Mary - A Christmas Story Series

Just a few more days to Christmas… are you ready? We conclude a short Christmas series designed to make room in your heart to worship Jesus, entitled The Mothers of Jesus. For the last several weeks, we’ve been examining the four mothers of Jesus, the several women who served as Jesus’ distant mothers and grandmothers. We’ve noted how unusual it is for Jesus’ genealogy to list four women’s names when women didn’t have the cultural clout and status they enjoy today. Secondly, we note that each of these women listed Jesus’ family tree, Matthew includes four women with some kind of scandal attached to their stories. We’ve looked at Tamer, Ruth, and last week we saw Bathsheba. Today, we finally arrive at the literal mother of Jesus, Mary.

While Mary has enjoyed high status throughout the centuries, she was the subject of gossip in her day. Mary’s scandal is this: she was an unwed pregnant teenager and all the tongues were wagging were in her small, conservative town of Nazareth. Now if you’ve tried to read about the story of Jesus’ birth from just one of the four Gospels, then you’ve discovered two things. First, no one Gospel tells you everything about the birth of Jesus. Second, some gospels do not tell you anything about the birth of Jesus. So you really have to read all four gospels to get the whole picture of Jesus’ birth. And when you take the time to read all four Gospel accounts of the first Christmas, you’ll discover Jesus is both completely God and He is completely human.

Jesus’ Biological Family

And because Jesus was human like any one of us, He had a human step-father, a mother, brothers, and sisters (see Matthew 13:55-56). It’s His mother, Mary, and step-father, Joseph, who play an integral part of the Christmas story. If you read from Matthew’s Gospel, you’ll gain the perspective of Joseph hearing about Mary’s pregnancy though she was a virgin (Matthew 1:18-25). Joseph struggled to believe at first. If you read Luke’s Gospel, you’ll see Mary’s perspective of hearing she’s pregnant though she hasn’t been with her fiancé, Joseph. And it’s here that I want us to focus today. For I want you to consider the process Mary went through to believe the news of Jesus’ arrival at the first Christmas. Because she is a model for all of us in how we are to process and believe to Jesus’ coming into our lives as well. Invitation Preview: I’ll be offering each one of you an opportunity to place your faith in Jesus Christ today just as Mary did so many years ago.

In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, 27 to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin's name was Mary. 28 And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” 29 But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. 30 And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 31 And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”

34 And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?”

35 And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God. 36 And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. 37 For nothing will be impossible with God.” 38 And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.

39 In those days Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country, to a town in Judah, 40 and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. 41 And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, 42 and she exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! 43 And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? 44 For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. 45 And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.”