Andrew Lim

15 June 2008  -  Luke 1:16-38

SHOW SLIDES OF MARY – MUSIC AVE MARIA

Let us look at the story of His birth ourselves

 When Mary received the news of the Annunciation from the angel
  she did not receive it as a kind of blessing or recognition
  The text tells us that she was “greatly troubled”

  The angel had something / most sublime for Mary
  But Mary had something / far more mundane on her mind
   The angel talked about the Son of the Most High
    whose kingdom will never end
   Mary simply exclaimed: “But I’m a virgin!”

We need to understand where she was coming from
 In our modern age / pregnancy in unmarried girls and women
  isn’t such a social stigma as it was before
   So Mary’s predicament has lost some of its force
    and maybe we don't understand all the fuss she made

 But we mustn’t forget that she lived
  in a closely knit Jewish community which tolerated no such ill

  A woman who was betrothed to a man
   but became pregnant before the wedding
    was looked upon as an adulteress
     And she has put her life in extreme danger
     for she could be subjected to death by stoning
 
  Not only could she have been stoned to death
   she had to go through nine months of awkward explanations
    and years of the lingering gossip of the scandal

  Philip Yancey in his book The Jesus I Never Knew said
   that it looks as if God had to arrange
    for the most humiliating circumstances possible
     to make his entrance into the world
 
   Yancey said / perhaps God made it specially difficult
    because He didn’t want His Son to be accused
     of having special favours
    
 But what a cost it was to Mary / to be obedient to God
   
 And it was hard for the child too
  for small towns do not treat kindly
   young boys who grow up with questionable paternity

  Yet God chose that day and age / to bring His Son into the world

It was Malcolm Muggeridge / who said that if God had chosen our own age
 to bring the Saviour into the world / and in that same manner
  he might not have a chance of succeeding !
 
 Firstly / in our own day
  we have readily available contraceptives / to avoid
   “mistakes” that would bring shame to the family name
  
 Secondly / if conception does occur
  in spite of the safeguard of contraceptives
   we can knock on the doors of abortion clinics
    for damage control

 Thirdly / if a pregnant teenage girl should insist
  that she was still a virgin /and that the child in her womb
   had been conceived by the Holy Ghost
   we could always refer a person lie that to the psychiatric ward
    which / by the way / makes the case
     for terminating her pregnancy / even stronger

 Do you not see the irony here?
  Our generation needs the Saviour
   perhaps more than any other / that has ever existed
  Yet our generation would be too humane to allow one to be born
  
But God chose the right time
 I specially like Galatians 4:4 which says “When the time had fully come
  God sent forth His Son / born of woman”

The birth of Jesus took place in the most humble ways
 A few years ago / when the Queen visited the United States
  the logistics surrounding her visit / was most elaborate
  - 4,000 lbs of luggage / including two outfits for every occasion
  - a mourning outfit in case someone died
  - 40 pints of plasma
  - white toilet seat cover

  She brought along her own hairdresser / two valets
   and a host of bodyguards / and other attendants
  
   That brief visit cost 20 million dollars

In contrast / when God came to earth he did not come
 in a raging whirlwind / nor in a devouring fire
  - the God who roared
  - the God who could order armies and empires
   like pawns on a chessboard
  - the God who could turn the hearts of princes and princesses
  
  This God came into our world
   utterly depended on a teenage couple for food / shelter /and love 
   - as a baby who could not speak
    or eat solid food / or control his bladder
   
 God’s visit to the earth took place in an animal shelter
  - no attendants present
  - nowhere to lay the King / but in a feeding trough
  - there were more animals around him than humans

  “How silently / how silently / the wondrous gift is given”
 
And so it was / that upon hearing that she was to have a child
 Mary hurried off to see the only person
  she thought could understand her
   - she went to see her relative Elizabeth 

 Elizabeth had been barren / unable to have a child
 and now she and her husband Zechariah were both well advance in age

 And it had been rough for them because in those days
  childlessness was considered a punishment from God
   Of course that wasn’t true / and isn’t true today

   Here was one of the most godly couples in Scripture
    and yet they were childless

 But nevertheless she had to put up with the reproaches from people
  who did not recognise her piety
  
 But Elizabeth too was approached by an angel about the same time

  She was told by the angel that she was to bear in her womb
   the last of the prophets - John the Baptist

  And in her old age - Elizabeth became pregnant 
   What a joy it was to her

 Can you not see the contrast between the two women  
  The whole countryside is talking about Elizabeth
   rejoicing with her / about how the Lord has now finally
    opened her womb and taken away her shame

  But as for Mary / she must quietly hide
   the shame of her own miracle

   A cost Mary had to pay / for her obedience

And in a few months / John the Baptist was born
 in the midst of great fanfare / and festivity / and celebration
  the midwives were there / the doting relatives were there
  the traditional village chorus was there
   - celebrating the birth of a Jewish male

 Six months later / Jesus was born
  - in a strange land / far from home
  - no midwives / no doting relatives / no village chorus / fanfare

   Another cost Mary had to pay / for her obedience

Now Joseph could have made
 that long and arduous journey to Bethlehem on his own
  Only a male head of the household needed to be present
   to register in the Roman census
   
 And yet Joseph dragged the very pregnant Mary
  through that very rough journey to Bethlehem

 Why did Joseph do that? / It could be that Joseph wanted to spare her
  the shame of giving birth / in her own home village
   to a child she had conceived outside marriage

 Joseph was most gentle / considerate / and caring
  In fact / upon first hearing of Mary’s pregnancy / he decided
   not to press charges / but to divorce Mary quietly in private
    so as not to put her to shame

 But an angel assured him that Mary had not betrayed him at all
  but that that / which was conceived in her / was of the Holy Spirit
 
Let’s not forget that both Joseph and Mary were indeed very young people
 Jewish community in those days arranged for their children
  to be married in their youthful years /during their late teens

  Mary and Joseph couldn't have been more than 18 or 19 yrs old
  Mary was probably 16 years old then
  They were that young and yet their faith was durable and robust

 Imagine what they must have had to go through
  all those long gruelling months
  The uncertainty / the doubt / the questionings
   “Could we have got it all wrong” / they might have asked

 Each time the baby kicks against the walls of her uterus  
 Mary would replay the words of the angel through her mind again
  She would quietly ponder over them
   consider what they must mean to her
    and quietly come to accept what must be her portion

 And each time Joseph looks at the rapidly changing shape of his wife
  he had to try to convince himself
   that when he saw the angel / he wasn't hallucinating
   that when he remembered the words he wasn't just dreaming

Philip Yancey says that today as he thinks of Jesus’ birth
 it causes him to tremble / to think that the destiny of the entire world
  rested on the responses of two rural teenagers

 And today / God is still in the business
  of working out His great plan for the world
  through ordinary / frail / unreliable people / like you and me

But let’s take a closer look at Mary / Who was Mary ?
What kind of a person was she / that it should be said of her:
 “Hail / you are the highly favoured one
  of all women you are the most blessed”

 We know very little of her
 Perhaps all we needed to know of her
  is found in the one thing she said / In deep humility she said:
   “Behold the handmaid of the Lord”

But the Roman Catholic Church
 holds a very different doctrine about the person of Mary than we do
 The Roman Catholic Church accorded her a place
  we find difficult to reconcile with Scripture

 They greatly emphasise the words of the greeting of the angel
  when he announce her conception
   “Hail / you are the highly favoured one
    of all women you are the most blessed”

  They extolled her perfections
  They represent her to be someone capable of mighty deeds
  They believe she possessed supernatural gifts
   which other people never have
  She had a repository of knowledge which preserved her from sin

Take the teaching of “Immaculate Conception”
 By the way / contrary to what many people think
  the term immaculate conception
   does not refers to our Lord’s conception in Mary’s womb
    
 That is the doctrine of the Virgin Birth

 Instead the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception
  teaches that Mary herself / was conceived
   in her own mother’s womb / without original sin
    The word “immaculate” means “without stain”

 So though Mary herself was conceived in a way just like us
  she was preserved from sin by God’s grace
   from the very first instant of her existence

 The Roman Catholics believe that / like Christ
  Mary was conceived in her own mother's womb without sin
  In short / she was free from inherited sin
  
 Further / Catholics believe that her body was never impaired
  - what is called her “perpetual virginity”
   Mary was for her life-time a virgin
  
 Catholics also have a doctrine called the Assumption of Mary
  This is the teaching that says / that when her life on earth was over
  Mary was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory”

  This means that Mary was transported into Heaven
   with her body and soul united
    and that upon death / her body did not decay

Further / the Roman Catholics believe / that Mary has three roles to play
                
 One / she cooperates with Christ in the work of saving people
  - what is called / her role as Coredemptrix

 Two / she dispenses Christ’s grace to needy sinners
  - what is called her role as Mediatrix

 Three / she is said to be the Queen of Heaven
  who rules with God in providence

These are some of the teachings of the Catholic Church about Mary
 And we have great difficulty accepting them
  primarily because none of those doctrines about her
   can be found anywhere in the Bible
 These doctrines about Mary
  find no support from of the teachings of the Bible
  
How then / may we respond to Roman Catholic teaching
We respond by taking a closer look at Scripture

Luke 1:28 is key
When the angel said to her / “Hail / favoured one / the Lord is with you”
or NIV / “Greetings, you who are highly favoured! The Lord is with you”
 it does not mean that she is full of favour
  It simply means that favour was bestowed upon her
   by God's free and unearned grace
     
 In fact the same word translated “favoured” in Lk 1:28
  charitoo / is used to refer to all Christians in Eph 1:6
  “his glorious grace which he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved

The text tells us that Mary was quite uncertain the words of the angel
 and naturally so
  She must have felt those words didn’t truly described her

 Luke 1:29 / “She was greatly troubled at this statement
   and kept pondering what kind of salutation this might be”

 Of course she was accorded all the glory
 Of course she was accorded all the honour
  but through all that
   she knew she was a sinner in need of redemption
  
 She may be a godly woman / but she is not without sin
 She felt her own sin before God
 In Luke 1:47 / we find that Mary herself was acutely conscious
  of her own need of a Savior
   She herself called God “my Saviour”
   She knew she needed saving herself
 
  But if she herself needed to be saved from her sins
   she could not possibly join with Christ
    as Coredemptrix to save people

  Scripture puts it clearly / 1 Tim 2:5
  “here is one God and one mediator between God and men
   the man Christ Jesus”

The teaching of Immaculate Conception cannot be defended too
 Catholics believe that Mary’s own conception had to be untainted
  for if Mary had a sin nature / when she conceived Jesus
   then our Lord would inherit this sin nature through her

 But for this doctrine to hold up
  wouldn’t Mary’s own mother too
   have to be free from original sin as well / for otherwise
   Mary too would have inherited a sinful nature through her?

 The Bible clearly tells us that our Lord alone
  was conceived as the only perfect and sinless one

Further the teaching of perpetual virginity cannot be supported
 because scripture teaches us that Mary and Joseph had several children
  Matthew 12:46 / Luke 8:19 / and Mark 3:31 say
   that Jesus’ mothers and brothers came to see Him
  Matthew 13:55 say that Jesus had four brothers
   James / Joseph / Simon / and Judas
   Jesus also had sisters, but they are not named in the Bible

 So for those reasons / and others we cannot explore here
  we find it hard to reconcile Roman Catholic teaching about Mary
   with the teachings of Scriptures

But if the Catholics err in one extreme
 we may be guilty of erring in another extreme

 If the Catholics think too highly of Mary
  we evangelicals think far too little of her
 
 Isn’t it true / that we think too little of Mary
  We give her / virtually no place at all / in our theology

 In fact I think I am right to suggest that few of you here
  have heard the term Mariology
   which is simply the doctrine of Mary 

  The fact of the matter is that we simply don’t have one
  We have Christology / eschatology / soteriology
   but we do not have Mariology

It seems to me that we are sometimes even afraid
 to mention of the name Virgin Mary
 
 But surely we need to pause here
  and think more carefully / and make a study of who Mary was

 I believe we can surely affirm / can’t we
  that here was a woman / who was very special indeed
  Here is a woman
   who is pure-minded / warm-hearted / indeed a great soul

  If she weren’t a person like that
   the Son of God wouldn't have been entrusted into her keeping

   God does not choose his instruments at random
   God elects souls for his great tasks

Mary’s life reflected grace and thoughtfulness
 Just think of the words spoken of her

 “Mary kept these things and pondered them in her heart”
  She didn’t rush out to the village and began telling everyone
   what the angel told her

 What a lovely little verse in the Bible / Luke 2:19
  “Mary kept these things and pondered them in her heart”
 
 She wasn’t rashful / wasn’t loud / but gentle / knowing her timing

These qualities must have been shaping her through the yrs of her youth

To be sure she was startled / perhaps even agitated / as we’ve seen
 by the announcement of the angel / that she had found favour with God
  and that she would be the mother of our Lord

 But after the angel had answered her / her response was
  “Behold the handmaid of the Lord
   Be it unto me according to thy word”

  She quietly heard the angel out / She didn’t argue
  She didn’t object to the great inconvenience and danger
   that this will being to her life
    spoiling her future marriage and her reputation

  Instead / she pondered over the repercussions
   - realised the deep shame she must go through
   - but in deep submission / replied:
      “I am the Lord's servant / May it be to me as you have said”

  What great submission / “Be it unto me according to thy word!”
 
And so it was / that Mary became the first person / on planet earth
 to accept Jesus on His own terms
  at the expense of a great personal cost incurred upon her

And finally at the foot of the Cross / watching her Son die
 when all Jesus disciples / except John / had fled
  Mary stood there / recalling those words
   that came from Simeon’s mouth when her son was born
    “A sword shall pierce through thy own soul” / Luke 2:35

 Which one of us will ever have the courage
  to stay at the place of execution of our own child
   as we wait and watch his life-blood drain away
  This Mary did / she stayed at the foot of the cross
   and there / for hours / she watched her son die for our sins

 And it speaks of her faith in God
  when the last time her name is mentioned in the Bible
   she is praying / Acts 1:13-14

   What a noble soul Mary is!
   We need to make a deeper study of Mary than we have done

And so our creed this morning says of our Lord
 that He was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born  of the Virgin Mary

Now / why is the virgin birth so important?
 Why has our Lord got to be born of a virgin?

For at least two reasons

First / The virgin birth of Christ makes possible
 the uniting of full deity and full humanity / in one person

 We can’t think of any other way Christ might have come to earth
  being fully God and man in one person

 Surely it is possible for God to create “the Christ” / the “Messiah”
  as a completely human person / in heaven
  and send him to descend to earth /without any human parentage

  But then it would be very hard for us to see
   the Christ be completely identified with us
    so as to be able to empathise with us

 On the other hand it would have been possible for God
  to have the Christ come into the world with two human parents
  and then at some point early in his earthly life
   to have a fully divine nature
    miraculously infused with his human nature
 
  But then it would been hard for us
   to appreciate how he could be fully God
    since he began life like we all did

 When we think of these two possibilities / it helps us appreciate
  why the Christ have to come to us / through the virgin birth

  His full humanity - issues from a human mother
  His full deity - from a powerful work of the Holy Spirit

Second / The virgin birth makes it possible for the Christ
 to have a full human nature that is free from the taint of sin

 All human beings have inherited legal guilt 
  and a corrupt moral nature from their first father Adam
   - sometimes called “inherited sin” or “original sin”

 The fact that Jesus didn’t have a human father
  means that the line of descent from Adam / is partially interrupted

  Jesus did not descend from Adam
   the way we all have come from Adam

  So he did not inherit any legal guilt or moral corruption

We are not suggesting here that the transmission of sin
 comes only through the father
  Scripture nowhere makes such as assertion

 All we are saying here is that in this case
  the unbroken line of descent from Adam was interrupted

  Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit
   and scripture connects this conception
    with the holiness and moral purity of Christ

 Through the absence of a human father
  Jesus was not fully descended from Adam
   and that breaks the line of descent

Why did Jesus not inherit a sinful nature from Mary ?

 Our best answer from Scripture is Luke 1:35
 Notice the words of the angel Gabriel to Mary
  “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” / Lk1:35

 This statement made by the angel Gabriel to Mary is absolutely vital
 He says to her / because the Spirit brought about the conception
  in the womb / the child was to be called “holy”

  The Person of the Holy Spirit
   who was present there in the original creation
    when Adam and Eve were created “sinless” and “holy”
     is right here at the point of conception
      preventing any transmission of sin from Mary

  The Holy Spirit in Mary prevented
   not only the transmission of sin from Joseph
   but also in a miraculous way the transmission of sin from Mary
  
Further some scholars hold the view
 that the sin nature is passed down through the father

 Sin entered the world through Adam / not Eve
 Eve was the one who sinned first
 But sin did not enter the world through her / It entered through Adam

 Rom. 5:12 says / “Therefore just as through one man
  sin entered into the world / and death through sin
   and so death spread to all men / because all sinned”

   The concept behind this is called Federal Headship

So Jesus was totally human / and yet totally without sin
 - not one sin / during His entirely earthly life

And God planned for Jesus to be incarnated in this way
 He is both able and will to take away our sins
  if we believe in him