The Gospel of Luke: An Angelic Announcement

Transcript

JRNT 61
06/16/2024
The Gospel of Luke: An Angelic Announcement
Luke 1:28-33
Jesse Randolph

If you were to visit the Museo del Prado in Madrid, Spain, right in the heart of the Iberian Peninsula, you would inevitably come across a painting that was painted by a man named Diego Velazquez in the mid-1630’s. And the painting is titled “The Coronation of the Virgin.” And in it, the Virgin Mary is portrayed at her alleged ascension, not only with a porcelain complexion, and these resplendent royal robes, but as being crowned by all three members of the godhead . . . Father, Son, and Spirit. And in this triune coronation scene, over Mary’s left shoulder is God the Father. Who is pictured as this bearded and balding gray-haired grandfatherly old type. Over Mary’s other shoulder would be God the Son, where Jesus is portrayed as youthful and long-haired, and frankly looks like a member of the Bee Gees. And then dead over Mary’s head, dead center, would be a dove, which is typifying or picturing God the Holy Spirit. And in this painting, all three, Father, Son and Spirit, are depicted as reverently and delicately placing this crown upon Mary’s head.

Now, I’m not an art critic. I couldn’t tell you the first thing about art theory or whether this artist used inverted triangles properly. But I am a follower of Jesus Christ and what I can say, from a biblical and a theological standpoint. Is that that painting is profane, it’s sacrilege, it’s shameful.
Why? Because it flips what the scriptures reveal about Mary on their head and make them all about her. When in reality everything the bible teaches us about this humble, young, faithful, Jewish girl from Nazareth, everything the bible gives us about Mary, ultimately is to point us to God and to Christ and His saving purposes for us and for the world.

Last week, you’ll recall, we camped out in two verses, Luke 1:26-27, where Luke, having described all that transpired while Zechariah was in the Holy Place there in Jerusalem, was now transitioning and really setting the stage in these two verses for the next part of the story, which was the angel Gabriel’s visit and announcement to this young, betrothed, virgin girl named Mary.
Now, a new scene begins in verse 28, where Gabriel gives his announcement to Mary. And that will be the title of this morning’s sermon: “An Angelic Announcement.” We’ll be in verses 28 through 33. Let’s go ahead and get into it. God’s word reads this way, “And coming in, he said to her, ‘Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.’ But she was very perplexed at this statement, and was pondering what kind of greeting this was. And the angel said to her, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name Him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David, and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and there will be no end of His kingdom.’”

As we work through our text this morning we’re going to have five points. First, we’re going to see “The Appearance” in verse 28. Then we’ll see “The Address” also in verse 28. Then we’ll see “The Astonishment” in verse 29. Then we’ll see “The Assurance” in verse 30. And then last, we’ll see “The Attention” in verses 31-33.

Let’s get right into it. Point number one, for you notetakers, is “The Appearance.”
And this first point, “The Appearance,” is really built around the first few words there, verse 28, where it says, “And coming in.” I have to tell you, there’s this life-sized sculpture I was reading about this week. It’s in one of the districts in Paris, France and this sculpture is built into this large retaining wall that supports this large garden above. And the sculpture is of this man who appears to be walking through a wall, one arm is out and one leg is out, and part of his face is out. And it looks like he’s coming through the wall. And this sculpture is this depiction of actually a French short story that was written in 1943, titled, “The Man Who Could Walk Through Walls.”
And I bring this up, because there are some interesting interpretations out there about what is happening here in verse 28 of Luke 1. Some say, when it says, “And coming in,” they’re saying that the angel Gabriel here was literally walking through a wall just like the French short story I mentioned. The only problem is there is no evidence of that. All we are told is what we see here in the text, which is that the angel came in, “And coming in.” The Greek verb that Luke uses here in verse 28 is this run-of-the-mill term that would customarily be used to describe a person entering a house (as the angel was doing here) as a friend, or a relative, or a loved one would enter your house. And would a friend, or a relative, or a loved one come to your house on Thanksgiving through a wall? Most likely not, they’d come through the front door. And that’s apparently what Gabriel was doing here as he entered the room where Mary was at this moment doing whatever domestic duties she was doing at that particular time of the day.

But note, that this wasn’t your average social encounter in first-century Galilee. Rather, this encounter, on first glance, you can see it here, as you understand and appreciate the context, would have been fraught with social obstacles. See, in the Judaism of these days it was considered taboo for a man to greet an unknown woman in public. Simply to greet her out in the street was taboo. It was even more problematic to greet a betrothed woman, because it would be considered an attack, or undermining the authority of the man to whom she was soon to be married. It was even more concerning to greet a betrothed woman in a private space, as was happening here. Carrying all sorts of risks and problems, as you can picture the rumor mill firing up there in Nazareth, as to what was that man entering that woman’s house for, what was that all about?

Well, this, we know, was no man visiting Mary. No, this was an angel, the angel Gabriel. The same angel who, five months earlier, appeared to Zechariah in the temple in Jerusalem. And what was Zechariah’s response when he saw this angel, when he encountered this angel? You’ll remember, back in verse 12, it says, “Zechariah was troubled when he saw the angel, and fear fell upon him.” So, when Zechariah saw this angel, this faithful, aged, godly priest, a man who had surely been through all sorts of experiences in his life… I mean, think about what Zechariah must have seen in his decades of service there in the temple, when his week came up -- the bleating of sheep, the wringing off of bird’s heads, the spurting of blood, he had seen things and heard sounds and smelled smells that would cause a shiver to run down anybody’s spine. And when he saw this angel, “fear fell upon him.”

Well, now this same angel is appearing to Mary. And we saw last week, Mary was likely, as was customary in the times, a 12- to 13-year-old girl. A girl whose world was already being turned upside down in a number of different ways, some physiological, some relational, as this newly betrothed young woman. And now suddenly she’s standing in the presence of this angel, who we saw back in verse 26, was “sent from God.” And then the dialogue begins. And that brings us to our second point this morning, “The Address.” We’ve seen “The Appearance,” with those first few words, “And coming in.” And now, we get to “The Address.” Look at the next part of verse 28, it says, “he said to her,” the angel Gabriel, “ ‘Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.’ ”
So, without identifying himself, or even indicating that he’s an angel, or that something supernatural was taking place here, Gabriel greeted Mary. And then after greeting her, he makes two significant statements to her. One, that she’s “favored,” and two, that He’s “with” her. We’ll work through all of this in detail.
Let’s start with the greeting. Gabriel’s first words to Mary, his first word to Mary, you see it there, was this very simple greeting,”chaire,” “Greetings.” It’s a word that means… its root meaning is grace. It’s the same word that Judas actually used when he approached Jesus to kiss Him before betraying Him. He said, “Greetings, Rabbi!” in Matthew 26:49, and then kissed our Lord. In fact, it’s in Matthew’s gospel, used by Jesus right before His ascension in Matthew 28:9. It says, “And behold, Jesus met them and said, ‘Greetings,’ chaire, “And they came up and took hold of His feet and worshiped Him.” In other words, the word that the angel used here to greet Mary, chaire, was this customary greeting. It was similar to the way that we say “hello,” or “hi,” or “good morning,” or these days, “how’s it going?” This was not necessarily a call to rejoice. This wasn’t a word of praise. And Gabriel certainly wasn’t here bowing down before or paying homage to Mary. He was simply greeting Mary using this customary language, “Greetings.”

And then come these two initial statements that Gabriel made to Mary. Both of which were highly significant. And both, which take us some time to work through. First, the angel refers to Mary, there you see it, as “favored one.” He said, “Greetings, favored one!” Now, those two words, taken together, are going to require that we take a plunge into some pretty deep waters. Because it is from those words that there has been a steady stream of false doctrine concerning the Virgin Mary, and what she did do and what she didn’t do, that has now been flowing for centuries.

To show you what I mean, let’s recall, who is it that this angel is addressing here? He’s addressing Mary. And he greets her with that word, “chaire,” which is translated “greetings” here. It could also be translated, very basically, “hello” or “hi.” Well, if you go back in centuries past, another appropriate way to greet someone, other than “hi” or “hello”, the way that we greet people today, would actually be “hail”, like you hail somebody, to greet them, to say hello to them. So, we have “hail.” We have “Mary.” And then we have the next few words, in verse 28, “favored one.”

Well, Jerome, the early Latin Church father who lived in the late fourth century A.D., when he translated the bible into Latin (we call it the “Latin Vulgate”) he translated those words, “favored one”, “full of grace,” “gratia plena.” So, according to Roman Catholic tradition and dogma and teachings, this verse that we’re looking at right now, our eyes are looking at it right now, verse 28, gives the basis for the Roman Catholic’s what? The Hail Mary prayer. That mandatory incantation which billions of Roman Catholics have been told by their local priest that they need to pray with a certain amount of frequency to make sure they are in good standing with God or to gain favor with God. The “Hail Mary prayer (don’t repeat it after me) begins, “Hail Mary, full of grace.” Those words are derived directly from our passage, Luke 1:28, where the angel Gabriel says to Mary, “Greetings, favored one!”

So, how in the world has the Catholic Church gone from, “Greetings, favored one,” to “Hail Mary, full of grace?” The answer is intentional translation choices. The Roman Catholic bible, the translation of the bible, the Douay-Raeims Bible, which traces back to Jerome’s old Latin Vulgate, translates verse 28 this way, it says, “And the angel being come in, said unto her: Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee,” which then leads very naturally, you can see it, to that Hail Mary prayer, “Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee.” And that in turn has led to very naturally, many centuries now, of Roman Catholic theologians making outrageous statements about Mary and her supposed deposit of grace. Like this: here’s Bernard of Clairveaux, he says: “Mary is that happy ark, in which those who take refuge will never suffer the shipwreck of eternal perdition.” How? Why? Because according to Bernard of Clairveaux, she is “full of grace.”
Here's Thomas Aquinas, who sadly has become the theological darling of many evangelicals today, who said this about Mary: he said, “Mary means Star of the sea, for as mariners are guided to port by the ocean star, so Christians attain to glory through Mary’s maternal intercession.” How? Why? Because she’s considered to be “full of grace.” Here’s Hilary (that’s a man) of Poitiers: he says, “No matter how sinful one may have been, if he has devotion to Mary, it is impossible that he be lost.” How? Why? Because Mary is deemed to be “full of grace.”
Here’s Bonaventure: he says, “As the moon, which stands between the sun and the earth, transmits to this latter whatever it receives from the former, so does Mary pour out upon us who are in this world the heavenly graces that she receives from the divine sun of justice.” How? And Why? She is deemed to be “full of grace.”

I mean, I could go on and on, but I won’t. The real question is, is any of this -- the Hail Mary prayer, the Douay-Rheims translation, these quotes from these Catholic theologians -- is any of it warranted? No, it’s not.

Let’s go back to the text, verse 28, and the angel’s greeting here where Gabriel said to Mary, “Greetings, favored one.” “Favored one” there, comes from a Greek verb, “charitoo.” And while that word does have a wide enough range of meaning to either be translated “favor” or “grace,” it is objectively true and it’s objectively provable that the verb here in the original Greek language is passive. This is a passive verb. And specifically it’s a divine passive, meaning from any objective reading of the original Greek text it’s clear here that Mary is not being described as one who is inherently filled to the brim with grace. She’s not what’s described here as being a giver or dispenser of grace or the mediator of God’s grace or God’s favor. No. In fact, the exact opposite is true. The language here is very clearly highlighting the fact that Mary had received something. And she’d received something from God. And what was it Mary had received from God? What was it God had given to Mary and bestowed upon Mary? And what was it that He’s given to anyone of us who have believed upon Christ? He gave her grace, Mary was the recipient of God’s grace. She was the special object of God’s favor. She had been blessed by God in His grace.

To show you what I mean, go with me over to Ephesians 1. In Ephesians 1, we’re going to see the only other time this Greek verb, “charitoo,” being used in this particular formulation outside of Luke 1. Is in Ephesians 1, Ephesians 1, and we’ll pick it up, the passage is in Ephesians 1:6, but we’ll pick it up in verse 2, just for context. It says, “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him in love, by predestining us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He graciously bestowed on us in the Beloved.” Those last few words there, “He graciously bestowed on us”, that’s the same root word now that the angel Gabriel uses in that form to tell us that Mary in Luke 1:28 was “favored.” So, in the context of Ephesians, who was it that provided “grace”? Very clearly, God. And who was the recipient of that grace? Us. In Luke 1:28, who was it that showed “favor”? Who was it that showed “grace”? God. And who did He show it to? Mary. And how was it that Mary was going to be shown God’s grace or favor? By God selecting her to be the earthly mother of Jesus. By God choosing her to be that human vessel by which the Second Person of the Trinity would enter into this world.

See, like you and me, Mary was this unworthy object of God’s favor or God’s grace. There was nothing otherworldly about her. She wasn’t born with a special measure of God’s grace. She didn’t earn God’s grace or favor by eclipsing some standard of piety or holiness. No. She was given grace. She was shown grace. Just like any other sinner. She never was, as the Roman Catholic Church teaches, a dispenser of grace. Rather, she was a humble vessel, who received grace. As one commentator put it, she was “not the mother of grace, but the daughter of grace.”

And what that means, practically speaking, is that whenever Mary died, whenever that was, she wasn’t assumed. Whenever she died and since she has died, she has never answered a prayer. She has never heard the clattering of rosary beads. She has never been tuned in to the words of “Ave Maria” sung in a convent or a monastery or a Roman Catholic Church. Rather, humble servant that she was, favored child of God that she was, from the moment that she breathed her last breath here on earth she has been so taken with worshiping the Lord in glory that she has been totally oblivious to the billions who have been led astray into thinking that she should be made a special object of reverence or worship.

Back to our text. We’re still in verse 28. Where we’ve just seen that the angel Gabriel greeted Mary by addressing her as “favored one.” Not “full of grace,” but “favored one.” And then look at the next few words that Gabriel added to his greeting. He said, “The Lord is with you.”
And that wasn’t a wish. That wasn’t a statement of hope or optimism. It wasn’t “The Lord may be with you.” Or “May the Lord be with you.” No. This was a declaration. “The Lord is with you.” And in context, it’s a future-oriented declaration. Meaning as Mary prepared to go through what she was about to go through next, namely the conception of Jesus in her virgin womb, and the looks she would receive, and the rumors that would fly, and the accusations that would follow, and the reproach that she would face, and everything else that would come her way, the Lord would be there with her. The Lord would be by her side.

Now, if you think about that for just a moment. If we were to accept the Roman Catholic position here, that Mary is not just a “favored one”, but “full of grace,” a dispenser of grace, a provider of grace, what need would there be for her to have the Lord by her side? She was practically divine. What heaven-sent aid would she need?

Well, as we’ve seen, she wasn’t full of grace, she was rather favored. She was this humble, needy sinner who had been shown grace. Who did need the Lord’s aid to sustain her as she walked through this new season that the Lord had appointed for her as this child of grace. And that’s what the angel was communicating here in verse 28, that she had been set apart by the Lord for special service to the Lord. As she carried out the special purpose of carrying the Messiah of Israel in her womb, the Lord would be “with” her.

And it’s also important to note here (and this takes us back to that scene at the beginning that I mentioned of that painting, the “Coronation of the Virgin”) though Mary is undoubtedly in focus in this scene here that we’re looking at this morning) the announcement from the angel to her, though she’s front and center in this depiction, the central character in this account, and we can’t lose sight of this -- is God. He was the source of her favor. He was the One who was showing her grace. And Mary got that. Mary understood that. Because when we get down to her “Magnificat” at Luke 1:47-49, look what she says. She says, “And my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior. For He has looked upon the humble state of His slave, for behold, from this time on, all generations will count me blessed. For the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is His name.”
Again, if there was something inherently holy about Mary, inherently righteous about Mary, if she were indeed this wellspring or fountain of grace, “full of grace” as the Roman Catholic Church teaches, she would have no reason to pray that prayer. But because she was rightly recognizing here this wide gulf that existed between her and this holy God she worshiped, and because she appreciated the unmerited favor and grace she’d been shown, she rightly praised Him in this way.

But that came later in her “Magnificat.” Before she got to praising, getting back to our text, she was first perplexed which we’re going to see in the next part of our passage, in verse 29 where Luke records this after receiving this greeting. Verse 29 say, “But she was very perplexed at this statement, and was pondering what kind of greeting this was.” If you’re taking notes this morning, our third heading, our third point is “The Astonishment.” You see two verbs there in verse 29 which both point to the fact that Mary was astonished. First, Luke tells us that she was “very perplexed.” Second, he tells us that she was “pondering.”

Let’s start with the fact that she was “very perplexed.” The verb there means fear-struck. She was fear-struck. As one lexicon translates it, this word means “greatly troubled,” “completely shaken, thrown into confusion, terrified.” So, what Luke is highlighting here is that Mary experienced an even stronger sense of fear than what Zechariah experienced back in verse 12. Mary was overwhelmed, she was startled, she was agitated. But not in the sense of being angry or upset, but rather in the sense of being in awe. Mary was this sober-minded young woman of faith. And her reaction here shows that she recognized that she was unworthy of the greeting she received from the angel Gabriel. Similar to Zechariah and Elizabeth, who we saw back in verse 6 of Luke 1 were “righteous” and “walking blamelessly in all the commandments and righteous requirements of the Lord.” Mary recognized that she was a sinner. And now she’s in the presence of this holy representative of God, the angel Gabriel, who’s telling her that she’s the object of God’s favor, and that God is with her. And to a godly young woman like Mary this would have been overwhelming, confounding, perplexing, which led her, we see next, to start pondering.

Look at the next part of verse 29 according to Luke, Mary “was pondering what kind of greeting this was.” She was mulling over the matter. She was considering what had just happened to her. She was contemplating this angel’s greeting. The word “pondering” there is reflexive. And all that means is that she was pondering these matters within herself. She was processing it all internally. She was going back and forth within herself. It was like a tennis ball was being lobbed back and forth across the net in her mind. Why had this angel shown up? What was the angel’s purpose? And what did the angel mean that Mary had now “found favor with God”? See, Mary thought of herself, and we just saw this back in the “Magnificat” in verse 48, she thought of herself as a “slave.” So, in what sense now as this slave was she now being favored?
Now, at this point, we have to know that the angel hadn’t yet revealed to Mary the entirety of the message that God had for her. So, she’s understandably confused, even to the point of alarm. As she’s pondering what’s happening here, she’s asking herself that question internally, “Why me?”

Well, the angel apparently detected her astonishment. Which brought about his reply, in verse 30. Here’s our fourth point, if you’re taking notes, this would be “The Assurance.” Look at verse 30, it says, “And the angel said to her, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.’ ” Now note, up to this point Mary hadn’t said a word. But she didn’t have to. Her concern, her angst, her fear, apparently were noticeable and unmistakable. The angel Gabriel could, in a sense, see right through her. He detected her state of bewilderment. He picked up on her pondering. So, he says to her in verse 30, “Do not be afraid, Mary.” Very similar to what he said to Zechariah the priest back in verse 13 where he said, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah,” fear not.

And the reason for the angel’s command and his call on her to be calm is given at the end of verse 30 where he says, “for you have found favor with God.” That would have been a very familiar concept to Mary. Not only because the angel called her “favored one” back in verse 28, but also, that idea, that concept, of having “found favor with God” or being graced by God, is prevalent throughout the Old Testament. Mary would remember the story of Genesis 6, where Noah found favor in the eyes of God and his family was spared from the Flood. Or the story in Judges 6, where Gideon was shown favor by God, which led to him becoming a judge in Israel.
And, of course, near and dear to Mary’s heart, would have been the story of Hannah, in 1 Samuel 1 and 2, where Hannah, though formerly childless, was later with child. In a similar way Mary was now being shown favor by God. Now, at this point, she still doesn’t know the specifics. She still wasn’t aware of the particulars, of what the message was this angel had for her. She didn’t yet know at this point in the narrative that she had been chosen to be the mother of the Messiah, God’s divine Son. All she knew was that the angel had told her that she was favored, and that God had chosen to, in some unspecified manner, display His grace toward her, display His favor toward her.

Mary wasn’t worthy of God’s grace. None of us is. Mary was unable to merit or earn favor to gain God’s grace. None of us can. Mary, as we’ve seen, wasn’t full of grace. No. She needed grace and she was given grace. Just as for you and I, Ephesians 2:5, it’s by grace that we have been saved. It was by grace that Mary had been set apart here for special service. And again looking at her “Magnificat,” we can see that she understood this, she recognized this. She says,
“My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior. For He has looked upon the humble state of His slave… [And] the mighty One has done great things for me.”
Mary’s humble response here of magnifying the Lord, of rejoicing in God her Savior, was both admirable and commendable. So knowing that, is Mary in terms of her response here worthy of emulation? Imitation even? Should we magnify the Lord, and rejoice in the grace that we’ve been shown by God? Absolutely. But is Mary worthy of exaltation? And worship? And coronation as the supposed Queen of Heaven? Absolutely not.

As we turn to verse 31, we’re getting to the heart of the angel Gabriel’s annunciation to Mary. Gabriel had appeared to her and greeted her and told her she was favored and that the Lord was with her. Mary, we saw, was fear-struck by this greeting and she was wondering, pondering what it meant. We just saw that the angel calmed her fears. Told her she had nothing to fear. Told her for a second time that she was favored. And next, as we’re about to see, the angel shifted his attention really to the heart of his announcement to Mary, which was that the Messiah of Israel, the Son of God, would enter this world through her womb. Put another way, God had chosen her to be the mother of Israel’s long-awaited Messiah. If you’re a note taker, that’s our fifth point, “The Attention,” attention as in the focal point, the crux of what the angel was announcing to Mary here. You see it there in the middle of verse 31, actually the start of verse 31 all the way down to verse 33. He says, “And behold,” these are the words of the angel Gabriel to Mary, “you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name Him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David, and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and there will be no end of His kingdom.”

So, similar to the features of the forerunner which Gabriel laid out for Zechariah the priest, concerning his own son, John the Baptist, back in the Jerusalem temple, here Gabriel lays out the characteristics of the Christ Child, the Messiah, who Mary would soon be carrying in her womb. There are five of them. First, the child that Mary would carry would be Spirit-conceived.
Second, He would save. Third, He would be great. Fourth, He would be God. And fifth, He would be a king.

We’ll work through these one by one. Starting with the fact that He would be Spirit-conceived.
Look at verse 31, he says, “And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son.”
As Gabriel began to specify the type of favor that Mary had been shown, he began by revealing to her that she would be gifted with a Son. In verse 13 of chapter 1, the angel Gabriel, you’ll recall, told Zechariah, “your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son.” And that was already supernatural, as we saw. But here, Mary had no husband. Unlike Elizabeth, she had no Zechariah. Though she was betrothed to Joseph, they had yet to be formally wed, as we looked at last time. And yet here she was being told, this young, virgin, betrothed girl, that she would be a mother.

Now, there are certain critical scholars out there -- critical scholars, by the way, are those who make a living trying to discredit the bible -- they will argue from verse 31 that there’s nothing here said about a virgin birth, that there’s nothing in the words of verse 31 that says anything about the Holy Spirit being a divine agent of conception. And what those scholars will argue is that what this verse is implying, is that Mary had a normal, albeit illegitimate pregnancy. Which would then call into question Mary’s purity. And then Jesus’ divinity, because if Jesus wasn’t Spirit-born, or Spirit-conceived, then He wouldn’t really be God. He’d just be a man and not divine. But that line of reasoning ultimately goes nowhere. Because the supernatural conception of Jesus in Mary’s womb is not only clearly alluded to here in verse 31, but it is stated all over the Gospel of Luke, not to mention the other Gospels.

As we saw last week, Mary is mentioned as being, back in verses 26-27, she’s called a virgin, a “parthenos.” In fact, look at that passage again, “Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin [parthenos] betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin’s [parthenos] name was Mary.”
Or look down the page at verse 34, we’ll be here next week, where Mary says to the angel, in response to his announcement, “How will this be, since I am a [parthenos] virgin?” Or if you go over to Luke 3, where we’ll be, I don’t know, in a year or so. Look at Luke 3:23. This begins the genealogy of Jesus. And it says, “When He began His ministry, Jesus Himself was about thirty years of age, being, as was supposed, the son of Joseph.” What’s that word “supposed” telling us? It’s implying some form of non-natural conception of Jesus in Mary’s womb. Piecing all that together then. When the angel, here in Luke 1:31, announced to Mary, this unwed virgin, that “you will conceive in your womb,” he’s describing something supernatural, something Spirit-directed, something that was the result of the gracious and divine intervention of God Himself, namely, the virgin birth.

Mary would, as the angel Gabriel here said, “bear a son.” “Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son.” That’s a pretty straightforward statement. One additional detail I’ll mention there that the original reader would have picked up on, is that this statement that Mary would bear a son would have reminded them of all those Old Testament narrative accounts of sons that were born to various individuals. Like the promise to Hagar, the mother of Ishmael, in Genesis 16:11, “the angel of Yahweh said to her further, ‘Behold, you are with child, and you will bear a son; and you shall call his name Ishmael.’ ” Or to the wife of Manaoh, parents of Samson, Judges 13:5 says, “For behold, you shall be with child and give birth to a son, and no razor shall come upon his head, for the boy shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb.” And, of course, this follows here in our text, the pattern of those familiar words of Isaiah 7:14, prophetic words, “Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel.”

So, like several who had gone before her, Mary here was promised a Son, but not just any son as we’re about to see. And this is our second observation about the Child who would soon be in her womb. This would be a child who would save. Look at the end of verse 31, where it says, “and you shall name Him Jesus.” As he had with Zechariah, the angel Gabriel instructed Mary what she was to name her son. His name would be Jesus, “you shall name Him Jesus.” I’m sure many of you have heard this before, but Jesus is the Greek form of the Hebrew name Joshua, which in turn means “Yahweh is salvation” or “Yahweh saves.” And while Luke doesn’t elaborate here on the meaning of this name of this coming child Jesus, Matthew did in his Gospel. Here’s Matthew 1:20, it says, “behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, ‘Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife; for the One who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. And she will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.’” Did you catch those last few words? “For He will save His people from their sins.” The child that Mary would eventually carry in her womb would be that Savior who was offered to mankind, the Light of the world, the hope of the world. But the One whom God was going to send would first and foremost, be One who was sent to His own people, the people of Israel, to save them from their sins.

In fact, why don’t you turn with me, over to Luke 19. For a familiar illustration of what’s being said here about Jesus, the child that would be carried by Mary, being sent first to His people.
Look at Luke 19. It’s the story of Zaccheus which some think is about this, you know, tax collector’s small stature, but is actually about something far greater. And it starts in Luke 19:1. Speaking of Jesus here, it says, “And He entered Jericho and was passing through. And behold, there was a man called by the name of Zaccheus; he was a chief tax collector and he was rich. And Zaccheus was trying to see who Jesus was, and was unable because of the crowd, for he was small in stature. So he ran on before and climbed up into a sycamore tree in order to see Him, for He was about to pass through that way. And when Jesus came to the place, He looked up and said to him, ‘Zaccheus, hurry and come down, for today I must stay at your house.’ And he hurried and came down and received Him gladly. And when they saw it, they all began to grumble, saying, ‘He has gone to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.’ But Zaccheus stopped and said to the Lord, ‘Behold, half of my possessions, Lord, I will give to the poor, and if I have extorted anyone of anything, I will give back four times as much.’ And Jesus said to him, ‘Today salvation has come to this house, because he, too, is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save the lost.’” Friends, that’s what Jesus came to do. He didn’t come, first and foremost to work miracles. He didn’t come primarily to be a good moral example. He didn’t come to establish soup kitchens. No. He came to save. And He started with His own people, the people of Israel.

In fact, go over with me to the book of Acts, also written by the pen of Luke, as we know. Look at Acts 13, the Apostle Paul, in Acts 13, on his first missionary journey. He’s in Antioch and he’s ministering to the Jewish people there. And look at Acts 13:16 for another example of the message of Christ, first going to the Jews, and then fanning out from there. Acts 13:16, it says,
“So Paul stood up, and motioning with his hand said, ‘Men of Israel, and you who fear God, listen: The God of this people Israel chose our fathers and lifted up the people during their stay in the land of Egypt, and with an uplifted arm He led them out from it. And for a period of about forty years, He put up with them in the wilderness. And when He destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan, He distributed their land as an inheritance – all of which took about 450 years. After these things He gave them judges until Samuel the prophet. Then they asked for a king, and God gave them Saul the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, for forty years. And after He had removed him, He raised up David to be their king, about whom He also said, bearing witness, “I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after My heart, who will do all My will.” ’ From the seed of this man, according to promise, God has brought to Israel a Savior, Jesus.”

Back to our text, Luke 1. When the angel Gabriel said to Mary, “you shall name Him Jesus,” what he was revealing to her was that her Son, Jesus, would be the One through whom God brought salvation. He would first and foremost be Israel’s Savior. But then, as history would play out and we, on the other side of that historical timeline, know how this plays out, He would later be revealed to be the Savior of mankind, to Jew first, and also to the Greek, the Gentile. That’s why we can say things like, “For God so loved the world,” and affirm what Christ said there. But it started with Israel. He came to save His people from their sins, and then it fanned out from there. So, that’s the second characteristic of this Christ Child, He would be one who saves.

The third, is that He would be great. Look at the first few words of verse 32, “He will be great.”
Now, you’ll recall back in Luke 1:15, as the angel Gabriel was describing to Zechariah all that his future son, John the Baptist, would say and do, he said to Zechariah that “he will be great in the sight of the Lord.” Well, to Mary here, Gabriel takes it another step up. He escalates matters as he describes the Child that she would carry. He doesn’t qualify the greatness of her Son. He simply says, “He will be great.” Surely He would be greater than John the Baptist, His forerunner. In fact, John himself acknowledged that in Luke 3:16, where he says,
“One is coming who is mightier than I, and I am not fit to untie the strap of His sandals.”
But that’s not the only thing that’s being said here in verse 32 where it says, “He will be great”. It’s saying here that Jesus’ greatness would be unqualified and absolute. And whenever we dig into the Old Testament, we look for examples of that word “great” being used in such an unqualified, absolute manner. It is always used in reference to God, and God alone. Like in Psalm 86:10, “For You are great and do wondrous deeds; You alone are God.” Psalm 145:3 says. “Great is Yahweh, and highly to be praised, and His greatness is unsearchable.” Deuteronomy 10:17 says, “For Yahweh your God is the God of gods and the Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the fearsome God.” So, like John the Baptist, Jesus would be great, but not in comparison to anything or anyone else. Rather, His greatness would be of an entirely different character. His greatness would derive from His Godness. His greatness would be absolute and unqualified. It would be all tied into His essence and being, which are divine.

And that ties, by the way, into our fourth descriptor the angel Gabriel said would be delivered through Mary. He would be God. That’s our fourth descriptor, He would be God. Look at the next part of verse 32, which gives us that. After saying He would be great, then it says, “and will be called the Son of the Most High.” That is a clear reference to Christ’s deity. Those words, “Most High”, whenever you see them in the Old Testament, are referring to God Himself. “Most High” in Hebrew, would be El Elyon, it’s another name for God. God is the God Most High. Melchizedek, in Genesis 14:18, was called “a priest of God Most High.” Psalm 7:17 says, I “will sing praise to the name of Yahweh Most High.” Jeremiah, in Lamentations 3:37 said, “Who is there who speaks and it happens, unless the Lord has commanded it? Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that both calamities and good go forth?” Daniel, in Daniel 4:24, as he gave his interpretation of the king’s dream, said, “this is the interpretation, O king, and this is the resolution of the Most High.” So, “Most High” in the Old Testament always is a reference to God.

In the New Testament, and specifically in Luke’s writings, and you see the same thing. I’ll just give you one example. If you look down the page at Luke 1:76. This is Zechariah now prophesying over his son, John the Baptist, when John is born. He says, “And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High.” He’s talking about God, you’ll be a prophet of God going before the Messiah.

So, back to our verse, Luke 1:32, the child that Mary would soon be carrying in her womb, as verse 32 indicates, would be called “Son of the Most High”, which is a way of saying He would be the Son of God. And as that would have been understood in these days, when you called somebody the son of whoever, son of David, son of Abraham, son of God, you’re saying he possesses his father’s qualities. Applied here, when you’re calling somebody the Son of God, you’re saying He shares His Father’s essence. He’s perfectly divine. He’s God Himself. Son of the Most High means Son of God, which means very God.

Now, did everything ‘click’ for Mary in this moment? That’s one of those questions that gets kicked around living rooms and coffee tables. Did Mary know right away that the Son that she was going to carry, would be God of very God, fully God, fully Man? Was it clicking when the angel said “Son of the Most High” that that meant deity, full deity? I don’t think we can say that with confidence. That she understood everything at the moment of the announcement, as this 12 or 13 years old, betrothed, virgin girl. And one of the reasons I say that, is down the page, in Luke 2:48-51, where a dozen years have gone by since this announcement. And now, the family of the now 12 year old Jesus, is doubling back in their caravan because they forgot Jesus at the temple, where He’s been teaching. Remember that scene? It’s like the original “Home Alone” scene. And it says here in Luke 2:48, “When they saw Him,” this is after they get back to the temple to pick Him up, “they were astonished, and His mother said to Him, ‘Child, why have You treated us this way? Behold, Your father and I have been anxiously searching for You.’ And He said to them, ‘Why is it that you were searching for Me? Did you not know that I had to be in My Father’s house,’ ” and look at verse 50, “But they,” meaning the family, including Mary, “did not understand the statement which He had spoken to them.”

So, they didn’t fully get it 12 years later, let alone when Mary, back in verse 32, as this young, perplexed, virgin girl was visited by this angel. I don’t believe she understood everything in that moment, right away, about her coming Son and His deity. But the fact that she may not of immediately and fully grasped all of it in that moment, doesn’t in any way undermine the truth of what the angel was announcing in that moment to her. See, whether or not she could fully grasp all these details, in this overwhelming moment of this angelic announcement, the reality was her Son would be “called the Son of the Most High.” He was the “Son of the Most High.” Meaning, He was God Himself.

Not only would He be God’s Son though, as we’re going to see next, He would be God’s set apart King. Which takes us to our fifth and final characteristic of Mary’s coming Son. Which is listed out midway through verse 32, all the way through into verse 33. It says, “and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David, and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and there will be no end of His kingdom.”
We saw last time that Jesus was legally a descendant of David through the line of His adoptive father, Joseph. Well, what the angel Gabriel was communicating to Mary was that her Son, Jesus, would be the heir of the Davidic promises. He would be the promised Messiah from David’s line. He would be the Davidic King.

And to trace all this out we’d have to do a deep study of 2 Samuel 7. We don’t have time for that right now. I’ll give you some of the highlights. In 2 Samuel 7, God makes this promise to David through Nathan the prophet about this house and his throne and this kingdom that he would have, his line would have, in perpetuity. And while some of those promises made to David, back in David’s day, were fulfilled in the near term, meaning soon after David lived… An example of that would be verse 12 of 2 Samuel 7, where it says, “When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up one of your seed after you, who will come forth from your own body, and I will establish his kingdom.” That was a near term reference to David’s own son, his immediate son, Solomon. But there are other references given in that same Davidic covenant language of 2 Samuel 7, which had this longer scope and longer fulfillment in view. Like 2 Samuel 7:16, where God said to David, through Nathan, “your house and your kingdom shall endure before me forever; your throne shall be established forever.” Those words, especially as we see the history of Israel played out in the Old Testament, those were not fulfilled in David’s immediate family, Solomon and following. Instead, those are references to this Messiah, this future Messiah who would come through David’s line. And we see other examples of this, affirming this truth of these future Messianic promises God had made to David, that would be fulfilled off in the future. Like Psalm 89:35, this is God’s speaking, He says, “Once I have sworn by My holiness; I will not lie to David. His seed shall endure forever and his throne as the sun before Me. It shall be established forever like the moon, and the witness in the sky is faithful.” Or Isaiah 9. We think of the first half at Christmas time, but listen to the second half, “For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; and the government will rest on His shoulders; and His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, on the throne of David and over his kingdom.”

Well, here in Luke 1:32, by telling Mary of her Son that “the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David,” the angel Gabriel was telling her that her Son, the One to be named Jesus, was the promised Davidic Messiah of Israel. He would have this regal position, as it says here, as “the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David.”

Next, the angel told Mary, there in verse 33, the Son would not only have this regal position on this throne, but he’d have a specific realm. He would, it says there, “reign over the house of Jacob forever.” The house of Jacob there is a reference to Israel. You remember Jacob’s name was changed in Genesis 32 to Israel. And the “house of Jacob” here in the angel’s announcement is a reference to Israel as Mary would have understood these words coming from the angel about her future Son and his future reign. She understood all of this to be in relation to the people of Israel. Which is why she would say, again, in her “Magnificat,” over the page at Luke 1:54, “He has given help to Israel His servant, in remembrance of His mercy, as He spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and his seed forever.” Mary here was making no mention of the church. Mary would not have known what the church is. She’s making no mention of Gentiles. She’s not leaping ahead what Paul would later write about grafting in of Gentiles. Her focus here, as a good little Israelite girl, is Israel. So, as the angel was speaking to Mary, she understood the Israel focus here of these words, that her Son, Jesus, would “reign over the house of Jacob forever.”

And then we have this last aspect of the angel’s announcement, end of verse 33, where the angel told her, not only would her Son have a regal position on David’s throne, and not only a specific realm over the house of Jacob, “Israel,” but you see here, He would also have an everlasting reign. You see it, he says, “there will be no end of His kingdom.” And again, that takes us right back to the words of the Davidic Covenant in 2 Samuel 7:16, where God, through Nathan to David, said, “And your house and your kingdom shall endure before Me forever; your throne shall be established forever.” So, what these statements about Mary’s coming Son were ultimately pointing to was He would have a future reign on earth as Israel’s promised Messiah and King.

Now, we are going to see, as we work through the Gospel of Luke for many years ahead of us, and all that it says about Jesus’ earthly ministry… we are going to see and learn that much of this was fulfilled. Not all of it, much of it was fulfilled. Some is yet to be fulfilled. But Jesus did come into this world the way that the angel Gabriel predicted he would. He came through a virgin’s womb. And Jesus did come to His own as this One who had the right to the Davidic throne. And He did come to this earth to reign. But while He came to this earth to reign, and offered His kingdom here, to the earth, on earth, His kingdom offer was rejected. He was spurned. He was turned away. He was mocked and spit upon and murdered. But as we know, the grave couldn’t keep Him. Death didn’t win. And so, He rose from the grave. And we know then, He ascended back to the Father. But we also know, from the Word, that one day He will be back on a date that is fixed in heaven. And He will return to establish His kingdom, a kingdom in which He will sit on the throne of His father David. And He will reign over the house of Jacob. And He will do so eternally.

Don’t get this confused. Because many get this confused in church-land today. Jesus’ kingdom is not now. His kingdom, rather, is future. He’s not sitting on the throne of David here on earth today. No. He’s building His church, as He sits at the right hand of His Father in heaven. He’s not reigning over the house of Jacob today. Again, He’s building the church here on earth right now. But He will come. And He will reign. And He’ll bring with Him church-age saints, and tribulation saints. And He will be King. And He will have a throne. And as the angel told Mary here, His kingdom will have no end. That sounds a lot like Daniel 7:27 which says: “His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom, and all the dominions will serve and obey Him.”

And until that day, we who live in the Church Age, waiting for all that to happen, we do what? We do what He said to do in Matthew 6:10, we pray, “Your kingdom come. Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven.”

Let’s pray. God, we thank You for this chance this morning to open Your word. And to mine it’s riches for the truths that You’ve laid out for us. God, I do want to thank You, specifically for the life of faithful Mary. Thank You that she was a humble servant. That she did receive this message with humility, from the angel who announced this to her. That she recognized her need of a Savior as a sinner. That she joyfully and dutifully carried out Your will. She is an example for us to look to. God, thank You that we know that we don’t have to follow teachings of men, teachings of institutions, dogma, doctrine that is not centered around Your word, but we have the pure and unvarnished truth contained in Your word, that tells us all that we need to know. Not just about Mary, but about Christ, about You, God, about Your plan of salvation, and about Your will for our lives. So, God, I pray that for we who believe upon the name of Jesus Christ, that we would be reminded of Your faithfulness to us through this message. That we would be reminded of the faithful example of those recorded here. And that would spur us on to greater faithfulness. And God, if there is someone here who is not a follower of Jesus Christ, I do pray that today would be the day that You would crack their stony heart. That You would turn their heart to You. That You would help them see the bankrupt nature of the sin that they are pursuing. That You would put the reality of heaven and hell before them. And that they would truly see, that to be right with You God, is not by works, not by deeds, not by anything they bring. But rather, by putting trust in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross. God, may You be praised and honored in all that we do this week. In Jesus’ name. Amen.