The Book of Luke: The Angelic Birth and Announcement of Jesus Christ (Luke 1:26-38)
Tonight we will see the angelic birth announcement of Jesus Christ. Mary is a great woman in the Bible who should be respected. However, in some circles such as by the Roman Catholic Church, she is put in a position that she should not be. We will look at and study Mary tonight.
Firstly, let us look at the status of Mary as a person. Luke 1:26 “26 And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth,”. The 6th month is a reference to the 6th month of the pregnancy of Elizabeth. Elizabeth is 6 months pregnant at this point. Before Jesus Christ, the city of Nazareth was not a well-known city. Of course Jesus was born from there though.
Verse 27 “27 To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary.”. I want to briefly explain to you what is going on here. Mary and Joseph at this point were contractually married. They were married in a legal sense. That is why it says “espoused”. Think of the word “spouse”. However, the Bible tells us that she was a virgin. Though they had contractually gotten married, they had not yet come together physically. In God’s eyes, there needs to be the legality of the marriage but also the consummating of the marriage. This might seem strange to us since our culture does things differently. However, this is a common occurrence in the Bible. They are not just engaged. They are married. Joseph contemplates divorce because he hasn’t come together with his wife but she is pregnant. He assumes she was with a different man. In this situation, God would grant or allow a divorce.
Verse 28 “28 And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women.”. The Bible tells us that Mary was highly favoured. Mary was a wonderful person to be chosen by God to give birth to his son. In the next few weeks as we study Luke, we will see Mary praising the Lord. We will dissect that a little bit and see how she quotes the Old Testament a lot. She was right with God and loved the Lord and we should have nothing but respect and honor for a young lady like this. No doubt about this. I want to be clear about that.
However, though she was a very godly young lady and respect her, Mary was a normal woman just like anybody else. Now she was very spiritual but she was a human being and not deity in any way. The Bible says that Mary was blessed among women. In the Old Testament, it says Jael was blessed above women. Why doesn’t the Bible say that about Mary? I believe that God knew people would worship Mary and wanted to avoid saying that so people would not worship her or at least couldn’t use the Bible to justify worshipping her. The Bible tells us “among women” because she was a normal woman.
I want to begin by talking about the status of Mary. Many false religions have dishonored the name of Mary by promoting her to a status that is inappropriate. I want to dismantle 3 false teachings about Mary as we get started. The Roman Catholic Church is probably the most famous group that holds her to a position above what she is worthy of. I want to give you a sample prayer that the Roman Catholic says regarding Mary. It’s called “Hail Mary”.
“Hail, Mary, full of grace,
the Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou amongst women
and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God,
pray for us sinners,
now and at the hour of our death.
Amen.”.
Many people grew up Catholic praying this prayer. There are a lot of problems with this prayer. It’s my job as a Pastor to know the things that we believe and why we believe them. Let me give you some thoughts on some false teachings about Mary.
The first false teaching about Mary that I would like to dismantle is the teaching that Mary is a perpetual virgin. They say that she was a virgin before, during and after Jesus Christ. The Bible teaches us that she was a virgin when Jesus was born but she did not remain a virgin her entire life.
Matthew 13:54 “54 And when he was come into his own country, he taught them in their synagogue, insomuch that they were astonished, and said, Whence hath this man this wisdom, and these mighty works? 55 Is not this the carpenter’s son? is not his mother called Mary? and his brethren, James, and Joses, and Simon, and Judas? 56 And his sisters, are they not all with us? Whence then hath this man all these things?”.
In verse 55 it says “the carpenter’s son”. That is a reference to Joseph. Of course Joseph is not his biological father but they are not aware of that. It mentions though his brothers and sisters in verses 55 and 56. This is why the Bible tells us that Jesus was the firstborn son of Mary because this was not her only child. James mentioned here in verse 55 is the author of the book of James. His brothers actually did not believe him at first until after the resurrection. In verse 56 it says “are not they all” which indicates that there are more than 2 half-sisters. Mary and Joseph had children after Jesus Christ that were normal births. The point is that Mary is not a perpetual virgin.
The first false teaching of Mary is that she was a perpetual virgin. The 2nd false teaching is that Mary is the Mediatrix. That refers to in Catholicism that intercessory means that Mary works in the redemption of mankind. The Roman Catholic Church teaches that though salvation is through Jesus Christ, Mary was bestowed the grace of Christ and chooses who gets saved and who doesn’t. They believe her to be the female mediator between us and Jesus. The Catholic Church teaches that we must go through her to get salvation.
What does the Bible say? 1st Timothy 2:5 “5 For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;”. The only mediator between us and God is Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ was 100% man and 100% God. He is the only person we go through. We actually find in the Bible that Mary was a sinner in need of a Savior just like anybody else. She gave birth to a Savior who would save her from her sins.
The first false teaching of Mary is that she was a perpetual virgin. The 2nd false teaching is that Mary is the Mediatrix. The 3rd false teaching is that Mary is the Mother of God. What is the problem with that? Some people would say “Isn’t this just semantics?”. Of course we believe Mary is the mother of Jesus and Jesus is God. However, Mary gave birth to the man Christ Jesus. Mary didn’t create Jesus or create God.
Hebrews 7:1 “For this Melchisedec, king of Salem, priest of the most high God, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings, and blessed him;”. Melchisedec is an Old Testament appearance of the Son of God. Jesus has no beginning. He is eternal. The reason why we know this is because of verses 2 & 3. Hebrews 7:2 “2 To whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all; first being by interpretation King of righteousness, and after that also King of Salem, which is, King of peace; 3 Without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days, nor end of life; but made like unto the Son of God; abideth a priest continually.”. In verse 3 it says “without mother”. He didn’t descend from anyone. This is why the Bible tells us that Jesus is the Alpha and Omega. Jesus was both the root and offspring of David. He is eternal which makes him the root. However, Mary is not the mother of God who is eternal. However, the human aspect of Jesus is who Mary is the mother of. God has no mother. He was not birthed.
God is made up of 3 persons. The Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. She is not the mother of any of those 3. She gave birth to the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. We should respect Mary and honor her but not make more out of her than what the Bible teaches.
Not only do we see the status of Mary as a person but we also see her supernatural conception. Luke 1:29 “29 And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be. 30 And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God. 31 And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name Jesus.”. Here Gabriel tells Mary that she will conceive and give birth to the Lord Jesus Christ. Gabriel announces the birth of the coming Messiah and he highlights some things that we should be aware of.
Verse 32 “32 He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David:”. The first thing emphasized is the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ. Go to John 5. Of course we believe that Jesus is God and he is the Son of God. That is confusing. We can fully comprehend this or completely equate this to mankind. Think of it this way. When my wife gave birth to our children, they weren’t lesser than us. They were just as much a human being as me and my wife. When God has a son, it is God. This is not a 2nd God though. This is maybe something difficult in our western world to understand but it was something they understood clearly back then.
John 5:18 “18 Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God.”. The Jews understood that if Jesus said he was the Son of God that he was equating himself or making himself equal with God. You might think that we don’t need to talk about this doctrine because everyone knows it. What I have learned in the ministry is that a lot of people aren’t aware of certain things. Sometimes as Pastors we might fail to teach and reteach some of these basic things. So let’s go through some of these things. Philippians 2 says that he thought it not robbery to make himself equal with God.
Jesus Christ is God. This is something we need to know very clearly. 1st Timothy 3:16 “16 And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.”.
We see in Luke 1 that the angel emphasizes the deity of Jesus when he talks about the supernatural conception of Mary. The angel also emphasizes the humanity of Christ. Listen to me. Jesus was 100% God and 100% man. How is that possible? Great is the mystery of godliness. We can’t fully comprehend this. Why did he have to be human? Because in order to be the mediator man and God, he had to be a man.
Luke 1:32 “32 He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David:”. It says he will be given the throne of his father David. He is the offspring of David. He has a lineage or genealogy leading up to himself. This emphasizes the humanity.
Just yesterday I gave the gospel to someone. I had really been wondering whether or not people need this teaching and preaching about these basic things. This man told me that he did not believe in the virgin birth. It shows that this preaching is needed. He said something very similar to what Mary says here. Luke 1:34 “34 Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?”. This man that I talked to said to me “How can this be?”. This is exactly what Mary asked. The Bible actually answers how this shall be.
Luke 1:35 “35 And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. A lot of cults teach weird things about this. For example, the Mormons teach that God the Father came down from heaven and had a physical relationship with Mary to produce Jesus. That is perverted. It is no different than Greek Mythology. The Bible speaks about the Holy Ghost coming upon people to do great things. This is what happens in Luke 1 with the virgin birth. I can’t totally explain it or understand it but I can show you that this is what the Bible teaches.
Let me say that the virgin birth is essential to what we believe and salvation. It’s not just a nice story that we tell. There is a reason why Jesus had to be born of a virgin. Romans 5:12 “12 Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:”. The one man mentioned is referring to Adam. Sin entered into the world and then death entered into the world. The fall gave them a sin nature. They began to die. When Adam and Eve started to have children, that sin nature was passed on to the rest of mankind. How is that sin nature passed down? It is passed down through the father. It comes back to the seed of man which is passed down to each person born. Adam did not pass down his sin to you but he passed down his sin nature.
Why the virgin birth? When Jesus was born, there was no seed or blood of man that brought life into Mary. The Holy Ghost came upon Mary and overshadowed her and a virgin gave birth. The blood of Jesus came from heaven so he is the Son of God. The virgin birth is not just a fun story we tell at Christmas but crucial to our beliefs.
We saw #1 the status of Mary. We saw #2 the supernatural conception of Mary. We see #3 the service of Mary. With Zacharias in Luke 1, he questions the conception of his wife because he is being critical rather than curious. Notice Luke 1:18-20 “18 And Zacharias said unto the angel, Whereby shall I know this? for I am an old man, and my wife well stricken in years.
19 And the angel answering said unto him, I am Gabriel, that stand in the presence of God; and am sent to speak unto thee, and to shew thee these glad tidings.
20 And, behold, thou shalt be dumb, and not able to speak, until the day that these things shall be performed, because thou believest not my words, which shall be fulfilled in their season.”.
Notice what it says about Mary when she found out the news of her conception. Luke 1:43-45 “43 And whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?
44 For, lo, as soon as the voice of thy salutation sounded in mine ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy.
45 And blessed is she that believed: for there shall be a performance of those things which were told her from the Lord.”.
See, Zacharias got rebuked because he didn’t believe. With Mary she wasn’t rebuked because she was curious how this would happen but she believed it. Mary wasn’t doubting what the angel said. She was curious of how it was going to happen. There is nothing wrong with asking questions. The problem is often the motivation for the question. Maybe the problem is the attitude you have for why or how you are asking the question.
I want you to realize that we should respect Mary but not uphold her above what the Bible says about her. We should not put her in the same status as the Lord Jesus Christ. In fact, someone comes to Mary and is basically blessing Mary for giving birth to Jesus. Jesus rebukes her for saying that.
Not only do we see the curiosity of Mary but we also see a confirmation of these things. Luke 1:35 “35 And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. 36 And, behold, thy cousin Elisabeth, she hath also conceived a son in her old age: and this is the sixth month with her, who was called barren. 37 For with God nothing shall be impossible.”. Sometimes it is ok to have things confirmed. It reminds me of the story of the father who says he believes but asks God to help his unbelief.
Lastly I want you to see the acceptance of this in verse 38. This verse really highlights the character of Mary and her walk with God. Mary had to have known that people would think she was lying, they would accuse her of fornication, that she was impure. However, notice her response. Luke 1:38 “38 And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word. And the angel departed from her.”.
Regardless of what God’s word says, whether we like it or not, we should have the attitude “be it unto me according to thy word.”. Jesus was born to die upon calvary for us. We should be willing to go forth and bear the cross in a symbolic sense. People don’t want to be mocked or criticized. I’m sure all of those things happened to Mary. However, she said let it be according to thy word. Are we willing to take up our cross and follow God? The answer ought to be “Be it unto me according to thy word.”. Should we stay pure until we are married, should we go soulwinning, etc… The answer ought to be “Be it unto me according to thy word.”. Regardless of the question it should be the same answer.
Let’s pray.