Two young boys were spending the night at their grandparents’ house the week before Christmas. At bedtime, the two boys knelt beside their beds to say their prayers. The younger one began praying at the top of his lungs:
“I PRAY FOR A NEW BIKE…”
“I PRAY FOR A NEW NINTENDO…”
His older brother leaned over, nudged him, and said, “Why are you shouting? God isn’t deaf.” To which the little brother replied, “No, but Grandma is!”
It’s true that some have overestimated the importance of Mary, but I don’t think their error should cause us to ignore her. I believe the story of Mary provides us with some important lessons for our lives today.
1. No matter who you are, the Lord can USE you.
“In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary” (Luke 1:26-27).
Consider a few facts about Mary:
• She was young.
We are told that Mary was pledged to be married. At that time, it was customary for girls to be engaged at twelve or thirteen years of age (around the time of reaching puberty). That practice ensured that adolescent girls maintained their virginity until marriage. So it’s very possible that Mary could have been as young as twelve or thirteen when Gabriel visited her.
• She was poor.
We read in the second half of Luke 2 that Mary and Joseph took baby Jesus to the temple. According to the law, for forty days after the birth of a son, the mother was ceremonially unclean and could not enter the temple. At the end of the forty days, the parents were to bring a lamb for a burnt offering and a dove or a pigeon for a sin offering. If a lamb was too expensive, the parents could bring a second dove or pigeon instead. This is what Mary and Joseph did.
• She was from Nazareth.
It seems that Nazareth was a town with a bad reputation. When Nathanael heard that Jesus came from Nazareth, he was stunned. He wondered aloud, “Can anything good come from there?” (John 1:46).
Mary was young, poor, and from Nazareth—all characteristics that, for the people of her day, would make her seem unusable by God for any major task. But God chose Mary for one of the most important acts of obedience He has ever demanded of anyone.
Mary’s story teaches us, first, that no matter who you are, the Lord can use you. You may feel that your ability, experience, or education makes you an unlikely candidate for God’s service. Don’t limit God’s choices. He can use you if you trust Him.
Out of all the women He could have chosen—queens, princesses, daughters of the wealthy and influential—God chose a poor teenager from a town with a bad reputation to be the mother of Jesus.
You may wonder, “Why did God choose Mary to be the mother of Jesus?” We’re not really told the answer to that question. But I believe part of the reason why God chose Mary had to do with her character. She had two vital characteristics that God is looking for: humility and faith. In Luke 1:46-49 Mary praised God, saying, “My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant. From now on all generations will call me blessed, for the Mighty One has done great things for me—holy is his name.”
Do you think you are useless to God? Think again. God is searching for humble people to take part in His amazing plans. Will you be one of those people?
2. No matter what problems you face, the Lord is WITH you.
“The angel went to her and said, ‘Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.’ Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end’” (Luke 1:28-33).
The angel said, “Do not be afraid.” But we wouldn’t blame Mary if she were afraid. Imagine the possible complications that her miraculous pregnancy might have created:
• Possible divorce by Joseph
Joseph at first assumed that Mary had been unfaithful to him. What else would he have thought? He had decided to divorce her (which, according to their law, was necessary to end the engagement) before he was told in a dream that Mary’s baby was, in fact, conceived by the Holy Spirit.
• Possible rejection by her family
Did Mary’s family believe her story that the baby growing inside her was the Son of God? Who would believe that? We are never told anything about Mary’s parents’ reaction to her pregnancy. But it’s very possible that they didn’t believe her story.
• Certain rejection by her community
Imagine the gossip that must have circulated Nazareth. The people have Nazareth would have accused her of adultery—a sin that was not looked on lightly as it is today. It’s likely that Mary was shunned by those who had once been her friends.
• Possible death by stoning
According to the law, this was the penalty for adultery. By New Testament times stoning was rare, but it was still a possibility.
The message from the angel totally changed Mary’s life. She was getting ready to be married and live a normal life. But now her life would be anything but normal. How could she be calm and courageous as she faced all of the problems that her pregnancy might cause? Remember the angel’s words to Mary: “The Lord is with you.” The Lord would be with her. He would help her. He would give her the strength and courage to face anything.
Mary’s story teaches us, second, that no matter what problems you face, the Lord is with you. One of the most comforting promises of Scripture is the promise of God’s continual presence with His people. “The Lord is with me; I will not be afraid” (Ps. 118:6). “God has said, ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you’” (Heb. 13:5).
Mary faced the possibility of rejection from Joseph, her family, and her community and even the possibility of being stoned, but she knew that the Lord would never abandon her.
One of the titles given to Jesus was “Immanuel,” which means “God with us.” One of the great themes of the Old Testament is the concept of God living with His people. When the Lord gave the law to Israel in the desert, he said, “I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be my people” (Lev. 26:12). But God came to His people in a more intimate way when Jesus was born. John 1:14 says, “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.” In other words, God became a man and lived among us. Martin Luther said, “The mystery of the humanity of Christ, that He sunk Himself into our flesh, is beyond all human understanding.” Jesus is our Immanuel. He is “God with us.” He promised His followers that when He went back to heaven He would send His Spirit to live within them. God lives within us.
What problems are you facing? Put your faith in the Lord who is with you.
3. No matter what He has promised, the Lord CAN DO IT.
“’How will this be,’ Mary asked the angel, ‘since I am a virgin?’ The angel answered, ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be barren is in her sixth month. For nothing is impossible with God.’ ’I am the Lord’s servant,’ Mary answered. ‘May it be to me as you have said.’ Then the angel left her” (Luke 1:34-38).
Several stories of “miracle babies” can be found in Scripture. God promised to send a son to Abraham and Sarah even though Sarah was well beyond normal childbearing age. Yet they ultimately witnessed the miraculous arrival of their son, Isaac (Gen. 21:1-3). In Judges 13, an angel of the Lord told Manoah and his barren wife that they would have a special son. True to the heavenly messenger’s words, Samson entered the world and for a time delivered the Israelites from the oppression of the Philistines. Samuel, the first prophet, final judge, and anointer of kings, also demonstrated in his birth the power of God. He was the answer to the faithful, persevering prayers of his godly mother, Hannah, who had remained childless until then. John the Baptist’s mother, Elizabeth, was also unable to have children until God graciously intervened when she was in her sixties or seventies and made her the mother of the forerunner of Christ (Luke 1:15-17, 76-79). But none of those special births was as amazing as the birth of Jesus Christ. His birth was a virgin birth (adapted from John MacArthur, God in the Manger, p. 1).
When we talk about the virgin birth we mean that Jesus was conceived in the womb of His mother Mary by a miraculous work of the Holy Spirit and without a human father. We read in Galatians 4:4, “When the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman.” Notice that the verse doesn’t say Jesus was born of a woman and a man.
The very first prophecy concerning the coming Deliverer gives a hint of the virgin birth. In Genesis 3:15, after Adam and Eve’s sin, said to the serpent, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring [“seed”] and her; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” Technically, the woman’s seed belongs to the man, but Mary’s impregnation by the Holy Spirit is the only instance in history that a woman had a seed within her that did not originate from a human man. The word translated “offspring” (or “seed”) can be singular and refers mainly to the Lord Jesus Himself, born without human seed.
Mary’s story teaches us, third, that no matter what He has promised, the Lord CAN DO IT. Even though the angel’s news was unbelievable, she believed it. She said, “May it be to me as you have said.” She did not doubt that God could do what He said He would do. Her reaction was far different from Sarah’s reaction to God’s promise of a son. In Genesis 18, we read, “The LORD said [to Abraham], ‘I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife will have a son.’ Now Sarah was listening at the entrance to the tent, which was behind him. Abraham and Sarah were already old and well advanced in years, and Sarah was past the age of childbearing. So Sarah laughed to herself and thought, ‘After I am worn out and my master is old, will I now have this pleasure?’ Then the Lord said to Abraham, ‘Why did Sarah laugh and say, “Will I really have a child, not that I am old?” Is anything too hard for the LORD? I will return to you at the appointed time next year and Sarah will have a son’” (Gen. 18:10-14).
We must admit that, all these centuries later, Jesus’ miraculous conception remains impossible to understand by human reason alone. God chose not to explain the details of it to us. The real issue is not whether a virgin can conceive; the real issue is whether anything is impossible for God. The prophet Jeremiah declared, “Sovereign LORD, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too difficult for you” (Jer. 32:17). Certainly a miracle such as the virgin birth is not too hard for the God who created the universe and everything in it. Anyone who says that a virgin birth is “impossible” is just confessing his or her own unbelief in the God of miracles.
Matthew, in his Gospel, says the following about the miraculous conception of Jesus: “All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: ‘The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel’—which means, ‘God with us’” (Matt. 1:22-23). The prophet who foretold the virgin birth was Isaiah. The prophecy can be found in Isaiah 7:14.
Isaiah made this momentous prophecy during the reign of Judah’s wicked and idolatrous King Ahaz. The king faced a major military threat from the Israelite king Pekah; and the Syrian king, Rezin; both of whom wanted to overthrow Ahaz and place the son of Talbeel on the throne in Jerusalem. Instead of seeking the Lord’s help during that crisis, King Ahaz turned to Tiglath-Pileser, the brutal ruler of the Assyrians. Ahaz even induced their assistance by offering them gold and silver stolen from God’s temple. Ahaz refused to listen to Isaiah’s report that God would deliver the people from Pekah and Rezin. Therefore the prophet spoke the remarkable prophecy of Isaiah 7:14: “The Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.”
In the book, Hard Sayings of the Bible, the following explanation is given concerning this prophecy: “There was simultaneously a near as well as a distant fulfillment, and the prophecy simultaneously pointed to both a near and a distant future. Rather than a son of Tabeel taking over the throne of David, through whom God had promised to send His Messiah, a son was born to Ahaz: Hezekiah. It may well have been that the prophet pointed to a ‘young woman’ standing nearby, who at the time was unmarried and a virgin. The son born to them, then, would be Ahaz’s son, Hezekiah” (p. 301). The prophecy was given to assure Ahaz and the people of Judah that no one would destroy the people of God or the royal line of David. And sure enough, God ultimately preserved His people just as He promised.
The birth of the first child was a sign that God was with His people and was going to help them. He was going to save them from the attacks of their enemies. He would provide physical salvation. The birth of the second child, Jesus Christ, was a sign that God was going to again help them, but in a much greater way. He was going to save them from their sins. He would provide spiritual salvation.
Why is the virgin birth important?
• It shows that SALVATION must ultimately come from the Lord.
Just as God had promised that the “seed” of the woman (Gen. 3:15) would ultimately destroy the serpent, so God brought it about by His own power, not through mere human effort. The virgin birth of Christ is an unmistakable reminder that salvation can never come through human effort, but must be the work of God Himself. Our salvation only comes about through the supernatural work of God, and that was evident at the very beginning of Jesus’ life when He was conceived by the Holy Spirit, not by a man.
• It made possible the uniting of full DEITY and full HUMANITY in one person.
In other words, the virgin birth allowed Jesus to be, at the same time, completely God and completely man. I’m sure it would have been possible for God to create Jesus as a complete human being in heaven and send Him to descend from heaven to earth without the benefit of any human parent. But then it would have been very hard for us to see how Jesus could be fully human as we are. On the other hand, I’m sure that it would have been possible for God to have Jesus come into the world with two human parents and with His full divine nature miraculously united to His human nature at some point early in His life. But then it would have been hard for us to understand how Jesus was fully God, since His origin would have been like ours in every way. When we think of these two other possibilities, it helps us to understand how God, in His wisdom, chose a combination of human and divine influences in the birth of Christ, so that His full humanity would be evident to us from the fact of His ordinary human birth from a human mother, and His full deity would be evident from the fact of His conception in Mary’s womb by the powerful work of the Holy Spirit.
• It made possible Christ’s true humanity without INHERITED SIN.
All human beings have inherited legal guilt and a corrupt moral nature from their first father, Adam. But the fact that Jesus did not have a human father means that the line of descent from Adam is partially interrupted. Jesus did not descend from Adam in exactly the same way in which every other human being has descended from Adam. And this helps us to understand why the legal guilt and moral corruption that belongs to all other human beings did not belong to Christ.
This idea seems to be indicated in the statement of the angel Gabriel to Mary, where he says to 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” (Luke 1:35 RSV). Because the Holy Spirit brought about the conception of Jesus in the womb of Mary, the child was to be called “holy.” We shouldn’t conclude, however, that the transmission of sin comes only through the father. Scripture nowhere makes that assertion. It is enough for us merely to say that in the case of Jesus the unbroken line of descent from Adam was interrupted, and He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit. Luke 1:35 connects this conception by the Holy Spirit with the holiness or moral purity of Christ, and reflection on that fact allows us to understand that through the absence of a human father, Jesus was not fully descended from Adam, and that this break in the line of descent was the method God used to ensure that Jesus was fully human yet did not share inherited sin from Adam.
But why did Jesus not inherit a sinful nature from Mary? Some believe that Mary herself was free from sin, but Scripture nowhere teaches this, and it would not really solve the problem anyway (for why then did Mary not inherit sin from her mother?). A better solution is to say that the work of the Holy Spirit in Mary must have prevented not only the transmission of sin from Joseph (for Jesus had no human father) but also, in a miraculous way, the transmission of sin from Mary: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you…therefore the child to be born will be called holy” (Luke 1:35).
Talk show host Larry King was once asked, “If you could select any one person across all of history to interview, who would it be?” Mr. King answered that he would like to interview Jesus Christ. The questioned followed with, “What would you like to ask him?” King replied, “I would like to ask him if he was indeed virgin-born. The answer to that question would define history for me.” The virgin birth means that Jesus Christ is unique—He is both God and man. He is qualified to be our Savior.
Mary knew that a virgin birth is impossible, but she also believed that “nothing is impossible with God.” Elizabeth said to her, “Blessed is she who has believed that what the Lord has said to her will be accomplished!” (Luke 1:45).
What promise of God are you tempted to doubt? Remember that nothing is too difficult for Him.
Conclusion
No matter who you are, the Lord can use you. You are not useless. No matter what problems you face, the Lord is with you. Your situation is not hopeless. No mater what He has promised, the Lord can do it. Your God’s power is limitless.
What does God want you to do? Simply trust Him.
Resources used:
The NIV Application Commentary: Matthew by Michael J. Wilkins
Systematic Theology by Wayne Grudem
God in the Manger by John MacArthur
Hard Sayings of the Bible
First Sunday of Advent
The Prophets’ Candle
As we light the Prophets’ Candle on the first Sunday of Advent, we are reminded that God’s promises never fail. Not only do we think of Jesus’ humble birth in Bethlehem, but we also wait expectantly for His glorious return.
Scripture: Isaiah 9:2, 6-7
Song Suggestions:
Lord, I Lift Your Name on High
Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus
O Come, O Come, Emmanuel
A Light Has Dawned
Offering (Christmas Version)
Jesus, Name Above All Names
Joy to the World!
CHRISTMAS ACCORDING TO MARY
1. No matter who you are, the Lord can __________ you (Luke 1:26-27).
God chose a poor teenager from a town with a bad reputation to be the mother of Jesus.
“My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant. From now on all generations will call me blessed, for the Mighty One has done great things for me—holy is his name” (Luke 1:46-49).
Do you think you are useless to God? Think again. God is searching for humble people to take part in His amazing plans.
2. No matter what problems you face, the Lord is __________ you (Luke 1:28-33).
Mary faced the possibility of rejection from Joseph, her family, and her community and even the possibility of being stoned, but she knew that the Lord would never abandon her.
“’They will call him Immanuel’—which means, ‘God with us’” (Matt. 1:23).
What problems are you facing? Put your faith in the Lord who is with you.
3. No matter what He has promised, the Lord _________________ (Luke 1:34-38).
Why is the virgin birth important?
• It shows that _______________________ must ultimately come from the Lord.
• It made possible the uniting of full ___________ and full ____________________ in one person.
• It made possible Christ’s true humanity without ________________________.
Mary knew that a virgin birth is impossible, but she also believed that “nothing is impossible with God.”
“Blessed is she who has believed that what the Lord has said to her will be accomplished!” (Luke 1:45).
What promise of God are you tempted to doubt? Remember that nothing is too difficult for Him.
