Luke 11:27-28 (3)
Notes
Transcript
********** Start Timer **********
-Let me encourage you to turn to Luke 11...
…and to follow along in your own Bibles.
We’ve come to a rather short section, this morning...
One that consists of only two verses (Verses 27-28)
And, as far as I can tell...
…Luke is the only gospel writer to record it.
-But… even though that is the case...
...our study of it...
...is still going to take us...
all over the Bible...
and even into a bit of church history as well.
And, for sake of time...
…We’re going to jump on in.
Luke 11:27-28
Let’s read it together...
…and pray that God would give us grace to...
Hear it
Keep it
This is the sufficient Word of God:
Luke 11:27–28 (ESV)
27 As he said these things, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said to him, “Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts at which you nursed!”
28 But he said, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!”
Click Off
Pray
-Let’s look at verse 27 again.
Notice at the beginning...
…that Luke connects this incident to previous events.
He tells us, that it happened:
Luke 11:27 (ESV)
27 As he said these things...
In other words...
. . .while Jesus was in the midst of saying...
…some of the things that had been previously recorded.
Now, I’m not exactly sure if he meant...
...the last section or two, which included:
The exorcism of a demon
Those warnings about...
Attempted Spiritual Neutrality
Religious Externalism
Or, if he was meaning to encompass...
…all of the teachings associated with...
…that extraordinarily LONG day of ministry...
…that he had had during his second tour in Galilee?
(We had seen a little of that day back in Chapter 8)
I’m not exactly sure what scope Luke had in mind, here...
But, whatever the extent...
…the woman in our text...
…appears to have been soaking it all in like a sponge.
Luke tells us this, back in Verse 27:
Luke 11:27 (ESV)
27 As he said these things, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said to him, “Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts at which you nursed!”
So, this woman from the crowd...
…suddenly raises her voice above the rest...
…and weighs in on the situation...
…with the pronouncement of a Beatitude:
The pronouncement of “Blessedness” (adjective)
Meant that God's disposition toward you was favorable.
In other words...
...It meant that certain factors in your life...
…indicate that God loves you, and has shown you grace!
-Now, let’s clarify something obvious, here:
To what or whom...
…is this lady referring to?
To Mary
The mother of Jesus
“Breasts” and “Wombs” are just representative of her, right?
-Now, think about this:
Whom is the woman really praising here?
She is pronouncing a beatitude upon Mary...
But, she isn’t actually complimenting Mary, is she?
The compliment is actually directed toward Jesus.
She isn’t saying:
“Because your mother is so superlative...
…she has produced a superlative Son.”
But rather:
“God has been gracious to your mother...
…by granting her the privilege of having you as her Son!”
There’s a lot of difference in those two statements.
Calvin explains:
By this eulogium the woman intended to magnify the excellence of Christ; for she had no reference to Mary, whom, perhaps, she had never seen. — Calvin
Here’s the principle:
Proverbs 23:24–25 (ESV)
24 The father of the righteous will greatly rejoice; he who fathers a wise son will be glad in him.
25 Let your father and mother be glad; let her who bore you rejoice.
Click Off
It’s a remarkably simple concept.
-However, texts such as this...
... have not prevented MANY...
…in the history of the church...
…from exalting Mary to an almost deified status.
She is referred to by many with titles such as:
The Mother of God
The Queen of Heaven
Co-Redemptrix
Co-Mediatrix
In fact, there’s a vast corpus of theology on Mary...
Much of which the Roman Catholic Church...
…has elevated to the status of dogma:
(i.e., authoritative and morally binding)
-Here are the Four Marian Dogmas that I’m aware of:
Her Perpetual Virginity
Her Divine Motherhood
Her Immaculate Conception
Her Glorious Assumption
And I think that our text...
…provides us with a natural and needful segue...
…into the consideration of some of these ideas.
(You do need to be aware of these things)
(They are aggressively proselytizing nowadays)
-Now, let me say upfront, that...
…there isn’t one single verse of the Bible...
…to support any of these dogmas.
They’re not asserted on biblical authority at all.
They’re asserted on an ecclesiastical authority...
…that they claim for themselves.
-Alright, I’m going to let...
…church historian and commentator, Michael Haykin...
…kick things off for us:
He says, this, first of all:
The Essential Lexham Dictionary of Church History (Virgin Mary)
All Christians with a high view of Scripture agree that the conception of Jesus took place miraculously, that Mary was, in fact, a virgin and Joseph was Jesus’s stepfather.
Do we affirm the Virgin Birth of Christ?
It’s all over the NT!
Matthew spells it out undeniably:
Matthew 1:18 (ESV)
18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit.
Luke is equally emphatic:
Luke 1:34–35 (ESV)
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.
-But, Haykin Continues:
The Essential Lexham Dictionary of Church History (Virgin Mary)
Many Christians further hold that after the birth of Jesus, Mary remained a virgin ever after, having borne only Jesus...
This is known as the doctrine of “Perpetual Virginity”
There seems to be some debate about...
…when it became official church dogma...
…but, as far as i can tell, it would have been...
…no later than the 7th Century.
The Official Catechism of the Catholic Church says this:
Catechism of the Catholic Church (U.S. Edition with Glossary and Index) (Mary—“Ever-Virgin”)
499 The deepening of faith in the virginal motherhood led the Church to confess Mary’s real and perpetual virginity even in the act of giving birth to the Son of God made man.
In fact, Christ’s birth “did not diminish his mother’s virginal integrity but sanctified it.” And so the liturgy of the Church celebrates Mary as Aeiparthenos, the “Ever-virgin.”
But… what does the Bible say about it?
A lot!
Matthew 1:18 (ESV)
18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit.
Matthew 1:24–25 (ESV)
24 When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife,
25 but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus.
“until” means “until” ;)
And many places we see references to...
…other children that Mary had through natural generation:
Mark 6:3 (ESV)
3 Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us?” . . .
Etc. Etc.
You want to know what’s sobering?
Perpetual Virginity was even affirmed by...
…some of the earliest Reformers:
(Luther, Calvin, and Zwingli)
What does that show us?
The Necessity of Sola Scriptura!
-Moving on: The Doctrine of Mary’s Divine Motherhood.
(Ratified at The Council of Ephesus in 431 A.D.)
This is, actually (as bad as it sounds)...
…one of the more defensible of the Marian Dogmas.
But that’s only the case...
…on the basis of a technicality.
(I would still warn you against it...
…as it is VERY misleading)
From the Catechism again:
Catechism of the Catholic Church (U.S. Edition with Glossary and Index) (Mary)
Because she is the mother of Jesus—Son of God and second Person of the Blessed Trinity—according to the flesh, she is rightly called the Mother of God (Theotokos) (148, 495).
Do you see how slippery that is?
Did Mary give the gift of life to God?
What does the Bible say?
1 Corinthians 8:5–6 (ESV)
6 ...there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.
Mary doesn’t share in that
Jesus is God. Mary is NOT
The phrase actually developed...
…because of efforts to prevent...
…the theological separation of the two natures of Christ.
Remember, He has two natures...
Divine
Human...
…which are fully united in his One Person.
So, the idea behind the original formulation is...
Mary is the Mother of Jesus
Jesus is fully God and Fully Man
...Therefore Mary must be described as the Mother of God.
To say otherwise would be to...
…force a heretical separation between the two natures.
-But brethren, without getting into the theological weeds on this...
At its most basic level...
…was it really meant to be an exaltation of Mary?
Not at All!
It became that to Rome...
But, that was not its original intent.
-Alright, third Dogma:
Immaculate Conception
-Declared to be a dogma by a Papal Bull...
…by Pius the IX in 1854.
Catechism of the Catholic Church (U.S. Edition with Glossary and Index) (The Immaculate Conception)
The most Blessed Virgin Mary was, from the first moment of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege of almighty God and by virtue of the merits of Jesus Christ, Savior of the human race, preserved immune from all stain of original sin.
We can’t spend too much time on these last two...
But, there are many scriptures that push against...
…this carefully and cleverly-worded assertion.
The most profound of those...
…is Mary’s own words, in the Magnificat:
Luke 1:46–48 (ESV)
46 And Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord,
47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
I don’t think Mary thought that she was sinless.
Furthermore, it sure seems like...
…Mary’s mind and emotions were "stained of original sin” . . .
...when she falsely insinuated...
…that Jesus had violated the 5th Commandment, in:
Luke 2:48–49 (ESV)
48 ...his mother said to him, “Son, why have you treated us so? Behold, your father and I have been searching for you in great distress.”
49 And he said to them, “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?”
-Last one: The Assumption of Mary
-This is the newest of the Marian Dogmas.
In 1954 Pope Pius XII issued this Papal Bull:
Catechism of the Catholic Church (U.S. Edition with Glossary and Index) (… Also in Her Assumption)
“Finally the Immaculate Virgin, preserved free from all stain of original sin, when the course of her earthly life was finished, was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory, and exalted by the Lord as Queen over all things, so that she might be the more fully conformed to her Son, the Lord of lords and conqueror of sin and death.”
The reality is that this is pure speculation.
The last time Mary is mentioned in the Bible...
…is on the day of Pentecost....
…where she’s there with her other sons...
…worshipping her Firstborn Son!
And one would think, that...
…if the Apostles thought Mary was the “Queen of Heaven” . . .
…that they would have given her departure from the earth...
(whatever the means of it)
…a little bit of attention.
But they didn’t.
She, like Peter and all the rest...
…faded away from the annals of history...
…and were eclipsed by the glory of her Son!
And, that’s the reality.
-But… I want to be clear about something:
Was Mary both Bless-ed and Blessed?
Absolutely!
Consider what the Scripture DOES tell us about her:
Luke 1:26–33 (ESV)
26 In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God...
28 And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!”
Not: “One who is full of grace” (Active voice = Supplier)
But: “One who is favored” (Passive voice = recipient)
Literally: “One who is being favored/shown grace by God!”
He went on to say:
30 . . .“Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.
Remember “favor” = “grace” (undeserved)
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.”
Does that sound...
Bless-ed?
Blessed?
Amen! Unimaginably so!
Her cousin Elizabeth (also miraculously pregnant with John the Baptist)...
… said under inspiration of the Holy Spirit:
Luke 1:42 (ESV)
42 . . . “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!
Here “Blessed” is a verb in the passive voice!
And finally, consider these verses...
…that bring us back to Verse 28 in our text:
Luke 1:45 (ESV)
45 And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.”
Luke 1:38 (ESV)
38 And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” . . .
She believed the Word of God.
And she yielded herself to it.
-Now, look at what we see in Verse 28.
Let’s read the last part of Verse 27 with it:
Luke 11:27–28 (ESV)
27 ...a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said to him, “Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts at which you nursed!”
28 But he said, “Blessed rather...
That word means: “on the contrary”
In other words:
It was certainly a privilege to have been...
…given the honor of bearing and birthing the Christ!
Make no mistake about it!
But, that’s not the ultimate cause of her blessed-ness.
There were other evident factors in her life...
…that showed that she is...
The bless-ed of God...
…to a greater degree than even...
…being the earthly mother of Jesus.
And the same is true for anyone else...
…in whose life these factors exist!
Is that a bold declaration?
-What could possibly indicate that?
Luke 11:28 (ESV)
28 . . . “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!”
(That’s what we already saw in Mary, isn’t it?)
The reality is that, it isn’t...
Ethnicity
Biological relations
Natural Familial relations
Physical proximity to Christ...
…that bring you to a place of “blessed-ness.”
It’s what your spiritual connection to Him is!
And, that is nowhere seen more clearly...
…than in how you...
receive
respond to
…His Word!
-At that time, they were receiving the word of God… audibly...
From the very mouth of Jesus.
And the way they responded to that word...
…was the greatest indicator of their status before God!
Today, we have receive that same word of God… In written form.
And the way we respond to it...
…is STILL the greatest indicator of our status before God!
Remember what Jesus said, back in Chapter 8:
(Interestingly enough, it was probably on the same day)
Luke 8:19–21 (ESV)
19 Then his mother and his brothers came to him, but they could not reach him because of the crowd.
20 And he was told, “Your mother and your brothers are standing outside, desiring to see you.”
21 But he answered them, “My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it.”
Let me show you why...
…this is a more bless-ed position to be in...
…than even that of being the Mother of Jesus:
John 14:21 (ESV)
21 Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.”
1 John 3:23–24 (ESV)
23 ...this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us.
24 Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us.
Guys, Mary only had Jesus in her womb...
…for a few months.
After the day of Pentecost...
…when her heavenly enthroned Son...
…began to pour out the Holy Spirit upon His subjects...
...Mary had God enter HER HEART!
And He NEVER left!
Mary’s status as a sinner...
Saved by grace
Through faith in her Son and LORD...
Is much more bless-ed a condition...
…than anything she had experienced before!
And the reality is, that, EVERYONE...
Luke 11:28 (ESV)
28 ...who hear the word of God and keep it!”
…are:
Bless-ed
Holy
…right along side Mary, the Mother of Jesus.
-And what greater reminder do we have of that...
…than when we come to take our place...
…at the family table of the Lord!
(Click Off)
As we partake here, physically...
We, in a sense, take our place alongside...
Mary
Elizabeth
John the Baptist
Peter
Paul...
…as siblings in the family of God...
…who only have a seat at the table at all...
…because of what our elder brother...
…has accomplished for us!
He is the only one at the head of this table!
Mary’s body wasn’t broken for you:
She isn’t your Co-Redemptrix
Mary’s blood wasn't poured out for you:
She isn’t your CO-Mediatrix
Christ has...
Done all
Borne all
Provided all...
…For you! For Me! And for MARY too!
We all sit at his feet.
We are all his servants.
None of us will share in the worship that belongs to Him!
It belongs to Him!
Let’s Pray
(Pray and Distribute)
1 Corinthians 11:23–24 (ESV)
23 For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread,
24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”
Click Off
1 Corinthians 11:25–26 (ESV)
25 In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”
Click Off
And Paul explains and clarifies:
26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
Click Off