think about submission, think about faith, think about believing the impossible, think about that just an incredible thing has been told and she humbly, simply believed it. Without any regard for all the implications, she rested in the purpose of God as a slave. That's the magnificence of Mary.
Perpetual virginity of Mary, that doctrine in the Catholic Church that she was a virgin till she died, Immaculate Conception, that she also was born by the Holy Ghost without a man, the doctrine of the Assumption of Mary, that she ascended into heaven without death, the doctrine of Mary as Co-redemptrix and co-mediatrix, all of those have only come or will come by Papal decree, they have nothing to do with the Bible.
You want to know how Mary understood herself, you find it right here in our text, don't you? She didn't say, "Behold the queen of heaven." She said, "Behold the bondslave of the Lord." She's nothing more than a bondslave. She says it again in verse 48, she's a bondslave. Verse 47 she says, "God is my Savior." She needed a Savior like everybody else. She was nothing but a servant. She was not a part of redemption. She was not sinless. She was a simple, humble little girl who was given a privilege. And as a servant she responded and said, "Let it be done to me according to your word."
And Mary surrendered, she submitted. And the story ends with this simple postscript, "And the angel departed from her." Mission accomplished, Gabriel went back to the presence of God. The God/Man was going to be born. The only begotten Son of God, Jesus, who would save His people from their sins, the divine Redeemer, the holy offspring, the divine King who would reign over a spiritual Kingdom that would last forever,
God's promises will be fulfilled. They were in Mary's life. God's power has no limit. It was demonstrated in her life. And God's people are always His instruments. That's what we learn from Mary. Don't worship Mary, she doesn't want worship. She would be appalled, she would be grieved if she knew it was happening. Mary tells us that God uses human instruments who are willing. That's the lesson of Mary. See her as a faithful, submissive, young girl who gave herself to whatever God wanted to do with her no matter how far beyond imagination it might be.
No matter what the risk, she believed in God's promise, in God's power and that she as God's servant could be used in such a way. God is still doing His work if not miraculously, visibly, miraculously spiritually through His people, isn't He?
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