The passage explores Mary's contemplative nature following the birth of Jesus, highlighting how she "kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart," revealing her deep reflection on the divine plan unfolding around her.
[Music]
you have your bible open now to luke
chapter 2. let's pause to pray
gracious father
sometimes these words can become very
familiar to us and we not really learn
the lessons that are there and claim the
blessings that are there and so give us
a new eyes to see and and
the spirit of god working in our hearts
that we might learn from your word and
be encouraged
help all who listen father and may the
word of god do us all good today i pray
in jesus name amen
amen
we have been sharing with mary the first
three months of her miracle experience
we have seen mary submitting in luke
chapter 1 verses 26 through 38 where she
presents herself to god
and then we saw mary singing in verses 39-56
39-56
where she is praising the lord
now it is six months later
and mary is going to give birth to the
lord jesus christ mary travels to
bethlehem with joseph the baby is born
the angels visit the shepherds in the
judean fields and the shepherds visit
mary and joseph and find the son of god
a baby
lying in a feeding trough
because there was no room in the inn now
what is mary doing is all of these
momentous events take place well luke 2
19 tells us
but mary kept all these things and
pondered them in her heart
we have a similar statement in verse 51
and he went down with them and came to
nazareth and was subject unto them but
his mother kept all these sayings in her
heart mary was a woman with a pure heart
because she had trusted the savior my
spirit rejoices in god my savior
and she was a woman with a praising
heart we've heard her song of praise as
she adored the lord and magnified him
but she was also a woman with a
pondering heart
she did not let these things slip from her
her
in fact luke 2 19 the word kept means
guarded she guarded all these things and
she pondered them the greek word
translated pondered means to put
together she's putting things together
and she's asking herself now what is god
going to do
mary is a woman with a pondering heart
a searching heart she's gone from
submitting to singing
to searching
as we look at luke's account in luke
chapter 2 we can easily discover the
matters that mary would notice and she
would ponder in her heart there are at
least five of them and i'd like us to
begin to look at them today certainly
she would be pondering the times in
which she was living luke chapter 2
verses 1 through 3.
and it came to pass in those days that
there went out a decree from caesar
augustus that all the world should be
registered or taxed
and this registration was first made
when quirinius was governor of syria
and all went to be registered everyone
to his own city
we are living in the times of the
gentiles you see rome is in control
there's no longer a jewish king on the
throne who can claim to go back to david
there is no longer the
rule of god through his people israel
it's the times of the gentiles augustus
caesar ruled from 31 bc
until 14 a.d
he made a decree that there should be a
census and the purpose of the census of
course was to raise money to see how
many people there were so they could tax them
them
and once again we see how that god's
people israel have gone very low in
their national character and in their
national existence
they're being taxed by the gentiles
they're being ruled by the gentiles but
the interesting thing is this
long before augustus caesar made his
decree god had made a decree
mary's pondering here is the great
augustus caesar who has made a decree
and she is a part of it why because
behind that decree was the decree of god
god had decreed
that his son would be born in bethlehem
of judea when the fullness of the times
was come god sent forth his son
you see back in genesis chapter 3 verse 15
15
god had decreed that the savior would
come not as an angel but as a human being
being
and i will put enmity between thee
that's the serpent and the woman
and between thy seed and her seed
it shall bruise thy head and thou shalt
bruise his heel now this is the promise
that the savior would come through the
woman genesis 3 15 god had decreed that
god had also decreed that the savior
would be a jew
in genesis chapter 12 god said to
abraham get thee out of thy country and
i will make of thee a great nation
and i will make thy name great and thou
shalt be a blessing
and in thee shall all families of the
earth be blessed in other words the
savior is going to come as a human being
who will be a jew
but you see there were 12 tribes to
israel now which tribe is going to give
birth to the messiah well we're told in
genesis 49 verse 10 it would be judah
the scepter shall not depart from judah
nor a lawgiver from between his feet
until shiloh come the rest bringer and
unto him shall the gathering of the
people be he would be born through the
tribe of judah
but there were many families in judah
which family would it be
well god told david in 2nd samuel
chapter 7
that his family would be the family that
would give birth to the messiah and
david was just overwhelmed when god said
i'm going to build a house for you and
i'm going to give you a kingdom that
shall be established forever and this is
what the angel had said to mary you'll remember
remember
the lord god shall give unto him the
throne of his father david
luke chapter 1 verse 32 and so he's
going to be a human being
coming as a jew in the tribe of judah
through the family of david how is he
going to come
well isaiah chapter 7 verse 14 tells us
this therefore the lord himself shall
give you a sign
behold a virgin shall conceive and bear
a son
and shall call his name emmanuel god
with us the virgin birth of the lord
jesus christ i'm sure that mary was
pondering that prophecy as she was going
through this amazing experience
according to the word of god god had
decreed how his son would be born where
his son would be born when his son would
be born and you see god's decrees always
are fulfilled
we look around today and we see a great
deal of political action going on
nation rising against nation and kingdom
against kingdom and we have the united
nations and we have nato and we have all
these alliances i want you to know that
behind all of these things god rules and overrules
