The Person, the Plan and the Price
Text: Luke 1:26-38; Galatians 4:4
By: Ken McKinley
(Read Texts)
I think one of the biggest mistakes a person can make today is to think that God values what we possess rather than the heart. We need to remember that everything we have, and I mean EVERY THING is on loan to us. Keep that in mind as we look into God’s Word this morning.
Now our text from Galatians chapter 4 says, “When the fullness of time had come…” God’s timing is always perfect. He really does know what He’s doing. In the Gospel accounts of the birth of the Lord, the writers are very clear that they are writing about a historical event. Luke doesn’t say, “Once upon a time…” No, he said just the opposite, “In the days of Herod, king of Judea…” in verse 5 and in our text he mentions an actual city, “Nazareth.” Now history can tell you about Herod and his evil family. The Jews hated him because he was an Edomite, not a Jew. He had gone to Rome to get the authority to rule of Judea. In chapter 2 Luke mentions Caesar Augustus, and his census, which is another historical fact. So this isn’t a fantasy story or a fairy tale.
And so God, in His infinite wisdom, passed over the city of Rome, one of the greatest cities in all the ancient world. He passed over Athens, He even passed over Jerusalem and the temple, and instead came to a small town in Israel.
Bethlehem was located about 8 miles south of Jerusalem, it was not a large town and at this time, it was not greatly influential, it was located on a highway that led from Jerusalem south to Saudi Arabia and Egypt. Roman soldiers would probably pass through daily, and some would probably spend the night there. Merchants from Greece, Egypt and Persia would probably pass through as well.
It’s just like God to pass over these great, influential cities, and instead go to the small town of Bethlehem, and it’s just like God to pass over the emperors, kings, governors and rulers of the day as well. Instead He chose a young girl named Mary. Most likely she was between the ages of 13-16 which was the normal age for the Jewish betrothal, and she was engaged to a man named Joseph. It was also very likely that sometime in the past the parents of Mary and Joseph had gotten together while Joseph was probably a boy and Mary was very little and arranged their marriage. The parents had probably negotiated the wedding before either of them really knew one another. And the way it worked was that Joseph’s father paid Mary’s father a sum of money, because it was Mary’s father that was going to be loosing a helping hand at the farm or in the family business. Then the parents signed an agreement and made an oath to one another. And so the engaged couple could not back out on the marriage unless the agreement or oath was broken, usually by unfaithfulness of the woman. If Joseph had died before the actual marriage, then Mary would’ve been his legal widow, if Mary was unfaithful, she would be stoned to death for adultery, but the couple couldn’t consummate the marriage until after the actual wedding ceremony.
Now our text says that in the 6th month Gabriel came to Mary and she was a virgin. In other-words, she was faithful to Joseph and she had integrity. But it also tells us that God transcended the laws of nature and by the power of the Holy Spirit conceived and brought forth a Son. This was prophesied in Isaiah 7:14.
Of course Joseph didn’t know that Mary being pregnant was a miracle, and by law he had every right to have her stoned to death. But Matthew 1:19 tells us that Joseph was a just man and instead of having her whipped or killed publicly, was just going to privately divorce her until the angle of the Lord came to him and explained things.
And so today, we want to look at Mary, we want to see the kind of person that God would choose for such a tremendous honor. In verse 28 Gabriel says that Mary is highly favored, that the Lord is with her and that she is blessed among women. Just about every time you see that word “favor” in the Bible, it means someone who has been graced by God. In the OT, when it says Noah found favor in God’s sight, a better translation would be, “God had grace on Noah.” Or when we read about Abraham being favored of God, a better way to read that would be, “God had grace on Abraham.” And so if we want to understand our text we should realize that Mary had received grace from God. In other words, there was nothing inherent within her that made her favored of God. God chose Mary and graced Mary, and blessed Mary. The emphasis here in on God’s choice, not Mary’s ability, or holiness, or piety, or anything like that. God chose to have grace on Mary and bless her. But I will say this; we something of Mary’s character and her faith, in her reply to Gabriel, look at verse 38 (Read), and when Gabriel says, “The Lord is with you” that is a reference to Mary’s walking with the Lord. In other words, she was living her life right, and she was not only faithful to Joseph, she was faithful to the Lord.
So Gabriel tells Mary that she is going to have a Son, and His name will be Jesus. Jesus is the Greek form of the Hebrew name Joshua, or literally Yeshua. And the name means, “Yahweh is salvation.” Or God will save. In verse 32 Gabriel says, “He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David.” Before King David died, the prophet Nathan said in 2nd Samuel 7:12-13, “When your days are fulfilled and you rest with your fathers, I will set up your seed after you, who will come from your body, and I will establish His kingdom. He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of His kingdom forever.”
John Newton touched on this in his hymn, Amazing Grace:
When we’ve been there 10,000 years
Bright shining as the sun,
We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise
Than when we first begun.
It was all part of God’s plan. Our text in Galatians 4:4 says, “When the fullness of time had come…” Think of the providence of God here. God sent His Son into the world when Rome was in power. There was a common language used by nearly everyone in the Empire, an amazing logistics system – this allowed the Gospel to spread to a wide variety of people groups and nationalities. Romans 10:18 says that’s exactly what happened. In-fact history tells us that the Roman Empire recruited soldiers from all their different provinces and would then station them all over the Empire. Sometimes in places that the Christian missionaries were unable to go. The earliest introduction of the Gospel to the British Isles came from Roman soldiers, not the apostles, not a pastor, or an evangelist, but Roman soldiers.
All of this was part of God’s plan, but also we need to remember that God had laid a foundation through the Law, that was to prepare for the coming Messiah. The purpose of the Law was not to save anyone. The Bible tells us that no man can keep it, so it would be wrong for us to assume that’s what God gave it for. Actually Scripture tells us that the purpose of the Law was to show us how far we fall short. Romans 3:19-20 says it this way, “Now we know that whatever the Law says, it says to those who are under the Law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the Law is the knowledge of sin.” And so the Law was to show us our need for Someone who could fulfill it. Add to that the sacrificial system that pointed to the need of a sacrifice for sin. Then if you look at the philosophies of Greece and Rome, and the mystery religions of the pagans, you find that there were people all over the world who were discovering that their belief systems fell short. The Jews, though they had the Law and the prophets, knew that they needed a Savior, the Romans and Greeks with their philosophy were left empty and wanting more. The pagans with their mystery religions had no answer for sin, and realized that they were just playing at being religious. And so the world was ready for a Savior to arrive. And then there was that young Jewish girl named Mary who was also part of God’s plan as well. She was ready and willing to be part of God’s plan, but God’s plan came with a price too.
In Luke chapter 2:34-35 Simeon hinted at the price Mary would pay when he said, “Behold, this Child is destined for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign which will be spoken against. Yes a sword will pierce through your own soul also, that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.” You see, God chose Mary to bear a child without being married. It wasn’t just a rash, spur of the moment answer when she said, “Be it unto me according to your word.” She could’ve been killed. There is no doubt that she was mocked, and made fun of, and scorned, and called all sorts of names. And then she had to watch her first born Son get beaten beyond recognition and nailed to a Roman cross, knowing that He was innocent of the crimes He had been charged with. And so Mary paid a price for her service to God, but not as big a price as Jesus paid. He was obedient unto death. Not because He had done anything wrong, but because we did.
So what about us today? With Christmas just a few weeks away, how do we stack up to what we’ve just read and looked at? Well I want to give you all just a couple of things here from Luke that I think might help us all out a bit.
First of all, we need to see the big picture. Mary saw things from God’s perspective, she didn’t worry about the details. So if you’re struggling through something, anything… ask God to help you to see things from His point of view. Ask Him to show you how He’s working those things together for your good.
Secondly; remember that God doesn’t always call the equipped, but He does equip the called. IF God is calling to you something, then He will prepare you for His service.
And thirdly; check your attitude. Mary didn’t put a condition on her submission to God’s will. She basically said, “Have Thine own way Lord, have Thine own way. Thou are the Potter, I am the clay.” That’s how you become the person, for the plan. But remember there is always a price as well, you must take up your cross and follow Him.
CLOSING PRAYER
