Max Lucado has twenty-five questions that he wants to ask Mary the mother of Jesus, here are a few of my favourites.
What was it like watching him pray?
When he saw a rainbow did he ever mention a flood?
Did you ever feel awkward teaching him how he created the world?
When he saw a lamb being led to the slaughter did he act differently?
Did you ever try to count the stars with him . . . and succeed?
Did he ever come home with a black eye?
Did he have any friends by the name of Judas?
Did the thought ever occur to you that the God to whom you were praying was asleep under your own roof
Did you ever accidentally call him father?
What did he and his cousin John talk about as kids?
Did you ever think, That’s God eating my soup?
I wonder if we will ever really understand? I mean we see Jesus in one of two ways, he’s either a baby in a manger or a grown up. But what happened in between. His childhood consist of one statement made in the book of Luke 2:40 There the child grew up healthy and strong. He was filled with wisdom beyond his years, and God placed his special favor upon him. And one story about Jesus getting left behind at the temple during a visit to Jerusalem when he was twelve. But what about the rest of his child hood? What happened between the manger and the cross?
Sometimes as Evangelicals I think we relegate Mary to some obscure corner and never talk about her We have seen how the Catholic Church has virtually deityized Mary and so in an effort to not appear pro-Catholic we do what is normally done with other pregnant teenagers like her, we prefer that she not come to church. The only time we mention Mary is at Christmas and the rest of the time, you’d think that Jesus was raised as an orphan. but Jesus wasn’t raised an orphan, it was Mary who changed God’s diapers and it was Mary who wiped God’s nose and it was Mary who held God when He was crying. Kind of a scary thought isn’t it?
When we think of the one man who had the greatest impact on the human race, you ever wonder who had an impact Him? Who helped mould and shape the character of Christ? Who helped make Jesus of Nazareth everything that Jesus of Nazareth was? Who influenced the way he talked, the way he walked, the way he looked at life?
“Well” you say “He was the son of God” That’s true but let me tell you a little story. I’m the son of Burton Guptill, but for the first ten years of my life my dad was in the Canadian Armed forces and spent a lot of time playing soldier in the woods of Camp Gagetown New Brunswick or overseas in places like Cyprus and Germany. For the next eight years that I spent at home, Dad was the captain of a Salvage tug and was gone as much as he was home. And so while I am the son of Burton Guptill I was raised for the most part by Elizabeth Guptill. Therefore, the major influence in my life was not Captain B.R. Guptill although it has been said that I’m becoming more like him each year that I live and I haven’t figured out if that is a compliment or a complaint? The major influence on the life of Rev. Denn Guptill was Elizabeth Guptill.
In much, the same way God was an absentee father and delegated the raising of his son to a very young Galilean lady by the name of Mary. Yes, Jesus was the son of God and he was the man who came to take away our sin but before that, he was a teenager and before that, he was a child and before that, he was a baby. Moreover, we need to ask “who held him to her breast?” and “Who cuddled Him” and “Who rocked him, told him bedtime stories and sang him lullabies?” Who stayed up all night with him when he was sick?” “And who wiped away the tear and bandaged his knee where he fell and scraped it”
God may have been His father but Mary was his mother, and she was the one who raised Christ to be the man that he became. But what made Mary special? So special in fact that God was willing to entrust her with his one and only son. Ask yourself this question: What type of person would you want to raise your kids? I probably wouldn’t want me raising mine, I’d want somebody that was a really good parent.
God must have seen something in this young woman, some characteristics that he wanted imparted to His Son. After all what would have happened if Christ had of grown up in an abusive home where he was physically or emotionally abused? Bet you never thought of that, and if the influence of Christ’s parents was of no importance then why didn’t God come as an adult and save Mary and Joseph all the trouble and worry?
Anyways in saying that and conceding that indeed Mary must have been a very special Mother then we must ask the question, “What made her special”?
Luke 1:28 Gabriel appeared to her and said, “Greetings, favored woman! The Lord is with you!” 1) Mary was in Love with God.
I really struggled with what I would call this first point. At first I thought that I would call her a “Godly Woman” or a “Holy Woman” or a “Devoted Woman”. But somehow the connotation of each of those titles is one of age. We need to remember that under Jewish law a girl was eligible for marriage when she was twelve and so Mary was probably at the very most fourteen or fifteen years old. So let it be suffice to say that Mary loved God.
She wasn’t an evangelist or a writer, she wasn’t a teacher or a preacher, she really wasn’t all that important in the big scheme of things, the Scriptures simply say that she pleased God. But how did she do that, how did she please God?
In the book of Hebrews 11:5 this was written about a man from the Old Testament named Enoch, he was commended as one who pleased God. “But” you might ask, what exactly was it that Enoch did that pleased God. Was he a Mother Theresa and dedicated his life to the poor? Was he a Billy Graham, a great preacher, Maybe he was a great gospel singer? Well what does the book say he did in order to have pleased God. The truth is that it doesn’t tell us that much about Enoch, but what it does tell us is found in Genesis 5:24 Where it says Enoch walked with God.
Would it be fair to say that just maybe that is what Mary did to please God? That she walked with Him. After all it was the prophet Amos 3:3 Can two people walk together without agreeing on the direction? If after the service Mike and I were to walk down the hill and he decided to walk to Halifax and I decided to walk to Sackville chances are that we aren’t gonna be walking together. Not to mention that if Mike and I were to walk anywhere we’d probably take our motorcycles. The only way that you are going to walk anywhere with God is if you are going in the same direction. And that is the tough part because the direction that you are going won’t be determined by you nearly as much as it will be determined by God.
You don’t have to be a super saint to please God, but you have to be walking with him consistently. True Christianity is not a stationary religion. Instead it is one that constantly challenges us to be growing and moving ahead in our walk with God. I’m not going to commit myself as to how far along the road Mary was in her spiritual walk, but the fact is that she must have been growing in her relationship with God.
Luke 1:38 Mary responded, “I am the Lord’s servant, and I am willing to accept whatever he wants. May everything you have said come true.”
2) Mary Trusted God. If Mary had of been a teenager today she would have said “OK”. Now you have to admit this wasn’t an everyday proposition that was put to Mary. First of all an Angel appears to Mary out of the blue, my first reaction is how did she know that it was an Angel? Did he have wings? Maybe he carried ID or an American Express card. You see that’s the difference between me and normal people, normal people don’t wonder things like that. Like you ever wonder where the wrinkles go when you iron a shirt?
Enough of that, back to the story. An angel appears and tells our young engaged virgin that the Holy Spirit will come upon her and she will become pregnant and the child would be the son of God. Sure, Uh-huh, right.
And she says “OK not a problem” I wonder if along with all that he happened to tell her that her reputation would be tarnished, after all even two thousand years ago people could count the number of months between a wedding day and a birthday. I wonder if Gabriel remembered to tell here that her fiancé would suspect her of running around on him? And that her parents would be ashamed of her and that the other girls would snicker and shun her?
I don’t know if Gabriel thought to clue her in on all of that or not, but somehow I think her answer would have been the same. Mary had a faith that said, “If God’s in it then it has to be OK.” I mean she could have sat down and analysed the entire proposition and weighed the practical merits against the disadvantages and then made up her mind in a logical and concise manner. But things wouldn’t have worked out if she had of done it that way. Face it there isn’t anything logical or concise about fourteen year olds getting pregnant with only divine help. if you trust God only when you have all the facts and only when everything is logical and concise then you’re not trusting god.
The greatest definition of faith was written by Paul in the book he addressed to Jewish believers, in Hebrews 11:1 What is faith? It is the confident assurance that what we hope for is going to happen. It is the evidence of things we cannot yet see. That had to be true of Mary because Paul writes on in that same chapter in the book of Hebrews, Hebrews 11:6 So, you see, it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that there is a God and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him.
3) Mary Believed in Her Son. One of Jesus best friends, a man named John records an instance that happened early in the ministry of Jesus. It’s found in the book of John, chapter 2 verses 1-12. Karen read it earlier. Jesus was invited to a weeding and right in the middle of this gala event they discovered that they had run out of bubbly and the groom was about to very embarrassed. Well Mary went over to her son and told him and in John 2:4 we read his reply “ How does that concern you and me? ” Jesus asked. “ My time has not yet come.” Now I love Mary’s response because she behaved like a typical mother would, her mind is made up and nothing is going to change it., so she tells the servant in John 2:5 “Do whatever he tells you.”
Mary didn’t know what her son was going to do, but she knew that he wouldn’t let her down, she knew that he would do something. Each one of us needs to be our children’s biggest fan club. We need to believe in our children and in their abilities. And not only do we need to believe in them we need to tell them that we believe in them.
Your kids will either pick up a lot of confidence from you or a lack of confidence from you.
A friend of mine claims that we get our kids as empty buckets and we have the opportunity to fill that bucket with good things and we need to fill it before other people fill it with bad things. How do we do that? Well here’s Larry’s list:
FILLING THE BUCKET
1) You’re so much fun to be around
2) You get better at that every time I see you.
3) Hang on a second while I call sports illustrated they’ll want a picture of this
4) That’s the best______ I’ve every seen
5) You’re so thoughtful!
6) You’re such a joy to us!
7) Can I put this on my bulletin board at work so I can see it every day?
8) You’re always teaching me something wonderful.
9) They just didn’t make kids as good as you when I was growing up!
10) You are really special to me and getting more special every day.
11) I really enjoy being with you!
12) What a super effort!
13) The person who marries you will be so lucky.
14) Your mother and I are so lucky to be your parents!
15) I really enjoy your smile.
16) You’re so helpful, thank you!
17) You’re going to make it.
18) You’ll always be in my hall of fame.
19) I’m impressed!
20) Fantastic
21) You’re the very best!
22) You make me so happy.
23) I believe in you.
24) I love to hear you laugh
25) I love you!
How you doing? Have you been filling their buckets?
John 19:25 Standing near the cross was Jesus’ mother . . .
4) Mary stuck by her son.
It is a fact of life that your kids may not turn out the way you want them to. Now they may, but they again they may not. I would suspect that Jesus was probably a good kid growing up, and Mary probably didn’t have any major problems with him as a teen. And I have a strong suspicion that Jesus didn’t go through a rebellious stage. Because of that I’m fairly certain that Mary wasn’t really expecting his pattern of behaviour to change. Yet a thirty three years of age he was sentenced to death on a cross for being a religious heretic and a political insurrectionist. Condemned by the very religion that had brought Mary so close to her God.
Regardless of that Mary was one of the five people at the foot of the cross. One of the greatest gifts that you can give your child is stick-with-it-ness. Even though Jesus wasn’t guilty it could have been very easy for Mary to have stayed home. What thoughts might have gone through her mind? What will my friends say? Where did I go wrong? How could he have done this to me?
Instead she stood at the foot of the cross to be with her son as he died, and her very presence proclaimed “He’s my son and I will love him no matter what!” Our kids need to know that we will be there.
In saying that let me also say this, you need to stand by your kids but they need to accept the consequences of their actions. When I was growing up my Daddy had a favourite saying and that was “If you are going to dance then you gotta pay the fiddler” And as I grew older I learnt to pay the fiddler.
When I started to drive my parents let me know that if I abused the privilege then I would lose the privilege. I knew that if I got a speeding ticket there was only one person who was going to pay that ticket. During that time, I had two minor accidents, both my fault and I was given two options, I could raise the money to cover the damage or I could sell my car to cover the damage.
And as long as I’m here let me go a little further and say that you can’t pay your kids way forever. You owe your kids a warm place to sleep, food enough to eat, clothes to wear and your love. If you can’t afford $200.00 Columbia jackets and $120.00 sneakers that doesn’t’ make you any less of a parent.
Mary was so special that God entrusted his only begotten son to her. And you are so special that he entrusted your children to you, let’s do our best not to blow it.
Hope you enjoyed the message. PowerPoint is available email me at denn@powerpoint4preaching.com
