Mary - The Simple girl at the Center of Everything
Characters of Christmas • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Reading:
Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. He shall eat curds and honey when he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good.
Introduction:
Among the characters of Christmas, other than Jesus being the most important, we come to Mary.
Mary is important; but in the midst of telling Mary’s story I believe people throughout history have allowed the grace Mary received to be merited to the wrong person.
Lifting her up on a pedastool that she was never meant to be on, and frankly wouldn’t want to be on either.
As humans we like to have those we call heroes or at least ones we can say are “more” than average.
The catholic church has done a great job of making heroes from those who acted from faith in God.
Mary was not without a sin nature: She was born from man’s seed and woman’s.
Thus the sin nature passed into her just like in each of us.
The only one who didn’t have this sin nature passed on to Him was Jesus, seeing how he was only born of Woman.
A passage that the catholic doctrine uses to gird up this fallacy is:
And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!”
What makes her more favored than any other person in the world at this moment the Angel comes?
She was going to birth, mother, and love Jesus into this world.
Her and Joseph would be more favored in doing this.
The favor from God isn’t much different than:
Having a lineage that would be more numerous than the sands of the sea!
Building a boat to save all humanity!
Being called as a representative to the world for God!
Mary was used in a great way, not much different than anyone else we can read of when it comes to believing God and taking action from that trust and belief.
You and I could fall into that category just as much as Mary.
All that to say that Mary was blessed; but you are as well and there is no human who doesn’t have a sin nature.
as it is written:
“None is righteous, no, not one;
Some may ask: Well God can’t be in the presence of sin, if Mary had a sin nature like us, Jesus couldn’t be in her womb.
Let’s use that logic and ask a couple questions:
Did Jesus live a life among mankind? They were all sinners…That wouldn’t have been possible would it?
Does the Holy Spirit live in you as a believer? We aren’t made perfect yet, we still struggle with our sin nature…That wouldn’t be possible either!
The conclusions we get from evaluating that logic: Mary could be a sinner and still birth Christ, since He live among sinners His whole Earthly life.
Transition:
Mary was a woman who fulfilled her calling from the Lord.
She served a great purpose for souls, just as you and I can when we reconcile souls back to Him.
In Luke 1 we can read about the reasons we are talking about her today.
We find:
Mary’s Calling (28-33)
Mary’s Calling (28-33)
The messenger arrived to deliver a message to Mary.
And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!”
How did he greet her?
He referred to her as “O favored one”.
We already covered how she is considered favored.
He greeted her; what was her reaction?
But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be.
Remember who Mary was.
A young girl supposedly between the ages of 14-16.
The greeting the Angel gave was a typical greeting from angels to humans, as we heard with Elizabeth and Zechariah.
But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John.
The reactions of humans to the appearance of Angels must have been typical, for them to comfort them right of the bat.
She reacted scared!
Then we are given insight into her mind.
She was a logical thinker and began evaluating what was going on.
Illustration:
Let’s take a hypothetical here:
A boy in elementary school,
who isn’t a great student
not entirely well behaved
Most of all stays out of trouble, other than the occasional talking to.
He receives a summons from the teacher to stay after class and talk.
The rest of the day what does his mind do?
It begins evaluating what the purpose is to staying after.
This isn’t much different from what was going on in Mary’s mind at this moment.
An messenger of the Lord is before her and says don’t be afraid.
What does God want to send to her?
The angel speaks:
And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.
She has found favor with God that is why she doesn’t have to be afraid.
Connection:
When you are a child of the King you don’t need to be in fear for when you see Him as well.
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
We are not condemned; but redeemed and free.
We have found favor with God, because of Jesus’ sacrifice.
The Angel gave the message he was sent to deliver:
And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. 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, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”
She was going to be “found with child”
He is named already, It’s Jesus.
a.k.a. Jehovah is salvation!
He will have the authority of “the most high”!
That is His rightful spiritual authority.
He will have the Kingdom authority.
That is the kingship or right to the throne!
Mary must have been flabbergasted.
To go further than the fact that she is a virgin conceiving a child something very important is being told:
What kind of kingdom He will have:
The one that never ends and will be forever!
The earthly kingdom continues now, He is the king of our salvation.
The spiritual kingdom continues and will never end.
Transition:
For a young girl this is a lot of information to take in.
What kind of things would run through your mind at this moment?
What would you do?
What kind of questions would you have for the messenger?
Verse :34 records:
Mary’s Question (34)
Mary’s Question (34)
And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?”
Mary asks: “How will this be?”
Wait a second…did she just doubt the angels message like Zechariah?
I don’t believe so.
Zechariah didn’t believe that Elizabeth could have a child in her old age,
That was why he asked the angel what he did.
And Zechariah said to the angel, “How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years.”
Mary’s question was specific to her, where Zechariah’s was encompassing both.
Zechariah’s was sinful and doubtful
Mary’s was inquisitive: How is that physically possible?
Mary’s questions was more in line with other’s questions:
Abraham wondered how he could be a father to many nations.
David wondered how God could continue his throne forever.
All are legitimate questions for being able to understand a thing.
Mary’s question was how it was possible since her and Joseph hadn’t had any sexual relations.
We often wonder the same question Mary did: How is that possible for the Holy Spirit to do that?
We must remind ourselves: Christ’s birth isn’t natural, it is a miracle!
Fleming Rutledge, a theologian, writes this:
“Natural processes could not have brought the Son of God.… It is beyond the capacity of human parents to produce a child who is God. Humankind cannot bring forth a Jesus, any more than it can bring forth true and lasting peace. Only God can do it. Only God will do it. Mary was just as helpless as Joseph to make this happen. The human impossibility is overcome by the irresistible power of God.”
Jesus was coming because it is God’s way for salvation to be extended to the world.
It was God’s perfect timing!
I still wonder if Mary had thought through the situation she was in:
Betrothed to Joseph.
She would bear a child.
What would she do?
It sounds like she already made up her mind!
Mary wasn’t going to do anything that would compromise her relationship with Joseph.
Ultimately she was willing to endure anything that she would have to for Joseph and for Jesus.
Connection:
This is the same mind that we should have when it comes to our Father or husbands and wives.
Transition:
The Lord was coming, and He chose to use Joseph and Mary as parents.
The miracle of the messiah was finally taking place.
With Mary’s request being the inquiring type instead of the doubting as Zechariah, we come to:
Mary’s Decision (35-38)
Mary’s Decision (35-38)
The angel answered the process of how she will conceive a child.
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.
The Holy Spirit will place the seed there.
?What makes it possible?
The power of the Most High.
Did you notice the trinity present in that passage?
God the Father is “The Most High”.
God the Son is in the womb.
God the Spirit placed the seed in her womb.
The angel also gave Mary, in the second half of that verse, a message of hope.
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.
“Therefore”
Because the trinity worked a miracle in Mary:
Jesus will be called Holy!
? Why would He be called holy?
A virgin conceived and delivered Him.
The miracle would’ve been told throughout the community.
His birth fulfilled all the prophecies for the arrival of the Messiah.
Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah,
who are too little to be among the clans of Judah,
from you shall come forth for me
one who is to be ruler in Israel,
whose coming forth is from of old,
from ancient days.
The prophecy concerning Jesus and a return from Egypt.
When Israel was a child, I loved him,
and out of Egypt I called my son.
Fulfilled:
Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.” And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, “Out of Egypt I called my son.”
There would be no doubt that Jesus was the long awaited Messiah.
All would rejoice!
He would be none other than the Son of God.
The son would have a front runner to prepare the way and the hearts to receive His Ministry once it began.
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.
Not only did Joseph and Mary receive a miracle; but so did Zechariah and Elizabeth.
It would’ve been awesome at this point to live.
God was doing something big, look at the 2 miracles that were done and think of how it would’ve impacted the world.
Connection:
Imagine being around when you hear of the prophecies being fulfilled during your time of life.
How awesome to witness what God was doing.
We see and hear of the things that are taking place here in our world.
All that God is orchestrating to bring His will to pass.
Isn’t it awesome that He could call us all home at any moment by way of the rapture?
As we see the world’s systems running towards a global authority, we know the time is getting shorter and shorter.
? So what are you doing to win souls since you know the time is short and it could happen at any moment?
Who are you bringing with you to the marriage supper?
Have you invited anyone?
Just as Mary was re-assured of all that would take place, the passage is also for us:
For nothing will be impossible with God.”
God desires your submission just as He desired Mary’s.
Isn’t it difficult to respond as she did?
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.
Mary responded from that Internal constitution of faith in God.
She was willing to be anything, go anywhere, and sacrifice all for His will.
Lets think through and refresh our minds about this scenario:
Mary could be divorced if Joseph chose to.
Which would incur embarrassment/shame for her and her whole family.
Mary could be brought before the Pharisees and tried for adultery.
Which she would be brought outside the city, and stoned to death.
? What kind of ridicule are you going to suffer by inviting someone to church?
? What kind of embarrassment are you going to endure for asking someone if they know Christ as their savior?
Obviously none of us have the same concerns here and now as Mary did for obeying the Lord.
Pastor Dave witnessing isn’t my gift.
Maybe not; but it is your duty:
All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation;
You and I are to be vessels that:
Reflect the glory of God.
Reveal the Love of God.
Relate the transformative power of the Spirit to the world.
Live as examples and ambassadors for the joy that is only possible through faith.
Mary said:
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.
If God sent an Angel to you or I because we found favor with Him.
Told us of the world impacting miracle that was about to happen through us.
But we needed to choose:
Possible a ruin of our public life or loss of it entirely.
Could you respond “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord”?
Jesus left us the example to sacrifice it all for others.
Mary trusted the word from the Lord and believed Him.
She acted from faith and trusted God.
It’s Christmas: the celebration of the most valuable and most powerful gift ever extended to anyone. God’s Grace, forgiveness of sins forever.
Share that gift with others because you believe the Lord will use you and that He isn’t done with the world or this church.
He has you here or whatever area you live in to reach those others can’t.
Tell Him:
“Behold, I am your servant”
- Pray!