In our passage this morning we see the fulfillment of the promise of Messiah’s coming, dawning in the life of a peasant girl in Nazareth of Galilee. The time has come (Gal. 4:4) and in Luke 1:26-38 we are only the length of a pregnancy away from the arrival of God in the flesh. We are only 9 months from John 1:14 that says, “And the Word became flesh”.
In Luke 1:26-38 the angel Gabriel is sent to Galilee to give a young virgin a message. Mary is about to have her whole world flipped upside down as she learns that in her own womb she carries the Messiah.
I want to exalt Mary a moment in a non-Roman Catholic way. The fabrications of who she is that Rome is guilty of should not deter us from having reverence for her in an appropriate way – like we would for any other man or woman of God in the Scriptures. So while she was not sinless, and she was not a perpetual virgin, and while she has not and does not appear to anyone since her death, and she is not a co-redeemer alongside of Jesus, and while she neither hears anyone’s prayers nor mediates between us and Jesus, and does not bring our requests to Jesus, she IS a beautiful picture of godliness.
Apart from the fact she was of the noble line of King David, Scripture says she was pure, devoted, full of faith, obedient and submissive to the will of God. Read the NT and you will see her in many instances: faithfully bringing Jesus to the temple after his birth to have him circumcised and to offer the prescribed sacrifice; then when Jesus was 12 years old we see her freaking out after losing him in the Temple. We see her doing that “Mom” thing in John 2 at the wedding when she tells Jesus to do something about the party running out of wine – without telling him to do something about the wine. Then we see her at the cross where her dying son Jesus entrusts her into the care of the disciple John. She was there in Acts 1 in the upper room with those first 120 believers praying right before the Holy Spirit arrived.
But here we see her for the first time, a young maiden, faithful, untouched, engaged to be married, her whole life in front of her, as she probably was planning on many of the same life plans as other girls her age: marriage, kids, a home, moving out, serving Jehovah, etc. But without a clue she was about to find out that she was “highly favored” in heaven by God. Her life was about to become the most amazing, most difficult, most sacrificial life any woman had ever faced. She would watch him come into life from her own body and watch him leave this life on a cross. She would watch him learn how to walk and then watch him walk on water. When she heard his sermons she remembered him learning to speak as a boy. She heard his first words, and she would hear his last words
MARY’S GREETING (26-29)
First we see Mary’s Greeting, lets look at 26-29…
Gabriel the angel is sent to Nazareth of Galilee to a young virgin woman named Mary. She is engaged to a young man named Joseph and both of them are descendents of David.
There is all kinds of OT prophecy at play here. Let me point out the three right here:
First, Gabriel goes to Galilee because the prophets said the Savior would come from Galilee. Turn to Isaiah 9:1-2 with me.
Second, Gabriel goes to a virgin. She is physically untouched. The NT authors tell us that Isaiah 7:14 predicted this 700 years earlier when it said, “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.” While that prophecy had meaning for Isaiah’s day, as is typical with Messianic prophecies it had a second meaning related to Christ. Matthew chapter 1 told us this prophecy was fulfilled through Mary and Jesus, “All this took place to fulfill what was said through the prophet Isaiah” (v22).
Third, we see here the prophecy that the Messiah must be born a descendant of David. In 2 Samuel 7:12-13, “When your days are complete and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your descendant after you, who will come forth from you, and I will establish his kingdom forever. He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.”
The question that might arise is “If Jesus was not Joseph’s biological son, how can Jesus be a descendant of David?” He is his son legally through Joseph. By following through with the marriage as we see him do in Matthew 1, it was a legal declaration by Joseph that the child in Mary’s womb was his. And the fact that the genealogical record in Matthew 1 and Luke 4 both trace Jesus’ ancestry to David through Joseph it means that the legal lineage stood as accepted.
Don’t forget that a few verses later Gabriel says “The Lord God will give him the throne of his FATHER DAVID” – an angelic confirmation that Jesus was a descendent of David…the PROMISED descendent of David. And don’t forget that Paul declared in Romans 1, “…as to Jesus’ earthly life he was a descendent of David…”
All this prophecy converged in the life of this humble, unknown virgin living an average Jewish life at her time. God was about to bring these prophecies to fulfillment through her. Thus the angel greets her, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.” And then it tells us that “Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But, the angel said to her, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God.’”
Gabriel uses the word “favored” twice in this greeting. This word in the Greek is used in the N.T. to describe God’s gracious favor towards people. It is His sovereign act and attitude of kindness towards us. It’s His generous honoring of us that is in no way deserved.
Notice the effect God’s favor has: It eliminates fear. The angel tells her not to be afraid because she has found favor with God. The grace of God removes fear. Without the grace of God, we have every reason to be terrified of Him, “whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him.” Our sin would bring His just wrath upon us.
But, where we used to be His enemies because of our sin, we have become His children because of His grace, “Because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy made us alive … – it is by grace you have been saved.” His grace changes our relationship with Him from objects of His wrath, to objects of His mercy. His grace changes us from children of disobedience, to children of God. His grace, according to Hebrews 4:16, allows us to “approach [His] throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy [from Him] and find grace [from Him] to help us in our time of need.””Love removes fear” 1 John 4:18 says.
MARY’S CHILD (v 30-33)
Then, we see in verses 30-33, Mary’s Child, “…..”
She is told that her child will be a son. No waiting 18 weeks! This is why it is biblical to find out the gender of your babies! Anyway, you can see how closely Gabriel’s words echo Isaiah’s. Turn to Isaiah 9:6-7 with me. In both passages there is a son given, that son will be a descendent of David, and he will rule over Israel, and his kingdom will be forever. Let’s look closer at Gabriel’s message about Mary’s Child.
First, this Son will bring forgiveness of sins. Gabriel says to Mary that she is supposed to name him “Jesus.” Matthew tells us that after Gabriel went to Mary, He then went to Joseph because Joseph was going to back out of the marriage and blow the whole plan. In 1:21, Gabriel tells Joseph, “Mary will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” The name Jesus is the Greek form of the Hebrew name Joshua, which means “The Lord saves”. The Lord was going to save His people from their sins. His name describes His mission. That’s why Joseph and Mary were to name this great son “Jesus.” He will bring the forgiveness of sins.
Second, Mary’s Son will be famous, “He will be great and He will be CALLED the Son of the Most High.” Verse 35 gives the reason why Jesus will be called the Son of the Most High, because, “the Holy Spirit will come upon Mary, and the power of the Most High will overshadow her. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of the Most High.” God recognized Jesus as His Son in Mark 1:11, “And a voice came from heaven: ‘You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well-pleased.’” John the Baptist said, “I have seen and I testify that this is the Son of God.” Romans 1 says that by raising Him from the dead God “declared with power Jesus to be the Son of God.” Wow!
The Son of God is a term that belongs uniquely and exclusively to Jesus. And it is related to the manner in which he entered the world: through a virgin who was overshadowed by the Holy Spirit so that she would become pregnant with the Christ whom she was to name Jesus. The term Son of God refers to His unique relationship with God the Father as His Son. Jesus did not come from a human father on earth but He came from God in heaven. But it goes further than that and indicates His eternality as God. “Son of God” refers to the fact that Jesus pre-existed his incarnation, and he did so because He is God. “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. And the Word became flesh.” When Mary became pregnant it was the moment that the eternal divine Word, the eternal second Person of the Triune Godhead, the eternal Son of God the Father, came down and took upon Himself human flesh and became like one of us – except sin. I’m not a creed guy, but the Chalcedonian creed nails it for us:
We, then, following the holy Fathers, all with one consent, teach men to confess one and the same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ,
the same perfect in Godhead and also perfect in manhood;
truly God and truly man, of a reasonable soul and body; consubstantial with us according to the manhood;
in all things like unto us, without sin;
begotten before all ages of the Father according to the Godhead, and in these latter days, for us and for our salvation, born of the virgin Mary, the mother of God, according to the manhood;
one and the same Christ, Son, Lord, Only-begotten, to be acknowledged in two natures, inconfusedly, unchangeably, indivisibly, inseparably;
the distinction of natures being by no means taken away by the union, but rather the property of each nature being preserved, and concurring in one Person and one Subsistence, not parted or divided into two persons, but one and the same Son, and only begotten, God the Word, the Lord Jesus Christ,
And He IS GREAT! He was great in power as he performed miracles and did things no one ever did. He was great in wisdom as he taught as no one ever taught. Titus 2:12 calls him, “our GREAT God and Savior, Jesus Christ.” Hebrews 10:21 calls him our “great priest” and Hebrews 13:20 calls him our “Great Shepherd.” Revelation 20 says He will sit on a “GREAT White Throne.” Philippians 2 describes when his greatness will be universally acknowledged when it says, “God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name; that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.” Yes, as Gabriel told Mary, “He will be great.”
Third, Mary’s Son will rule Israel. He will be given the throne of His father, David. God promised David in 2 Samuel 7:12, 13 and 16, “When your days are over and you rest with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, who will come from your own body, and I will establish his kingdom. He is the one who will build a house for my Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established forever.” There was an immediate fulfillment of this promise in David’s son, Solomon. Solomon succeeded David on the throne and built the temple that David wanted to build.
But, there is the future fulfillment that is coming still. There is a throne and a kingdom that will endure forever that is yet coming. Jesus Christ is that One who will sit upon that throne and reign over that kingdom that will be forever. Someday He is coming back and will fulfill this promise to David.