Luke 1:34-38

Luke chapter 1, verses 30 to 38. Our focus this morning will be on verses 34 to 38, but I’ll begin reading with verse 30. And the angel said under her, fear not Mary, for thou hast found favor with God. Behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb and bring forth a son, shall call his name Jesus. He shall be great. shall be called the son of the highest. The Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David. And he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there shall be no end. Then said Mary, under the angel, how shall this be, seeing I know not a man? And the angel answered and said unto her, the Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the high heaven. shalt thou shalt thou, therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the son of God. And behold thy cousin Elizabeth, she hath also conceived a son in her old age. And this is the sixth month with her, who was called baron. For with God, nothing shall be impossible. and Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it unto me according to thy word and the angel departed from her. May God bless to us is sacred and holy word this morning. There are times when two people’s actions appear to be the same and yet the scripture indicates that there is a difference. God sees a difference. while you and I may judge them according to their outward appearance, and it seems like it’s the same to us. God can look at the heart and see a completely different circumstance and situation. You’ll recall that Lot was commanded not to look towards Sodom, because God was going to destroy the city. And as he fled away from it, his wife looked back, and God turned her into a place. of salt, the Bible tells us. On that same morning, Abraham got up early, went up on top of a mountain where he could look towards Sodom. He looked towards Sodom. He looked towards Sodom. He didn’t have any punishment. Why is that? Clearly, looking back of Lot would mean a lingering desire to be there and return there. Whereas Abraham looking toward Sodom was actually looking at the awesomeness of the justice of God in the burning of the city. He was seeing what God was going to do after he had prayed for Lot and his family that they, that maybe perhaps, if they were just ten righteous, you’d spare the city. In this chapter, Zacharias and Mary were both saints of God. They were both saints of God. They were both. both visited by an angel of God. We’ve already looked at the case with Zacharias. Both were devout. Both were promised a miraculous birth, John the Baptist, and here in our text, Christ. It would appear that their responses are similar. However, Zacharias was blamed and chastened for his unbelief and was struck with dumbness so he couldn’t speak until we find John was born. Whereas Mary here was provided with a further explanation and was praised afterwards by the Holy Spirit, who spoke through Elizabeth these words found in verse 45 of our chapter, Blessed is she that believed. She believed what the angel had said. My topic this morning is faith in God’s promises. And let me begin by saying this. It’s not inconsistent with faith. for you to seek more light concerning what God has said. You’ll notice in verse 34, then said Mary unto the angel, how shall this be seeing I know not a man? You’re not doubting the truth of God’s word because you don’t fully understand it. Mary believed what the angel had said to her, but she desired more information how this could possibly take place. Isaiah’s prophecy declared that the Messiah would be born of a virgin and now she understands that she’s the virgin. Because the angel has told her so. Her problem was since ordinary generation was not going to be used, how is she going to produce this child? While engaged to Joseph, they were a spouse, the scripture tells us, they had not engaged in sexual relations. I know not a man, she says in verse 34. So she’s puzzled about the means of how this extraordinary birth is going to take place. One can understand that. Friends, God often tells you things in his word, which causes you to seek more light as to their meaning or the manner of the fulfillment of the word. You believe that God’s word is true, and you accept it is truth, but you may not fully understand it. And you may have to be like, Mary, I don’t understand this. How can I grasp the truth of this? What is this going to, when is this going to take place? How is this going to happen? These are kind of questions that we all might have when we come to the Word of God and something is beyond us. There’s some mystery about it all, which we can’t fathom. So you’re not doubting the truth of God because you don’t fully understand it, you may desire further instruction regarding God’s word. When Samson’s mother was informed by the angel of the Lord that she would have a special son who would be a Nazarite unto God from birth, she needed more instruction the Bible tells us. And so her husband, Manoa, entreats the Lord. Oh, my Lord, let the man of God that thou did send, come again unto us, and teach us what we shall do unto the Lord, unto the child, excuse me, that shall be born in Judges 13-8. God doesn’t condemn them for asking for more help. He sends the messenger back. And we find that he explains all over again the second time how they’re supposed to take care of the child. You remember in the book of Daniel, in chapter 7, when he has the vision of the four beasts. And he was grieved in spirit. And the Bible says the vision troubled and he didn’t understand it. And you find Daniel asking the truth of all this in chapter 7, verse 50. What is the meaning of all this? And God made known to him the interpretation of this vision. It was carefully explained. He was not rebuked. When the prophet Zachariah had the vision of the candlestick and the two olive trees, he was puzzled by it in Zechariahe chapter 4. And you find him asking, what are these? what are these two olive trees? The Lord doesn’t condemn him. The Lord explains further what these things are about. In the same manner, Mary here is not rebuked. She’s given a clear explanation of how she is a virgin is going to produce the Messiah. Have you ever seen someone trying to start a fire with two sticks? You know, Boy Scouts can do this. But they have to rub these sticks together, and they rub vigorously, and a spark is produced, and then a person blows on the spark in order to get the wood shavings or the leaves or whatever fuel they’re using to catch on fire. We’ve seen that happen. Now, you have to patiently nurture that spark or it goes out, and then you have to do a lot more work to get another spark. Well, Scripture declares that the smoking flax, he shall not quench. Even the smallest spark of faith God is patient with and blows upon it, so to speak, to encourage its development. Here is God’s promise to us as his people. Because we hear his word, we may not understand all of it. If any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God. That God, that God, giveeth to all men liberally, and upbraid if not, he doesn’t condemn us, and it shall be given him. So it’s not inconsistent with faith for you to seek more light concerning what God has said. He would have us seek light. Paul prayed for the enlightenment of the Ephesians. And we should pray for our own enlightenment as we come to the scriptures. Secondly, this morning, you should believe great things can be done by the power of the spirit. You’ll notice verse 35. In the angel said, unto her, the Holy Ghost shall come upon thee. And the power of the highest shall overshadow thee. Therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee, shall be called the Son of God. Verse 37, for with God nothing shall be impossible. Now, you may be required to believe a great mystery. The angel doesn’t provide all the details here that would satisfy our curiosity about how Jesus Christ, his human nature, was going to be formed in the womb of Mary. But he does direct Mary to contemplate the power of the Spirit of God in this situation. She should surrender herself, silently, calmly, to the work of the spirit taking place in her body. This word overshadow here, perhaps is an allusion to the creation account where we read the Spirit of God moved or brooded upon the face of the deep or the waters in Genesis 1 too. There’s a hen broods upon her eggs. And so there’s a sense in which the Holy Spirit here created the human nature of Christ by his divine power. It was a supernatural work that took place within Mary. The operation of the spirit would be secret and mysterious. It can’t be beheld by the eyes of men. As the cloud covered the tabernacle and the glory of God entered it, so we find here that there’s a sense of a cloud covering how the human nature of Christ was formed. How the Son of God took possession of a human body and became the God man. You remember Paul wrote Timothy, great is the mystery of godliness that God was manifest in the flesh. It’s a mystery. The incarnation of Christ his birth by a virgin. The union of the two natures, divine and human and his person, is a mystery which God expects you to believe, even though you may not fully understand it. There are secret things that belong unto the Lord. Now, there are things that are revealed to us that we should believe and know, but he doesn’t always tell us all the details behind these things. However, whatever is revealed by him, you are required, to believe. So we could actually say there’s a mystery to how you and I are created. How are we formed in the womb? You know, Job talks about it, and you find it in Ecclesiastes, and Psalm 139, and how fearfully and wonderfully we’re made by God, how much more so, the formation of the child Jesus in Mary’s womb. So let me make this observation. There are mysteries associated with the Christian faith, which you are. are to believe even though you can’t fully comprehend them. I could talk about the Holy Trinity. I could talk about the incarnation. I could talk about God and evil. There are some things you may not fully grasp. But whatever God reveals to us, we are required to believe. So you may be required to believe a great mystery. You should believe in the power of the Holy Spirit to accomplish great things. Mary is told here that trust in the Holy Spirit’s purpose. power to bring about this virgin birth and is reminded that with God, nothing shall be impossible. With man, yes, with God, no. I think it’s important to give the Holy Spirit the same place in your personal religion that he occupies in the Word of God. Many professing Christians are too puffed up about what they think they are doing for God. You can lack a sense of your deep need of the power of the Holy Spirit to accomplish anything for the purpose of God. When shall we learn that we can’t guarantee the salvation of a single soul by our own personal efforts? It takes the power of the Holy Spirit to do that. The greatest thing lacking, I think, in today’s church, is spiritual power, the blessing of the Spirit. If we have the mindset of the Laeasians, that we have need of nothing, then we’re not going to be seeking the Spirit to work and do those things that really are impossible for us to do. That’s why we need the Spirit of God to work. We need to be on our knees about this. We need to cry out that God would, Spirit would display his power and work in our generation. To work in the church, to work in our witness, and so forth. Recognize that it’s not by might, by the number of workers we have. It’s not by power. It’s not by intellectual argument or even persuasive speech. It’s but by my spirit, said the Lord, that anything is going to be accomplished. Zachariah 4.6. Until the Holy Spirit is given his rightful place in your thinking, how can you experience success? You remember the story of Samson? I’m always reminded of Samson. The power of the Spirit would come upon him, and he’d knock off all the Philistines that were trying to attack him. No problem. Power. But his sinful life caught up with him, his sinful ways. And there was a point at which the Bible tells us that the Holy Spirit withdrew from him. And then he tried to go out and do it on his own with his own power, and guess what? The Philistines defeated him and put out of his own. eyes and he’s grinding at the mill and so forth. He forgot. He thought he could do it on his own. He couldn’t do it on his own. The only reason he defeated the Felicity is the power of the Spirit was upon it. Let’s not have that attitude ourselves. We think we can do it ourselves. We need the power of the Spirit. Unless the Holy Spirit is honored and sought and counted upon, the church is powerless. You should believe great things can be done by the power of the Spirit of God. No question about that. But that should be our focus. That he does them through us sometimes. He works in us both the will and to do of his good pleasure, God says. But still, it’s his power. The third thing we see here. That previous examples of what God has done are meant to encourage your faith. Now verse 36, And behold, by cousin Elizabeth, she hath also conceived a son in her old age. And this is the sixth month with her who is called baron. What happened to Elizabeth was meant to encourage Mary. If God could give Elizabeth, who is really beyond the age of childbearing, give her a child, she’s in her sixth month, then believe that you also can have a child, even though you’re a virgin. Her cousin, Elizabeth here, is to be a example of God’s a miracle. for Mary to take the heart. So basically Mary is told here to ponder the example of Elizabeth. You look at this. Look what I’ve done already. And be convinced that God can do extraordinary, supernatural things. You’re supposed to learn something from what God has already done. So when we come to the scriptures and we read about all the things that God has done, we’re supposed to learn from that. We’re supposed to take that and say, okay, if you did it, Then he can do it now. He can do these kinds of things. He can do in the impossible. Why did young David, lacking any military experience, think he could ever take on the Philistine giant Goliath? Ever given that any thought? Paul, or excuse me, King Saul, he’s skeptical. He looks at David and said, boy, you’re just a youth. You’re not even old enough to be in my army, and then you’re going to go out and fight this guy. thou art not able to go against this Philisting to fight with him, for thou art but a youth, and he is a man of war from his youth. Look at all the experience this guy’s had. He’s been a lot of battles. Who are you? How do you think, why do you think you can go out and defeat him? You can’t even wear my armor. It’s too bulky for you. So how is it that David thought that he could win? How could he defeat this monster of an enemy? Well, David explains it to us. in scripture. He said, while he was taking care of his father’s sheep, there was both a lion and a bear that came and hauled off some of the sheep, and he had to go after them and smite them and deliver the sheep. He said, just as God delivered me out of the paw of the lion, out of the paw of the bear, he’ll deliver me out of the hand of this solicit. What is he relying on? He’s relying on what God did in the past, and saying, well, he can do it again. So he’s confident that God, he goes out with confidence that he’s going to win. And he is victorious. He smites the forehead of the giant with a rock and fells him and uses the Goliath’s own sword and cuts off his head. At one point, Jesus and disciples had gotten into ship and they’re crossing the Sea of Galilee over to the coast of Magdalya in Matthew 15. However, the Bible says the disciples forgot to bring bread. So they’re thinking, uh-oh, what are we going to eat? And Jesus was teaching them, and he said, now take heed and beware the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees. And the disciples are thinking, oh, he’s saying the word love. He’s thinking he’s reprimanding us because we forgot to bring the bread. Of course, Jesus was actually talking about the doctrine of the scribes and the Pharisees and so forth. But Jesus said that they had little faith because they were worrying about bread. And they had forgotten what he had already done. And so what does he say to them? Do you remember the lows, the five lows of the 5,000? Do you remember that when I took those five loaves of bread and we fed 5,000 people? Do you remember the seven lows that fed to 4,000? And how many bad? baskets we took up afterwards of bread fragments. And his point is, why are you fretting about bread when you know I can multiply it? Well, I can, didn’t you learn anything from the past? You see, we’re supposed to learn things from the past in order to enable our faith to grab hold on things in regard to the future. Scripture says in Psalm 11-4, he made his wonderful works to be remembered. There’s such an amazing ignorance among men to forget about what God has done. He has to make his works known to us and be remembered by us. He has to keep reminding us, didn’t I do this? Didn’t I do that? So you remember. We let things slip from our minds. Our faith begins to dwindle. God causes his works to be remembered. The spirit brings them to our minds. It’s not a small thing in your Christian life to cherish and to treasure up in memory what God has done. It’s always something is like a storehouse of strength for us to know what God has done. Draw strength from what God has done. For he doesn’t change. And he can do the same for you. So previous examples of what God has done are meant to encourage your faith. The fifth thing here this morning is this. You should serve God in faith and await the fulfillment of his promises. Verse 38. And Mary said, behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it unto me according to thy word, and the angel departed from her. Now, Mary here doesn’t allow herself to ask any more questions. What are people going to think if I’m pregnant and I’m not, you know, married yet? I’m not actually gone through a marriage ceremony. They’re going to think I’m pregnant out of wedlocked. It’s going to shame me she doesn’t bring any of that up. She simply stops, represses any further concerns, and basically says, I will be your obedient servant. Behold the handmaid of the Lord. She’s going to devote herself unreservedly to God. He can do her pleasure in his life and she’s just going to willingly submit to whatever God has purposed. The word handmade means a close personal servant like Hagar was to Sarah. The real proof of faith is having a heart which willingly complies with being God’s servant. Our response should be, Lord, what will thou have me to do? Too often professing Christians want to dispute with God about what he’s doing in their life, rather than submitting to the Lord. There are times when you’ll find yourself stubborn, maybe, you’re not even resistant to what you find God doing in your life. You may forget your place. You may forget you’re supposed to be the servant, and he’s supposed to be the master when God called Moses. Remember at the burning bush? God says, I’m going to send you back to Egypt and you’re going to tell Pharaoh, let my people go, and you’re going to lead out to children of Israel. And so what did Moses do? Do you rush home, pack its bags, and say, yeah, I’m going to head on and be an ambassador for Israel and go to help them to get out? He said, not me, Lord. He starts raising all these objections, doesn’t he? Who? am I. I don’t have any confidence so I can do this great work. If they ask who you are, what am I supposed to tell them? They don’t know who you are. They won’t believe me. Nor will they harken to my voice if I get on there and tell them this. No one’s going to believe. I’m not eloquent. You know, I’m slow of speech. Why don’t you get somebody else? I like what he says in chapter 4 of Exodus in verse 13. Could you just find somebody else? else basically, he says, please, get somebody, I’m just not cut out for this. Don’t we have a little bit of Moses and all of us? Don’t we have that same spirit sometimes about us? We’re not the willing servants we ought to be. We’re always having these objections, and if you have a fairly active mind, you can always think of an objection or why you shouldn’t do what God has commanded us to do in his word. Every Christian ought to be a vessel on the honor sanctified and meet suitable for the master’s use. So you need to have the spirit of a merit. Your will be done? Here I am. I’m your servant. Be ready to go anywhere, do anything at God’s command, even if it’s inconsistent with your personal liking. Friends, once God’s will is known, all the disputing that arises afterwards is really a lack of faith. Well, let me close this morning by saying this. Both Abraham and Lutz wife look towards Sodom, but God saw a difference in their actions. The same is true. with Zacharias and Mary responding to the Lord’s revelation with questions. One was one was of unbelief and one was of belief. One was of faith. We should learn from this passage then that it’s not inconsistent with faith for you to seek more light concerning what God has said. That’s not a problem. God’s not going to upgrade you for that. You should believe great things can be done by the power of the spirit. The previous examples of what God has done should enhance you and encourage your faith. Hence your faith and encourage it. And you should serve God in faith and await the fulfillment of his promises. That’s what I see us in this passage.