For Christmas
December 21, 2008
Luke
1:26-56
v. 26 – “the angel
Gabriel was sent”
It would be a very
interesting to study the errands of angels in Scripture.
“Are they not all
ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who
shall be heirs of
salvation?” – Hebrews 1:14
It is beyond our
scope this morning to make that study and our misdirection
would be compounded
at the expense of the birth of Jesus Christ, who not only
is the Maker of the
world, but the Savior of the world – The Lamb of God!
But I will say that
the word “angel” is mentioned 201 times in the Bible,
51 of which is in the
book of Revelation. “Angels” in the
plural is mentioned
93 times with 23 of
those from Revelation.
Twenty-five times in
scripture it specifically mentions an angel being “sent”
* I will mention that
angels are connected with the announcement of and the
destruction of
them to tell Abraham. Genesis 19
* An angel delivered
Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego from the fiery furnace -
Daniel 3:28
* An angel was sent
to shut the lions mouths while Daniel was in the lions den.
Daniel 6:22
* An angel was sent
for the call of Moses – Acts 7:35
* An angel was sent
to the gentile Corneilous that led to his salvation – Acts 10:22
* An angel was sent
to Peter to deliver him from prison.
Acts 12:11
* An angel gave to
John the Revelation of Jesus Christ – Revelation 1:1
* Angels deliver the
seven seals in the book of Revelation – chapters 5-8
* Angels blow the
seven trumpets in the book of Revelation – chapters 8-9
* Angels are
associated with the seven last plagues that will plague the earth – ch. 15
* Angels are
associated with the seven golden vials full of the wrath of God –
chps. 15-17
* An angel, at the
end of time, “sware by Him that liveth for ever and ever, who
created heaven, and the things that therein
are, and the earth, the things that
therein are….there should be time no longer”
– Revelation 10:6
* Angels are sent, at
the end of time, to “gather out of His kingdom, all that
offend and do iniquity and shall cast them
into a furnace of fire” - Matt. 13:41-42
* Angels are sent, at
the end of the world, to “gather together His elect from the
four winds, from the uttermost part of the
earth, to the uttermost part of heaven.”
Mark
13:27
* We are admonished
in scripture to “Be not forgetful to entertain strangers for
thereby some have entertained angels
unawares” - Hebrews 13:2
* Let us not forget
the words of Jesus when He said “Inasmuch as ye have done
it unto one of the least of these my
brethren, ye have done it unto me. Matt.
25:40
* An angel was sent
to Zacharias to announce the birth of the forerunner of
Jesus Christ, John the Baptist – Luke 1:19
* And now back to
present reality – the angel Gabriel was sent to Mary to tell of
the conception and birth of our Lord and
Savior, Jesus Christ!
"Excerpted text Copyright AGES Library, LLC. All rights reserved.
Materials
are reproduced by permission."
“a city of
of Promise had been divided into Judea,
the old territory of the tribes of Zebulon,
Naphtali, and Asher. From
Josepheus, we learn that at this period the
northern division was
rich and populous, and covered with flourishing
towns.
v. 27 – “To a virgin
espoused to a man whose name was Joseph,
of the house of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary.”
v. 28 – “Hail, thou
that art highly favored” – the literal translation
is “having been much graced”
“Blessed art thou
among women” is not in the older authorities –
perhaps this could
have saved millions of millions of meaningless chants.
It is significant
that so little is said in Holy Scripture of this one of whom
it was said “blessed
art thou among women”. Nothing is
related as to
her birth and
parentage, as to her gifts of mind and person; it is not
even directly
asserted that she belonged to the royal stock of David,
that is to be implied
only from such a verse as the 32nd.
After the Lord,
on the cross,
solemnly gave her to the care of the beloved disciple, there
is only one allusion
to her, an allusion in Acts 1. There is
no reference
to her in the
Epistles of Paul, none in that of James, who was certainly nearly
related to her; none
in those of John, with whom she had lived.
Luke,
in speaking of her in
connection with the birth, says only, “A virgin
espoused to man whose
name was Joseph”. “Blessed,” cried a
woman
one day to Jesus, “is
she that bare thee!” He did not deny it;
but that
there be no
distraction of soul, He added, “Yea, rather, blessed are they
that hear the Word of
God, and keep it” – Luke 11:27
The scriptures
portrayal of her bears the marks of Divine wisdom. The
reticence of
Scripture might suggest that the inspiring Spirit of God,
foreseeing the danger
which so soon appeared, of an admiration scarcely
separated from and
insensibly sliding into grave error, moved the
evangelist from any
magnifying of the Virgin. But the
mistaken honor
paid to Mary should
not withdraw the mind from what is truly honorable
and exemplary in her
conduct. She is a type of the believer
for all times,
in the quietness and
confidence which are the believer’s strength, “Blessed
is she that
believeth”.
v. 29 – “she was
troubled” – more accurately, she was greatly troubled.
Different to Zacharias, who
evidently doubted in the mission of
the angel, and who required some
sign before he could believe,
Mary simply wondered at the
strangeness of what was about to
happen.
vs. 30-31 – “Fear not
Mary: for thou hast found favor with
God. And,
behold, thou shalt conceive in thy
womb, and bring forth
a son, and shalt call His
name Jesus”
Jesus, the ordinary
Greek form of the well –know Hebrew Jehoshua –
the shortened Joshua,
“The Salvation of Jehovah”
“He shall be great
and be called the Son of the Highest” –
“that holy thing” –
In Christ we have the humanity and the Divinity,
each perfect and
complete. Whatever can be said of man
can be
said of Him; what can
be said of God can also be said of Him.
Very
man and very God!
“thou shalt call His
name Jesus: for He shall save His people
from
their sins” – Matthew
1:21
Sin is deeply
involved with poverty, estrangement, strife, weariness,
aching of heart and
death. Saving us from sin means
restoration to
God and Divine favor.
“This is the Lord’s
doing and it is marvelous in our eyes” – Matt. 21:42
"Excerpted text Copyright AGES Library, LLC. All rights reserved.
Materials
are reproduced by permission."
vs. 39-40 – The visit
with
v. 39 – “And Mary
arose in those days, and went unto the hill country
with haste, into a city of
Interposed will be
the account in Matthew of the natural suspicion
of Joseph, her
betrothed future husband, his action in the matter,
in which her
innocence was vindicated. (See Matthew 1:18-25)
v. 45 – “And blessed
is she that believed: for there shall be
a
performance of those things which
were told her from the
Lord”
Compare Romans
4:18-21 in reference to the faith of Abraham –
He “staggered not at
the promise of God through unbelief, but
was strong in faith
giving glory to God; and being fully persuaded
that, what he had
promised, He was able to perform.”
“Faithful is He that
calleth you who also will do it” – I Thess. 5:24
vs. 46-56 – The Hymn
of Mary, commonly called the Magnificat
Mary's Response - The Magnificat -
her praise - deep
feelings of adoration, holy
joy, glad
surprise. She asks nothing - just
breathes adoration
& thankfulness!
Notice the personal gladness & emotion, losing herself in the
sense of unspeakable lovingkindness of God!
vs. 46-48 - "regardeth the low estate" - "He knoweth
our frame, He
remembereth that we are dust"
Distant generations will not hear our name, but in the
remotest times we shall be dwelling and serving in
unimaginable JOY!
vs. 48-49 - "all generations"
v. 50 - "generation to generation" - those who fear
God receive His mercy
in every generation.
vs. 49-50 -Mary glorifies four attributes of God - His power, His
holiness, His Mercy
and His faithfulness.
“God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet
sinners, Christ died for us”
GOD IS THE SOURCE OF MARY'S JOY!
Surely in all the world's creation, His might had never
been shown as it was now about to be manifest in her!
In the Incarnation, God was sending real help to His
people. It was the crowning act
of mercy, and the
fulfillment of the promises made to Abraham and his
seed. Mary thus began with God's
holiness and passed
in review His power, His mercy,
and finally His
faithfulness. All these are
illustrated eminently
in the Incarnation.
vs. 51-53 - describes the Messiah's reversal of man's
conception of what is
little and great as though
the unborn Babe had
already done His mighty
& strange work in
the world.
Sounds like the Sermon on the Mount preached
thirty years early!
God's holiness is shown in His providential inter-
positions, in His humbling the haughty, in His
scattering the cruel and the profane, in His raising
the lowly and the pure and the true.
Thus, He has been revealing His righteousness in
EVERY NATION and in EVERY AGE
vs. 54-56 - God has not forgotten His promise nor
His people!
The fidelity of God to His covenant with
v. 55 - The Lord's Faithfulness
"God manifest in the flesh" - I Tim. 3:12
John 1:14
We have no right to hope and no reason to expect,
that He will ever manifest
Himself to us in more
attractive features than as we see Him in the Son
that was born on Christmas Day!
Hebrews 1:1-3