Luke 1

Well, good morning, Saylorville! If you brought a copy of scripture with you this morning, you could find Luke chapter 1, Luke chapter 1, and our Veiled series and a message title, “Believe and Be Blessed.” Luke chapter 1.

In November of 1997, media from across the country and even the world descended upon the Iowa Methodist Hospital in anticipation of the births of the McCaughey septuplets, the first surviving seven children from one woman in this world. That was the very same year that my wife, Marilyn and I were married. And in one day, she went from having three kids to ten kids! And so I put out a Christmas letter that year saying, “Bobby McCaughey wasn’t the first to have seven kids in one day!” And suddenly media outlets from around the world came to Clarion Iowa where we were! Okay, that didn’t really happen. We didn’t even make the local news! Now granted seven babies conceived and born from one woman is amazing! — and it was newsworthy, for sure! But when one baby was conceived in the womb having never had sexual relations with a man, and that baby was God, we’re talking miracle now! — and did it make the news? It certainly did in heaven and on a hillside with a bunch of nobodies, and some 33 years later the story was well on its way to changing the world. Still is, right?

Do you believe it? Do you believe this story? The very word “believe” is synonymous with Christmas, isn’t it? I mean, cards and t-shirts and songs are just replete with the word “believe!” If you think about it, we’re being asked to believe something that’s impossible. Like my friend Tom, who is drawn to the story but he’s repulsed by the science, because scientifically, this is impossible! And of course, we would be as well if we didn’t have a source of this message that we trust for pulling off the impossible, right? ‘With God, all things are (what?) they’re possible.’ [Luke 1:37, Matthew 19:26] That’s why I remember coming across a quote from the great church father, Augustine, many years ago, and I memorized it, it’s so precious to me. He said,

Seek not that thou mayest understand in order that thou mayest believe. But believe in order that thou mayest understand. Augustine

And that’s biblical, by the way. The bible tells us in [1 Corinthians 2:14-16].… that the natural person, the person outside of Christ, like many of you who don’t have a relationship with Jesus. You’re not in-dwelt by the Holy Spirit. You don’t have spiritual understanding. Spiritual things are foolishness to you. But to those who believe, despite the fact that it’s incomprehensible at times like this, God does something incredible! and there’s nothing easy to believe about Christmas in this story, but for those of us who do believe it’s mind-blowing, it’s spirit-growing, it’s faith-stretching!

Now, there are a lot of amazing births in the bible. Can we acknowledge that? I mean, the birth of Isaac to an elderly Sarah is amazing! — as well as Samuel to Hannah and Samson to the wife of Manoa. And then John the Baptist who was born to Elizabeth and the priest Zechariah. These are all amazing births! — But Jesus to Mary… that’s a miracle! And I don’t have a lot of pet peeves, but I do have one that I bring up every five or six years, and it’s this one. It’s when… I don’t correct anybody, I don’t correct people on the spot when they say this, but I urge you, if you’re a follower of Jesus, to stop saying, every birth is a miracle. It is not a miracle. I have news for you. It’s scientifically explainable when a baby comes into this world. I get what you mean when you hold up that… ‘Oh, he’s so beautiful! He’s so wonderful! It’s so amazing!’ — and it is amazing! — But it’s not a miracle. And I tell you that, not because it’s cute, but because you diminish the meaning of a miracle when you do that. Yeah, that’s the pet peeve for the day, so we’ll let that one go.

Now for Mary, the only requirement in this story was to believe. That’s what makes this word so precious. And this is the story she believed. Let’s re-familiarize ourselves with it. Luke chapter 1, beginning in verse 26.

Luke 1:26-38

26 In the sixth month (that would be the sixth month of her cousin Elizabeth’s pregnancy with John the Baptist, okay?) the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, (a little backwater city)

27 to a virgin betrothed (or engaged) to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary.

28 And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!”

29 But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be.

30 And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.

31 And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus.

32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to Him the throne of His father David,

33 and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.”

(This is an absolute, clear as crystal, messianic fulfillment of the messianic promise of the Messiah to come! She’s going to be the mom!)

34 And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?”

35 And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God.

36 And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren.

37 For nothing will be impossible with God.”

38 And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.”

So back to the story. Gabriel, one of the few angels who’s actually named in scripture, is dispatched to Nazareth. And I’d like to just sort of imagine what it must have been like for God to say to Gabriel. ‘Gabriel, I want you to go back down to earth like it did six months ago, this time to Nazareth.’ He’s probably thinking, ‘Man, I hope this mission goes better than the last one!’ And if you’ll remember the last one, we skipped over it, the last one was to Zechariah the priest, who’s in the temple and he’s praying. He’s literally standing before the altar of incense, which was depicted prayer. And so as that incense is going up, depicting prayer, he himself is praying. ‘God, my wife, Hannah, is barren. Give us a child. We so much want one of these!’ — begging God for a child! And just like that… Boom! There’s Gabriel standing right in front of him! — And Gabriel tells him, ‘The prayer is answered. Hannah, your wife is gonna have a son!’ — and describes all this to him. And he’s just so blown away by it! He looks at an angel from God standing in front of him in the holy place, and do you remember what he said to the angel? He said, ‘How can I be sure this will happen? Do you have a sign?’ I mean, he’s looking at an angel… and asking for a sign!

Now, a few of you were around 20 years ago when I preached this text, and I… went… crazy! I literally lost it in the pulpit! I was so engrossed in the text and in the doubting of Zechariah, I just exploded! I acted like I was Gabriel because Gabriel, remember, he goes, ‘I stand in the presence of God and you’re going to go mute!‘ He wouldn’t talk after that until the baby was born! And I said some things. I said something I shouldn’t have said. Had to come back and ask for forgiveness. Our tech guy made a ringtone out of it! He really did! I have it. It’s embarrassing!

And so six months later, this very same angel is dispatched to Nazareth. And we’re told he comes to a virgin, verse 27, really interesting how she is described repeatedly in all of the Gospels that record the birth of Jesus as a virgin. And the word “virgin” is the Greek word “parthenos.” It literally means “virgin,” like you think of a virgin. It literally means a woman who’s never had sexual relations with a man. And this is important to point out because if we were to go over to Matthew’s Gospel, And the angel announces to Joseph what has already taken place, that Mary has been impregnated with the Son of God by God and that he was to go ahead and marry her and the whole nine yards, Matthew 1:23 quotes Isaiah 7 and verse 14 which says,

Isaiah 7:14b, “… Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.”

Remember that? Now the word “virgin” in Hebrew… So the bible is written in Hebrew and Greek primarily, and the word “virgin” means “virgin,” but it could also mean “young woman.” And so if you’re of a liberal persuasion, if you’re one who would like to look at the Bible and try to explain every miracle away, you’d say, ‘Well, you see, that just means young woman and young women have babies, and that’s all that means.’ But even the the Jews understood Isaiah 7:14, and the word for virgin to mean literally a virgin, and we know that because when they gave us the Septuagint, the Septuagint is the Greek translation of the Old Testament that all the Jews read back in Jesus’ day. That the Septuagint uses this word you’re looking at here, “parthenos.” It’s the word that can only mean virgin, which is very powerful and very affirming that we are talking miracle here. Because as spectacular as those other pregnancies were I alluded to earlier, they were all natural. Even though they were old people, they were barren women, they were people praying to God, just like many people here, and maybe some of you asking God to allow you to have a child. Our hearts break when we have women who are barren and can’t have children. But even so, you get the answer to prayer. It’s an answer to prayer. It’s not a miracle. All of those cases were amazing! — and they were God answers, right? But they were not miracles. This is a miracle! And so when the angel shows up, you can look at verse 28, he says,

Luke 1:28b, “… O favored one, the Lord is with you!”

Now, the word “favored” is… that’s what we get our word for “grace” in this word, with this word.

By the way, I won’t ask for a show of hands, but I was raised in the Roman Catholic tradition. No, I have no regrets of my upbringing. It was very spiritual, very God-fearing, very patriotic. I had a loving home. But the tradition I was raised in, I would eventually reject, because in the tradition, one of the very first prayers a young Roman Catholic learns is the “Hail Mary,” okay? And so that you know this, the “Hail Mary” is literally the prayer, which is to Mary, it’s literally taken right out of this text. And literally so.

“Hail Mary, full of grace, The Lord is with thee; blessed art thou amongst women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.” Hail Mary

That’s the first half of the Hail Mary, and that’s right out of the Bible. And it’s a combination of both Gabriel’s announcement to Mary that she was gonna give birth…

[Luke 1:41-42

41 And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit,

42 and she exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!“]

[Luke 1:30-31,

30 “And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.

31 And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus.”]

… and of Elizabeth’s reply when Mary goes down to see her, so they’re sort of sewn together, all right? And so it’s one of the very first words a young Catholic will learn, including myself. Now, unfortunately the Catholic church has exalted Mary to places that God never intended her to go, even attributing attributes to her that can only belong to God.

I mean, my aunt came to me shortly after I became a Christian and trying to convince me to come back to the Catholic Church. And she said, she said, “Pat, if I had something really difficult to say to you, I wouldn’t come just to you, I would go to your mother, and she would make the appeal to you.” And I said, “Aunt Margie,” I said, “I get where you’re going, but that’s not what scripture says. Jesus Himself said,

[John 14:6, ““I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”]

“

… and you’re demeaning the compassion of Christ who wants us to come to Him!

So, if you’re thinking this is a Mary bashing sermon or a Catholic bashing, it’s not at all, not at all! In fact, so much so I want you to hear these words. Just because some think too much of Mary does not give us a right to think too little of her. I’ll say that again.

Just because some think too much of Mary does not give us a right to think too little of her.

She believed the impossible! Think about this! What Zechariah was asked to believe was incredible, but it wasn’t impossible. and he didn’t believe! What Mary was asked to believe was not just incredible, it was impossible and she believed it! And so the angel says, “Oh, favored one.” That’s where we get our word grace. And again, the prayer that young Catholics learn is “Hail Mary, full of [grace]” That’s the word here for “favored.” Now, what is grace? Grace is God’s divine act whereby He grants favor to the undeserving. It’s like Ephesians chapter 2 and verses 8 and 9 which says,

Ephesians 2:8-9

8 “For by grace you have been saved through faith. (Now watch this) And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,

9 not a result of works, (Why?) so that no one may boast.”

That’s why. And that’s why we love that verse! It’s so descriptive.

So Mary, though a woman of God for sure, was not getting what she deserved. She was getting what she was given, just like you and just like me. Do you know if we got what we deserve or where we would be? The psalmist tells us, Psalm 130 says,

[Psalm 130:3-4]

3 “If you, O LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?“

Have you ever read that? It’s a rhetorical question, ’cause none of us would, right? But I love the next verse,

4 But with you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared.“

So back to Augustine who studied the virgin birth. He said this;

“Mary conceived Christ in her heart by faith before she conceived Him in the womb.”

Augustine

That’s a good line… and true!

Now it’s interesting when Gabriel prophesied to Zechariah of John the Baptist coming, he called John “great.” That’s in chapter one, verse 15, he said, “He’ll be great.”

[Luke 1:15, “…for He will be great before the Lord.“]

And Jesus in verses 31 through 33…

[Luke 1:31-33

31 And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus.

32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to Him the throne of His father David,

33 and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.”]

… is described by the angel to Gabriel to Mary as also great. He’ll be great! — but that’s where the comparisons end.

And there’s no question, but that Mary understood this as the great messianic promise of old 700 years earlier, when Isaiah said,

[Isaiah 7:14] “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.”

… which means “God with us,” right? Mary understood this.

Now, in the prayer, the Hail Mary that Catholics learn, it says in the second half says,

“Holy Mary, mother of God…” 2nd half of Hail Mary

And this sort of sticks in the crawls of former Catholics, but it doesn’t have to, because humanly speaking, that is true! Mary became the mother of God! But that’s where the accuracy in that prayer ends, because the rest of it is a beckoning is a request that she pray for us.

“Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners.”

Well, let me tell you something. She was a human being who loved God, who embraced the living God, just like many of you have done. And so she’s in heaven today, but she’s not listening or answering your prayers, because

[1 Timothy 2:5] “For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus…“

Now back to the story. Now here in this interchange, the angel makes this announcement to Mary and she is incredulous! It’s okay to be incredulous. It’s okay to be bewildered when you see something amazing in scripture. As she says, there’s one problem, she goes, ‘I’m a virgin. I’ve not been fooling around with Joseph. I’m a virgin! I’m parthenos. I’ve never had sexual relations with a man.’

[Luke 1:34, “And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?”]

And so Zechariah, out of doubt, asked for a sign. Mary out of bewilderment asked for an explanation and there’s a huge difference. And because of that, remember, with Zechariah, I mean, he’s looking at the sign and he says,

[Luke 1:19b

19b-“I am Gabriel, I stand in the presence of God, and I was sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news.

20 And behold, you will be silent and unable to speak until the day that these things take place, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time.”]

‘You’re not gonna talk till that baby comes around.’ And he doesn’t! Whoops! Mums the word! With Mary, he accommodates her! — And he gives her and us the closest thing we will ever get to an explanation of the virgin conception of Jesus Christ. And I’m gonna read verse 35 again. And to me, this verse is so sacred, it almost doesn’t deserve an attempt of explanation. Here’s what he says;

Luke 1:35, “And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power (omnipotence) of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God.”

Now, you have facts and you have explanations, like when I teach individuals when I’m discipling them, I talk about the fact of inspiration. That is the Bible is the word of God. You can trust it. Because the scripture says in second, Timothy 3:16,

2 Timothy 3:16-17

16 “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,

17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.”

That’s a fact. That’s the fact of inspiration. Then I go to second Peter chapter one for the explanation of inspiration. W here Peter tells us,

2 Peter 1:21, “For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.”

Have you ever read that? So you have fact, then you have explanation. And when it comes to the virgin conception of Jesus and eventual virgin birth, we have the fact, we saw it a few weeks ago when we began this series in that great hymn in 1 Timothy chapter three, verse 16, where it starts out by saying,

1 Timothy 3:16b, “… He (God) was manifested in the flesh…”

Oh, I love that line! And it’s a fact! But this is the explanation. This is the explanation given to us by the angel Gabriel to Mary. Here’s the explanation of the miracle followed by science. God the Son humbled Himself, (listen to this) by entering the world. And we talk about Him humbling Himself. Just think about this! God, the Creator of ALL things, the sustainer of ALL things, by whom everything holds together. God the Son came into this world, (watch this) as a single cell who became a zygote, who became an embryo, who became a fetus, none of which could ever survive outside of a womb! Think about this! The next time you have to grovel, the next time you have to be humble for the kingdom of God’s sake, think about what your Savior did! — And then became a newborn into this world. And the key phrase here is this one.

Luke 1:35, “And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore (Gabriel says) the child to be born will be called (what?) holy—the Son of God.“

Why is that so important? Because you’re not! — and neither am I. Now we are, in the sense if we have a relationship with God, we’re made holy, but we weren’t born much less conceived. David tells us all in Psalm 51. We’re conceived in unholiness! This child was holy. Remember, theologically, just to be gotta be thinking with me, Romans chapter 5 and verse 12 says,

Romans 5:12 (KJV) “Wherefore, as by one man (that’s Adam) sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, (Why?— Because we’re all unholy. That’s why) for that all have sinned.” (in Adam)

So what’s going on here? What is going on here when the Spirit of God overshadowed Mary? What He did was He canceled out the man. Sin comes through the man according to Romans 5:12, and Joseph was canceled out. I was just thinking about this this morning as I was reading when Zechariah’s child is born, when he’s holding John the Baptist in his, the baby in his hands, he refers to him as “my child.” Well, let me tell you something. Joseph never did that, because while he played the role, and honorably so, as the stepfather of Jesus, he could never call him “his child,” because he wasn’t! And that’s why he was holy, Amen? Now, he was born of a virgin.

I was at a concert the other day, Christmas concert for one of our grandkids. I mean, when you got as many as I do with my wife and I had to divide and conquer, I say at the beginning of December, I’ll see at Christmas, and that’s when I see my wife again. And we just go to different concerts. And we were actually, we were at this one together. So, and we were watching up there, and up in the stands singing in the choir was the son of one of the couples of our church, in our church. And he was just singing his heart out! And I looked at him, he was right dead, right in front of us. And I leaned over to my wife and I said, “Look! That handsome boy looks just like his mother, doesn’t he?” And she goes, “Yes, he does!” I think it’s possible that Jesus looked just like his mom. Well, why wouldn’t he? As Jesus was the divine representation of his Father in heaven, he was the physical representation of his mother on earth and without sin!

And for Mary, what a calling! What an honor! What a blessing! In fact, blessing is the other key word here. When she, you know, at this point, she goes to visit her cousin, Elizabeth, who’s six months pregnant with John the Baptist. And when she shows up, John does a flip in the womb, like, ‘WHOA!’ That’s a real miracle right there! And Elizabeth says to Mary,

Luke 1:42,45-48

42“…and she exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!” (And she continues, she says)

45 And blessed is she (referring to Mary) who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.”

And when Mary explodes with the joy of the Lord in the famous magnificat at the end of this chapter, she says,

46 And Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord,

47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,

48 for he (God) has looked on the humble estate of his servant. For behold, from now on all generations will call me (what?) blessed;“

Why? Why was she blessed? —Because she believed!

When the famous TV interviewer with CNN for many years, Larry King, who was a Jewish man, he was famously asked one day if he could choose anybody in history to interview. Who would that be? He never hesitated. Literally he said, “Jesus Christ. And I would ask Him about the virgin birth. That would define history for me.” What a statement! That would define history.

When you define something, you explain it. When you explain something you make it clear. And Larry King was in essence saying, ‘Jesus Christ makes everything clear,’ — And He’ll make it clear for you. In all of your spiritual befuddlement, in all of your darkness and sin, Jesus Christ, the Light of the World, wants to make everything clear for you!

You think about it. Zechariah doubted God and his mouth was shut. Mary believed in God and her mouth was opened and she gave Him praise. What does Mary’s faith teach us? Mary’s faith teaches us this.

Faith might say, ‘How? Me?’ But faith will never say, ‘Why me?’

Such is its reliance on the God who is all wise and always does what is right. Mary’s faith teaches us that faith might say, “Help me!” But faith will never say, “Not me!” Such is the understanding of its human weakness and its utter reliance on the omnipotence of God to get the job done whatever He promised.— Mary’s faith teaches us that faith might say ‘Unbelievable!’ but faith will never say, ‘Oops, won’t say that either, it’ll never say ‘Impossible!’ You want to know why? Because

[Luke 1:37] “For nothing will be impossible with God.”

Some of you here this morning have rejected Christianity for far too long. Yes, it’s miraculous. Yes, it’s unbelievable! — But if you understand who God is, the personal God who loves you and sent His Son to become a baby in the womb of a teenage girl, and you would see how much He loves you because of that, He did it all for you! Maybe today would be the day you would say, ‘It’s time for me to open up my heart to believe in the miracle of the virgin birth of Jesus, who would go on and live a holy life and die a sacrificial death.’ And because He was holy, which is what is pictured when we take the Lord’s table and we hold the bread, that’s depicting His perfection. Because He was holy, He could take upon all of your doubt, all of your darkness, all of your sins, all of them, and He took them to Himself and absorbed the wrath of God on our behalf. Believe that. And then rose again, Hallelujah! You can have that. You can have Him. You want to be blessed? Then believe!

Let’s pray.

Our Father in heaven, that’s our prayer. That you would bless this congregation and those watching online. Bless them today. I ask that you would bless every person in this room, that you would give us fresh eyes, and fresh hearts, and fresh imaginations of the Christmas story and the beauty of it all and cause us, Lord, because only you can do that. Cause us. Cause the doubters in this room. Cause the unbelievers in this room. Cause the rejectors in this room to say and from their heart, ‘I believe. I believe!’ And so that they might be saved. We give you the glory. For it’s in Jesus’ name we pray. Amen. Let’s stand.