Speaker: Putting Mary in her place, maybe wondering what in the
world is, is this gonna be about.
We have to deal with the history of Mary and the church, and if you've
got any familiarity with the Catholic church, maybe you've come outta
the Catholic Church, maybe you have attended the Catholic church recently.
The Catholic Church has created a lot of confusion around the figure of, of Mary.
This is a, a drawing, this is a work of art.
Done.
Within the last century by a Catholic nun, uh, here in the United States, and
I, I appreciate a lot of it in, in that.
You've got Eve on the one side who is looking ashamed and, and she's holding
the forbidden fruit in her hand there.
And you've got the serpent wrapped around her leg and she's coming to Mary
and she's looking longingly at clearly what is the child in Mary's womb there?
Mary and Eve, two interesting figures in scripture.
But even as we look at this picture, we see some of what has happened here
with the, the false understanding of Mary, because you'll look and see
that Mary is actually the one who is crushing the head of the serpent
here in the picture, as you'll look underneath the foot of Mary there.
And the problem with that is the promise was not that Mary would crush the head
of the serpent, but that the offspring of Eve would crush the head of the serpent.
That one that would ultimately yes, come through, Mary would, but the problem
is we've taken Mary and we've done.
Things that Mary was never intended to, to accomplish.
We've, we've looked to her for, for things that we shouldn't look to her.
For example, this is a book that was written by a Catholic father.
Uh, it says, Mary, mother of Jesus.
The Catholic's guide to the Life, faith and Devotion of Mary.
If you've been paying attention to the news recently, you may have found
the Vatican's statement regarding Mary's title as Cox, where they came
out and said, in, in this case, the expression Cox, that is co redeemer.
Does not help extol notice that language there does not help extol, which means
to praise Mary as the first and foremost collaborator in the work of redemption and
grace for it carries the risk of eclipsing the role of Jesus Christ into that.
I can only say duh, right?
Uh, Mary is not a Cox.
Uh, Mary is also not to be extolled.
Mary is not a collaborator in the process of the grace and redemption of humanity.
That said, I do think as the church, we have to ask the
question, what do we do with Mary?
What should we do with Mary?
If, on the one hand, the Catholic Church has aired by making too much
of Mary, I, I might suggest, and I'd like to suggest this morning
that we as the Protestant Church.
Have potentially not considered Mary enough.
And I want us to think about Mary this morning from Luke chapter one, and as
we consider the interaction between Mary and Gabriel, I want us to look to
Mary as an example for us this morning.
I want us to look to Mary this morning to walk away and be reminded
that this Christmas, maybe we need to be a little bit more like Mary,
at least in a few of these ways.
So take your Bibles open up to Luke chapter one.
We're gonna begin together in verse 26.
Luke one verse 26 says this, 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, O 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.
Luke begins here in the sixth month.
Now, context before this, we've seen the angel show up to Zechariah, who
would be the father of John the Baptist and announced to Jack Zechariah that
Zechariah, your wife, is going to conceive and, and you are going to
have a son, Zechariah, and that son is going to to go before the the Messiah.
He's gonna be.
Forerunner and Zechariah responded and said, how is that even gonna be possible
for my wife is beyond childbearing age, and I, myself am am an old man.
And, and the angel said, well, you're not gonna be able to speak as assigned
to you until this child is born.
So the context here, when we read it in the sixth month, is that the, it's
the sixth month of the pregnancy of Elizabeth Mary's family member there.
And so during the sixth month, the, the angel Gabriel now comes to
announce another impending birth, but this time he comes to Mary.
And it says Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth.
Uh, the, the word sent from God is the verbal form of the word angel.
It means sent one angel Anglos in the Greek messenger or sent one.
So he's dispatched from the presence of God to Mary with a message, and it
says to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph of the house of
David, and the Virgin's name was Mary.
Uh, we find a word here in the text that causes some to stumble
over, and that is the word virgin.
And some have argued, well, this should be read as the word young
woman instead of the word virgin.
But in the Greek, the word parthenons 13 or rather, excuse me, 14 outta
15 times that it shows up in the New Testament means virgin in the traditional
understanding of the word virgin.
That this is a young woman who had never known a man intimately, who had never been
in that sort of a relationship with a man.
And so the angel comes to her, this virgin young girl, probably
anywhere from 14 to 16 years old at this point in Jewish society.
That was normal marriageable age for these young girls.
And she comes or the angel comes to her in, in.
She was betrothed that says in the text to a man whose name was, was Joseph.
Joseph's an interesting character for us in scripture.
We don't know a whole lot about Joseph.
We know very little about Joseph.
In fact, it seems that Joseph disappeared from the life of Jesus
at an early age that he probably passed away while Jesus was young.
What we do know about Joseph, though we read part of it here,
that he was of the house of David.
That's gonna be significant for us because Jesus, as the promised Messiah,
had to come in the lineage of David.
This is also significance because Jesus was going to be born,
according to Micah, the prophecy in the town of Bethlehem, of Roha.
That was the city of David.
And so Joseph's lineage here being of the house of David, holds weight for us.
And so we do know that.
So that's significant.
And it's even noted here.
The other things we know about.
Joseph come from other gospels.
For example, in Matthew one 19, we read that Joseph was a righteous man.
Uh, that that's a simple statement, but is noteworthy for us.
And being a righteous man when he found out about Mary's pregnancy,
realizing this isn't my son that you're having, uh, he thought, what ev.
Anyone would think at the time and thought, okay, well I
need to end this relationship.
But he didn't want to shame Mary publicly.
And so being a righteous man, he sought to set her aside quietly.
But then the angel showed up to Joseph and told Joseph, Joseph,
no, take her as your wife.
This child is from the Lord.
This child is from God.
And so we find out from Matthew 1 24 that Joseph was a man of faith, and so Joseph
is going to be Jesus' adopted father.
Mary is gonna be Jesus' mother, and she is this virgin who is betrothed to Joseph.
The word betrothed is, is one that is a little bit stronger than our,
our concept of engagement here.
It's not full-blown marriage, but it is, it is a process that
culminates in marriage and it's, uh, essentially guaranteed that
this is gonna be what happens here.
And so this is a, a relationship where you have these two young Israelites
who are planning their lives together.
You've got young Mary who's thinking about being married to Joseph, this poor
Jewish carpenter, and she's thinking about their babies that they're gonna
have and what their life is gonna be like.
And all of a sudden, here comes an angel.
And the angel Gabriel shows up to Mary, this young teen girl, and
she's greeted this way by the angel.
Greetings.
He says, oh, favored one, the Lord is with you.
Greetings, oh, favored.
One, meaning greetings, blessed of the Lord.
Greetings you who have received kindness and grace from God.
And first Peter, we talked about how when we suffer well, that it's a
gracious thing in the sight of God.
In other words, that there are things, there are ways that we can
conduct ourselves in this life that catch the eye of God, so to speak.
I think we can assume that God saw something about Mary here that
caused him to say, she's the one.
She's the one now.
Yes.
We know from the sovereign perspective of God that Mary was chosen for this role
from before the foundations of the earth.
But Mary was chosen for this role because of the life that
she was living at the time.
Notice God would come to redeem Mary Magdalene, but he didn't
choose Mary Magdalene to be the one to carry the Christ child.
He came to Mary, he came to this young virgin teenage Israelite
girl who was betrothed to Joseph.
Uh, again, Mary's planning her life and here comes this greeting
from this angel, and it says in the text that she was greatly troubled.
As any of us would be.
She was greatly troubled.
It's a word that is more than just perplexed or confused.
She's overwhelmed.
She's afraid at this greeting.
She's terrified at the presence of the angel in front of her.
She's trying to discern what sort of greeting this might be.
She had no paradigm for this.
Part of our struggle at Christmas time is to get ourselves out of the
familiarity that we have with the Bible.
I is to try to read it afresh again, to try to come to the story that we've heard.
If you've been in the church since you were knee high to a grasshopper, right.
To, to try to come to this story that is so familiar, that has been
commercialized and told time and time again and, and to read it afresh.
And so I just want you to, to think this morning, like Mary would've
thought at this time to put yourselves in the shoes of Mary and to realize,
man, of course, she would've been alarmed by this because she had no
way to understand what was going on.
No paradigm to understand what was happening here.
But again, greetings, O favored one.
What did that mean?
Why?
Why was Mary favored?
God chose Mary for this role.
She caught his eye and drew his favor.
And we're gonna read between the lines a little bit here, but I hope you'll
indulge me in that Mary, I don't believe, was waiting for God to tap her on the
shoulder to say, okay, I want to use you, so you need to be ready for me to use you.
Now, I, I, I believe that Mary was already living in such a way
that she was ready for God to use.
Her, I believe Mary was, was prepared.
I believe what we're gonna see even as we continue in our study, that Mary
had a knowledge of the word of God.
I believe that she was a great woman of faith.
I believe that she was submissive to the will of the, the, the
Father, and that she was willing to follow him no matter what happened.
Mary was a righteous woman.
Mary was ready and already prepared to be used by God when the angel showed up.
And so this Christmas, I wanna ask you, are you ready to be used by God?
Like Mary was ready to be used by God?
That's our first point this morning.
It's this be available for God like Mary.
Be available for God like Mary.
Now, none of you are gonna have an angel show up and tap you on
the shoulder and say, greetings.
Oh, favor one.
The Lord is with you.
But think about this.
You have an advantage sitting here and being ready for the Lord to
use you that Mary didn't have.
Okay?
You have a leg up on Mary here.
Think about it.
Mary is gonna carry the son of God to full term.
And give birth to him.
She's gonna swaddle him.
She's gonna rock him to sleep.
She's gonna soothe him.
When he cries.
She is going to take him by the hand and lead him to and fro.
She's gonna help him reach things that were too high for him.
She's gonna teach him how to count.
And yet, as far as being prepared for the Lord to use us, we have something
today that Mary wouldn't have had herself for another three decades.
What you and I have this morning is we have the Holy Spirit dwelling
within us if we're in Christ.
Mary didn't have that at this point.
She had the Son of God come to take up gestational residence with him in her
for nine months, but even that was not what you and I have in the presence
of the Holy Spirit dwelling within us.
Let me point you back to to John chapter 16, verses five through seven.
You don't have to turn there, lemme just read it for you.
Jesus is getting ready to leave.
He's gonna go to the cross, and then he's gonna go rise from the dead and then he
is gonna ascend to be with the Father.
And the disciples are upset about this.
And so Jesus says this, I'm going to him who sent me and none of
you asks me where are you going?
But because I've said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart.
Nevertheless, I tell you the truth, it's to your advantage.
The son of God, Jesus in the flesh is telling his followers, his disciples.
It's to your advantage that I go away for if I do not go away.
The helper that is the Holy Spirit will not come to you.
But if I go away, I will send him to you.
Can't remember the, the first one to say it, um, but it's been coined recently.
The spirit inside you is better than Jesus beside you.
And Mary had the son of God take up residence within her womb for nine
months, and yet you having the spirit dwelling within you, you've got a
leg up and being ready for God to use you more than Mary did at this time.
Why?
Well, what does the Spirit do for us?
The Spirit informs our consciences.
The spirit convicts us of sin.
The spirit strengthens us for obedience.
The spirit ensures that we are going to endure in our faith.
The Spirit is the guarantee of our future with Jesus.
The Spirit is the one who helps us discern wisdom from Folly.
The Spirit is the one who illuminates our understanding of the Bible, our
understanding of God's word as we read it.
The Spirit guides us and leads us in our decision making.
The Spirit equips us to serve the church.
The body of Christ and the Spirit unites us together as
believers in the body of Christ.
See, we have all of that happening through the gift of the spirit within us.
And that's why Jesus said, it's to your advantage that I go away, because if I
go away, I'm gonna give you the spirit.
And this is what the Spirit is gonna do for us.
And so church, we have an advantage that Mary didn't have in being ready for the
Lord to use us, and yet it's good for us to consider how Mary was set up for this.
Again, I, I, I believe that the Catholic church has gone too far.
In the veneration, the Worship of Mary, and, and yet I also think it's
wise for us to think, I, I don't think God just randomly chose someone for
the task of carrying the Christ child for those nine months to full term.
Mary, it seems as a godly young girl who was living a life that
availed herself to God's selection.
And the question is, are you, whatever you hope to see God do this
Christmas through you, are you living in such a way that you're ready
for God to use you towards that?
There's so much that we have to speculate again, but, but lemme just
suggest a few things about Mary that I think we can probably assume safely.
I, I don't think Mary had pockets of Unconfessed secret sin in her
life when the angel Gabriel showed up to say, greetings of favored one.
I, I, I don't think Mary was inconsistent in showing up at the synagogue.
To learn from, from the, the teaching of the scriptures when
the angel showed up to her and said, greetings of, of favored one.
I don't think Mary was just kind of moving through her day on autopilot
without really thinking about God until the next Sabbath, when the angel showed
up and said, greetings of favored one.
I imagine Mary was probably praying for the coming of the Messiah
when the angel showed up and said, greetings so favored one.
And oh, by the way, about the coming of the Messiah.
I believe Mary probably was thinking about her future family and praying
about her marriage to Joseph and praying about the family that God would give her.
See, I think Mary was a godly young woman, and so when the Lord came to use her,
she was ready to be used by the Lord.
Are we ready to be used by the Lord?
How's your holiness this Christmas season doing?
How's your, your, are you examining your life?
Are you able to say, look, as, as far as I know, I don't see anything
in me that I need to rid my life of.
I, I know I'm a broken sinner and I know I do sin, but I'm, I'm
keeping short accounts with God.
I'm getting rid of sin because I wanna be ready for the Lord to use me.
How's your time in the word right now?
Are you consistent in God's word?
I, I know the season, it's the, well, I'll start it up again next year, season.
Let's not do that.
Let's get in God's word right now.
You don't have to wait.
God's not like, well, you missed the cutoff.
You can't.
You can't read the Bible anymore until January 1st.
Then read the Bible.
Jump in.
Jump in with us right now in our chronological reading
plan, or find a reading plan.
The Dwell Bible app is a great resource for you on that.
It's an audio bible.
You can listen to it.
They've got week long plans, they've got month long plans.
Get in God's Word.
How's your time in prayer doing right now?
Are you cultivating a relationship with God?
Are you wanting God to use you and yet God hasn't heard from
you in the last three months?
Are you communicating with him?
Are you talking to him?
Are you availing yourself to him?
How's your confidence that that God is going to do something this Christmas?
Do you have people in your life that you're thinking, man, I, I wanna see God
move in this person's heart in this life.
I wanna see God soften them.
I wanna see God save them.
Are you confident that God can do that this Christmas?
How's your contentment this Christmas?
Are you content with the things that God has given you?
Are you happy with what the Lord is doing right now in your life
because you know that he's sovereign and he's good over your life?
Paul writes in Second Timothy chapter two, verse 21, about the
difference between an honorable vessel and a dishonorable vessel.
And he says this in two Timothy 2 21.
He says, therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he
will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of
the house, and ready for every good work.
That's who we want to be.
Church.
We want to be a church full of honorable vessels set apart, useful
to the Lord for every good work.
Are we ready for the Lord to use us?
My family and I, we've, we've got one of those outdoor fire pits.
Which are great.
The problem is it doesn't fit a full log.
Right.
And so I have to break up the logs, and that started with this wood
splitter that my in-laws bought me.
But the problem was the wood splitter wasn't super sharp and
I didn't have a sledgehammer.
So I'm using a regular hammer and a log on this wood splitter,
and it's just not working okay.
It just, it, it is not going well.
It was regressive sanctification, if I can put it that way.
So I was like, I gotta get something different.
So I went out and, and being cheap, I bought a cheap axe.
I was like, this thing is an axe ax is to all chop wood,
so I'll just buy a cheap axe.
So I brought the cheap axe home and it did better than the wood
splitter, but it still was not great.
It was not doing a good job.
I'm surprised to have all my limbs still.
It was kinda one of those deals.
And then my dad got me a Milwaukee Axe, like a, a good sharp axe.
And so I opened that thing.
I cut myself through by looking at it like that's how sharp this thing was.
And I started using that and it just cuts it like butter.
And it's like, man, I needed this thing the whole time.
So now when it's time for a fire pit outside, I think to myself, okay,
I'm not gonna use the wood splitter.
I'm not gonna use the dull axe.
I need my, my sharp axe.
I know the tool I need to use for the job, and that tool is always
gonna be ready for me to use it.
Are we the sharp acts for God this Christmas?
Are you ready for him to do what he wants to do in and through
you this Christmas season?
Are you preparing yourself to be used by God?
Like Mary?
Mary was initially troubled at the Angels greeting, but then Gabriel kept going
and if she was troubled at Oh favored one, she hadn't heard anything yet.
Verse 30 we pick up and it says this.
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 and he will be great and will be called the son of the most high.
And the Lord God will give him, 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.
So Mary's troubled and the angel greets her and says, do not be afraid.
Do not be afraid for you have found favor with God.
That's the the repetition.
Greetings, oh favored one.
Do not be afraid.
For you have found favor with God.
You have found grace with God.
You have found kindness from God.
And then he goes on to explain things, he says, and behold, you will
conceive in your womb and bear a son and you shall call his name Jesus.
The net Bible, the new English translation puts it very frankly,
you will become pregnant and give birth to a son once more.
Consider Mary's perspective in all of this.
We read this through our eyes.
Having be been so familiar with the, the birth story of Jesus for so long,
we think, well, of course, yeah.
Mary's gonna give birth the, the Virgin Mary.
It's okay though, because the Holy Spirit's gonna overshadow her.
Of course, you know, but she, she's not there yet.
At this point, young teenage Mary is thinking about the fact that
she wants to be married to Joseph and have a family with Joseph.
And, and, and she knows how all of that works, I'm sure, because her mom and
dad sat her down and talked about the birds and the bees and, and yes, she's
planning to become a mom, but not yet.
And here's this angel that says you're going to conceive in your womb and bear a
son, and you're gonna call his name Jesus.
A name that meant the Lord saves.
At this point in time, the shock is there and, and yet the shock
is, is more about the conception of a child when she's a virgin.
'cause the, the name Jesus that we know as, as so unique was, was not
all that uncommon at the, the day.
It's the, the New Testament form of the word Joshua.
The name Joshua means the Lord saves.
So, so far there's a lot to be puzzled by and troubled by.
But, but yet not the, the shocking blow is about to come.
Okay.
And, and that's when he goes on.
He will be called great or he will be great and called the son of the most high.
Okay?
Now the emergency breaks are firing in Mary's mind all of a sudden, because
this idea that he's going to be the son of the most high, the, the title most
high was a, a title reserved for God.
Was re reserved for Yahweh in the Israelite understanding.
And so now this Jewish teenage girl is hearing that she's going to have
a baby that's troubling enough.
And, and, and now that this baby is going to be the son of
God, the son of the most high.
And then he goes on and he says this.
And the Lord will give to him the, 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.
Okay.
So.
Mary's wrestling and wrapping her mind around the hypostatic union, all of
a sudden that there's gonna be true humanity, true deity, and, and, and she's
gonna carry this child that's gonna be somehow the son of God, but also her son.
Uh, and, and not Joseph's, at least not biologically.
And, and now the angel is, is just dropping all kind of messianic theology.
He says he's gonna give to him the throne of his father.
David.
This is looking back to the promise made to David during the Davidic Covenant
in two Samuel chapter seven, that David would one day have a child that would
sit on his throne and reign forever and ever, and that's where he goes on.
He will reign over the house of Jacob that is the house of Israel
forever and of his kingdom.
There will be no end.
Right.
This goes back even to Isaiah chapter nine, like we looked at a
couple weeks ago that he was gonna reign forever and ever, that he was
gonna be the eternal father, right?
He's the, the everlasting one that he's gonna have this kingdom.
This goes back to even Daniel chapter two and Daniel chapter two.
You've got Nebuchadnezzar's Dream and Nebuchadnezzar's Dream was this
statue with these four empires.
And then after that he, he saw a Fifth Kingdom.
And the fifth Kingdom, remember, was a stone that was cut from a mountain and
the stone came in and destroyed this statue of these four earthly kingdoms.
And that fifth kingdom, that stone was established forever and ever,
and its end would never come.
And, and now Mary is hearing the angel announcing all of these
things, the fulfillment of the Davidic covenant, the fulfillment
of Isaiah nine, Daniel chapter two.
All of this messianic theology is just being unloaded on this.
Young teenage Israelite woman.
We're gonna see here in just a moment through Mary's response, which is the
Magnifico of Mary, beginning in verse 46.
Mary knew her scriptures very well, and so even as the angel is unloading all of
this to her, as overwhelming as it was for this young girl, I don't think her
problem was in sitting there and saying, wait a minute, can Who was David again?
Um, hold on a second.
Can you explain about this kingdom that's not gonna end?
I don't think Mary was there.
I think Mary was understanding everything that the angel told her,
and that was just adding to her feeling of how is this even possible?
You know, what we see in Mary, I believe, and, and I'm gonna get there in, in
verse 46 through 56 in just a minute with us, but I think we see a young
woman who knew her scripture, who knew her Bible, who knew the word of God.
Thoroughly.
And so another way that we should be like Mary this Christmas is by being
like Mary in our understanding and knowledge of the word of God too.
Second point together is this.
Know your Bible thoroughly, like Mary.
Know your Bible thoroughly.
Like Mary.
You may be looking back at our passage and going, okay, but Pastor
pj, where does it say that Mary understood all of these things?
It doesn't in the text, it just is the angel announcing these things.
Where does it say that Mary was tracking with him?
Well, that's where I want us to go to verse 46, if you will.
So in Luke chapter one, you're already there.
Just look down the page at verse 46.
This is Mary's response after her interaction with Elizabeth.
Again, we've read it during our, our.
Scripture reading together.
But it says this, uh, Mary said, my soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices
in God, my savior, for he has looked upon the humble estate of his servant.
For behold, from now on, all generations will call me blessed, for he who is
mighty, has done great things for me.
And holy is his name.
His mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation.
He has shown strength with his arm.
He has scattered the proud and the thoughts of their hearts.
He has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted
those of humble estate.
He has filled the hungry with good things and the rich he has sent away empty.
He has helped his servant Israel in remembrance of his mercy as he
spoke to our fathers to Abraham and to his offspring forever.
And Mary remained with her about three months and returned to her home.
I want you to think about these statements that Mary makes in this magnifica here
and, and there are so many Old Testament allusions to what she is saying here, as
Mary is praising God in response to the news that she's gonna give birth to the
Christ child, and then seeing Elizabeth and Elizabeth's pregnancy as well,
she's making these statements that have running behind them, all sorts of Old
Testament illusions and connections here.
This is just a part of it that you see here up on the screen.
There's more as we go through it, as well as it continues to
unpack statement after statement.
But I want you to look at the last one in remembrance of his mercy
as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and his offspring forever.
When the angel was talking to Mary, when Gabriel was talking to Mary and
he said, you know what, he's gonna sit on the throne of his father, David,
and he's gonna reign over the house of Jacob forever and of his kingdom.
There's gonna be no end.
You know what the angel didn't mention, he didn't mention anything
about the Abraham of Covenant.
He didn't mention anything about the promises made to Abraham.
And so exhibit A as far as our evidence of how we know that Mary
was a woman who knew her scriptures thoroughly and deeply, 'cause she's
understanding what's happening here as a fulfillment of Genesis 12 three.
The Apostle Paul says in Galatians that Genesis 12, three was the
gospel preached to Abraham.
Genesis 12 three says this, I will bless those who bless
you and him who dishonors you.
I will curse.
And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.
Mary's words in remembrance of his mercy as he spoke to our fathers, to
Abraham and his offspring forever.
Mary knew the Bible.
She knew her.
Scriptures Do we know our scriptures?
Like Mary knows, knew her?
Scriptures.
We have such an advantage over her too in that we're holding the Bible in our hands.
Charles Spurgeon had a great respect for and esteem for John Bunion.
And Charles Spurgeon said this about John Bunion.
At one point he said, I would quote John Bunion as an instance of what I mean, read
anything of his, and you will see that it is almost like reading the Bible itself.
He had read it till his very soul was saturated with scripture.
And though his writings are charming and full of poetry, yet he cannot
give us his pilgrim's progress.
That sweetest of all prose poems without continual, continually making
us feel and say, why this man is a living Bible prick him anywhere.
In his blood is biline.
The very essence of the Bible flows from him.
He cannot speak without quoting a text.
For his very soul is full of the word of God.
I commend his example to you, beloved.
That's amazing that we, we should long to have people tell us that,
that that's how they view us.
We just long to have somebody say to us, man, I feel like every time I talk to
you, you're pointing me to scripture.
I feel like every time I listen to you, I'm hearing the word of God
from your mouth that we would bleed.
Biline
Mary knew her God because she knew the scriptures, and so is the angel saying
he's gonna be the, the the one that's gonna sit on the throne of his father,
David, and he's gonna reign over the house of Jacob forever and of his kingdom.
There will be no end, I don't think Mary was trying to play
catch up with these things.
I think Mary knew.
All about this.
I think what Mary's trying to do is understand how could it be me?
How can I be the one to be the, the one that's gonna carry the Christ child?
Part of her readiness, again, was her knowledge of the scripture.
And maybe you're wondering, well, how did Mary know all of these things?
She didn't have the scrolls at home, she didn't have the Bible,
so how did she know these things?
Well, young Israelite women were not permitted to go through what
was known as the Sabbath school, but or the synagogue school.
But they could go and attend synagogue lectures.
They could listen to the teachings.
They could be there to hear the, the rabbis teach the scriptures.
And so clearly Mary had been doing that and doing that with some regularity.
But beyond that, I think we need to understand that, that Mary probably
had a very godly mom and dad at home who taught her these things
from the time that she was little.
Who put the word of God in front of her from the time that she was little
and reminded her of these things.
But we know later on that that Mary was, was thoughtful.
She was contemplative.
In Luke chapter two, verse 19, it says, Mary treasured up all these
things, pondering them in her hearts.
Later on in Luke chapter two, verse 51, it says, he went down with them and came
up to Nazareth and was submissive to them.
This is after they had lost Jesus.
Oh no, we lost Jesus.
I was in my father's house.
And then it says, and his mother treasured up all these things in her heart.
Seems that Mary was a contemplative individual.
She was thoughtful, she was intentional to read the things and
and to treasure them in her heart.
But again, y'all just like in point number one, we have such a
great advantage over Mary today.
Can you imagine if Mary showed up today and you handed her one of these
and she could get past the fact that this thing exists, and then you showed
her that little tiny square icon on your screen that says you version,
and you said, Mary, tap that button.
And imagine the shock when she taps that button in the full corpus of God's word is
opened up on that screen in front of her.
Can you imagine?
How much she would be in awe of the access to God's word that you and I enjoy today.
Can you imagine how much she would just think you are the most privileged
people on the face of the planet?
Yeah.
I was able to carry the word of God.
You have the word of God in your pocket on your phone.
You have the word of God in your hands in the Bible.
What are we doing with it?
It's, it's, it's, we have an embarrassment of riches when
it comes to God's word, y'all.
The, the, the, the commentaries, the books, the, the 2000 years of
spiritual giants whose shoulders we stand upon as the church today.
And understanding the things of God's word.
Being able to listen to a sermon at, at the touch of a button on a phone.
Being able to read the Bible at any time that we want to, and
yet so often we don't want to,
we're bored by it.
Ah, it's there.
I, you know what?
I'm saved by grace through faith, and, and when I get to heaven, then
I'll care about spiritual things.
Will we, will you,
man?
Two thoughts emerge as I think about Mary's example here.
Number one, are you as hungry for God's word as she was?
I mean, you have it.
You've got it.
She had to go to the synagogue, and even then she was limited
based on the fact that she was a, a young Jewish girl from her access.
At that point, you have it in your hands, you have it in,
in, in your, on your phone.
The entire corpus of God's written revealed word takes up less than
like 50 megabytes on your phone.
That would've been unfathomable to somebody even 50 years
ago, let alone Mary's time.
Are you as hungry for the word as she was?
Second, I, I wanna challenge us as, as parents, grandparents
in the room, aunts and uncles.
Are you imparting the word of God and the knowledge of the word of
God to those that are younger?
Are you commending the next generation?
Are you telling them so that they will grow up knowing the promises of God?
Knowing the word of God as well?
You've heard us talk about it a couple times.
You heard it during announcements again this morning.
The DBR is a great way for you to jump in and get started and, and
start taking in more of God's word.
So I wanna challenge you and, and ask you, commit to that with us this next year.
Be a part of it with us.
Go through the whole thing with with us next year.
And, and if you miss a day, get back on the horse tomorrow, jump back in, get back
into the word of God, and, and keep going.
It is the greatest investment you will make in 2026, is to
know your Bible more thoroughly.
And here's just a few thoughts as as to why.
Number one, you'll be more ready for God to use you, because you will know
his word better than you did this year.
Number two, you're, you're gonna be better attuned to the the leading of the spirit.
As you start to think more biblically, you'll be able to make wiser
choices, in other words, number three, you're gonna be better armed
against the attacks of the enemy.
The more you ingest God's word and the more you take up the sword of the
spirit, you will be better able to defend yourself against the attacks of the enemy.
And then finally, number four, you're gonna be a better husband.
You're gonna be a better wife.
You're gonna be a better son.
You're gonna be a better daughter, a better friend, a better coworker, a
better boss, because the fruit of the spirit is gonna begin to grow in the
fertile soil of a word filled heart.
Get into the God's word next year.
It is the most important investment you can make in 2026.
Know your word like Mary knew hers.
The angel continues.
Well, Mary, uh uh, rather Mary interrupts the angel and says,
how can this be verse 34.
How will this be since I am a virgin?
It's a legitimate question Mary, 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 was called barren.
For nothing will be impossible with God.
And Mary said, behold, I am the servant of the Lord.
Let it be done to me according to your word.
And the angel departed from her.
Mary, I think, gets out.
The only question she knows how to get out at this point, which is just the tip
of the iceberg of what I'm sure were a thousand other questions that she had.
How is this possible since I'm a Virgin angel, Gabriel?
I don't know if your mom and dad ever explained to you the birds and
the beast, but how is this possible?
And Gabriel answers and he says, well, Mary, the Holy Spirit is gonna
come upon you, and the power of the most high will overshadow you.
A again, church, don't read this through Christian eyes.
Read this through the eyes of a teenage girl in first century Israel
who's only understanding the Holy Spirit was not the New Testament
understanding, but the Old Testament understanding of the Holy Spirit.
So what is the angel saying here?
Well, in, in Genesis one, two, we read this, the earth was without form and
void, and darkness was over the face of the deep and the spirit of God was
hovering over the face of the waters.
There Moses is setting up for us that the spirit is gonna be involved in the
act of the creation of the universe Here.
What Gabriel is explaining to Mary is that the spirit is going to be
involved in the act of the creation of the physical body, of the Lord,
of the creation of the universe.
That the, the spirit of God is going to rot.
That is work that is form knit together.
As David says in Psalm 1 39, the body of our savior in Mary's womb.
And so this is how Jesus could come and to be born in true humanity and yet not
possess the sin nature of true humanity because the sin nature is conveyed
through sinful man and sinful woman coming together to create sinful children.
But because the Holy Spirit was going to be the one to rot this child, to
form this child, to create the, the physical body of this child in Mary's
womb, that child was not gonna be created by the men meshing of sinful.
Elements from a sinful man and a sinful woman.
Was Mary a sinful woman?
Yes, but the, the transcendence of, of God using the, the egg of a sinful woman
to create a sinless body and prepare a sinless nature in the, the human form
for the son of God to inhabit and to take up and to, to take to himself.
That's what's happening here and that's why Mary is told.
This is what's going to happen to you.
The the Holy Spirit is gonna come upon you.
The, the power of the most high is gonna overshadow you.
And, and this is where he goes on and says, therefore, because of
that, the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God.
And so this is the Immaculate conception.
This is the, the process whereby the Holy Spirit is gonna create
knit together, the physical body.
And I, I keep saying physical body because I wanna be careful to, to not suggest
that Jesus is being created at this point.
Jesus is not being created.
Jesus is the eternal son.
But what's happening here is his physical body that he was gonna take onto himself,
like we looked at last week, that that physical body, this is being wrought,
this is being knit together in the womb of this young Jewish woman here.
And this is the answer to her question.
How can this be?
Since I'm a virgin and this seems pretty fantastic, how will I be able to, to
really know that this is taking place?
What, what, how is this possible?
The angel anticipates more objections by saying, and, and behold, you're relative.
Elizabeth, in her old age, the one everybody had written off
as baron, Hey, guess what, Mary?
She has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month
with her who was called Baron.
For nothing will be impossible with God.
Mary wouldn't have known that because there was no Instagram,
there was no text messaging.
There was no iPhone.
There was no Facebook post.
Elizabeth wasn't posting her, her sonogram pictures for Mary to be
like, that's so exciting, Elizabeth.
I'm so happy for you.
Prayer hands.
And so the angel tells her this in order to validate the the promise and and
things that he's talking to her about.
Mary, just even look at what's going on already with Elizabeth.
Nothing's impossible with God.
And, and Mary in one of the most faith-filled statements that
you'll find says this, behold, I'm the servant of the Lord.
Let it be to me, according to your word, let it be to me.
According to your word, Mary's posture is one of humility
and, and submission and trust.
And, and, and I wanna say this, there's a difference between.
Mary and Zechariah.
Zechariah was told by the angel, Hey, uh, Zechariah, your wife is gonna get
pregnant and have a son, and you're gonna name his name John, John the Baptist.
That wasn't actually what he named him.
But anyways, John and, and Zacharia says, how is that possible?
And the angel says, you're gonna be mute and not able to
talk until this takes place.
Did you notice, Mary asks the question, too, how is this gonna be?
And she's not disciplined for that question.
The same way that Zacharia was.
And the reason is I, I think what's being conveyed in the two questions, Zechariah
was conveying doubt and unbelief.
I think Mary is conveying a heart of wonder and awe over everything that
she was being told out of humility.
How is this even possible?
How can this be?
And it's that wonder, and it's that awe that I hope that we will
again, seek to be like Mary this Christmas and try to cultivate a
little bit more of that ourselves.
Final point this morning is this Marvel at the Wonder of Christmas, like Mary Marvel
at the Wonder of Christmas, like Mary.
There's a competition on a, b, C called the Great Christmas Light Fight.
And there's a house actually over here in Plano, in in Deerfield, Deerfield's.
A neighborhood has been around forever.
I used to drive through that with my parents when I was growing up,
uh, back in the, the early nineties, and they were always known for
their Christmas light displays.
But there's one house and it's this one right here.
Thank you.
Thank you for responding that way, y'all, because here comes the dagger.
Sometimes I feel like we're more in awe over this than we are over the fact that
Jesus Christ came as God in the flesh.
That our wonder, in our awe this Christmas season is when we look
at the things, when we look at the presence under the tree, when we look
at the light displays, that that's the stuff that causes us to go, wow.
Instead of thinking to ourselves, God took on flesh, was born to this
virgin so that we could be saved
when we're young.
We have this, this magic, by the way, I'm in awe of that too, by the way.
So I, I don't mean to call y'all out if you're like, okay pastor,
you're stepping on my toes.
I made an, that's the last time I react to anything that you put up on the screen.
I get it.
It's really cool and probably really expensive, um, to do.
When we're young, we've got this, this magic that is
associated with Christmas, right?
You can't wait to get up Christmas morning, go rush, run outside.
I remember going outside and seeing my GI Joe tank thing that I blew
up, the helicopter that had the, the medics in that my mom gave me.
'cause I was like, GI Joe's better than doctors.
Um, or the, the Ninja Turtles pizza shooter thing that I had
growing up that was super cool too.
There's things that are, that I remember and it's the magic of Christmas.
But then at some point in time, y'all, the magic goes away, doesn't it?
And, and we kind of go into every Christmas hoping we'll
get it back a little bit.
Can I suggest to you in, in part, it's, it's a good thing that we're
not as in awe of the same things that we were when we were kids.
Because when we were kids, we just were, what we cared about was the stuff.
That was what was so magical for us.
Santa Claus came, oh, look at this cool toy.
Look at this.
Oh, I don't have to go to school.
Oh, I can drink hot chocolate and stay up late.
Oh, and, and all of that was the nostalgia that we have.
And I wanna suggest to you that, that we should still have a feeling
of wonder and awe about Christmas.
It's just we need to grow out of that wonder and awe and grow into the wonder
and awe over the incarnation over who this is in, in the, the manger there.
And specifically over the fact that this is God in the flesh.
I mean, just think about some of the thoughts to, to marvel
at this Christmas like this.
What was Jesus?
The, the son of God doing as his physical body was, was forming in
the womb of Mary for nine months.
It's not like he went into to like cryonic cold sleep or whatever.
The people are doing freezing themselves.
It's, he was still the son of God.
Hebrews chapter one.
He was still upholding the universe by the word of his power as he's in Mary's womb.
Have you ever thought about that?
What about his?
His omnipresence, his omniscience, his omnipotence?
You're gonna talk about it in in community groups.
If you're meeting this week, if not all of us, I would encourage you to look at
the questions on the back of your sheet.
Have you ever thought about what are the attributes that Jesus could
have willingly set aside and veiling himself with his humanity, true
humanity, and still be truly God?
And, and what are the attributes that he couldn't give up and remain truly
God as he took on true humanity?
Uh, ponder deep things this Christmas about the incarnation.
Ask yourself more questions like, oh man, what, what does that mean
That he was born in true humanity, yet he didn't have a sin nature.
Why was that necessary?
How does that relate to my salvation?
These are things if, if we'll begin to plumb the depths of this baby in a manger.
Uh, but the greatest thing for us to be in, in, in awe of this Christmas is
the reality that he came in, the manger ultimately to go to the cross for us.
That God took on flesh in order to eventually sacrifice
himself for you and I.
In our place, not as an example to us, not as this moral theory or anything
else like that, that none of that.
He is our substitute.
That's why he took flesh to himself, identified with us as the writer of
Hebrew says so that he might become our, our merciful and faithful high priest.
But to do that, he had to first go to the cross and die on the cross
for your sins and my sins to absorb the wrath of God that we deserved.
And then he rose again from the grave so that we too might one day overcome death
and follow in his footsteps in that.
That's why he came.
The Bible gives us multiple occasions to wonder at God's love for us.
Even just as you consider maybe the, the, the parable, the prodigal son.
You wonder how could a father love that son After he had despised
him and basically said, dad, you're as good as dead to me.
Let me have my inheritance.
Then he goes and he blows it all, and then he comes back and the father doesn't even
let him get his his apology out before he wraps his arm around him in love.
God wants us to understand the overwhelming nature of his love for
us, and we see it no greater place than in the idea that God took on flesh and
came to live and die for you and me.
Marvel at the Wonder of Christmas like Mary.
And again, lemme suggest we've got an advantage over Mary at this point
'cause we know the rest of the story.
She's trying to wrap her mind around all of these promises regarding the Messiah
coming and her being the one to carry the Messiah and, and understandably,
and we should be in awe of that as well, but mean we have so much more.
How much more should we be in awe when we know what we know about who
that baby ultimately came to be?
I was sitting in my house yesterday and I was, I was thinking about this sermon
and, uh, the, the old nineties commercial.
Be like, Mike, I wanna be like Mike.
You remember that one, the Gatorade commercial that came to mind.
So I, I opened it up on YouTube and, and I played it and my son
was like, dad, what is that?
It's like Josh, this is the pinnacle of advertising right here.
This is the greatest advertising that has ever come from the mind of man.
And he was watching it with me, and I could see his mind turning.
He is like, so the whole point of the commercial is if I drink
Gatorade, I'm gonna be like, Mike.
Yes.
What don't you understand about this drink?
Gatorade slam a basketball.
At least that's what we all believed at that point.
But the end of that commercial, it, it fades the black and, and three words
come up on the screen, be like, Mike.
If I could end this sermon by fading it to black with three words for us to take
away and think about this Christmas, it would be be like, Mary, let's pray.
Lord God, we thank you for the example that we have in this young woman.
A young girl, Lord.
And the maturity that we see in her and in her life in large part due to
the investment that her parents had likely made in her, in, in teaching her
the things of your word and teaching her these truths and teaching her the
scriptures, that coupled with Lord, her humility, her submissiveness
to what you would have her do what?
Her righteousness, her godliness, that she was prepared.
She was ready to be used by you.
Lord, there's so much that we can glean from Mary's life and think about what
it would look like for us to be a little bit more like Mary this Christmas season.
Lord, we're not here to, to, to venerate her, to worship her, to
extol her in any way, shape or form.
But we are here to learn.
From maybe her example for us such that we would see you do a little bit more through
us this Christmas because we're ready for you to use us this Christmas such that
we would think about 2026 and and beyond and say we might be even more effective
for you because we're gonna double down in our pursuit of your word in the future
and such that we would spend some extra time this Christmas contemplating
this baby marveling being in awe.
Or the fact that you sent Jesus, you sent your son as that baby.
For us ultimately to die in our place on that cross and to rise
from the dead so that we who gather here, we don't gather in vain.
Our faith is not in vain because that savior, that baby who died, rose again.
Now we have a confidence that we too will one day rise to be with him.
So we thank you so much for Christmas.
We thank you for the season.
We praise you for all this in Jesus name.
Amen.