0:06 [Music]
0:07 the messages you were about to hear were
0:11 first given on our daily radio broadcast
0:13 pastor warren wesby is the speaker
0:15 and this series of messages is entitled
0:17 mary's christmas
0:21 and here's pastor warren wesby
0:23 let's pray together shall we
0:25 thank you father for sending the lord
0:28 jesus thank you that he is the savior
0:30 thank you that he is the full expression
0:32 of your person
0:34 thank you that he has revealed to us
0:37 your love and we don't have to be afraid
0:38 and i pray now as we study the word
0:41 together that your spirit will teach us
0:43 and your spirit will help us to put it
0:46 into practice in our daily lives for
0:47 jesus sake amen
0:50 amen
0:52 when it comes to mary the mother of our lord
0:53 lord
0:55 people usually go to one of two extremes
0:58 they either magnify her so much that
1:00 nobody can see the lord jesus
1:02 or they ignore her completely now i
1:05 believe that both extremes are wrong
1:07 those of us who love the lord jesus
1:09 christ and who love the bible can learn
1:12 much about the grace of god from the
1:14 life and the testimony of mary
1:17 i want to focus especially on mary's
1:19 part in the birth of our lord jesus
1:22 christ the record that dr luke gives us
1:25 in luke chapters 1 and 2.
1:27 if you have your bible open to luke
1:29 chapters one and two you'll note that
1:33 there are four exciting scenes recorded
1:36 in the life of mary
1:39 beginning in chapter 1 verse 26
1:44 through verse 38 we find mary submitting
1:47 you'll notice in verse 38 behold the
1:50 handmaid or the slave of the lord be it
1:53 unto me according to thy word mary
1:56 submitting she presents herself to the lord
1:57 lord
2:00 then in verse 39 down through verse 56
2:02 you find mary singing
2:05 she arose and went to see her relative
2:09 elizabeth elizabeth blesses the lord and
2:11 then mary sings that marvelous song that
2:15 magnifies god mary is singing
2:18 in verses 39 through 56 of luke chapter
2:21 one she's praising god
2:23 by the way these two things go together
2:25 don't they if you present yourself to
2:29 god as a living sacrifice very shortly
2:32 after you will be praising god sacrifice
2:35 and song always go together
2:39 mary submitting luke 1 26-38
2:43 mary singing luke 1 39-56
2:46 then we skip to chapter 2
2:47 because the intervening verses really
2:50 have to do with john the baptist chapter
2:54 2 of luke we find mary searching verses
2:55 1 through 20.
2:59 and mary is pondering what is going on
3:02 verse 19 but mary kept all these things
3:04 and pondered them in her heart
3:06 mary is searching
3:09 the baby is born the shepherds come
3:11 it's a it's an interesting experience
3:14 for this precious little jewish girl and
3:17 she's pondering god's ways
3:20 then in chapter 2 at verse 21 through
3:24 verse 40 we find mary sacrificing she
3:26 and joseph come to the temple in order
3:30 to present jesus to the lord and also to
3:33 bring the sacrifices required and so she
3:37 performs the law that is required
3:39 these four scenes will form the basis
3:42 for our study mary submitting she
3:45 presents herself to the lord
3:46 mary singing
3:48 she praises the lord
3:50 mary searching
3:53 she ponders the ways of the lord and
3:56 then mary sacrificing she performs the
3:59 law of the lord
4:02 i'm going to read verses 26 through 33
4:04 of luke chapter 1. it's such a beautiful paragraph
4:06 paragraph
4:08 talking about the visit of the angel to mary
4:09 mary
4:12 and in the sixth month the angel gabriel
4:15 was sent from god unto a city of galilee
4:16 named nazareth
4:19 to a virgin a spouse to a man whose name
4:22 was joseph of the house of david and the
4:24 virgin's name was mary
4:26 and the angel came in unto her and said hail
4:27 hail
4:31 thou who art highly favored the lord is
4:35 with thee blessed art thou among women
4:37 and when she saw him she was troubled at
4:40 his saying and considered in her mind
4:43 what manner of greeting this should be
4:46 and the angel said unto her fear not
4:49 mary for thou hast found favor with god
4:51 and behold thou shalt conceive in thy
4:54 womb and bring forth a son and shalt
4:57 call his name jesus
5:00 he shall be great and shall be called
5:03 the son of the highest and the lord god
5:05 shall give unto him the throne of his
5:07 father david
5:09 and he shall reign over the house of
5:11 david forever
5:15 and of his kingdom there shall be no end
5:16 end
5:19 we want to focus right now on verses 26
5:21 27 and 28
5:24 and the emphasis here is on the grace of
5:28 god in verse 28 the angel said hail
5:31 which is a form of the word grace
5:34 grace thou who art highly graced the
5:37 lord is with thee
5:39 let's notice in luke 1 26-28
5:40 26-28
5:45 four evidences of the grace of god
5:47 recorded here in the scripture number
5:50 one it was the grace of god that he sent
5:53 gabriel number two it was the grace of
5:57 god that he sent gabriel to nazareth
5:59 number three it was the grace of god
6:03 that he sent gabriel to nazareth to mary
6:06 and number four it was the grace of god
6:10 that he sent gabriel to nazareth to mary
6:11 for you
6:13 and me
6:15 let's look at these four evidences now
6:17 first of all it was certainly the grace
6:20 of god that he sent gabriel now gabriel
6:24 is an important angelic messenger in the
6:27 scriptures his name means mighty man of god
6:28 god
6:31 in chapter 8 of the book of daniel
6:33 gabriel was sent to the prophet daniel
6:36 to explain to him the vision that daniel
6:39 had had about the ram and the he goat
6:42 imagine that gabriel comes from heaven
6:45 to daniel to explain to him the word of god
6:46 god
6:50 in chapter 9 of daniel gabriel returned
6:53 and explained the vision of the 70 weeks
6:55 of jewish history
6:59 he spread before daniel the panorama of
7:01 prophecy relating to the people of israel
7:02 israel
7:05 now here is an important angelic
7:08 messenger who came to the prophet daniel
7:12 to open to him the future of god's people
7:13 people
7:15 also it was the angel gabriel who came
7:18 to zacharias in luke chapter 1
7:21 when zacharias was ministering there in
7:23 the temple and he gave to zacharias the
7:27 good news that elizabeth and zacharias
7:29 would have a baby boy and this would be
7:32 john the baptist the forerunner of our
7:34 lord jesus christ now there's quite a
7:38 contrast between the coming of gabriel
7:40 to zacharias and the coming of gabriel
7:42 to mary let's look at that for just a moment
7:43 moment
7:45 i can understand gabriel coming to
7:47 daniel he was a great prophet and i can
7:49 understand him coming to zacharias he
7:51 was a priest but here he comes to mary
7:53 isn't that interesting
7:56 zacharias was an old man beyond the age
7:58 of having any children
8:01 and mary was a young woman who had not
8:03 yet been married
8:05 zacharias was a priest but mary was from
8:09 the line of david the kingly line
8:11 zacharias was in the temple when the
8:14 angel appeared to him mary was probably
8:17 at home in nazareth when gabriel came to her
8:18 her
8:20 the angel came to zacharias in the
8:24 temple in jerusalem and jerusalem was a
8:25 very important city
8:28 but as the angel came to mary at
8:29 nazareth we're going to see that
8:33 nazareth wasn't held in very high repute
8:35 zacharias responded with unbelief how
8:38 can these things be but mary responded
8:40 with faith and said well here i am may
8:43 the word of the lord be done unto me
8:45 according to god's will
8:47 isn't it beautiful that god should send
8:51 gabriel to daniel and to zacharias and
8:52 then to mary
8:55 here is an important angelic messenger
8:58 who comes with the message of god that's
8:59 the grace of god
9:01 secondly it's the grace of god that he
9:04 sent gabriel to nazareth
9:06 now nazareth did not have a very good reputation
9:07 reputation
9:11 immediately you remember john chapter 1 when
9:12 when
9:15 jesus was out calling his disciples in
9:17 verse 45
9:20 philip findeth nathanael and saith unto
9:22 him we have found him
9:24 of whom moses in the law and the
9:28 prophets did right jesus of nazareth the
9:29 son of joseph
9:32 and nathanael said unto him can there
9:34 any good thing come out of nazareth
9:36 philip said unto him come and see
9:38 well nathanael did come and see and he
9:40 was converted and became one of the
9:44 disciples now i can just hear the
9:47 tone of voice that nathanael used as
9:50 recorded in verse 46 can there any good
9:53 thing come out of nazareth you see
9:57 nazareth was in galilee of the gentiles
10:00 and the jews in judea
10:02 especially the jews in jerusalem looked
10:05 down their noses at the people up in
10:08 galilee they did not consider the jewish
10:11 people up in galilee to be really kosher
10:13 and of course the city of nazareth was
10:15 not looked upon as a very spiritual
10:19 place and so uh the saying was abroad
10:21 can any good thing come out of nazareth
10:23 well something good did come out of
10:25 nazareth mary and joseph came out of
10:28 nazareth went down to bethlehem and
10:30 there mary gave birth to the lord jesus
10:33 christ throughout his earthly life our
10:36 lord was known as jesus of nazareth he
10:39 identified himself with that
10:42 forsaken place that criticized place
10:46 that place of no real reputation he said
10:47 all right you can call me that i am
10:50 jesus of nazareth in fact he took that
10:52 word to the cross with him
10:54 pilate put a sign over the head of the
10:56 lord jesus that read this is jesus of
10:59 nazareth the king of the jews aren't you
11:01 glad that our lord identifies with the outcasts
11:03 outcasts
11:05 he identifies with the poor he
11:07 identifies with those who are of no
11:09 special reputation in fact in
11:11 philippians 2 we are told that our lord
11:16 himself made himself of no reputation
11:18 yes it was the grace of god that sent
11:20 gabriel it was the grace of god that
11:22 sent gabriel to nazareth it was the
11:25 grace of god that sent gabriel to mary
11:26 you say well he should have come to mary
11:29 she's an important person she was an
11:31 important person because god made her an
11:33 important person what do we know about
11:35 mary well she was a jewish from the
11:38 tribe of judah the family of david
11:41 she was a virgin pure and holy
11:42 she was poor
11:44 later on we'll find out that she was
11:46 unable to bring expensive sacrifices to
11:47 the temple
11:51 in fact in her song recorded in verses
11:54 46 through 55 she indicates that she was
11:57 rather lowly and poor and didn't have
12:00 much to boast about
12:02 isaiah 7 14 had promised that the
12:06 messiah would be born of a virgin
12:08 joseph was not the father of our lord
12:10 jesus christ although mary was the mother
12:11 mother
12:14 the holy spirit of god conceived the
12:16 body of the lord jesus in the womb of
12:18 the virgin mary she was engaged to
12:21 joseph and you must remember that in
12:24 jewish times engagement was just like
12:26 marriage the only way to get disengaged
12:28 would be a divorce
12:31 she was engaged to be married to joseph
12:33 now mary didn't expect an angel to show
12:35 up when the angel walked in she was
12:38 surprised a little bit frightened she
12:40 was troubled at his saying
12:43 hail thou who art highly favored the
12:46 lord is with thee blessed art thou among
12:48 women now he didn't say blessed art thou
12:51 above women he said blessed art thou
12:54 among women elizabeth said the same
12:57 thing over in verse 42 blessed art thou
13:00 among women and blessed is the fruit of
13:01 thy womb
13:04 i like the humility of mary the purity
13:06 of mary
13:09 here she simply is amazed that an angel
13:11 would come to her
13:13 amazed that he would come to her at
13:15 nazareth and bring this kind of a
13:18 greeting verse 29 says she was pondering
13:21 in her mind what kind of a greeting is
13:24 this that she should be highly favored
13:27 by the lord the word hail and the word
13:29 highly favored
13:31 are related to the word grace and this
13:34 is the first time you find grace
13:36 in the new testament you don't find the
13:39 grace of god mentioned by name
13:41 in matthew or mark but you'll find it
13:43 here in luke
13:45 it was the grace of god that he came to
13:48 mary he chose her he selected her but
13:51 remember it's the grace of god that he
13:54 came to mary for us
13:56 someone says oh i'd certainly like to be
13:58 highly favored by the lord it's
14:00 interesting that that greek word
14:02 translated highly favored is used only
14:06 one other place in the new testament
14:08 you know where it is ephesians chapter 1
14:10 and verse 6.
14:12 to the praise of the glory of his grace
14:15 through which he hath made us accepted
14:18 in the beloved same word
14:21 accepted in the beloved in other words
14:24 if you are a christian if you've trusted
14:27 jesus christ as your savior then you
14:30 have been accepted in the beloved you
14:34 are highly favored of the lord you see
14:36 this special blessing that came to mary
14:37 can come to you
14:40 please don't say well mary was a holy
14:42 person mary was a very special person
14:44 that's why god chose her no
14:46 mary tells us over in
14:49 verse 47 my spirit hath rejoiced in god
14:52 my savior she needed a savior
14:55 and this savior saved her by grace in
14:58 verse 30 fear not mary for thou has
15:01 found favor or grace with god
15:04 and so we have the grace of god extended
15:07 to marry grace is extended to people who
15:10 don't deserve it and god's grace has
15:12 been extended to us blessed art thou
15:16 well we've been blessed ephesians 1 3
15:18 blessed be the god and father of our
15:21 lord jesus christ who hath blessed us
15:23 with all spiritual blessings in heavenly
15:25 places in christ you see mary does not
15:28 have any advantage over us
15:30 we have been highly favored we have been
15:32 accepted in the beloved we have been
15:35 blessed of god with all the blessings
15:37 and god is with us
15:39 because we have the lord jesus as our
15:41 savior emmanuel
15:44 god with us have you experienced the
15:46 grace of god
15:49 god in his grace has sent the message to you
15:50 you
15:51 trust him
15:54 open your heart to him receive the grace
15:56 of god
15:58 receive the son of god by faith
16:06 thank you for listening to back to the
16:10 bible join us again tomorrow
16:13 god bless you [Music]
