One of the blessings that has come with the “invention” of mass media is the fact that for the past 100 years or so most people have known firsthand what it was like to receive unexpected news announcements about things that have changed the course of human history. For example.
- On November 11, 1918 people around the world picked up their newspapers and read the wonderful news that World War I had finally ended.
- In May of 1927 headlines announced that Charles Lindbergh had officially completed his daring attempt to be the first aviator to fly solo across the Atlantic ocean.
- In December of 1941 people gathered around their radios to hear Roosevelt’s shocking announcement of the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor.
- In July of 1969, my cousins and I were glued to the TV in my Uncle’s living room in Florence, Alabama watching the live news broadcast that showed the moment when Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon.
- And do you remember how you felt that horrible Tuesday morning a little over five years ago when you watched the twin towers fall?
Thanks to TV and newspapers and the Internet, we all know what it’s like to get shocking news. We know how it feels to receive a startling announcement of some sort. Well, as staggering as the examples I’ve shared were for our world each of these announcements is inconsequential when compared with the announcement of the birth of the Messiah, Jesus Christ. And this morning as we continue our study of the three wise women of Christmas, I want us to look at the young girl who first received this glorious news. Take your Bibles and turn to Luke 1 and follow along as I read the familiar text that tells us of the day she heard the announcement that, not only was the long, awaited Messiah about to come hers was the womb that God would use to bring Him into the world.
26 , In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee,
27 , to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary.
28 , The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”
29 , Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be.
30 , But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God.
31 , You will be with child and give birth to a Son, and you are to give Him the name Jesus.
32 , He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David,
33 , and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever; His kingdom will never end.”
34 , “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”
35 , The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the Holy One to be born will be called the Son of God.
36 , Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be barren is in her sixth month.
37 , For nothing is impossible with God.”
38 , “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May it be to me as you have said.” Then the angel left her.
This is the Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Now, as we did last week, before we go any further in our study let me describe the setting. It’s been six months since Gabriel shocked that old priest named Zechariah with the news of his imminent fatherhood. And this time, as it says in verse 27, Gabriel’s announcement is not to an old man in the spectacular temple in Jerusalem, but rather to a young girl, a virgin named Mary living in an obscure village in Galilee. His next stop will be to her bewildered fiancé, Joseph.
You know, I think this is where the concept of a “Christmas rush” must have originated because Gabriel was one busy angel! He made three round trips to heaven in a short period of time! By the way Gabriel is one of only two angels in the Bible who are actually named. The other one, Michael, is what you might call a “super, angel.” I say this because Michael seems to be associated with assignments that require power and strength. Gabriel, on the other hand, is God’s supreme messenger. He’s the one who brings great, glorious, and crucial announcements from Heaven, and this announcement to Mary was his most important ever!
Mary lived in Nazareth, a small town situated about 70 miles northeast of Jerusalem. Nazareth was located just above the main caravan route between Jerusalem and Tyre and Sidon, two ports located on the northern coast of Israel. Since it was situated near this heavily traveled caravan route, Nazareth had many “inns” to serve the needs of the scores of travelers that came through, mostly Roman soldiers and merchants. And, under their worldly influence, immorality and corruption became commonplace in the life of the city. I imagine these inns formed a sort of “red light district” that kind of took over most of the town such that it was not the best place to live. Perhaps this is why Nathaniel said, “Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?”
Tradition says that Gabriel delivered His startling announcement to Mary while she was drawing water from a small well. Most think it happened in this way because this would have been the only place women in Nazareth were alone. It was a woman’s job to bring water to the home, and at that time there was only one source of water in Nazareth, a tiny well with room for only one person at a time to enter, so most scholars have believed that Gabriel came to Mary with his news as she was alone drawing from this well. A church has been built over this site. I visited there several years ago with some of you and drank from the well.
As I said a moment ago, the Bible tells us that at the time of Gabriel’s announcement Mary was “betrothed” to Joseph. And we need to understand that to the Jewish people betrothal was different from our modern concept of engagement. As I told my Wednesday night study last week, their version of betrothal was called the “kiddushin” and it lasted one full year and was far more binding than our modern engagement. Kiddushin involved a public ceremony, sort of a “pre, wedding”, after which Mary’s property belonged to her future husband. If Joseph had died during this “kiddushin” period, Mary would have been his legal widow. Another thing only divorce could break a Jewish betrothal, and even though they were not yet married and did not enjoy any kind of physical relationship during their kiddushin had either Joseph or Mary been unfaithful to each other during this time, the act would have been deemed adultery punishable by death under the old Mosaic law. In fact, one of the purposes of the “kiddushin” year was to demonstrate the fidelity of both partners.
It was also a time for the families to exchange gifts and for the couple to get to know each other and to prepare for the wedding ceremony itself, which was called the huppa, and it needed a lot of prep time because back then weddings lasted a week! No wonder they ran out of wine at that wedding feast in Cana where Jesus performed His first miracle. In any case, to the Jews the kiddushin was a joyous time. During these betrothal months Mary and Joseph would have spent a lot of time working and planning to make their dreams for their future life together a reality. In the midst of their betrothal year Gabriel appeared to Mary and his first words to her were, “Greetings, you who are highly favored. The Lord is with you.”
Now, Gabriel’s angelic greeting here has often been misunderstood and mis-taught. I say this because it is the source of the saying, “Hail Mary full of grace.” However the most literal Greek translation would be, “Grace, oh graced one!” Gabriel did not say “Hail Mary who is full of grace to bestow on others.” No, a more accurate wording would be, “Hail Mary who has been given much grace.” In other words Mary is not the dispenser of divine grace. God is! And she herself received His grace in that she had been chosen to be the mother of Him through whom God’s grace is extended to all people. Mary needed grace as much as any sinner separated by God. And she knew this, for, in one of the first phrases of her own impromptu Christmas song, she sang, “my spirit rejoices in God my Savior “ (Luke 1:47)
Now, like Zachariah, Mary was understandably afraid when Gabriel showed up, while she was alone down in that dark well, getting water. I think that even in our day when we are so accustomed to amazing special affects on the big screen even we would be startled if Gabriel or Michael were to suddenly appear in the midst of our daily routine. But once she got over her fear, Mary’s response to this amazing news that she would be the vessel through whom God would bring about a miraculous birth was different than that of her uncle.
Remember? Zechariah basically said “This can’t happen Gabriel my wife is too old to have children.” but Mary said “How can this happen since I am a virgin?" In other words, she didn’t question that God could do this. She just wondered how it was going to come about that a virgin would conceive. And there is nothing wrong with that. God invites our honest questions. Remember Jesus urged us to “Ask to seek.” God wants us to relate to Him in this way. In fact, I think He delights in hearing our honest questions because in asking we acknowledge that He is the source of all knowledge. Plus, in asking and then waiting for His answer, we fellowship with God, we relate to Him, and that is why He created us in the first place!
Gabriel’s answer to Mary’s honest question is in verse 35. Look at it with me. He said, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you. Your child will be holy, the Son of God.” Now, Gabriel wasn’t suggesting that the Holy Spirit would have sexual relations with Mary. No, the Greek here is similar to the wording in the creation account in Genesis. In essence Gabriel answered her honest question by saying, “Mary, in the same way that God said, ‘Let there be light!’ and there was light, He will say ‘Let My Son’s fetus be in your womb,’ and it will happen.”
Now, why do you think God chose Mary? Why pick her for this important task? Why bestow on her the honor of serving as a mother to the Messiah? Well, of course we don’t know the mind of God. His thoughts are not ours, so we can’t know the complete rationale behind His decision, but I believe that here in His Word the things God tells us about Mary gives us at least a partial answer to this question by showing us three of the reasons she may have been selected. In fact, I look at them as three prerequisites when it comes to His choice to use anyone to do something great and I want us to look at them this morning as examples for us to all follow.
(1) First, I think God chose Mary was because she had the right attitude about herself.
When I say this, I’m referring to the fact that Mary was humble. I mean, she didn’t believe she deserved this honor that God had bestowed on her in any way. In fact Luke tells us that she was ” troubled ” by the fact that Gabriel said she was ” highly favored ” This didn’t seem right to her. It didn’t make sense. She thought, “Why should I be highly favored. You must have the wrong ‘Mary’ Gabriel. You’re at the wrong well. Surely God sent you to someone else, perhaps the next town on the trade route.”
And we continue to see Mary’s humility expressed in her song of Christmas, the Magnificat, which is recorded for us in verses 46, 55. Look at it. In verse 48 she sings that God, ” has regarded the lowly estate of His maidservant.” In verse 52 she sings, “He has put down the mighty from their thrones and exalted the lowly." As we read through her song, we see that Mary never even hinted at bragging about herself. God is the only one she magnified in her Magnificat.
And in my mind this is one thing we should take from our study of this particular Wise Woman of Christmas. We should look at the fact that God chose her, and see how much importance God places humility. In fact, this principle is seen from the beginning as we look at the setting of this story. God’s selection of the region, the village, and the people of this chapter of history, His-story: Galilee, Nazareth, Joseph and Mary, Zechariah and Elizabeth help illustrate His reversal of human ideas about greatness and smallness, significance and insignificance. Paul’s words from 1st Corinthians 1:27, 29 come to mind where it says,
“God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things, and the things that are not, to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before Him.”
You see, it is not the boasters, the proud who have the last word in God’s kingdom. Arrogance and power and wealth are totally out of place there. No, God exalts those who do not think of themselves as “having arrived”, but rather the humble .people who hunger for Him and realize how much they need Him in their lives. The fact is, in the Kingdom of God, humility is an essential. Think about it. A person can’t even become a Christian until he or she humbly admits their need for God, until in humility they confess their sin and ask for God’s forgiveness.
After we become Christians humility continues to be a necessity because God will not use us unless we bow to His will and humbly place our lives at His disposal the way Mary did. The Bible teaches that God chooses and uses humble people, people who will display His glory, not their own. In Isaiah 57:15 God says, “I live in a high and holy place but also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit.” In Isaiah 66:2 God says, “This is the one I esteem: he who is humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at My Word.” Referring to these and other Scriptures Jerry Bridges writes, “The promises of God toward the truly humble are almost breathtaking. The infinitely high and lofty One Who lives forever promises to dwell with them, to esteem them, to give them grace, to lift them up, and to exalt them.”
The truth is, in order for us to be useful in God’s great kingdom, we must humble ourselves. And when we do this we learn, as Mary did, that with God nothing is impossible! Please understand people, this is more than an angelic insertion. It is a positive reality! With God it was possible for an old, barren woman and her husband to conceive and bear a son, John, who was the forerunner of the Son of God. With God it was possible for a virgin girl to give birth to a baby, Jesus, Who was and is the Son of God, the Savior of the world. With God sinful people like you and me can find redemption in Christ and have new life abundant meaningful, incredibly significant life. With God nothing is impossible.
In fact, think about that for a moment. If God could use the life of a humble young peasant girl, then He can use any life, including yours. As St Francis of Assisi said, “If God can use me .God can use anyone.”
Well, what would happen if you humbled yourself and allowed God to use your life? Wouldn’t it be exciting to find out this Christmas?
(2) A second reason I think God chose Mary was because she had the right attitude about His written Word.
Mary cherished the Scripture. She treasured its wisdom. This is seen in the fact that the lyrics of her impromptu song of Christmas that is recorded in verses 46 – 55 contain at least 15 direct quotes of the Old Testament. Mary obviously knew her Bible. She knew it well! And we must understand, this would have been difficult for Mary. You see, in those days printed Scriptures were a luxury, so peasants like Mary would not have had actual written copies. This means she would have had to memorize Old Testament Scriptures as her parents taught them to her over the years. And, as I said, her song proves that she had done exactly that. She had hidden God’s Word in her heart. I’m sure that on her four, day journey to Elizabeth’s house she pondered Gabriel’s startling announcement and as she did I think she reviewed the Scriptures in her mind, especially the Messianic prophecies she had learned as a child. And the more she remembered these texts, the more her fear diminished and the more her excitement grew. In any case, the Biblical record of the Nativity story shows us that Mary was fully informed by the very heart and mind of God as expressed through His written Word. It’s truth was precious to her. She could say with the Psalmist, “Oh God, how I love Your law. I meditate on it all day long.” (Psalm 119:97)
But she didn’t just memorize it and meditate on it. She cherished it as the precious truth that it is. She believed the promises of God’s written Word, even when others around her didn’t. And the sad fact is most of the people of that day didn’t. I mean, in prior centuries God had sent prophet after prophet to tell His people that one day the Messiah would be born. People had written down the Words of God’s prophets words that described everything from where the Messiah would be born to how He would die. But, as I told you last week, in Mary’s day, it had been 400 years since God had sent a prophet four centuries with no Word from God forty decades of Heavenly silence.
Now at one time, the Hebrew people had read the Messianic prophecies in Scripture and clung to them as Mary so obviously did. For a few generations the people of this nation believed in and longed for the fulfillment of this wonderful promise of God. They eagerly anticipated the coming of their Deliverer. But years passed decades passed and nothing happened: no visions, no prophecies, no miracles, nothing.
- Some grew tired of waiting. They gave up, bitterly concluding God had forsaken them.
- Some tried to bring about their own deliverance through religious or political reform.
- Others simply got caught up in their day-to-day living.
After all, they had jobs to do, bills to pay, kids to raise.
Ditchfield writes,
“[Most Jewish people] were too busy for what must have seemed like ‘fairy tales’ or ‘wishful thinking.’ Nothing even remotely miraculous had ever happened in their lifetime or their parents’ lifetime, grandparents, Or great- grandparents’ or great, great grandparent’s lifetime. Because of this it was hard for them to believe the supernatural stories of the Old Testament. Somehow it just didn’t seem real.”
So, the majority of the people in Mary’s day had given up and no longer cherished God’s Word. But a remnant still believed it was true. A remnant remained faithful. A few watched and waited for the fulfillment of God’s written promise and Mary was one of them. She trusted God. She believed His Word. Do you remember how she phrased her “YES” to Gabriel in verse 38? Mary said, “Be it done to me according to your word. I’ll be the virgin prophesied by Isaiah I’ll bear the Messiah promised to the first humans back in Genesis 3:15.” And, as I said, I think this is one reason God chose Mary for this astounding privilege. You see, when it comes to important assignments He uses people who believe His promises and trust them and live by them. Let me put it this way, when it comes to selecting people to do His will, God calls the prepared. He calls soldiers who put on the full armor of God especially the ” sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God.” (Ephesians 6:17)
One of my favorite video series is HBO’s Band of Brothers. It tells the true story of the brave men who made up the 101st Airborne during WWII. If I remember correctly this particular military unit fought in more battles of this great conflict than any other. Time and time again when an important job needed doing, the 101st was chosen. Repeatedly they were selected from among all other units to fight on the front lines. Why? Well, the simple answer is they were great soldiers. And they were great soldiers, great because they were prepared for battle, prepared because they had listened to their trainers in boot camp. They heeded the instruction of their leaders they obeyed orders they cherished their leader’s verbal guidance.
I don’t want to sound too militaristic but the same principle is found when it comes to the kingdom of God. When important tasks need doing, God calls on those of His “soldiers” who are prepared and the best way to prepare ourselves for God’s call is to cherish His Word to know it as Mary did. God calls people who have “studied to show themselves approved as workmen who correctly handle the Word of truth.” (2 Timothy 2:15) For example, when it comes to leading someone to faith in His Son, God calls individuals who know how to use evangelistic texts like the Romans Road. When it comes to selecting a Christian to help someone who is lonely or afraid He’ll pick someone who has embraced the truth of Joshua 1:9 where God says, “Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.” When it comes to choosing someone to counsel a couple who’s marriage is in trouble, God will choose someone who understands and embraces the teaching of Ephesians 5:21, 22, 25 where it says, “Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord .and husbands love your wives just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.” When it comes to picking someone to help a Christian who has questions about Jesus’ return He’ll pick a believer who knows Jesus’ words from John 14:2, 3 where He said, “In My Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with Me that you also may be where I am.”
Let me ask .is God using you much these days? Have you been given any exciting assignments lately? How long has it been since you last found yourself in the midst of a Divine appointment? If it’s been a while, could it be due to the fact that You don’t cherish His Word don’t know it don’t live by it? Could the reason you’ve not received any “startling’ announcements be due to the fact you don’t know the Bible as well as you should?
So, Mary was chosen because she had the right attitude about herself and the right attitude about the God’s Word and finally I think she was chosen from among all women because
(3) She had the right attitude about God’s will.
Her mind set was such that she said yes to God’s will for her life. She was completely receptive to His commands even if that meant she would endure difficulty or danger.
Look back at our text. In verses 31 – 37 Gabriel delivers his message from God. He tells Mary she will be the virgin mother of the long, awaited Messiah. He patiently answers her question as to how this could happen since she was a virgin saying, “nothing is impossible with God.” Then in verse 38 she gives her answer, “Yes if this is God’s will for my life yes, I am the Lord’s servant. May it be unto me as you have said.” Now, don’t trivialize her answer, you need to understand, this was an incredibly courageous thing for Mary to say. This was a gutsy teenager! Mary must have been torn between two conflicting thoughts as she considered the implications of Gabriel’s announcement. First, like any Jewish woman of her day, she surely considered it an incredible honor to have been chosen to be the mother of the Messiah the mother of Jesus.
Ditchfield writes,
“Ever since God’s promise to Eve in the Garden of Eden, women down through the ages had wondered if perhaps they might be the one chosen to bear the Messiah. To the faithful, it was a sacred dream, a cherished hope, a coveted honor.”
So on one hand, Mary surely was thrilled at this news. Think about it! She had been chosen from among all women for this honor. And her song reflects her joy. Look at verses 47 and following: “My spirit rejoices in God my Savior from now on all generations will call me blessed. For the Mighty One has done great things for me!”
But on the other hand, Mary also knew that to accept this privilege could bring with it great personal pain and hardship. As I inferred earlier, Joseph would have the legal right to divorce her. Her parents and friends would probably reject her. At the very least her reputation was shot because she would be branded a lose woman. By the way, the gospels record the fact that she was indeed labeled in this way. And, at the worst, according to the religious laws of her culture, Mary would face death by stoning.
As Ditchfield puts it,
“It would not be easy. To whom much is given much is required. When it became evident that Mary had been pregnant long before her wedding day, she would endure nasty rumors, snide comments, and scornful looks. But having her name dragged through the mud, her reputation ruined, this was nothing compared to the agony she would experience as the mother of the Man born to die for the sins of the world. This was one son who would not grow up to take over the family business, settle down with a sweet girl, and fill his mother’s arms with adorable grandchildren. As Simeon told her in the temple, ‘This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul as well.'”
With that in mind look now at Mary’s courageous reply. She said, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be to me according to Your word.” In other words, in spite of personal risk Mary said, “Here am I use me, Lord,” a phrase that all Christians should say at the beginning of each and every day because He is Lord of every day not us.
Stuart Briscoe tells the story of a simple, illiterate man who was converted through the work of the Salvation Army. He went regularly to the Salvation Army citadel. One day he came home rather disconsolate. His wife said, “What’s the matter?” He said, “I’ve just noticed that all the people in the Salvation Army wear red sweaters, and I don’t have a red sweater.” She said, “Well, I can fix that. I’ll knit you one.” So she knitted him a red sweater. The next Sunday after he went to the citadel, he still wasn’t happy. His wife said, “What’s wrong this time?” He said, “I just noticed all their red sweaters have yellow writing.” Now, they were both illiterate, but she said, “Don’t worry about it. I’ll embroider some writing on your sweater for you.” She had no idea what the yellow writing on the red sweater of a Salvation Army man said and she couldn’t read anyway. So she saw a sign on a store window opposite their home, and embroidered the words of that store sign onto her husband’s red sweater. When he came back the next Sunday, she said, “Did they like your sweater?” He said, “They loved my sweater. Some of them said they liked my sweater better than their sweater.” What neither of them knew was that the sign on the store window she had copied read, “This business under new management.”
No wonder his sweater was a hit with the other Christian servants who worked at the Salvation Army, because that’s what it means to be a Christian. When we give our lives to God we should all put a sign on us somewhere that says, “This business this life is under new management. I don’t run it anymore. God does!”
Mary understood this principle of Kingdom work. Ditchfield writes,
“Though she was only a teenager, barely more than a child, Mary somehow recognized the blessings and rewards of unconditional obedience. She was a truly wise woman a woman with a willing heart.”
Listen bored Christian. Do you know the kind of people God uses to do amazing things?
- Things like ministering to refugee women in Kenya or translating the Bible into a the dialect of a remote village in the Philippines?
- Things like teaching the Bible to 50 women here on Tuesdays, women who go home each week thrilled and inspired and changed by their study?
- Things like helping children to understand how much God loves them each Sunday Morning during the Sunday School hour? $ $ Things like re, building the homes and lives of Katrina victims?
- Things like helping people in this multi-ethnic county, people from literally all over the world learn to speak English and in the process hear the good news of the Gospel?
- Things like singing in a cantata whose beautiful music lifts an entire congregation’s hearts toward Heaven?
Do you know what kind of people God uses to do wonderful things like that? Willing people!
Well, are you willing to follow Mary’s example in this? Are you ready and willing for God to use you to do something amazing? If not are you willing to be made willing?
Let us pray:
Father God,
Fix our attitudes this morning.
Replace our foolish sinful pride with Christ-like humility.
Help those of us who take Your written Word for granted to cherish it and study it an memorize it
But most of all change selfish hearts into willing ones convict us of our need to truly acknowledge You as Lord.
In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.