The Gospel of Luke 1:26-38 Jesus' Birth Foretold
Luke 1:26-38 · Vern Peterman · Oct 26, 2014
Gospel of Luke, No. 04
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926444574012

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

OK, back to our Gospel of Luke here. This is actually, I'd have to say, one of my favorite passages. It is astounding to me what the angel has to present, Gabriel. And Mary's response is really astounding as well. So I'm really excited to be able to look at that. Now, last Sunday, we had some questions we left you with. You have these as the first slide on the first page there.

When we see Gabriel next, he will give in advance a name to another baby to be born. Why does he do that? Instead of letting the parents name the babies, is this the name you're going to give them? Right? So we'll take a look at that. How will Jesus' conception be different, though still miraculous, different than that of John? So we'll take a look at that. Will Mary be told about Messiah Ben Joseph or Messiah Ben David? And by the way, there's Gospels that go along with each of those. Which of the two Gospels will Mary be told about regarding Jesus? And will Joseph be told about a different Gospel?

So those are some questions we'll be looking at here. One of the things to take a look at, there's Matthew and Luke are the two Gospels that give some kind of historical description of the Christmas account and what led up to it and what happened after Christ's birth and Matthew writes more from Joseph's perspective and Luke in the book that we're studying writes more from Mary's point of view so it's very interesting each of them comes together quite well but they tell a different account because they're talking about a different perspective on it Matthew includes the magi and insider details on the guy we've called Herod the Not-So-Great.

So that's Matthew's perspective. He's the one that brings up the magi, what's often called the wise men. But Luke includes details on Zacharias and Elizabeth and Mary and the shepherds that are not in Matthew. So they each tell a really important part of the story and they do dovetail but they're definitely different accounts. The accounts are different but they're complementary is a good way to put it. Now let's start by reading Luke 1, 26 through 27.

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. You can imagine, just think of this, okay? God's giving Gabriel instruction. Now look, you need to go here to this podunk town.

It's a little no-name town. In all the writings, except for the New Testament, in all the writings that we have from the Roman era, no mention of Nazareth. There's one inscription that has been found that names Nazareth. Other than that, it's a no-name, no-place kind of town. And I want you to go to this young virgin who's grown up in this no-name town and who's engaged to Joseph.

Really amazing, really amazing. We say here it's a matter of timing. The angel Gabriel was sent by God to Nazareth in the sixth month. It's the beginning of the sixth month of Elizabeth's pregnancy with John after she had been in seclusion for five months. So Elizabeth is just coming out of seclusion.

One of the key timing factors for Matthew and Luke chapters one is the death of Herod in mid-March 4 BC. So as a matter of fact, people will say, well, when was Christ born? What it amounts to is we know he died in mid-March 4 BC. January of 4 BC is as late as Jesus could have been born and still have these events take place.

Because Herod kind of declined from there and wouldn't have been able to carry on with the Magi. So here is Nazareth positioned between the Sea of Galilee and the coast. Now, we also have the angel Gabriel was sent to the city of Nazareth probably about 6 BC. We say about because there's some, you know, latitude for movement either way, but about 6 BC. Now, think about this. If it were up to you, would you do things this way?

You know, I'm going to have the savior of the whole world born to a little girl, a young woman, a very young woman, in a no-name town at the far-flung end of the Roman Empire. Would you do things that way? Would you have the savior of the world be born in this no-name town in this far-flung corner of the Roman Empire ruled by a maniac? Would you send an angel to announce the birth of the one and only Messiah to a teenage Jewish girl whose husband would not live to see him become an adult?

And he would be hated by his siblings. Would you pick that? There's no way we would pick this. God came up with it. There's no way we would pick it. Messiah must be descended from David, of the tribe of Judah, and of the line of Abraham, and born of a woman, but not a man.

All those things are required by Scripture. We'll not look at Jesus' genealogies, however, until we get to Luke chapter 3. That's where Dr. Luke put in Jesus' genealogy, and we'll take a look at that because it has some differences from Matthew's genealogy that he starts off the Gospel of Matthew with, and we'll see why it's different. Jesus is of the line of David, as promised to David about a thousand years before this, this announcement to Mary, by the angel Gabriel who was sent by God. In 2 Samuel 7, 16 and 17, the prophet Nathan is speaking God's words to King David. And he says, Your house and your kingdom shall endure before me forever. Your throne shall be established forever. In accordance with all these words and all this vision, so Nathan spoke to David.

And 1 Chronicles 22.10 has similar kinds of words.

Paul puts it this way in Galatians 4, 4, and 5, but when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth his son. It may seem like it was a very odd time to have the Messiah be born, but it was the fullness of the time. It was the right time. Born of a woman, born under the law, so that he might redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. So, virgin? Mary was and had to be a virgin by a few different points of scripture.

Genesis 3.15, and I will put enmity, God speaking judgment to the serpent, I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed.

From Isaiah 7.14, it says, Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, a virgin will be with a child and bear a son, and she will call his name Immanuel, God with us.

And by the way, when we sang the song, O Come, O Come, Immanuel, we were actually singing it from an Old Testament perspective. You might have noticed the Old Testament scripture references at the top. It's a very biblical song, but it's from an Old Testament perspective. Israel longing and mourning for its Messiah.

Now, engaged to a man named Joseph, being engaged in our culture is an informal arrangement which is not legally binding. If you say we're engaged, that's great, but if you say now we broke it off, no particular legal import in our culture. In the Jewish culture of the time, being engaged was a formal action and was legally binding. In order to break it off, you actually had to file a written notice of divorce. And as we'll see, Joseph was actually contemplating that. A man and a woman who were engaged were known as husband and wife. They referred to them as husband and wife. They were not to be intimate, however, until after their wedding day.

Ending an engagement was divorce in the Jewish culture and that's what Joseph was actually contemplating Now here's Luke 1 28 through 30 and coming in he said to her greetings favored one the Lord is with you But she was very perplexed as I probably would be at this statement and kept pondering what kind of salutation this was the angel said to her do not be afraid Mary for you have found favor with God and I come here and I'm telling you good news. Don't worry.

Mary, as far as we know, had zero preparation for Gabriel's appearance and announcement to her. Today is just going to start like any other day and I'm going to be scrubbing clothes and working around the house and grinding the grain and all the other stuff that I do. And then an angel shows up. Whoa.

Having grown up in this town that was off the beaten path, lacking Israel's or Rome's focus, Mary was just not prepared for this. We have no indication that Mary had in her mind, pretty soon an angel is going to show up and announce to me, I will give birth to the Messiah. That just was not on her mind at all. No preparation, just this is the day the angel sent by God to give her this announcement that she was not prepared for or expecting.

By Jewish custom, a young Jewish woman of this time would typically have been engaged at 12 to 14 years of age. So take, for example, my granddaughter Abby. Mary would have been about her age. That's kind of astounding to us, but yeah, that would have been the custom. The man by Jewish custom was typically married by age 18 in New Testament times. So 18 would have been the typical age. So that would have said that Joseph was somewhere in, you know, 15, 16, 17 years old at this time.

Engagement would have been for a year. The husband would give his bride-to-be, although they would say that's your wife, they would use those terms. The husband would tell the bride, I go to prepare a place for you. To his wife, and then he would have a year to get the house ready. And then he would say as he's exiting, you know, and I will come again and take you to myself that where I am you may be also.

So the words, the Lord is with you, do not be afraid. I'm sure it's kind of like, whoa, an angel shows up and just materializes in front of you, that's a bit much. The words, the Lord is with you, appears four times in the Old Testament, and one of those four times is right before that promise we just read to David from Nathan, right before then, the Lord is with you. Do not be afraid was said by angels several times in the events surrounding Jesus' birth to Zacharias as we've seen earlier in Luke chapter 1 to Joseph also do not be afraid and by angels announcing Jesus' birth to the shepherds do not be afraid. So I guess those angels were pretty fearful when they appeared.

Okay here we go. It says she was perplexed. If we put ourselves in Mary's place, we can well imagine that Mary would be perplexed by an awesome angel appearing to her when she's doing just her regular mundane things, telling her that she was favored by God and using her name. And wait a minute, we haven't been introduced. How do you know my name? Right? That's one of the things that would indicate her this is God speaking, okay? Because I have never seen this guy before.

Luke 1.31-33 goes like this, And behold, you will conceive in your womb, and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus. And 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.

Now, when Mary heard these words, all these things would be, yes, I know what that means, I know what that means. But I'm sure she was just blown away by, you mean I'm going to birth the Messiah? So you will conceive. Mary was perplexed before these words were spoken. She's finding out what astounding things are planned for her and her son, whom she is to name Jesus.

Told, you will name him Jesus. In English, we have Jesus as his name. Greek is Iesus. And in the 1611 version of the King James, they actually use that Iesus in there and not Jesus. So that's the Greek. In the Hebrew, it's Yeshua, and it means Savior.

And so you will conceive and you will give birth, you will name him. And he probably said something closer to Yeshua in the original language there. This is now the second time that the angel Gabriel has told somebody exactly what they were to name the child.

And the reason is, this answers one of our questions, the reason is because the name means something. Otherwise, what would happen is people would name the child by certain traditions. And by the way, one of those traditions ended up naming one in every five women in Israel, Mary. One in every five women got named Mary. And then the use of the word called.

That's important for us to take a look at. This passage makes a distinction between the name that is given to this son and what he will be called. So those aren't the same thing. Okay? Call or called is sometimes used in scripture. Okay? This is a key thing you can use in a number of places. Not for the name given, but for the identity. Okay? for the identity, what the person actually was, is, or will be.

So John means God is gracious. God is gracious. Jesus' name means Savior. Savior. Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel. Did anybody ever come up and say, Emmanuel, to try to talk to Jesus or get His attention? No. So when they say they will call His name Emmanuel, that calling means that's focusing on His identity, who He is, God with us. His identity. The Son of the Most High. The Most High was a set of words used meaning God several dozen times in the Old Testament.

And in Luke 1.35 it's confirmed that Son of the Most High means the Son of God. That's the shorthand, Son of God.

They mean the same thing. Son of God, the second person of the Trinity, that's a triunity, always was, is, and will be the eternal Son of God. When we say the Trinity, what do we mean? We mean the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, three distinct beings, three distinct beings of one essence. Three beings of one essence. His humanity was added to his deity at conception. As the son of God, he is changeless. But at the time of conception, his humanity was added to his deity. Didn't replace anything. His deity was not diminished or lost. Fully human and fully deity. I prefer to say fully deity because when you say God includes the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. So that starts to get confusing, right? But fully deity and fully human.

So this passage again 2 Samuel 7, 16, and 17. Here is the promise to David spoken through the prophet Nathan. So this descendant from the house of David will reign over the house of Jacob, that is, the people of Israel, and that kingdom, once established, will endure forever. First as the millennial kingdom, the thousand-year reign of Christ here on earth, so millennial means a thousand, and then eternally in the new heavens and the new earth. Mary is told by Gabriel that she will give birth to that descendant from the house of David who will rule over the earth for what we now know from Revelation to be a thousand years and then rule in the new heavens and new earth on into eternity so the kingdom will be forever she this young teenage Jewish girl from a no-name town will give birth to that one amazing amazing now Something to understand, what the Jews once said about two messiahs.

Many centuries ago, the rabbis looked at the Old Testament as teaching there would be two messiahs. Messiah ben Joseph, named after Joseph, the son of Jacob, who suffered and was imprisoned and falsely accused and things of that sort. And Messiah ben David, who would reign. Right? And so the teaching was two different Messiahs. And so that was one of the reasons why they looked at Jesus and said, wait a minute, you don't look like Messiah Ben David. And that was the one that they thought he ought to be looking like.

Messiah Ben David, and Ben means son, right? Messiah, son of David, was by far the more publicly taught and anticipated among the Jewish population in earlier centuries. But two messiahs is what they taught. Messiah Ben-Joseph was seen as being the one in Isaiah 52 and 53 and the suffering Savior. That was Messiah Ben-Joseph. Even seen by the Jews in earlier times as that. So was Mary told that Jesus was Messiah Ben-Joseph or Messiah Ben-David?

It was the Pharisees who saw the Old Testament, the two Messiahs, with Messiah Ben David raising Messiah Ben Joseph from the dead. See, two different ones. As two in sequence and not one single person. That's one of the reasons why they couldn't identify with Christ as Messiah Ben David. They say, wait a minute, it doesn't match. Gabriel told Mary about how Jesus would be Messiah Ben David. It was Joseph who would be told about how Jesus would be Messiah ben Joseph.

Matthew 121. Very interesting that Jesus, who would be Messiah ben David and Messiah ben Joseph, the suffering Savior and the reigning King, and Mary gets told about the reigning part. Joseph is the one who gets told about the suffering Savior. Very interesting that the Lord made that choice to deliver the message that way. You have this slide on the bottom part of page 3 in your handout, and it shows during the first coming of Christ, the top part is those who are telling about or are told about the gospel of substitution, that is, Christ died in my place. And at the bottom part is the gospel of the kingdom, Christ the Messiah will reign. That's Messiah ben David, right? So the first part is the top part, Messiah ben Joseph, and the bottom part is Messiah ben David.

And here we have Mary in the lower left corner from Luke 1, 30 and 33. And what we have here are just some key words in there that draw up from there, the throne of his father David, reign over the house of Jacob forever, and the kingdom will have no end. That's what she's told. So she is told the gospel of the kingdom and she is told about Messiah Ben David. Here's Luke 1, 34 and 35.

Mary said to the angel, how can this be since I'm a virgin? 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 Child should be called the Son of God. So Mary's going, whoa, wait a minute. I'm a virgin. Mary's question, however, was not like Zacharias asked of Gabriel. Zacharias asked in doubt. Mary isn't doubting it. She's just wondering how. You see the difference there? Zacharias had a problem and he says, hey, how can I be sure? He didn't believe and so he was struck dumb, unable to speak. In this case, Mary was not doubting the angel, she just didn't know how it was to take place. It appears that Mary had understood the content of what Gabriel said.

She did not have a question about who this child was to be. Didn't have a question. She understood that, well, I know who you're talking about, okay? I know who you're talking about. I'm going to birth the Messiah who will rule and reign over Israel and over the nations. That all made sense to her, and she knew exactly what the angel was talking about. The only question is, how is this going to happen? I'm a virgin, right?

Mary was a virgin, a parthenos in the Greek, which is the same word in the Greek Old Testament of Isaiah 7.14, okay? So it definitely matches, and it definitely means virgin.

Now, Mary had recently gotten engaged. If Mary was soon to be married, she might not have been puzzled as to how she would conceive a son. She might say, oh, OK, I know how this is going to happen. Joseph is going to marry. We're going to have a wedding here shortly. But no, she was some months away from the planned date for the wedding, probably the better part of a year away from this planned date for the wedding. you know, a little puzzled. But Mary had apparently only recently been engaged to Joseph. The typical year-long engagement would tell us that the wedding was a number of months away, at least as things were planned.

Now notice the Holy Spirit's involved in the birth of this holy child. Jesus would be conceived supernaturally as a work of the Holy Spirit, is what Mary was told, such that Joseph would not be the father and that Jesus' humanity would be added to his eternal deity. Well, it's not through Joseph, eh? Not through Joseph. That's not how this is going to happen.

But this good news also had a difficult side to it. Mary would be pregnant at the socially wrong time for the Jewish culture. Months before her wedding day. Mary can imagine the reception. And guess what? A little town like Nazareth? Boy, word travels like wildfire, right? Word travels like wildfire.

The Holy Child will also be the Son of God. As we have said, to be called the Son of God is to be the Son of God, in the Bible's use of the words. So, called, that's the actual identity. Jesus Christ, that is, Jesus THE Christ, rather, is Savior the Messiah.

He was the eternal Son of God and always will be on into eternity. He was the Son of God before God said, let there be light. He will be the Son of God when this earth is no more. He always was and always will be the Son of God. At his miraculous conception, Jesus would add his humanity, being the only one who is a true holy child, being also eternal deity.

There are four different ways that human beings have come into existence on this planet, and three of them only happened once. Adam was created from the dust of the ground. Only Adam was created from the dust of the ground. Eve was created from Adam's side, and only Eve was created from Adam's side. Jesus would be born of a virgin by the miraculous conception by the Holy Spirit. All the rest of us are born the regular way. So, four different ways that people have come into existence, three of them only happen once, this is the third one.

So Luke 1, 36-38 wraps up our passage, and behold, even your relative Elizabeth has also conceived a son in her old age and she who was called barren is now in her sixth month for nothing will be impossible with God and Mary said behold the bond slave of the Lord may be done to me according to your word and the angel departed from her this is quite a young lady this is quite a young lady so Elizabeth also was given a miracle pregnancy in answer to prayer. And Gabriel now told Mary of this pregnancy, not that it was a virgin birth, but rather that it was later in life. So it was miraculous because it was later in life, but it was otherwise a natural conception and birth.

But for Mary, it would be a conception by the Holy Spirit, as a work of the Holy Spirit. And Mary was not later in life. As a matter of fact, she was very young in life, right? Being a young teenage Jewish girl. Gabriel told Mary nothing will be impossible with God. God can do all things.

In spite of the need for a miracle, and in spite of the difficulty caused by her being pregnant long before marriage, her response, I'm a bond slave of the Lord. A bond slave was a slave voluntarily. She said, I'll do whatever the Lord wants. I'm a bond slave of the Lord. Though it was going to require a miracle and the situation be beyond awkward, Mary completely submits to the word of Gabriel. I'm a bond slave of the Lord. It may be done to me, as you've said.

Initially, Mary's engagement to Joseph would also be disturbed, with Joseph even planning to divorce her. That's what it says, planning to divorce her. We'll talk about that in a bit. But even with all those obstacles, Mary says, yes. Can I think about it a while? I got some questions, lots of them. No. Just one. How's this going to happen? I'm a virgin. Okay. I'm a bond slave. As you will. Really astounding. So we had these questions from last Sunday.

When we see Gabriel next, he will give in advance a name to another baby to be born. Why does he do that? He does that because the name means something. The name is assigned because of what that person, John, in the case of Zacharias, and here now with Mary, Jesus. The name means something.

John, as we said, is God is gracious. The name Jesus given to Mary is Savior. How will Jesus' conception be different than that of John? John's conception is miraculous because Elizabeth is laid in life. Jesus was conceived in Mary, not late in life, but early, early and miraculously, no human father. Will Mary be told about Messiah ben Joseph or Messiah ben David? Messiah ben David. And along with that, the two gospels, the gospel of substitution was given to Joseph, the gospel of the kingdom was given to Mary.

And Mary said, as you will, I'm your bondservant. Now, Mary is going to visit Elizabeth, as we'll see in the next passage. So what will Mary say to Elizabeth? Whoa, I've got a miracle baby, and I've got a miracle baby too, right? What will Elizabeth say to Mary in the middle of this? How long will Mary stay with Elizabeth in her visit? What will happen right after she leaves to go home back to Nazareth? When does Joseph find out that Mary is with child? How long?

Hmm. Why will Holly Hills Bible Church celebrate Christmas twice this year? That's a fun one. Well, you'll have to come later to find out. OK? All right. So that's for next week. Let's pray. Lord, thank you. Thank you for your word. Thank you for the wonderful things brought out here to see Mary at such a young age just simply trust you and trust you completely even though it's going to be very awkward for her and even though it's going to mean some significant pains in her heart later on in life. And so we thank you for the faith of Mary as shown here and thank you for your miraculous work you brought about in this no-name town, an otherwise unknown little Jewish young woman, and you brought about a miracle that impacts each one of our lives for eternity. That is an astounding thing. We thank you for that. We thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.