Charting An Unknown Course
Luke 1:26-56
1. After Christmas vacation, an elementary school teacher was asking her students how they celebrated Christmas. When she got to Sammy, whose father ran a local toy store, she said, "Sammy, since you're jewish, I guess your family didn't celebrate Christmas/"
Sammy replied; "Oh yes, we did. We all held hands and danced around the cash register singing "What a friend we have in Jesus."
2. The first Christmas, however, was a very Jewish event: Zechariah, Elisheba, Mir’yam, Yosef, and an angel with a Hebrew name, Gabriel.
3. Mary and the others did not know what their futures would be, just as we don’t know what our futures will be.
4. We try to save for retirement, maybe we exercise and eat well to better our futures. But things can change in a flash. We read of house fires and car accidents, and that could be us. How do you prepare? War, disaster, disease. You cannot prepare for everything, and you cannot prevent everything.
5. But you can cultivate a relationship with the One who is always prepared, the One Who will the be the same today, tomorrow, and forever.
Main: Although God has everything charted and planned, we must move one step at a time into our unknown futures, but we can do so holding God’s hand.
I. Gabriel Appears to Mary, and Mary BELIEVES (26-38).
A. GABRIEL is dispatched to Mary [Miriam] (26-27).
1. What is special about Nazareth (population <2,000). Galveston/Greentown
2. Why it is important that Mary be a virgin (12-16 years old, perhaps).
3. Why it is important that she was betrothed to Joseph, a descendant of David.
B. The angel CALMS Mary (28-30).
The word “hail,” could be translated as “Rejoice,” but it was typically used as a greeting, so “hail” or “greetings” is the better translation.
1. Favored one
2. The Lord is with you (He will be especially by your side to help you]
3. Synonymous //: when God is especially gracious to you, He is with you.
C. Gabriel INFORMS Mary that she will miraculously become mother of the Messiah (31-33)
1. Jesus = Yeshua = salvation
2. Son of the Most High (deity, did she understand that?)
3. Descendant of David [his father, David]
D. Mary does not doubt, but is confused; the angel EXPLAINS (34-37).
1. The Holy Spirit will perform a miracle.
2. Your child will be the Son of God.
3. Her relative Elizabeth is a sign that God has initiated a great work.
4. She was not like Zechariah, who demonstrated unbelief.
Sometimes we are confused. There is God’s will, and there is what makes sense. It is no sin to be confused. Maybe you are confused right now. What is God doing?
From our perspectives, every future moment is uncertain, uncharted; unique things happen to us that don’t happen to others, and we have no idea what is around the bend. Many people think they know the future, but they do not.
God knows what He is doing, even if we do not. Sometimes being confused is okay, as long as we are still trusting in Him.
E. Mary’s attitude is that of a true SERVANT of the Lord (38).
This was a teenager. Zechariah was an old man. Yet this teenager had a stronger trust in the God than the seasoned Zechariah. Maybe you are on the young side?
II. Mary Travels to Visit Elizabeth, and Elizabeth UNDERSTANDS (39-55).
Five Pieces of Poetic Literature In Luke
Song of Elizabeth (1:42-45) and the theme, love; Song of Mary (1:46-55) and the theme, faith; Prophecy of Zechariah (1:68-79) and the theme, hope.; Song of the Angels (2:14) and the theme, adoration; and Song of Simeon (2:29-32), and the theme, resignation. [source: Hendriksen, William, The Gospel of Luke, p. 95]
A. Mary traveled about FOUR days to visit Elizabeth.
When you are shaken, you need fellowship. Fellowship involves having something unique, something we value in common with others.
Most of us take showers, but we don’t form a society of shower takers because it is not something we value that much, and it is not that unique.
They were both experiencing amazing miracles — had that in common.
In some nations, Christians will walk hours or even a day to go to church. Because they have something in common and unique they value, faith in Jesus Christ.
B. Elizabeth (Elisheva) was probably the only person who would BELIEVE Mary.
C. Elizabeth PROPHESIES (perhaps in song) as the preborn John the Baptist leaps.
1. Most every Jewish girl dreamt of giving birth to the Messiah.
2. To be specially blessed means to be singled out for a divine purpose.
Judges 5:24, ““Most blessed of women be Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, of tent-dwelling women most blessed.” (from the Song of Deborah)
3. In our culture, some people insult someone by insulting their mother; in Israel, you recognized someone as special by considering the privilege that person’s mother had in bearing him/her.
2 Baruch 54:10, “ Blessed be my mother among those that bear, And praised among women be she that bare me.”
D. Mary prophesies (Magnifcat), WEAVNG together a host of Old Testament passages (46-55).
1. Very similar to Hannah’s prayer after Samuel was dropped off (I Sam. 2)
2. Much of it includes the “reversal motif.”
3. Possible the Spirit wove together many Scriptures that she had memorized. She was a woman of the Word.
4. One way we can worship God is to return the Scriptures He inspired back to Him in praise and prayer.
E. Mary probably remained with Elizabeth until JOHN was born (56)
Neither Mary nor Elizabeth knew exactly where their journey would lead. Elizabeth did not know that her son would one day be beheaded, and did Mary understand, at this point, that her Son would become the sacrificial Lamb who would atone for the sins of the world and arise the Conqueror?
As the old Gospel song goes:
There are things about tomorrow/That I don't seem to understand
But I know who holds tomorrow/And I know who holds my hand.
So what is the best way to prepare for the future? Cultivate a deep relationship with God. Because no matter what changes, He will be there and He will be the same.
