Mary the Simple Servant

Thank you children for singing for us. That always blesses us and I'm very thankful for you and while the children were singing this morning I was reminded of how we sing every Wednesday night. Every Wednesday night Brother Keith leads our children and teenagers and a few songs and he does that purposefully. Many times there'll be children songs sometimes they're songs that we're accustomed to on a Sunday morning but it's always true and our young people are learning truth not just from the taught word of God but through music and I appreciate that and I'm thankful for that.

Well like I said earlier this morning I'm thankful to be here during the Christmas season thankful to be here on Christmas Eve and I do want to wish you a Merry Christmas but more than that I want to deliver to you God's Word so if you would take your Bible this morning and turn with me to Luke chapter 1. Luke chapter 1 and we will be in verses 26 through 38. Luke chapter 1 verses 26 through 38. Now this morning we will have the third of our Christmas messages. We started our Christmas messages back in the second Sunday of December. Remember our first message was the genealogy of God's grace out of Matthew chapter 1.

Hopefully our study in the genealogy of Jesus caused you maybe to see genealogy is a little different maybe differently than you've seen in the past because we did see that we can learn some great truths out of that list of names that we might not be familiar with. Now last Sunday we looked at what I call Emmanuel God with us and we looked at verses 1 excuse me verse 23 chapter 1 out of Matthew and then we went over to Philippians chapter 2 starting in verse 6 and we looked at the incarnation. The first message was very practical and then last Sunday's message was very theological.

Now I want to remind you of the challenges that I gave you out of those two messages. Remember out of the genealogy of God's grace I gave you a prayer challenge and I repeat this because I want you to take this serious. First I challenged you to pray to discover God's predetermined plan for your life. Pray to discover God's predetermined plan for your life. Now I know that you can never find that and discover that and live that unless you're born again. But I do believe that a lost person could seek after God's will for their life and through that they will be we trust converted.

Then second pray that God would show you your personal flaws your personal sin tendencies. Didn't we not learn that even men like Abraham and King David had these flaws these tendencies these sins that could haunt them. And then third pray that no matter your life whether you're a king like King David or whether you're a simple man like Joseph that God would use you for his kingdom work for his glory and his honor. Now I call that last Sunday a three-prong prayer challenge. Now last Sunday out of Emmanuel God with this I issued you another challenge and that was to examine your humble submission to Christ as a slave.

We learned in Philippians that Christ came down. Christ left glory put on flesh and came down and he humbled himself as a slave to the will of the Father. And we should examine our submission to Christ as a slave. Second I challenged you to humbly submit to one another to the brothers and sisters in Christ that God has put in your life. We've learned that multiple times out of our study in the Gospel of John starting in chapter 4 verse 35 Jesus commanded his disciples to love one another as he had loved them. And then third I challenged you to submit to the work of the church submit to kingdom work.

That is exactly what we saw in Philippians chapter 2 Christ came down to obey the will of the Father perfectly which was to be the sinless sacrifice for sin. Now we can not go to the cross for our own sin much less anyone else's sin but we submit the kingdom work which is being a part of the church and reaching the lost and building the saints. Now this morning I want to call your attention to one of my favorite Bible characters. Every Christmas I find myself by studying this individual and this individual happens to be a woman and she is mentioned in the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew chapter 1. This is Mary the mother of Jesus.

In our genealogy of God's grace we saw that Joseph her husband and Mary they were a simple couple that God used to be the parents of the Messiah. Now I know I've said this repeatedly every Christmas I go back and I study the life of Mary and I went back and looked at some of my note-taking in my records and I believe that I preached on this passage back in December of 2012 but I went back and I studied afresh and new and this has been on my heart since the beginning of my study to prepare for the Christmas messages. Now I've asked myself these three weeks why Mary is one of my favorite Bible characters and I've had to ponder that.

Now this is just personally I think that it is because of her simple humility. Her very simple humility and I think another reason why I'm drawn to Mary is her simplicity and then also I think it is because of her consistency. When you look at her life she is extremely humble it is an extremely simple story she simply submitted to the will of God for her life and she lived the will of God for her life very very consistently. Did we not see that Abraham and even King David had a hard time being consistent in their wall? But isn't that what we see in Mary? Great humility, great simplicity and great consistency.

Now I want to take these passages I want to read through them I'm going to refer to several other passages and I'm going to break down these passages about Mary's life and I call this Mary the simple servant. Mary the simple servant. Now you see how we'll break down these verses there are five truths that I want to examine some of them are short so don't be afraid of the time. We're going to look at the setting.

The setting out of verses 26 through 30 and we're going to look at the message the message that she received you might call this a vision which it was and we're going to look at the miracle then we will look at her humanity and then her surrender. Then at the end of the message I have some other observations about her that I will make application into our lives. So let's look at verse 26 starting in verse 26 of Luke chapter 1.

Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city in Galilee called Nazareth to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph of the descendants of David and the Virgin's name was Mary and coming in he said to her, "Hail favored one the Lord is with you." But she was greatly troubled at this statement and kept pondering what kind of salutation or greeting this might be. And the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid Mary for you have found favor with God and behold you will conceive in your womb and bear a son and you shall name him Jesus.

He will be great and will be called the son of the Most High and the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever and his kingdom will have no end." And Mary said to the angel, "How can this be since I am a virgin?" And the angel answered and said to her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you and for that reason the Holy offspring shall be called the son of God and behold even your relative Elizabeth has also conceived a son in her old age and she who was called Beren is now in her sixth month for nothing will be impossible with God." And then the last verse, this is her wonderful response, and Mary said, "Behold the bond slave or servant of the Lord be it done to me according to your word and the angel Gabriel departed from her." So I challenge you to jot these notes down for your own study this week because I do believe the Lord is going to teach us from this simple servant Mary.

So let's look at truth number one, the setting. Truth number one, the setting. Now this setting will come out of several of these verses here. I will mention them and then I'll make note of some other passages that we have looked at so far. Now the setting or a setting is something that can be overlooked but many times it can be very very important. You might say, "What can be more important than Mary and Joseph and the birth of Jesus?" Well what is important is the entire story of God the Father giving the promised Messiah. All the people involved are important.

Everything that happened is important because the entire story is surrounding the giving of the Messiah. Now there are some specifics I want to mention here concerning the setting. First this took place in the sixth month of Elizabeth's pregnancy. You notice that in verse 26. Now in the sixth month and then on down when the scripture is being given starting in verse 36 about Elizabeth, what does it say? "And behold even your relative Elizabeth has also conceived and she is in her sixth month." So what we see is the mother of John the Baptist is a part of this wonderful story. John the Baptist was the forerunner.

John the Baptist was sent to prepare the people for the Messiah. John the Baptist was sent to prepare the nation of Israel for Jesus and this is the time frame. This was in the sixth month of Elizabeth's pregnancy and I mentioned this because of all of the different people that are involved. We know that there are the wise men who came to see the baby Jesus. Then we know that there were the shepherds who came to see the baby Jesus and we know that there are lots of things that went on and this is part of the setting. But then also second notice Joseph and Mary were betrothed in marriage.

Now you don't have to turn there but if we go back to our passage from last Sunday Matthew chapter 1 verse 18 and 19 what do we see? "Joseph received the news that his soon-to-be wife was pregnant or with child." And what does the passage say? "He sought to put her away quietly." Why? Because they were betrothed in marriage but yet they were not bound in marriage. The ceremony was not complete and it was a total disgrace for Mary to be with child in a manner in which she was with child. So Joseph and Mary were betrothed in marriage. This is why it's important for us to understand culture.

This is why it's important for us to study beyond the pages of the scripture because in their day a couple would be betrothed and it was more than an engagement period and then after a lengthy betrothal then they would be married and then they would come together physically to consummate that marriage. So Joseph and Mary were betrothed and that is why Joseph sought to put her away or divorce her quietly. And then third I want to mention the political situation in their day. Simplistically we need to see that the nation of Israel they were occupied by the Romans.

We will see as we continue in the Gospel of John that when Jesus is crucified it was both the Jewish leaders who pressed for his crucifixion and then ultimately it was the Roman authority that ordered the crucifixion take place because Israel was occupied by Rome and it was a very tenuous day and a very tenuous time. Now I know I have not exhausted the setting but what do we see here in the setting? The story of Joseph and Mary and the giving of the Messiah is within a greater story and I want to challenge you to go and study the story at length. Read about the wise men and how they came.

Read about the shepherds and what went on in their life. Study a life of Mary and Joseph and get the whole story in your mind and your heart. But within the story there is a simple young lady. Some would say a young girl who had a very significant role in God's work. Let's move on. I want us to notice our second major truth. Notice the message. Notice the message. Some could call this the vision but let me go back and read some of these verses. Verse 28 and coming in he said this is Gabriel talking to Mary how favored one the Lord is with you.

Then starting in verse 30 and the angel said to her do not be afraid Mary for you have found favor with God and then we see the message go all the way down to verse 33. This is the message of the the incarnation Christ Jesus the Messiah in her womb. So I chose to call this the message because she had a message through the vision that she had received. She had a visitation from an angel and he is named as Gabriel and this is a tremendous message and within these passages we will see that the angel Gabriel really has a two-fold message. So let's examine this heavenly message to Mary. First we see that there is God's grace for her life.

God's grace for her life. Go back to verse 28 and coming in he said to her hell favored one. Out of this verse verse 28 we see that she found favor with God. Now we need to understand what the language means. This term favored one literally means full of grace and in the original language this term is used towards believers all throughout the New Testament. This means that Mary was a recipient of God's divine grace. Now this is important because this was not a grace that she earned. This was not a grace that came from her efforts. This was a grace from God.

Go back and read verse 28 and coming in he said to her hell favored one and then we see this on down to verse 30 and the angel said to her do not be afraid Mary for you have found favor with God. This is the grace of God active in her life and then the second message notice God's plan for her life. Go back to verse 31 and behold you will conceive in your womb and bear a son and you shall name him Jesus.

He will be great and will be called the son of the most high and the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever and his kingdom shall have no end and then verse 35 and the angel answered and said to her the Holy Spirit will come upon you the power of the most high will overshadow you and for that reason the holy offspring shall be called the son of God. Here we see that God announces to her that she will give birth to the holy offspring who will be the son of God verse 35 says the point here is God's plan for her life as opposed to her plan for her life. Her plans were interrupted.

Her plans were changed in that day and time meaning people would have said that her plans were ruined. So what do we see here? She received a heavenly vision. She had a heavenly message from a divine heavenly messenger and that was Gabriel. She received a message of grace. God's grace was bestowed upon her and a message of choosing. She was the recipient of God's grace and God's predetermined plan for her life and then third our third major truth notice the miracle.

Go back to the verses verse 31 and behold you will conceive in your womb and bear a son and you shall name him Jesus but then notice verse 34 what does Mary say how can this be since I am a virgin in the answer the angel answer her and said the Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the most humble over shadow you so here we actually have two miracles we have the miracle of the immaculate conception and the miracle of the incarnation now you need to understand that if you alter or deny either of these two biblical Christianity smashes into an iceberg and sinks to the bottom of the sea Christianity and conversion and the church are destroyed if you alter these two miracles I like how John MacArthur described it talking about this dilemma he says our right view of the incarnation hinges on the truth that Jesus was virgin born the Holy Spirit wrought the conception through the supernatural means the nature of Christ conception testifies of both his deity and his sinlessness so let's examine these two miracles first the conception this holy conception go back to verse 34 Mary said to the angel how can this be then the angel answered and said to her the Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the most humble overshadowed you so here we notice that Mary questions the angel now if we contrast Mary's questioning with John the Baptist father questioning we will see the outcome of these questionings was very different Zechariah was punished for his questioning while Mary was not it seems that Zechariah was doubting the word from God and Mary was not doubting the word from God her response reveals amazement her response reveals wonder and not doubt but what do we see here this child was conceived of the Holy Spirit not of a man what does she say go back to her response how can this be since I am a virgin and the angel answered and said the Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you this was not from a man and then the second miracle is the incarnation verse 35 the angel answered and said to her the Holy Spirit will come upon you the power of the Most High will overshadow you and for that reason the holy offspring shall be called the Son of God we learned of the incarnation last week Emmanuel Matthew 1-23 which means God with us which was a prophecy from Isaiah 7 14 and here we have the eternal Son of God becoming a man in the form of a babe he was at all times both fully God and fully man possessing two distinct natures while being one person so what do we see here the miracle of the virgin birth and not only the miracle of the virgin birth but the God man Jesus the promised Messiah this was the man the God man in the form of the baby Jesus and this notice our fourth major truth is her humanity notice her humanity look at verse 29 but she was greatly troubled remember Gabriel had revealed himself and he said hell favored one the Lord is with you and what did she say she is troubled she does not understand what's taking place look at verse 34 I've read it Mary said to the angel how can this be so there are several ways we can examine her humanity now culturally she would have been considered an obvi culturally she was maybe even an outcast Mary was Galilean Galileans were despised by many of the Jews because geographically they came in contact with a lot of Gentiles and also she was from Nazareth Nazarenes were even more despised if we go back to the beginning of John John chapter 1 when Philip is coming and saying I found the Messiah who was a Nazarene Nathaniel said can anything good come from Nazareth but I would examine her humanity within these verses not just culturally two observations I want to make here first she was troubled by this greeting go back to verse 29 but she was greatly troubled at this statement this would have been a shock to her not just the message but the messenger the entire experience would have shocked her no doubt her life was planned she knew what was going to take place and she was troubled by the greeting and the revelation of Gabriel and everything that was taking place and then the second notice she questioned the possibility of this message verse 34 how can this be she knew her biology she knew all about the birds and the bees she knew the impossibility of the matter physically speaking she could have been very emphatic because she knew that she had not been with a man go back to the verse and Mary said how can this be since I am a virgin so what do we see here we see her troubling response we have learned that she was not doubting and I believe that she was marveling at God's work here but we do see her humanity she was not a robot she was human but we see that she was a common person she was not one that the Jews would have expected to give birth to the Messiah and then notice our fifth major truth notice her surrender this is why I call her very simplistic because her sir her surrender can be found in one verse and Mary said behold the slave the bond slave the servant of the Lord be it done to me according to your word here Mary's response is compact one verse it's simple compact and then her her response can be brought down to one verse simple in that she does not clutter things up now do not mean to say overly simplify her response it is powerful very powerful and there are three observations that I want to make out of her surrender first of all we see that she submitted as God's property as God's property behold the bond slave of the Lord may it be done to me according to your word if you study the original language you will see that the language is possessive Mary is demonstrated in understanding that she did not belong to herself she belonged to the Lord and then thought second notice that she submitted as a slave Mary said behold the bond slave the New American reads bond slave the English standard reads servant the King James reads handmaiden now the original language can be translated female slave she is truly saying that she is submitting as a slave to God she is laying aside her ideas she is laying aside her plans she is laying aside her purpose for her life to the Lord as a slave and then third she submitted to the circumstances at hand she submitted to the circumstances at hand be it done to me according to your word now we must see that she was in a very difficult set of circumstances she was betrothed to Joseph but not yet married being pregnant out of wetlock myth that she faced divorce and being an unwed mother at best the obvious would be being accused of an adulterous which would have been punishable by stoning according to the law of God out of Deuteronomy 22 starting in verse 13 she faced disgrace and hardship on many levels and in many ways she seemed willing to accept these circumstances so what do we see here Mary humbly submitted to God and his plan for her life she openly stated that she was God's property and God's slave she never seemed to express concern for the possibility of social shame of rejection and even possible death she simply submitted to the God that she loved now I want to step back from the verses and I want to bring to you some specifics about Mary's life and this is where I want to make application because it's not enough for us to study the verses and divide the verses we must learn and apply the scriptures to our life now specifically I want you to notice first that she was a person a young woman of purity what does she say how can this be how can this be I'm a virgin now we know that speaks of her purity sexually but I think that that speaks to more than sexual purity she was a young woman who loved God and she lived a pure life now what can we learn from her purity I have had many conversations like this with my wife in the privacy of our home home I've had many conversations like this with you in the eyes of our church but I'll say it from the pulpit holiness and purity are rare today it seems that purity and holiness of life dedicated to the Lord is rare many people they live their life where they try to be as worldly as they can but yet try to be godly at the same time that's not the kind of life that this young lady led where are the Christians who desire holiness who desire separation who allow the Lord to examine their life and cut out anything in their life of impurity and I want to challenge you young people where are the young people who will remain pure sexually I've had many conversations with teenagers and college students and adults and they have stepped on the slippery slope of engaging in sexual activity and it goes down down down not this young lady she looked at the angel of the Lord and said how can this be this cannot be she was pure and I want to call us to examine our lives examine our families examine our homes are we set aside in holiness unto God others might do it but can we in second she was a person who understood if I can use this language the lordship of Christ what does it say behold I'm a slave a handmaiden what what is she saying I'm a female slave be it done to me according to your word she submitted to the lordship of God over her and in her life that's why I say she is very simplistic she doesn't walk around it she doesn't question it she sips through her humanity and then she says Lord I'm your slave whatever you say and this is a challenge for us to constantly examine our lives that we would be under the lordship of Christ what does she say according to your word and look we cannot make the lordship of Christ anything that we want it to be we must make sure that our lordship to Christ is according to his word and there is a difference that's why it's so important for us to be here yes Sunday morning yes Sunday night yes Wednesday night to be under the Word of God the taught Word of God the explain word of God that discuss Word of God because it is the Word of God that we must submit to I can't tell you how many times I've talked to people and they'll say they're under the lordship of Christ and they're obeying something that's out of their own imagination if it's not according to the Word of God that's not the lordship of Christ it's a bunch of chunk it's religion at best and it doesn't work and what do we see she understood lordship she said according to your word may it be I'm a slave and then second she was a person who understood her role now go back to verse 38 behold I'm a female slave that's why the King James says it like it does a handmaid she says I'm a female slave she understood her role she understood that she was to be the mother of the Messiah and she was a slave and we must understand and we must accept and we must embrace the role that the Lord has for us first the slave and then whatever his predetermined plan is for our life the only way you find this and discover this and live this is if you're under the Word of God and you're converted and you're under the lordship of Christ and you live a life of purity listen then you can understand your role and then fourth she was a person who believed the words of God what does it say may it be doing to me according to your word she went right back to the Word of God now we see her humanity how can this be oh she was in all and wonder she was troubled at the vision and the words of the angel Gabriel but what does she say according to your word according to your word according to your word I submit my life she was a person who believed the words of God and let me tell you she could have put a but there but Lord what's gonna happen what about Joseph what about my parents what about our dream marriage she could have said but a lot of things but she did not what did she say according to your word and we must be a people of the Word of God that's why I say it repeatedly you need the Word of God that's why I challenge you to take notes and go back and study your notes that's why we teach verse by verse verse by verse it's not enough for me to come in here and preach to you what's on my mind and in my heart what you need is the Word of God expounded to you and delivered to you Sunday morning and Sunday night and Wednesday night that's why when the electricity was out we met at our home because we needed to assemble together to love the brothers and sisters and worship the Lord and be under the word we must be a people of the book we just celebrated the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation and you can boil it all down whether it was Lutherans wingly and all of those reformers what did they do they went back to the Word of God she was a person who believed God's Word and then fifth she was a person of faith and obedience she was a person of faith and obedience what did she say I don't understand it I marvel at this but I accept it now let me explain to you what faith is faith is not a hope so faith is not jumping off a cliff in the thin air faith has substance in this Christ she knew God serve God and loved God and she trusted in exercise faith in the God that she knew I've had this definition for years and I've used it repeatedly it's by the old Southern Baptist evangelist manly Beasley and he said faith is not a leap into the dark but a leap into the light now we know who the light is Christ if you're not converted you're exercising faith in your own hope in your own dreams your own desires really you're just exercising a hope in thin air but we see that she exercised faith in the God that she knew in the Word of God and it is faith tied together with simple obedience and we must be a people who exercise faith we hear the Word of God and we move on the Word of God we hear the voice of God leading us and working in our life and we obey the Word of God and obey the leadership of Christ in our life and we do that by faith now in conclusion what do we see I said back in the beginning of December when we reached a good stopping place in our study in the gospel of John that we would have three Christmas messages we looked at a genealogy of grace out of Matthew chapter 1 we did not cover every individual in that genealogy we looked at Abraham and David and then we went on the other side of the spectrum and we looked at Joseph and Mary and I call it a genealogy of grace because all of them needed the grace of God I really enjoyed the message but I really enjoyed the conversation that that message spawned some of you ask questions make comments and I hope that it made us see that we all are dependent on God's grace and we're waiting on God's grace and other people's life and then we saw Emmanuel God with us that is the incarnation and you must have the incarnation right otherwise the faith is shipwreck and it goes to the bottom of the sea Emmanuel we sing it all the time God with us Jesus was fully God and fully man the only God man and then this morning we see Mary the simple sir now as I close these three messages I want to challenge you to go back to that prayer challenge I want to challenge you to go back to that examination out of last week's message and then I want to challenge you to examine your life in comparison to this young woman named Mary who can easily be overlooked now what I mean by overlooked is this she gets noticed as the mother of the Messiah I believe far more than a woman who loved God and walked with God so you see the challenge if we line ourselves up with the example this simple servant and I believe we will be usable men and women and young people in the hands of Jesus let's pray