Sermon Tone Analysis

I. The Telling of the Child’s Coming

Israel was under the reign of Herod, King of Judea.

He was also known as Herod the Great.

He ruled Palestine through the influence of the Caesar Augustus, Roman Emperor.

He ruled under the Romans from 41 BC to 4 BC.

It was during his reign that our story takes place this morning.

The angel Gabriel has already come to Mary’s cousin Elizabeth in the previous verses to proclaim to her that in her old age God will give her and her husband Zechariah.

He was a priest.

The Bible calls him and Elizabeth righteous and ones who walked blamelessly before God.

This son they were to have would come and proclaim the future coming of the Messiah and prepare Israel for His coming.

Jumping ahead a few months to our main story this morning, we find the same angel, Gabriel, appearing to Mary who lived in Nazareth.

[Now the setting for the Annunciation drew amazement from first-century Jewish readers because Gabriel ignored Judea, the heartland of God’s work through the centuries, and came to Galilee, a land that was the subject of abiding Jewish contempt because of its mongrelized population.

Even more, the angel not only bypassed Judea for Galilee, but the city of Jerusalem for the village of Nazareth.

Nazareth was a “non-place.”

It was not even mentioned in the Old Testament or in Josephus’ writings or in the rabbinical writings (either Talmudic or midrashic).

It wasn’t until 1962 that a pre-Christian mention of Nazareth was found at Caesarea Maritima.

The later prominence of the town is a result of the Christian gospel.

Nazareth, a shoddy, corrupt halfway stop between the port cities of Tyre and Sidon, was overrun by Gentiles and Roman soldiers.

When guileless, straight-talking Nathaniel mentioned Nazareth, he said, “ ‘Nazareth!

Can anything good come from there?’ ” (John 1:46), implying that it was miserably corrupt.

By consensus, Nazareth was not much.

(R. Kent Hughes, Luke: That You May Know the Truth, Preaching the Word, (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1998), 28–29.)]

Our story, Gabriel’s coming to Mary took place in the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy.

Mary, was Elizabeth’s cousin and much younger.

She was a virgin and engaged or betrothed to a man by the name of Joseph.

Joseph was a carpenter in Nazareth.

He worked with not just wood but stone and possibly other metals.

He was a hard working man.

During this engagement Mary was busy about her day when an angel appeared to her.

He begins to speak to her by saying, “Greetings, favored one!

The Lord is with you.”

This was a fairly common type of greeting.

He greeted her by telling her she was favored by God.

God has shed His grace on her and is choosing her to be apart of the biggest, life-altering event in the history of the World that will reverberate both the past, the present, and the future!

Yet he was to differ from all humanity in that he did not have a human father.

His conception occurred by the power of the Holy Spirit.

This was a miracle in the strictest sense of all: it was an act that only God could bring to pass.

God alone can bring something out of nothing; life out of death; fertility from a barren woman; a virgin birth (R. C. Sproul, A Walk with God: An Exposition of Luke, (Great Britain: Christian Focus Publications, 1999), 20.)

Mary was nothing special and lived in a town that was looked down on by most.

She lived a very ordinary life and would through her life raise a family with Joseph that was just a normal family with family problems.

This story though is not about Mary but about the child that Gabriel was about to tell Mary that would be coming and that the child would be coming from her.

After Gabriel greets her and tells her God’s grace was on her, Mary responded in a very understandable human response, perplexed and thought through with thoroughness.

Gabriel could see this and offered up some encouragement to not be afraid again because God had found favor with her.

God’s grace was with her! Gabriel then tells Mary the truth of the fact that she would conceive and give birth to a son.

He even told her what to name Him, Jesus.

He begins to describe to Mary what this baby boy would be like.

It is here we see a wonderful description of Jesus Christ.

Gabriel describes Jesus with multiple descriptions.

Two of the descriptions could be taken as synonymously.

I can only imagine Mary’s mind as Gabriel was describing this child of which she would give birth.

This baby would be great, the Son of the Most High/Son of God, King, reign for eternity, and holy.

Mary responded to Gabriel with a very valid question, “How can this happen?

I am a virgin.”

Mary’s right living can be seen in her question.

Gabriel responded with an answer.

He tells Mary that the conception of this child would be miraculously done by the Holy Spirit.

It is for this reason Jesus was to be called the holy Child.

He follows this by again giving Mary some words of encouragement.

He tells Mary about Elizabeth and the miracle that God was doing with Elizabeth.

He tells her that nothing is impossible with God.

Mary then responds with a beautiful response, “Behold, the bondslave of the Lord; may it be done to me according to your word.”

(New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update, (La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995), Lk 1:38.)

II.

The Applying of the Child’s Coming

A. The Truth of the Deity of Christ—the fundamental truth of Christmas!

Luke in his telling of this story uses multiple descriptions of this child coming to earth.

Let’s look at each of these descriptions and see the beautiful truth of this unique, one of a kind, child whose sole mission was to be the Savior of the World (Matthew 1:21).

The Child will be man’s savior!

She was told to call his name Jesus which means savior!

What a truth!

The child coming was going to be the one to save people from being lost without hope and dead in sin.

Mary most likely at this time did not grasp the full impact of the child being called Jesus.

One day she would and oh, what a wonderful thought that men and women, boys and girls, have a way to escape the punishment for our sin.

Jesus this child is coming to seek and save the lost and dead in sin!

The Child will be great!

The emphasis is on the greatness of the Son (cf.

Luke 1:15), not the greatness of the mother.

The word great speaks of status and importance.

Jesus will be great.

We now look and see that He IS great!

He is at the right hand of the throne of God making intercession for every believer!

Though not mentioned here in this text Jesus is great in being our High Priest (Hebrews 4:15).

The Child is Son of the Most High.

This phrase points to the equality of Jesus with God the Father, with YAHWEH!

Jesus is God.

Without Jesus being God we have no Christmas and more importaantly we have no salvation from an eternity of damnation in hell for all eternity because of our sin.

Jesus, mankind’s savior, was 100% God!

He is God (John 1:1).

In order for salvation to be valid their needed to be a unblemished sacrifice, this sacrifice would be God incarnate, Jesus, the Son of the Most High!

The Child is the Divine King—He will be given the throne of David.

This was the announcement of the coming of the Messiah.

The prophecy that has been told to the nation of Israel for hundreds of years was now about to come to pass.

The phrase “the throne of His father David” shows Jesus’ humanity.

Just as Jesus was completely God, he was completely human.

Jesus had a human father in Joseph who was in the line of David fulfilling yet another prophecy.

It not only shows His humanity but also His Kingship!

If you put these descriptions together and you end up having a divine savior and king that will save people from sin and rule for eternity!

Luke throughout his book emphasizes Jesus’ humanity.

He in Luke 2:52 states how Jesus increased in wisdom and stature and favor with God and man.

Israel had been waiting for their King!