I invite you to turn this morning to Luke chapter 1, Luke chapter 1, verses 26 through 38. Of Luke chapter 1, found on page 1016 in the Bibles that are in front of you. Shall we give our attention this morning to the wonderful word of the Lord?
In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph of the house of David, and the virgin's name was Mary. And he came to her and said, "Greetings, oh favored one, the Lord is with you." But she was greatly troubled at the saying and tried to discern what sort of greeting 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 call his name Jesus. 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, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end."
And Mary said to the angel, "How will this be, since I am a virgin?" 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. And behold, your relative Elizabeth, in her old age, has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who has been who was called barren for nothing will be impossible with God."
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.
May the Lord bless the hearing of his word.
Well, as we celebrate the birth of Christ and think about many of the surrounding details around all the accounts that are given here, especially in Luke, which is very detailed. One of the things I thought about is that often what the devil loves to do, what the evil one loves to do, is to corrupt the true meaning of things. He does this all the time. He has a playground. He works on certain doctrines. You can think of creation right out of the gates. He wanted to corrupt the doctrine of creation so that all we do is fight about it. What we see throughout the scriptures when we have major doctrines of Scripture that emphasize certain things he works hard to overturn them, to sideline them, to redirect them, and to confuse us as to what is the true meaning. And one of those figures where there has been great confusion is Mary herself. Mary, throughout history of the church, there have been ideas that have come, there have been teachings that have arisen that have tried to make her the object of worship herself, that she becomes the object of worship. She has been venerated to God-like status so that even to this day she is prayed to, she is worshiped, she is given as much adoration as the Savior himself.
What is believed about Mary in the Roman tradition is that she was sinless preserved from all sin, original and actual sin and through God's grace that led to the view of the what is called Immaculate Conception and her perpetual sanctity. Well, we're going to look a little bit at that today and see if this is anything that Mary understood about herself. You think you'd have with such great, grandiose claims about Mary, that she would have some conception of this herself. But we actually see the exact opposite.
What is the intention of Mary's story? That's the question that really, I think, is important for us to think about. What is the intention? What do we learn from Mary? What does Mary teach us? And why is she such an important figure?
We, as Protestants, don't want to overreact and downplay the important role of Mary in light of what has happened with Rome, but I want us to think about her special place and role in history as the one through whom the Messiah came. There's something beautiful here in the story of Mary, because what it really is if you look at this with any amount of detail and carefully, and push back the baggage that has been pushed upon us what we really see here is an example of how we are to receive grace. That's what stands out about Mary: how we are to receive the grace of God in receiving the Savior.
And in these narratives, I can't get over this major emphasis. It seems to me that what is most captured about mary and you can look carefully at this and be a good berean and study the scriptures and see if what is said is so. that what is captured here is the kind of heart and person that truly receives the gift of God to this world. That's what's highlighted. That's what's emphasized. That's what stands out about this remarkable woman. And that her position is meant to be an encouragement to all of God's people. Not that she stands out as sinless, but that she's a sort of prototype of how to receive the Gospel.
We see in Mary what believing the promise looks like. We see in Mary, wrapped up together, all in one, is receiving that promise too. Believing and receiving it. This is really a beautiful account in every way. And the believer is not called to worship her, but to study her and to see her response as the one through whom such blessing was given and how that challenges us to respond in the same way.
So it leads to this great question, I think, today as we come to this remarkable passage: Does any of that take root in our own lives and hearts? And what does true response to the Gospel look like? That's what she captures for us, and that's what I want to focus on this morning.
As we come to Luke and we take this particular section of Luke chapter 1, you'll notice here that the angel Gabriel, notice what is being shown here. We read in verse 26: "In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph of the house of David, and the virgin's name was Mary. And he came to her and said, notice, greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you." The Lord is with you.
What a beautiful statement. What a comforting statement. What an amazing statement.
The Roman Catholic translation, as they read it, says, "Mary, hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you." Hail, hail Mary, full of grace. Hail.
Well, it's important to wrestle through that. Protestants wouldn't use that translation. They properly, I believe, translated it: "Rejoice, highly favored one."
Because of the confusion of Rome when they said "full of grace, hail, as the Pope declared about Mary, what does "full of grace" mean? That Mary is filled with the presence of God. And then he says this: "There is no room within her for sin." That is a remarkable claim.
For all of us that get nervous about critiquing Rome and Roman Catholics, you need to understand what the Reformation reacted against. And this is one of those things: "There's no sin in her." That's the Pope. And so they kept building on that. "The more you say Hail Marys, the more you will have unity with Christ, because it is believed we are asking Mary to pray for all sinners. We're asking her to mediate to God for us."
Is that okay? Is that okay?
And I think to answer that, you have to begin to think about the question: Was that Mary's understanding? How did Mary look at this? With what eyes did she receive this in heart?
And if you study her prayer, her song, as we call it, Mary's song, you get language like this: "My soul exalts the Lord. My spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior, for he has regarded the humble state of his bondservant. He's scattered those who were proud in the thoughts of their hearts. He's brought down rulers from their thrones. He's exalted those who were humble. He's filled the hungry with good things."
All of that language, humble, hungry, is somebody who understands something about herself that is very crucial in considering Mary.
Now, Evangelicals go to other extremes, and they sing this song: "Mary, did you know? Mary, did you know?" That was popular in reform churches for a while. Mary knew a lot about herself. And mary had an understanding about herself and whatever she did know was explained by the angel here.
What we see in the study of the gospels and particularly right at the beginning of the gospel is something that should be so encouraging to us. Something, as I said, the devil has ransacked and lost sight of and pulled away from these glorious narratives: It is who he came to to a servant, in a no-name city of Nazareth, to a lowly virgin who was an absolute nobody.
That seems to be a striking thing. And what do we see when we study the Gospels? Well, we've been going through Matthew, and we've been looking at Matthew. We've seen all kinds of things in the Gospels. This overwhelming thing: that The Gospel comes to the lowly. that The Gospel comes to the disregarded. that The Gospel comes to the weak. that The Gospel comes to the vulnerable. that The Gospel comes to the sick, the blind, the lame, the deaf, the nobodies.
Capstones, you might say, with that woman who came and poured perfume on Jesus's feet, who was a sinner. So you have all these women in this long line here named Mary. I don't know about the providence of that, but it is interesting that all of these Marys who would come along capture something about reception. And that as the men and everyone criticized them, they're weeping over sin. They're breaking alabaster flasks and dumping their most prized possessions on him, to anoint him, because of an understanding.
Mary contrasts with the rich. That's her whole song. Read it. who have a hard time entering the kingdom. Not the poor, the rich. Not because of money. It's because of pride that comes with status that makes it hard for prideful people, incredibly hard to hear a message that they're spiritually impoverished, that they're empty. The rich never want to hear that kind of message, because they can't perceive it about themselves.
It says Luther said, "God has promised his grace to the humble, that is, to those who mourn, right? Blessed are those who mourn, right? Who mourn over and despair of themselves. But a man cannot be thoroughly humbled until he realizes that his salvation is beyond his own powers, counsels, efforts, will, and works, and depends absolutely on his salvation, the will, counsel, pleasure, and work of another, God alone," says Luther.
That sure seems to capture it. That sure seems to capture Mary, doesn't it?
These birth accounts are pressing us to see something of who receives divine grace that is really important: who receives it, who responds, who truly responds, and how would you know? And here it's the lowly, the needy, that God comes and favors with the Gospel.
That response is highlighted: "He came to her and said, greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you.
But what we read is important. Notice verse 29: "But she was greatly troubled at the saying and tried to discern what sort of greeting that might be." That's an important verse. She is deeply troubled that the angel would even speak to her this way.
That seems to be a very important point in how we look at Mary. The greeting was hard for her. Why would a greeting like this be hard for Mary?
Well, whatever the angel's describing, she knows she's not the one who should receive this kind of greeting. She's not the one who should ever receive this kind of greeting. It makes more sense, I suppose, if you believed you're sinless, right? That would make sense. She's troubled. This is not how she views things. She cannot comprehend why God would send an angel to speak to her this way.
"Favored" here means you have been highly favored by God with grace. It's the emphasis. It's It's a gracious response of god to her It's not an unfamiliar phrase in the bible it's been used throughout the old covenant and in history you remember we're at the time of the flood when god had determined to judge the world because of sin? You remember that that that shining verse in Genesis chapter 6: "But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord." So the Lord said to Moses, "I will do this very thing you have asked for. You have found grace. You have found favor in my sight, and I know you by name." Twice used. Psalm 84, speaking of all of God's people: "For the Lord God is a sun and shield. The Lord gives to his people grace and glory."
The whole message of the Gospel is just this: It is that by grace you have been saved through faith. By grace you have been saved. And it's a special truth for us. Do you understand grace? Do we do we grasp what grace is in our lives?
Grace is that favor of God, that favor of God that God rested upon us and gave to us without any view of anything intrinsic in us.
Let that set in just for a minute: that God never said, whenever he spoke of grace to people, he never said, "I've seen good in you. I've seen that you're so worthy of it. I've seen that you're from the right breed, the right family. I've seen how hardworking you are. I've seen how moral you are, that you're a good moral person, generally good in this life."
Grace would mean nothing. Grace would mean nothing. What is grace? It's the marvel of the Christian Gospel, beloved.
Intricately tied with grace is God's blessing. Many of the early manuscripts add here what Elizabeth says here a few verses later: "Blessed are you among women. Blessed are you."
And I think what's intended in this passage is to say: Sure, she has this peculiar blessing of all of history to be the one that every mother in Israel hoped to be, to be the one to bear the Messiah. Eve thought she got the Messiah in the birth of Cain, and he turned out to be a killer. It's a remarkable blessing. But I don't believe that it's ever intended to isolate Mary as if this blessing was not a blessedness that comes upon all his people as she's a prototype of how to receive it.
The overwhelming testimony of Scripture is: God chose to bless nobodies.
"Consider your calling, brethren," 1 Corinthians. This marveled the apostles as they proclaimed the Gospel. "Consider your calling, you, all of you, in life. Not many of you are wise according to worldly standards. Not many of you are powerful. Not many of you here are of noble birth. Who has a noble birth here? What name?"
God decided and God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise. God chose what is weak, think of Mary, to shame the strong.
Now, aren't we all proof of this? Who here is great? Who here is great? I always like to use my example. As a pastor, I was raised in Lemoore, right? Where were you raised? There's no kingly crown put on me. I have a theory that even with pastors, he chooses the weakest.
He chooses the weakest. What about your story? Who here is famous? Have you ever considered how rare that is, that God chooses famous people to bring into his kingdom? Really wise people in the world where are they?
I remember Michael Jordan used to say, "I just don't go to church because I don't want all the attention." I said, "That's a cop-out."
Think about that. All over the coins of that day roman coins were mighty empresses. So you'd have the the roman emperor on the front side of the coin and a great bust and magnificence. And on the back is the queen, the empress, with just garments... of I have some of these old coins, and it's amazing to see how they portray the empress.
He didn't choose the womb of an empress. Wouldn't you expect the Savior of the world? Wouldn't you expect the one through whom everything was made to choose the greatest womb in this life to enter, take on a humanity?
God chose a nobody, a sinner, for this gift. Satan wants to rob that message. The Gospel's right here.
When we consider Mary, we see his blessing that comes upon all of us.
Jesus used this language of blessedness frequently for all of His people. You think of the many ways it's said when He talked about the great peoples of the world not receiving. And then He would turn to His disciples. And you know what He would say? He would say this: "But blessed are your eyes. Your eyes are blessed to be the vessels to see Jesus. And your ears. A womb. Ears. Your heirs are blessed to be the vessels to hear the word of God. You are blessed," Jesus would say.
"Simon, blessed, happy, favored by God are you, because flesh and blood did not reveal any of this to you, but my Father who is in heaven, your profession, through the mouth, came The profession of Jesus. The blessedness of God rested upon your lips," you see.
"Blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are the meek. Blessed are those whose transgressions are forgiven. Blessed are you."
You see why I say something is captured here that all the Gospels continue to propagate and continue to show us for God's people? That she teaches us of what grace looks like in the lives of God's people.
Now, a great question somebody might ask is: How do I know that that blessedness has come upon me? Some live in doubt. Some live doubting, and maybe even wrestling with the doctrine of election God chose.
Look at Mary.
This is where Mary helps us. She shows us who God considers.
Over my years in ministry, there's one response that I've witnessed over and over in God's people. And you know this response. And this response is evident that you're responding as Mary responded: When someone knows who they are, and someone knows what they are, when someone knows what they've done, when someone knows the course of their life, and they've considered all those things, and then they consider this kind of announcement,
What is the right response What is not the right response is indifference. What is not the right response is disregard. What is not the right response is hardness of heart that sees God or worship or all this as a burden. Yeah, something's wrong with that. It would be the most unnatural response to be indifferent to the blessedness that is described here.
What is Mary's response? "Why would you speak to me that way? Why me? Why me?"
And behind that response is a deep understanding of what and who and how we have been to God. We've been awful to Him. We've lived lives full of sin. We've run our own way. We pursue all kinds of things: addiction, sins. And you see, when grace is given to somebody, there's one response: Marvel.
"Why would you consider me? Why would you consider me?"
And think of all the good things God has said to you: "I have loved you with an everlasting love. Therefore, I have continued my faithfulness upon you," Jeremiah 31.
Only the heart that does not believe is indifferent to a statement like that, right?
"Why me? Why would I find grace?"
And the only answer that God gives us is: because of the good pleasure of his will, he chose you. He chose you and blessed you and decided to a nobody to give every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places to you.
Is he not speaking to you that way right now? This is where it comes to faith, doesn't it?
Now, what's Escondido doing right now? I'm sad. I'm sad that this city is not listening to this right now. I'm sad that so many would be careless about the Sabbath, to not come and worship God.
But the question is: What is he doing for you right now? He's blessing you.
Every response highlighted in the gospel beginning with mary understood every response. When we see in the Gospel of this blessedness, what do we see from the people who received it? All wonder that God would consider us. And that's the response of faith, beloved.
You have a gift of grace that has been given to you. God blessed you. You think of the baptism this morning. He put a sign already on the Velasquez's children. We are always to teach our children about baptism. That's evidence of blessedness. God has favored you from the beginning.
If you just look at your life, can you not testify to it? And what have you been like? What have you done? And what do you still do?
God is not even stingy with these good gifts. He gives it all freely.
When she's trying to answer this, the angel angel Gabriel responds: "Mary, do not be afraid, for you found favor with God."
That's the starting point of all celebration of receiving the Messiah, right? You you have found favor with God.
See what the devil wants to do, what Rome has done, is take it all away that was just for mary and he's robbed us of what she teaches us: You are favored with grace. and God decided, in his love, to give this blessedness to you.
"Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great. He will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord your God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end."
What a promise! And what a gift! That's the greatest announcement today. She's scared. She's confused. She's perplexed. She's wondering how God could even consider her, and he just announces: that "I'm giving you the Messiah you He's the Savior. He's the Son of God. He's the promised King to david the son of the Most High. will be great."
Every promise that was made throughout the bible here take shape and comes to fulfillment. And Mary is so taken with this, she's overwhelmed with this. This is not a question of unbelief, like Zachariah: "How could this be?" And she's in the angel says, "Your child will be conceived by the Holy Spirit, won't be through your husband. He's coming upon your womb, will overshadow the womb. So the virgin will conceive and bear the Messiah truly human truly God, sinless."
This is the heart of what we celebrate today: God's gift to the world. He's carried all your sorrows. He's carried all your burdens. He's carried all your sins right to the cross and atoned for them and blessed you.
I want you to think in closing now, as we close this out.
A lowly virgin, a woman from Nazareth, hears this overwhelming announcement. What's her response?
"Then Mary said, behold, I am the servant of the Lord. Let it be according to your word.
What is that? Faith. "I believe your word. I am your servant This is everything the scriptures press us to to receive the gift. I believe your word. I'm a servant in response."
One day Jesus was out on a mission. You know he met the first Roman Catholic? Did you know that?
As Jesus was saying these things, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said, "Blessed is the womb that bore you, and blessed are the breasts that nursed you."
Someone got all excited about Mary, started to make her co-redemptics with Christ.
But he replied, It's a rebuke: "Yea, rather. blessed rather, blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it."
That's how Mary responded. In faith, she heard the word. She believed it. She obeyed it. She leaves us the testimony here for us to believe too.
Here's the best news: If you've come to believe the Gospel, the blessing of the Lord that has come upon you is no different. The Lord says the same to his people all throughout the Scriptures.
Deuteronomy 7: "Rejoice, highly favored ones. The Lord is with you. Blessed are you, Deuteronomy 7:14, among all peoples. Blessed are you, Deuteronomy 7, 14, among all peoples. You have found grace in the eyes of the Lord."
And today God has given you his Son.
We learn from Mary the blessing of God that results through faith. Mary's not the dispenser. She's the receiver the prototype receiver of grace.
Blessed are you. Here's my gift. You don't have to pay me back, says the Lord. Receive it in faith like Mary did. Receive it in faith. Believe my word that I have spoken.
May we respond with Mary: "Blessed be the Lord, for he has done mighty and wonderful things for me." That's for you too.
Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, thank you for the example of what Mary shows us. Thank you for giving us the Savior. Thank you for blessing us when we don't deserve any of it. Why us, O Lord? Why us? We are in awe at your love. We are in awe at your favor upon us, your people. And so we respond today with this gift: May it be so according to your word. May we believe that word, obey that word, trust that Trust your word that is spoken. Thank you for doing wonderful things for us.
In Jesus' name, amen.