Mary, Did You Know Series

It was the Sunday before Christmas, when a young brother and sister were singing their favorite carol, "Silent Night," in church. Everything was going well until the final line.

The little boy, full of enthusiasm, belted out the conclusion with total conviction: "Sleep in heavenly beans!"

His sister quickly elbowed him and whispered, "No, not beans, you dummy, it’s peas!"

Anyone here ever listen to a song and you’re singing along with it… and you think you’ve got the words right… but later found out that you were singing them wrong.

When I was in elementary school, the movie Grease was a huge hit, partly because the music was really good. Now… forget about how terribly inappropriate that movie is…

I watched it as a kid and thought it was great. I watched it as an adult and thought… “why did my parents let me watch this?”

Anyway, there is one song in there called, “The One that I Want” by Olivia Newton John.

The song starts out by saying, “I’ve got chills, they’re multiplying.” I thought she was saying, “I’ve got shoes, they’re made of plywood.”

Olivia wasn’t saying that at all! - Hey… I was 10!!! Cut me some slack.

You ever listen to a song or sing a song in church… in worship and you think… what does that even mean?

A little while back, we did a series called, “What Did I Just Sing?” In the series, we took some well known worship songs and hymns and dove into what the lyrics actually meant…

after all, we’re singing them in church… right? We should know what we’re singing!

We tackled songs like, “Graves into Gardens”, “Tabernacle”, “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing”, and wrapped up with “Honey in the Rock.”

So… I thought it would be fun to do the same thing with Christmas Songs. So for the month of December, our series is… “What Did I Just Sing – Christmas Edition”.

We start off with a song that we’ve all heard… and David Wilson just sang – Mary, Did You Know?

Every Christmas we hear that question: “Mary, did you know…?” And if we’re honest, we think… “yeah, she did know.” At least there are some things she knew.

But what did this young Hebrew girl truly understand as she was carrying the Savior of the world in her womb?

Now… I think that Mary knew far more than most people give her credit for. After all, she was a Jewish girl raised on the Scriptures and the promises of God.

But on the other hand, there is no way she could have grasped all that was coming. There is no way she foresaw all the miracles, all the heartbreak, and all the glory that would play out right in front of her.

So… I want to first of all… dive in and see…

1. This is what Mary definitely knew:

Mary wasn’t walking blind. She had the Scriptures, the prophecies, the history of Israel in her heart.

So when Gabriel appeared, she didn’t start from zero… she already knew the Messiah was coming.

And she knew that first of all…

• She knew the Messiah would be born of a virgin.

Isaiah 7:14 told her…

The Lord himself will give you the sign. Look! The virgin[a] will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel (which means ‘God is with us’).

Mary was a young Jewish girl and I’m sure that she had heard from the time she was a little girl this prophecy from Isaiah.

Now… I’m sure that Mary, in her wildest imagination… would have never imagined she was that virgin, but she knew the prophecy.

She also…

• She knew the Messiah would come from the line of David

Mary was engaged to Joseph… a son of David. She likely knew her own lineage connected back to David as well. So she had this dual-Davidic lineage… if you will.

And that’s incredibly important because there is prophecy in 2 Samuel 7…

For when you die and are buried with your ancestors, I will raise up one of your descendants, your own offspring, and I will make his kingdom strong. 13 He is the one who will build a house—a temple—for my name. And I will secure his royal throne forever.

This is a prophecy that Nathan give to King David and Samuel records it. And it’s incredibly important to us for a few reasons. One… It clearly points to Jesus as the fulfillment of this prophecy.

Two… It reveals God’s heart for a permanent Kingdom that was made available through Jesus. And Three... It shows that God was revealing our redemption all along.

And Mary knew this. This was ingrained in her at a small Jewish girl.