LUKE 1:26-38 BEHOLD THE SERVANT OF THE LORD2011 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Luke 1:26-38 Behold The Servant Of The Lord

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You're listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2011. As we continue our journey through the book of Luke, really just the beginning of our journey, last week we looked at, in the first part of chapter 1, the account there of Zacharias and Elizabeth. And you remember an angel appeared to Zacharias and told him that

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He was going to have a son, but it was something that was hard to believe for Zacharias because him and his wife were both very old, estimated to be about 60 to 80 years old or so. And so it was quite a surprise that they would have a child at such an old age. And in contrast to that, this week as we continue on in chapter 1, now we see another birth announcement being made.

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This time it's not to someone who's very old and it's, you know, kind of too late for them to have kids. But this is an announcement for someone who is, well, is not supposed to have kids yet. It's an announcement to Mary in regards to Mary who is unmarried. She is not yet married. She is still a virgin.

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And yet God has declared that she is going to have a child. And so we have these two accounts side by side in contrast to one another. One given a son way late in life, and then the other given a son really way early in their life. But it's just the right timing as far as God is concerned.

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And as we look at this example and look at this account of Mary, there's four points I want to share with you this morning. And these four points, I believe, are useful for us as well. Anytime that God is speaking to us or that God has spoken to us in his word, these four things are very important for us to know as well as to act upon.

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Well, we pick it up in verse 26. Once again, it says, Now in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph of the house of David. The virgin's name was Mary.

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Now as Luke continues on, again he's getting into the account of Jesus' life. And before he gets to Jesus, he really goes back to the beginning. John the Baptist, we talked about last week. This week we're dealing with now Jesus' mother.

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His mother's name was Mary, and she was living in a place called Nazareth. And so Luke is kind of making some basic introductions for us. Living water, meet Mary. Here she is, a young girl, unmarried, but she's betrothed. She's in the final period, about to be married, but she's not married yet. She's there in Galilee, which is the northern part of Israel.

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Now Galilee had kind of a bad reputation. Those who lived around Jerusalem, they really didn't like the Galileans so much. They thought, you know, they're too much in contact with Gentiles and those who are not Jews. And so they kind of had a bad reputation. But then Nazareth,

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even more so of all of Galilee, you really didn't want to be from Nazareth. That was, you know, the ghetto of the day. It was the day that people thought, hey, nothing good can come out of that. We see that in John chapter 1 verse 46 when they talk about Jesus coming from Nazareth to Nathanael. And Nathanael says, can anything good come out of Nazareth? And so it was looked down upon. You know, maybe it'd be like

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you know, I don't want to offend anybody, so I'm not going to name any cities, but you know, around the corner, you know, maybe where there's some horses and stuff, and you'd be like, oh, can anything, no, I'm just kidding.

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Can anything good come from there? Now, you all have those kinds of places in your mind, okay? And you don't have to shout it out. But you have those places you think, yeah, it's like, ooh, that's kind of a scary part of town. You know, you don't want to be there. You don't want to hang out there. You don't want to be there when the sun goes down, you know? That's what Nazareth was like or thought of. And so here she is. She's in Nazareth. And she's given this announcement by an angel.

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Now, it tells us here that she is a virgin.

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which means that she is unmarried. She's unmarried as well as a virgin. Now, some people will work very hard to try to say that Mary was not a virgin because they don't want to believe in the virgin birth. But the reality is, the way that this word is used in the New Testament as well as New Testament times, it means that she's unmarried, but that goes along with the fact that she is a virgin. Okay?

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I like how James Vernon McGee puts it. He says, you can choose not to believe in the virgin birth if you want, but do not try to say that the Bible doesn't teach it. The Bible teaches that Mary was a virgin and that Jesus was born of her. It was a miraculous work of God. In fact, Mary's question later on in the passage in verse 34 highlights this because she says, how is it possible? Because

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I'm a virgin because I don't know a man. That means, you know, she's not sexually involved with a man. That she has not had intercourse. And so how is it possible that she is going to give birth? Now for us, it's kind of unusual today. You know, for her to be unmarried means that she's a virgin. That doesn't...

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apply to today. You know, to be unmarried doesn't mean that you're a virgin today. But that is still what God expects. Although it's not normal today, that is what God requires. That is what God expects. And so those of you who are unmarried, you need to take that to heart. You need to pay attention to that. God created the sexual relationship

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to take place within a marriage and only within a marriage and not at all, no part, no form, no little exceptions or twists that make it acceptable outside of the marriage vows. And so here she is, she's unmarried, but she's engaged to be married or rather it says that she's betrothed.

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This word betrothed is something that you and I really aren't familiar with today. It's not part of our culture. It's not part of our customs. The wedding practices of that day were quite different. Engagement for a Jewish person in that day could happen as young as...

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toddler age, very very young because the marriages were arranged at that time and so the parents would get together and you know they see hey your son's kinda hanging out with my daughter and you know we kinda benefit from from that relationship if they were to be married and so let's make a deal and so they would sit down they would arrange this is you know what the price will be this is you know what we'll do this is the agreement and at that point they would be engaged

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Now, they wouldn't get married until it was the right time. And so they would be engaged for, you know, most of their life in many cases. And then before they would get married, they would enter into this betrothal period.

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And the betrothal period was a serious commitment time where it would take about a year to go through this betrothal process. And what would happen is the groom would go to the girl and he would say, hey, I'm going to go prepare a place for you. And when it's ready, I'm going to go and I'm going to get you and I'm going to receive you unto myself and then we're going to be married.

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And so he would go and he would either add on to his father's house or he would provide for them a place to live. And it would take about a year or so to put that together. And then once that was finished, then he would come and receive his bride. And then they would have the wedding ceremony. This betrothal period usually would last about a year.

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And it was a very serious commitment. In fact, in order to get out of a betrothal period, it required a divorce. And so it was as if they were married as far as the legal sense or the commitment sense. It was the final commitment, but they weren't actually together yet until the place was prepared and until the wedding ceremony happened.

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And so this being the customs of the day, the age of Mary was probably around 15 or 16 years old because she would get married and she would be married off quite young, as was the custom for them and for those days. And so she was in this betrothal period, that last final period, before getting married to Joseph. Now, this was a serious commitment, and so to be found pregnant...

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During this time would be a serious offense. And that's something to consider as we read this account of Mary and how she responds to what God is telling her. And so here she is in Nazareth. Again, it's the ghetto of Israel. It's the place that really nobody wants to be from. She's a virgin, but she's betrothed to be married to Joseph.

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And now an angel appears to her. And we here begin the first point that I want to share with you today. And that is that you are highly favored. Did you know that? You are highly favored. Look at verse 26. I'm sorry, 28. He says,

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But when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying and considered what manner of greeting this was. And so here the angel Gabriel appears to Mary and he comes in and he says to her, Rejoice, highly favored one. Rejoice, he says. Mary, we find here, was highly favored.

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Now the angel comes to her and this is not a dream or a vision, but Gabriel actually appears to her at this point and he declares to her to rejoice because she is highly favored. That word highly favored is a cool word. Basically it means that she is the recipient of much grace. So the angel comes to her and says, Mary, rejoice. You have received so much grace.

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You have received unmerited, undeserved favor from God. Notice that Gabriel does not come to her and say, Mary, rejoice. You've done a great job. You've earned it. You deserve to be the mother of Jesus. No, what he says is, you are the recipient of much grace. You are highly favored. It means that she's not favored because she's worked really hard.

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She's been really determined or disciplined or, you know, been extra holy, but she is highly favored by God's grace. He has chosen to show her great favor. And so he says, rejoice, you're highly favored. The Lord is with you and blessed are you among women. As we look at the person Mary, there's...

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Two basic tendencies, you know, within the Christian world. There's the tendency to over-elevate Mary and begin to worship her, put her on kind of the same plane as Jesus. Some refer to her as the co-redemptress. Some refer that, you know, you need to go to Mary and then Mary will go to Jesus on your behalf. But the reality is that that's not what the Bible teaches.

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Now others will kind of take it to the other extreme and say, don't even think about Mary, don't mention her name, she's not worthy of it. I'm kind of exaggerating a little bit. But they kind of tend to belittle Mary because on the other side there's those who are lifting her up so highly. But biblically as we look here, we can see that Mary is the object of much grace. She is highly favored. Now that does not mean that she was sinless. Mary was sinful.

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I know it's hard to think about and hard to believe, but she had a sinful nature just like you. Some of those thoughts that you have, she had. She was a person, she was a human being with a sinful nature just like us. So Mary is not equal to Jesus, and Mary has no part in your salvation. She is not to be prayed to, and she doesn't have better access to Jesus than you do. Not according to the Bible, and not according to Jesus.

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You remember in Luke chapter 8, there was that time where Mary and a couple other of her kids come to get Jesus and they hear what he's doing and they want to come talk to him. And he's there in a crowded room and people are telling him, hey, your mother and your brothers are outside.

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And Jesus responds in Luke 8.21, He says, My mother and brother are these who hear the word of God and do it. Jesus puts Mary on the same plane of those who hear the word of God and put it into practice. On the same level, the same playing field. And so she is not to be elevated higher than, in the sense that she's part of the salvation process, but that she is...

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Another one of those who has been obedient to God and has responded to God by faith. Remember Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life.

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There was no Mary in that equation. He says, I am divine, abide in me. He doesn't say, abide in Mary, because she abides in me. He says, you abide in me. He says in Matthew 11, you come to me, all who are weary. He doesn't say, go to Mary if you're weary, because then I'll be able to help you. But Jesus invites us to himself, and we don't need a mediator between us and Jesus.

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Now, all that being said, though, Mary does have an incredible place in history because she is the one that God chose to bring forth the Son of God. Now, ladies, can you imagine?

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It's one thing and it's exciting and joyful to bring forth a child into the world, but can you imagine the privilege and the honor of bringing forth into the world the Son of God, the Savior, the Messiah. Incredible place in history that she has. Mary was the recipient of much grace. And she didn't really understand what this meant. As the angel appears to her and says, rejoice, Mary.

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You're highly favored. God is with you. You're blessed among women. It tells us there in verse 29, it says that when she saw the angel, she was troubled. Not so much at the angel, but it says she was troubled at his saying and she considered what manner of greeting this was.

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She's trying to figure out, what does this mean? What could this possibly mean that I have this announcement that I am the recipient of so much grace? What could this mean? What is this going to do in my life? How is this going to impact my life? Mary was highly favored. She received so much grace from God to be the chosen one to bring forth the Son of God into the world.

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Now, in addition to Mary being highly favored, I'd like to remind you that you as well are highly favored. You are highly favored. This word for highly favored is used one other time in the Bible. And it's used in Ephesians chapter 1 verse 6. There in Ephesians chapter 1, the Apostle Paul is talking about the wonderful blessings that we have in Jesus Christ.

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And he says there in Ephesians 1.6, he says, "...to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved." That word accepted there in Ephesians 1.6 is the same word that's translated highly favored here in Luke 1. He says that by His grace, we have been made accepted. We've been made the recipients of much grace here.

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In the Beloved, that is in Jesus Christ. And so for those of us who have responded to Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, He's made us accepted or He's made us highly favored. Listen, you need to know that you are highly favored. God favors you highly. He has shown you much grace. God loves you way more than we can really understand.

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He loves you to a farther degree than we know how to describe. He loves you individually, personally. And that's why He died upon the cross. Not just for all of us collectively, but for each one of us individually. You are the recipient of much grace.

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Now that's the conditional part there. He's offered to us this incredible grace. And you are accepted, you're highly favored in the Beloved if you receive Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. You see, God picked Mary because He knew how she would respond.

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She is highly favored and she receives this favor. She receives this blessing that God is extending to her, this opportunity to bring forth into the world the Son of God. And for you to be highly favored, you need to respond like Mary did, to receive God's grace, to believe in Jesus Christ, to believe God at His word. You are highly favored.

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If you've been born again, you are highly favored. If you've not been born again, listen, you can be highly favored because God has extended His grace to you in the person of Jesus Christ. And so all we need to do to be highly favored in the Lord is to receive the grace that He extends to us. And if we receive the grace that He extends to us, then we are the recipients of much grace.

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Highly favored. Recipients of much grace. That's who you are. Always remember that. Again, I'd like to point out, these things are useful for us anytime that God is speaking to us.

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If it's in regard to salvation, if it's in regard to some type of command that's found in the scripture, if it's in regard to some personal thing that God is speaking to your heart, you and I, first of all, must recognize that we are highly favored. God doesn't tell us these things because he hates us.

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or because He wants to ruin our lives, or because He's out to get us. He tells us these things. He gives us commands. He gives us the opportunity of salvation. He speaks things to our hearts individually because He highly favors us, because He loves us so dearly, because He wants to give us much more grace than even we have received just yet, because He wants what's best for us eternally.

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And so what we see here is Mary being highly favored as an example and a reminder for us of our own state in relation to God, that we are highly favored. God loves you. He favors you. He extends to you incredible grace. Well, the second thing we find as we go on to verses 30 through 33 is that Jesus will reign forever. Look at verse 30.

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It says,

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So he tells Mary, now don't be afraid. Now again, you can imagine her as she is there, she sees this angel. He tells her that, you know, you're highly favored and she's thinking, what type of greeting is this? She's overwhelmed by the fact that there's an angel there in front of her. And so he calms her heart. He says, do not be afraid. And once again, he reminds her, you have found favor with God. Again, let me remind you, there's no need to fear.

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"Hey Mary, you don't need to be afraid. You found favor with God." Now I think if an angel appeared to us, we might be tempted to think, "Uh-oh, I'm in trouble." It's like being sent to the principal's office, right? It's like, "Oh man, I got busted for something." But the reality is, the angel says, "Look, you're not in trouble. You don't need to be afraid. You found favor with God." That word favor, it's the word that we use called grace.

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Grace. You found grace with God. Again, God relates to us on the basis of His grace, of His goodness towards us that we don't deserve. We can't earn God's favor. We can't deserve God's favor. He just gives it to us because He's good. And so He says, don't be afraid. You found favor. You found grace with God. What kind of grace has she found? Well, He says, behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a son.

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Notice the tense here. He says, you will conceive in your womb. Mary is not pregnant as he is declaring this to her. But she's going to become pregnant. He's announcing to her. He's telling her, letting her know this is going to happen. You're not pregnant yet, but you will be.

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Now, if you compare the accounts in Matthew chapter 1, you'll see that Joseph actually doesn't find out until later on, until it's known that Mary is pregnant. Then Joseph finds out she's pregnant. And then, after he finds out that she's pregnant, then an angel appears to him and tells him,

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really what's going on because he's thinking well i didn't get her pregnant and so that must mean that she was sleeping around with somebody else and that's somebody else's child in her womb and god sends an angel to him and says no no no no that's this is of the lord she's still a virgin but this is a work that god has done to bring forth the savior to bring forth jesus

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And so she will be pregnant. She's not yet. And he says that when you bring forth the son, you're going to call his name Jesus. You're going to call his name Jesus. Now, when that angel appears to Joseph in Matthew chapter one, he explains why his name will be Jesus. Matthew chapter one, verse 21, it says, and she will bring forth a son and you shall call his name Jesus for he will save his people from their sins.

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The reason why he is called Jesus is because he will and he has saved his people from their sins. That's why his name is Jesus. The name Jesus is a Greek name, but it's the equivalent of the Hebrew name Joshua. So Joshua, Jesus, same name, just different languages. Jesus is Greek. Joshua is Hebrew.

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Joshua in Hebrew is a shortened form of the phrase, the Lord is salvation. And so that's what the name Jesus means. The Lord is salvation. That's what the name Joshua means. The Lord is salvation. And so the angel declares here that she will call his name Jesus. And the reason they will call him Jesus, the reason that's his name,

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It's because he is the Savior. The Lord is salvation. There in Matthew 1.21, again, it says, He will save his people from their sins. Now in that day, as Mary was alive, as she was getting ready to be married to Joseph, there was a lot going on politically. There were Jews who were wanting to revolt against the Roman Empire who was reigning over the land of Israel at that time.

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And the Jews were looking for a savior that would save them, not from their sins, but from the Roman Empire. They wanted to be set free. They wanted to, you know, have a battle for their independence and to have their own sovereign nation, their own sovereign kingdom. And so they were looking for that savior, not the savior to save them or redeem them for their sins, but

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But they wanted a political savior. They wanted an earthly kingdom. But Jesus, when he came the first time, did not come to establish an earthly kingdom. That comes later. We'll get to that. That's going to happen in the millennium. But his first priority, first and foremost, he needed to deal with the sin issue.

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That is that you and I, as human beings, have been born with a sinful condition. That you and I, by nature, are separated from God. That we are by nature, Paul tells us, objects of wrath. We're recipients of the wrath of God because, well, by nature, we are in rebellion against God.

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We disobey God. We disregard His Word. We do not seek after Him. We do not pursue Him. We do not seek to please God naturally. That's not something that our flesh, that is our old nature, our sinful nature, desires. Now God loves us. And He doesn't want us to be the objects of wrath. That's not what He created us for. That's not why we exist. He wants to extend to us His grace. He wants us to experience the...

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fact of being highly favored. And so what did he do? Well, he brought forth Jesus into the world. The Son of God who eternally existed, has always existed, but through Mary, through the virgin birth, he was born into this life. He was born into this world. That he, being fully God and fully man, could live a sinless life and die upon the cross for our sins.

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to take care of our sinful condition, that by faith in Jesus and His work for us upon the cross, we might be the recipients of God's grace, that we might be highly favored by receiving this grace that He extends to us. And so here the angel tells Mary that you will call His name Jesus because He is going to be the Savior to save the world from their sins. Verse 32,

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He goes on to say, He will be great. That's quite an understatement, right? And will be called the Son of the Highest. And the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever. And of His kingdom there will be no end. Here we see really the point of

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that I'm emphasizing with you, that Jesus will reign forever. The angel tells Mary, listen, this child that will be born to you, he's going to be great and he's going to be called the son of the highest. That is the son of God. This is not going to be an ordinary birth. And the result of this birth will not be an ordinary man or an ordinary human being.

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Although we see that Joseph is called Jesus' father, Joseph is not Jesus' biological father. And we'll see that in a couple more verses. He is the son of the highest, the son of God, the son of God Almighty, the creator. He is the son of God. And so this was a supernatural work of God, not natural reproduction, but a miraculous thing that God is going to do in Mary's womb.

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So he's going to be great. He's going to be the son of the highest. And the angel tells Mary now that God will give him the throne of his father David. Mary was a descendant of David as well as Joseph.

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And so God is going to give her son the throne of David, the throne that belongs to David because God had promised David back in 2 Samuel chapter 7. Remember that account where David wanted to build God a temple? He wanted to build God a house and God says, you're not going to build me a house. I'm going to build you a house.

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And He says, your seed is going to last. He says, I'm going to establish the throne of your kingdom forever. Your descendant, one of your descendants will sit on the throne for the rest of eternity. That is fulfilled in Jesus Christ.

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who is the Savior that will rule and reign for eternity. Now, we don't see it fully played out yet, but it will really take place in the millennium and then the rest of eternity after that, that Jesus will rule and reign on the throne of David forever and ever. And that's what he says there. He says he will reign over the house of Jacob forever and of his kingdom there will be no end. And so this son of Mary...

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will have a kingdom that never ends. He will rule and reign forever and ever. This makes Jesus the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. This highlights for us the reality that He reigns on high because of His kingdom, there will be no end. That's never taken place before, that someone has a kingdom which does not end.

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This will only be found, it will only be fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Jesus will reign forever. Now this is very important to know. Why? Well because if Jesus is going to reign forever, then we need to understand it's Him that we are ultimately subject to. Although we're subject to our government here in the United States, this nation, this kingdom, will not reign.

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Last forever. It may last for a season. It may last for a time. It may last for our physical lives. But as we enter into eternity, we're not bound to the United States any longer. We're not the subjects of this kingdom, of this nation any longer. And the same is true for every other earthly kingdom. The reality is, we're eternal beings. And so even after we enter into eternity, well, there's going to be a kingdom that exists forever.

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The kingdom of Jesus. And if that's the case, if ultimately we are subject to him, then we understand, well, we need to be pleasing to him. It's him that we need to be paying attention to. It's him that we need to be focused on because for the rest of eternity, we are going to be subject to him because he reigns forever and ever. Jesus will reign forever and ever. And so it's really Jesus that we need to be

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focused on, concerned about pleasing. Not the people around us, not even our own selves. Listen, if you want to survive in eternity, you need to be on Jesus' good side. It tells us in Philippians chapter 2 that at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow.

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Every knee will bow to Jesus' name. It's going to happen. Every tongue will confess, he goes on to say, that Jesus Christ is Lord. There's no one who will be excluded from this. Every one of us will bow before Jesus and testify and confess that He is Lord. Now that's where our choice comes in. Every one of us will bow. The choice is, when will we bow? You see, if we bow right now, willingly,

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then we will find that we are highly favored. We are the recipients of God's grace. If we bow and submit ourselves to Jesus right now, we will find that God has extended to us much more grace than we even know how to comprehend. But if we refuse to bow right now, then we will forcibly bow on the day of judgment.

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And then it's too late to be the recipients of God's grace, to be highly favored. Then we will bow and then immediately be judged. So the reality is Jesus will reign forever, which means we have a choice. We can pretend like that's not true and do whatever we want and ignore what God has said. Or we can willingly bow down to him right now and be the recipients of his grace and his goodness forever.

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Things that we can't even begin to comprehend. Or we can bow later on the day of judgment and experience the fullness of the judgment of God. Here the angel Gabriel tells Mary, your son is going to be the Messiah. He's going to be the Savior that God has promised. He's going to rule and reign forever and ever. Again, Mary was highly favored. Wow, what a privilege!

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For her to bring forth, just a young girl, probably 15, 16 years old, to bring forth the Son of God. What an honor, what a privilege, what an amazing display of God's grace. Point number three, as we continue on in our study this morning, is that we need to believe God. Verses 34 through 37, well verse 34 says, Then Mary said to the angel, How can this be, since I do not know a man?

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And so here's this angel appears to Mary. He's declaring to her what's going to take place and this incredible privilege and honor that she has. And now is her time to respond. And so she asked the angel a question. She says, how can this be since I do not know a man? I think it needs to be made clear here. Mary is not asking a question in unbelief, but she's asking a question because she believes.

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Just asking a question doesn't mean that you do not believe. It's okay to ask questions, and we do have questions, but it's important how we ask the question or why we ask the question. Now, last week we saw a similar situation, right? An angel appears to Zacharias, declares he's going to have a son. He's old, it seems impossible, and he says, how can I know that this is true?

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How do I really know what you're telling me is the truth? Zacharias tells Gabriel. He says, because I'm an old man. My wife is well advanced in years. So give me a sign. Show me. Prove to me that this is the case. Zacharias asked a question, but it was not in belief. It was in unbelief. Saying, prove it. How can I know for sure? Mary asked a question, not in unbelief.

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But in belief, she says, how is this going to happen since I don't know a man? Since I'm not involved sexually, how am I going to become pregnant? She believed it. She just wanted to know, how's it going to happen? She had a question about the process. How do you want me to do this? What do I need to do? How is this going to work? You see, it's okay to ask questions.

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Sometimes we give ourselves a hard time or other people give us a hard time for asking questions when it comes to the things of God. And it's okay to ask questions. It becomes a problem when your heart is not right. Because you see, God knows the difference. He can see your heart. So if you're asking God why, that's one thing. But if you're asking God, you know, why I oughta, well that's a whole other thing, right? If it's an anger or bitterness or unbelief,

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Well, that's when you get in trouble. But to ask God why, to wonder, to ask, to want to know, to look for information, to look for the purposes of God, the work of God, that's okay. It's okay to ask God questions. And so she asked the question, again, not in unbelief, but it's about the process. She's saying like, wow, this is amazing. How is it going to happen? How is this going to work? What's going to take place here?

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We also see Elizabeth testify that Mary believed God as this angel delivered the message to her. In Luke chapter 1 verse 45, we'll see it next time in our study together. Elizabeth is filled with the Holy Spirit and she said, Blessed is she who believed, for there will be a fulfillment of those things which are told her from the Lord.

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She, speaking of Mary, says, blessed is she who believed. Blessed are you, Mary, because you believed God. As he spoke to you, as he delivered this message through the angel, you believed. Oh, blessed are you. So she believes God. As this incredible thing is announced to her, she believes God. She believes it. She wants to know how it's going to work, but she believes him. When it comes to the gospel message for you and I, this is amazing.

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Well, this is the same thing that you and I are responsible for. This is the same thing that you and I need to do. The gospel message is pretty incredible. Because as we recognize our sinful condition and what we deserve as human beings and because of our sinfulness, then the idea, then the thought that by believing in Jesus Christ we can be forgiven and set free from our guilt and set free from sin and be given the promise of eternal life with God, that's pretty incredible.

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And we can ask questions about that, but ultimately, it comes to the point where we just need to believe God. This is what He said. This is our condition. This is who we are. This is what God has done. And this is the way of salvation. And we need to believe Him. And we cannot be recipients of His grace if we do not believe God. And so Mary believes God here, and as a result, she's able to participate in this thing that God has promised, this thing that God has said.

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Now for you and I as well, when it comes to God's promises, that's what we're responsible for. We're responsible to believe God. Believe God. Trust Him as He speaks to you through His Word. Trust Him as He delivers to you the Gospel message that you can be saved by faith in Jesus Christ. Trust Him as God speaks to you personally in your heart.

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As the Holy Spirit is ministering to you and prompting you to take steps of faith, to go in this direction, to have that discussion or whatever God may be putting upon your heart, believe God. That's what you're required to do. That's what you're responsible for. Mary believed God. And so now the angel is going to declare to her how it's going to happen. Verse 35.

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And the angel answered and said to her, the Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the highest will overshadow you. Therefore also that holy one who is to be born will be called the son of God. And so now he explains how it's going to happen. Mary, just relax. You know, you don't have to go in and sleep with somebody. This is going to happen supernaturally. The Holy Spirit is going to come upon you.

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The power of the highest will overshadow you. Supernaturally, God is going to do this within your womb. And you will become pregnant. Not by any natural means, not by any natural sources, but by the supernatural work of God. And the result is, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God. That Holy One. Jesus is holy. He was holy before He was ever born. He is that Holy One. And He was placed...

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As the Holy One, He was placed in Mary's womb. And so when He is born, He is the Holy One. And that's why He was able to live a sinless life, because He is holy. It's not that He was holy because He lived a sinless life. He lived a sinless life because He is holy. In the same way that you and I are not sinners because we sinned,

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But we sin because we are sinners. We have a sinful nature and that's why we sin. Jesus has a holy nature. That's why he lived a sinless life. He had a completely different nature than you and me. He is holy. We are sinful. And that's why he is called the Son of God. The Son of God. Because he's not a normal human being. He is fully human, but he's also fully God. He is that Holy One.

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who was born with a holy nature. He lived a sinless life because He is that Holy One, the Son of God. This is one of those amazing verses where we get to see the triune nature of God all together at once. You see that? The triune nature of God. You see the Holy Spirit there, the highest, reference to the Father, and then the Son of God, Jesus Christ. The Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, all working together in this wonderful blessing that God is giving to Mary.

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Verse 36, he says, Now indeed, Elizabeth, your relative, has also conceived a son in her old age, and this is now the sixth month for her who is called barren. Now the angel declares to Mary another miracle that has taken place, the miracle of Zacharias and Elizabeth that we talked about last week, and that Elizabeth in her old age, again, probably between 60 or 80 years old, she has conceived and she is pregnant again.

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And the angel says, we're six months along in that pregnancy, that she's going to give birth to a son. I think this is amazing because as we studied last week, Zacharias asked for a sign, right? He said, how can I know that this is the truth? He asked for a sign, but he asked in unbelief. Mary here believes, and then the angel gives her a sign.

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She's like, wow, this is amazing. He says, yeah, I know. It's going to be awesome. The Holy One is going to be placed within your womb and you're going to give birth to the Son of God. As evidence of the miraculous working of God in this, check it out. Your relative, Elizabeth, she's 80 years old and she's six months pregnant. He gives her a sign. He gives her a testimony to go along with. She's already believing and here he's confirming, he's adding to, he's bolstering her faith.

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Because she already believed. Many people will say, show me and I will believe. But that's not how God operates. God says, look, believe and then I will show you. Zacharias said, show me and I'll believe. Mary believed and then God showed her. And gave her confirmation. And gave her that extra encouragement to show you, look, I really am at work. This really is a work of God. Again, I want to encourage you to believe God. You can't wait for some sign. You can't wait for...

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Some miracle or some evidence. Don't wait for that. Believe God. He's already declared the gospel message. He's already declared the goodness that He offers to us in Jesus. He's already declared His Word and the promises that are here. You don't have to test it and say, well, let me test and see if the Word of God is true and then I will believe it. No, believe the Word of God and live by it and then you will see that it's true. As God speaks to your heart personally, believe God.

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Believe Him at His word. Believe what He is speaking to you. And then as you believe, He will bring the confirmation as a testimony to the work that He is doing. Verse 37, He says, For with God nothing will be impossible. Nothing will be impossible. Let me ask you a question. How big is your God? How big is your God? I said at the beginning, a lot of people work really hard to say that Mary was not a virgin because they have a little God.

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It's not possible in their minds that someone could be a virgin and give birth to a child because their God is small. How big is your God? You see, my God has always existed. It blows my mind. You try to think about that ever? What did God do before the universe existed? What was that like? I can't figure it out because my God's big. He's bigger than my brain. He's bigger than what I can comprehend. He's bigger than what I can imagine.

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My God is the creator of the universe. Now, even with all our incredible advancements in technology, we still don't know the extent of God's creation. Let alone, you know, we could barely leave this earth. We can kind of get to the moon. It's very dangerous, but that's the farthest we've ever gone. Listen, that's just a tiny fraction compared to the rest of the universe. And my God is the creator of it. He's the sustainer of it. He holds it all together. Listen, a God who can do that,

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Nothing is impossible for Him. How big is your God? We look at the Word of God and it tells us to, you know, forgive those who have wronged us. And we wrestle. We want proof. How do I know that I can really forgive? No, God says, just believe me, be obedient, do what I've said, and then you'll see how important, how valuable, how much you can accomplish with forgiveness as opposed to bitterness. God's Word tells us to love one another. And we wrestle with that.

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Wow, man, how do I do this? I don't have the strength to do it. I don't have the power to do it. No, just believe God. Believe Him and obey Him. Do what He says and you'll find the amazing power of God's love, not only to you, but also through you. God tells us to behave this way. He tells us to behave that way. He tells us to receive the gospel message and experience salvation. All these things that God declares to us and we wrestle with them because how big is our God?

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You say, we don't understand sometimes. We're in the workplace and God tells us, this is how you're to behave. And we see other people behaving another way and they're getting ahead. They're getting noticed. They're getting the accolades and the awards. And here we are just faithfully plugging away. It seems like I need to promote myself. That's not what God has said. Well, how can I get to where I need to be if I don't promote myself?

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With God, nothing will be impossible. Just believe God. Do what He says. Obey His word. Let Him take care of that stuff. He'll show you. He'll work it out. How big is your God? Is your God big enough to help you forgive? Is your God big enough to provide for you week by week and month by month? Is your God big enough to take care of you? How big is your God? The angel here says, nothing will be impossible with God. We need to believe God.

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He's spoken to us in His Word. He's given us the Gospel. He's given us His commands. He's given us His promises. We need to believe God because nothing is impossible with Him. And it doesn't make sense in our head. It doesn't make sense in our brains. But that's because we've got a big God. So believe Him. And finally, point number four, the last verse, verse 38, says, Then Mary said, Behold the maidservant of the Lord. Let it be to me according to your word. And the angel departed from her.

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The last point is that we need to submit to God. First of all, we believe God and then we submit to Him. Mary declares in response to all these things, the angel has said, Behold, here I am, the maidservant of the Lord. Let it be to me according to your word, she says. This is her acceptance. This is her submission to God. This is her saying, Alright, I'll do what God says.

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I receive God's work, I receive God's word, let it be to me just as you've said. Mary would have experienced some great difficulties in life as a result of disobedience. Again, today it's not uncommon for there to be pregnancy outside of marriage, but in that day, not only was it uncommon, but it was, well, it was an act that was deserving of death. And here she is found pregnant.

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Joseph is going to find out. What's he going to think? She's going to have to be married to him. How's that going to work? Now, of course, God took care of her, but again, we see the end of the story, right? We look back and, oh yeah, it's easy, no problem. But picture yourself. Put yourself in Mary's sandals for a moment. Here she is pregnant, engaged, about to be married to this guy and she's found to be pregnant.

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What kind of things would go through his mind? How would that affect and impact their relationship? For the rest of her life, she would be known as that woman who was pregnant before she got married. Not only would there be those types of things, but then she's given birth to this son, Jesus, and that's an incredible blessing, great promises, but she doesn't get to see them fulfilled in her lifetime. In fact, what she gets to see is Jesus rejected and tried and crucified.

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And so understand that believing God and submitting to God doesn't mean that, you know, life is glorious and roses and, you know, you never have problems. It might bring you to the end of life and it just seems still utterly impossible for what God said to happen. To believe God and submit to Him doesn't mean that life will be easy, but it does mean that life will be worth it. There's eternal value there.

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And so she says, whatever it costs, whatever it takes, here I am, behold, the maidservant of the Lord. This morning we get to partake of communion together. And if I could have the ushers and the worship team get ready. You know, as we partake of communion together, we are remembering Jesus. We are remembering that He is the Savior of the world. The Savior, not physically, not yet anyways, but that He came and died upon the cross for sins.

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We're remembering the fact that He paid the price, that we are highly favored, we're recipients of the grace of God because of what Jesus Christ did for us there upon the cross. Now understanding and remembering what Jesus did for us upon the cross, understanding that Jesus will reign forever and ever, our response, like Mary's response, needs to be, number one, to believe God, to believe Christ,

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what Jesus did for us upon the cross. Now, He gave us the bread and the cup as reminders to us. The blood is represented by the cup, represents His blood that was shed for us for the forgiveness of sins. The bread represents His body that was broken as He died there upon the cross for us. His hands and His feet were pierced, nailed to the cross. He broke the bondage to death and sin. He accomplished the salvation of God for us.

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By taking our place, by being our substitute there upon the cross. And so we need to believe God. As we partake this morning, believe God. But then also submit to God. It's not just about acknowledging that Jesus exists or acknowledging that Jesus died upon the cross, but saying, alright Lord, I'm your servant. I'm submitting to you. Behold the servant of God. I'm going to be obedient to you. Let it be according to your word.

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I'm going to live my life according to your ways. I'm going to do what you say. So this morning as we partake of communion, let it be, let it be a testimony of you to God responding like Mary. Behold the servant of the Lord. I believe you at your word. I receive your grace. I'm highly favored and I'm submitted to you.

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This morning, if you've never been the recipient of God's grace or you've never been born again, you've never surrendered your life to Jesus, that's a great opportunity for you to do so. Because the reality is He will reign forever. You will stand before Him one day and give an account. And you can bow willingly right now and receive His grace or you can bow later on and experience and receive His judgment for rejecting Him.

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So it's an opportunity today. If you need to get right with God, now's the time to do it because He will reign forever. So they're going to pass out the bread and the cup and I would ask that you hold both portions. We'll partake together at the end. And as you partake, let's let it be our statement to God. Yes, God, I believe you and I submit to you. Let's worship the Lord together.

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We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of His Word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.