Show Notes
Luke 1:26-33
Pastor Christopher Chelpka
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Episode Transcript
[00:00:05] Brothers and sisters, let's pray.
[00:00:09] Our Heavenly Father, we thank you that in all of our sighing and crying and the pains and difficulties of this life, we know that you are using these things for our good, that for those who are called according to your purpose, all the things that come into our lives, both good and evil, that, Lord, you are working in them all.
[00:00:36] There are things that we struggle with, things that make us desperate, things that bring us great joy.
[00:00:44] Help us to see you above it all and in the center of it all, that we might rest not in the things of this world, and certainly not in the passions and sinful lusts of this world, but in you, in your righteousness, in your holiness, and all the things that you have called us into.
[00:01:05] We ask that through your word you would conform us to the image of your Son.
[00:01:13] We thank you for proclaiming him and for his incarnation.
[00:01:20] We thank you that despite the great trials of it, trials which we can hardly imagine, he suffered under great temptation and did not sin, that he became for us a high priest forever able to intercede for us.
[00:01:37] He ascended to the great throne of David to assume his rightful place as the forever king over all of mankind. Lord, help us to see him more clearly and give him the praise due his name.
[00:01:56] We worship you by the power of your spirit and ask that you would lift us up, that you would help me to make your gospel clear, that many would believe and follow you. We pray all this in the name of Jesus.
[00:02:12] Amen.
[00:02:14] Let's turn to God's word now in Luke, chapter one, Luke 1:2633.
[00:02:51] So as we continue to see how the Lord fulfills his promises to David, that great Davidic covenant, and fulfills them in Christ, we come to Luke, chapter one.
[00:03:02] Last week we heard from a passage in Jeremiah about the promised king. The king promised.
[00:03:09] We hear about the king conceived.
[00:03:13] Luke 1, verse 26.
[00:03:18] In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph of the house of David, and the virgin's name was Mary.
[00:03:32] And he came to her and said, greetings, O favored one. The Lord is with you.
[00:03:37] But she was greatly troubled at the saying and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be.
[00:03:43] And the angel said to her, do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.
[00:03:50] And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus.
[00:03:58] And he will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most high.
[00:04:03] And the Lord God will give to 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.
[00:04:16] Mary said to the angel, how will this be, since I am a virgin?
[00:04:21] And the angel answered her, the Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.
[00:04:30] Therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God.
[00:04:36] And behold, your relative Elizabeth, in her old age has conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her, who was called barren, for nothing will be impossible with God.
[00:04:48] And Mary said, behold, I am the servant of the Lord.
[00:04:54] Let it be to me according to your word. And the angel departed from her.
[00:04:59] Amen.
[00:05:01] Please be seated.
[00:05:32] The story is not just a story. And that's perhaps my main point today.
[00:05:40] At the beginning of Luke, the very first verse, the Gospel writer writes, inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us, just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the Word have delivered them to us.
[00:06:05] It seemed good to me also, having followed all things closely for some time past, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent, Theophilus, and that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught.
[00:06:23] This is not how fairy tales begin.
[00:06:26] This is how histories begin.
[00:06:29] This is the kind of things that you will hear even today. When you read the prefaces of historical works, the authors frequently will say things like, this is why I wrote this history.
[00:06:44] This is how I went about this work. This is what inspired these things.
[00:06:50] And Luke gives a testimony here he is promising that he is his intentions and what he is doing.
[00:06:58] To compile a narrative, to compile a story history, all these words are good. Of the things that have been accomplished among us, something happened in the world.
[00:07:11] Something very big happened in the time of Luke and Theophilus and many others.
[00:07:19] There were eyewitnesses of these things.
[00:07:22] There were ways in which Luke's own life intersected with these events. And not just Luke, of course. We have three other Gospel writers and other testimonies and things that had happened, and Luke decided to record these things down.
[00:07:40] This is important because sometimes it is tempting to think about the events concerning the Gospel of Christ. Gospel means good news. It's tempting to think about these things as just a happy story, an inspirational story, a story of warmth, a story of comfort, a story that's nice to hear and be reminded of.
[00:08:06] And for some people, it doesn't mean anything. More than that, it's just a nice story.
[00:08:13] And perhaps that feels good enough to some because, well, it makes me feel good. So isn't that enough?
[00:08:22] But really, my friends, there's more to life than just feeling good in the moment.
[00:08:28] There's more to life than just good vibes and feeling in feeling better than we did a few moments ago.
[00:08:38] There's this thing called reality.
[00:08:42] What's actually true, what things have happened, and when those things have happened, what implications does that have for me, right? If somebody came to you, if you got a certified piece of mail and said, you know, upon receiving this, you are authorized to access this account of this long lost relative who has just left to you a bazillion dollars, right? The truthfulness of that would make a big difference for you, right? It's not just, oh, well, that's a nice story, right? You would want to know, is this true? Am I being scammed? Right? You probably think you were being scammed.
[00:09:25] But these things matter. Truth matters, right?
[00:09:29] The same thing with all kinds of things in our life. When, when the check engine light goes on our car, we want to know, is that functioning properly? And if so, what do I do about it?
[00:09:41] All these things in our life, these things matter. Facts matter, history matters.
[00:09:48] Well, the historical thing that Luke records here is amazing, right? The Bible is full of all kinds of particular, very particular details, so many particular details that some people begin to trust the words of the Bible because of the abundance of truth in details about cities and plants and distances and architecture features and little tiny things like this.
[00:10:19] Because the Bible is so detailed on these things and because they're corroborated with other things outside of the Scriptures. Some people come to trust in the Bible and its truthfulness because of these very mundane things.
[00:10:34] Well, there's also these very not mundane things like we have here today.
[00:10:40] And it begins even from verse 26.
[00:10:43] In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth.
[00:10:52] Already this passage is recognizing something which people that are pure materialists or pretend to be have to come to think about, right? Do things like angels exist?
[00:11:07] Are there powers and, and beings that exist outside of just the things that we see here and now?
[00:11:18] My personal experience in talking with a lot of people over the years is that there are a number of people who will pretend to be materialists or they're sort of materialists, which is to say they only believe in physical, material things.
[00:11:34] But it's temporary, it's for a moment they'll say they're materialists, they say, no, I don't believe in angels and demons and God and all that stuff. But then you ask them a question like this, especially if it's around Halloween or a campfire, and you say, has anything weird ever happened in your life?
[00:11:52] Have you ever heard a story that you can't quite explain? And then all of a sudden their faces will light up and they'll say, you know, there is this one crazy thing at my aunt's house when we were. And then that kind of thing, right?
[00:12:06] Or this one time, these things that they even materialists, hardcore materialists will say, you know, there are these things that are really hard to explain by materialist presuppositions, only things that they, in their own thinking, in their own worldview, say, I feel like I need to adopt some kind of spiritual aspect to my worldview and how I think about what actually exists.
[00:12:37] Now, of course, not all of that is true. And there's all kinds of crazy ideas. And just because something is spiritual doesn't mean it's true.
[00:12:46] There's all kinds of lies. And so we have to decide, well, how do we think about these things? What do we think is true? What do we think is not true?
[00:12:56] And these questions come to the forefront right away. In 1:26 in the month, in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to the city of Galilee named Nazareth.
[00:13:11] And Gabriel came to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph.
[00:13:18] Luke is not being vague here, right? He names a very particular woman, a very particular man, and. And a very particular city.
[00:13:29] All which could be identified by people who were reading this, right? All people who could have checked these facts out.
[00:13:37] Was there Mary? Was there Joseph, Were they from Nazareth? Was he from the house of David? Luke is not shying away from being specific. He's not afraid to tell the story. He's not keeping it so vague that it could be anybody and you didn't really know. He's naming names.
[00:14:00] And that's what he says.
[00:14:02] He says, this is the angel came to Mary, to Joseph, who was of the house of David. And of course that detail matters, right?
[00:14:12] Because we are going to learn that Jesus is of also the house of David, coming from the throne of David.
[00:14:22] The virgin's name was Mary. And he came to her and he said, greetings, O favored one. The Lord is with you.
[00:14:29] And Mary has a hard time with this.
[00:14:35] It's easy for us to read this, and we know how it all works out, but put yourself in Mary's shoes. For a moment, imagine an angel coming to you and speaking to you. A lot of times when this happens in scripture, people fall down afraid. Sometimes they worship the angel and. And because it's so intense, so much splendor, so much glory, that the angel will say, don't worship me.
[00:15:01] There's someone above me who only should have your worship.
[00:15:07] And she doesn't try to worship the angel, but she is very afraid at this message and at this messenger. And she was greatly troubled at the saying and tries to discern what sort of greeting this might be.
[00:15:20] And the angel brings to her these words of comfort. Do not be afraid, Mary, for I, for you have found favor with God.
[00:15:33] Those are words that you want to hear.
[00:15:38] And he says, behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name, Jesus, like Joshua, a savior, a king, a rescuer. He will be great and will be called other names, Son of the Most High.
[00:15:56] And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father, David.
[00:16:02] Now, that's an intense statement, especially David. Jesus, as we will see, was not born as the son of a great king.
[00:16:13] Neither Mary nor Joseph are on the throne of Israel as some sort of great rulers. They're coming from outside of Jerusalem, from Nazareth. There's many, many things about the circumstances of his birth, even of his conception, which are very lowly, but he will be very great, and he will be given this throne of David.
[00:16:38] And one more thing, he will reign over the house of Jacob, connecting the promises of Abraham forever and of his kingdom. There will be no end.
[00:16:49] And right there with that line, we realize that something really huge has happened.
[00:16:56] The promises being fulfilled with this one, that promise that God made to David, that promise that one would come and sit on the throne forever and there would be no end to that kingdom. And as we read in Jeremiah, and as Pastor Lauer told us from Isaiah 9, this king is the big one, the final one, the complete one, and most imperfectly, most importantly, the perfect one.
[00:17:26] The perfect one, ruling in righteousness, ruling with strength, ruling with peace over his people. Everything that you would ever want a king to be, a good king to be, he is.
[00:17:42] This changes everything, right? The whole history of the world has been snowballing to this moment, to this person, that this is happening at this moment. The scriptures talk about this happening in the fullness of time, that God himself is arranging time, that time itself is subjected to this particular person. And of course, because he is the Son of God, the Son of God born into this world. And Mary says, how will this be, since I am a virgin?
[00:18:29] And the angel explains, the Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.
[00:18:36] These words of overshadowing echo those beginning words at the beginning of the Bible. In Genesis, when the Spirit of God hovered over the darkness, he will overshadow. He will hover over Mary's womb and will bring out of nothing the Son of God.
[00:18:59] New creation is beginning.
[00:19:03] New hope is beginning. A new covenant is being founded. The one who was promised is the one who is now coming.
[00:19:12] God himself will be born, anointed by the Spirit. He will be called, unsurprisingly, holy. He is the Son of God.
[00:19:24] He's not just another man.
[00:19:26] He's not just a great man. He is a divine man.
[00:19:31] And no one like that has ever existed.
[00:19:36] As proof of this and as confidence to her, he points to a lesser miracle.
[00:19:44] This is an amazing thing, he says, and behold your relative. Elizabeth, in her old age, has also conceived a son. Elizabeth was old. Elizabeth was called barren. And Elizabeth had a child.
[00:20:00] And this is the sixth month with her, who was called barren.
[00:20:04] This is an amazing thing in itself and something God has done at important moments throughout the history of redemption, right? Including with Abraham and his wife and others along the way, people who could not have children.
[00:20:19] You remember perhaps Hann and with Samuel and other these moments where God shows his power in bringing life out of barrenness.
[00:20:32] And then he takes it to yet another level with Mary. And he brings a birth. He brings conception to one who is a virgin.
[00:20:47] Verse 37.
[00:20:48] Important to memorize. For nothing will be impossible with God.
[00:20:55] God is in history, acting and working through every movement, every moment, every way. It wasn't on some random day that Jesus was born. He was born, he was conceived, he was sent in the fullness of time, right at the perfect moment. And that only happened because God was omnipotently, powerfully working over every moment of time since the very beginning. When he establishes time itself. God working in every person, in every place, plant and animal, superintending all things to this very moment, working and using means, but also, as we see here above them, apart from them, causing someone to be born who is born of a virgin, nothing will be impossible with God.
[00:21:57] We come to the last verse.
[00:21:59] Mary says, behold, I am a servant of the Lord. Let it be to me according to your Word.
[00:22:07] And that's exactly what you want to say. Whenever you come into contact with God's Word, including today, as you hear God's Word today, anytime you Come into contact with God's word.
[00:22:21] You say in your heart, behold, I am the servant of the Lord. Let it be to me according to your word.
[00:22:30] So for Mary, in this particular moment, this had to do with what?
[00:22:38] It had to do with believing and trusting the thing God had just told her.
[00:22:42] Which meant a lot of things, right? As a pregnant woman. Right.
[00:22:49] When women become pregnant, they shift their minds and they think about this, this baby that they're needing to care for.
[00:22:58] Right. No doubt she did the same.
[00:23:01] But for Mary, there was another element too, which is this, her baby that she needed to care for was also her God.
[00:23:15] This Son of the Most High, this Son of God would be someone that she would not just care for, but someone that she would worship, someone she would be saved by, someone that we would all be saved by as we put our faith in him.
[00:23:33] For Mary, this meant a whole bunch of things, a whole bunch of implications. What does it mean for us?
[00:23:41] Well, it means for us that we cannot forget that Jesus is the fulfillment of the Davidic Covenant. This wasn't just a kind of personal truth for Mary, a kind of nice thing that she could hold on to, Right. This had implications for the entire world because Jesus, in taking the throne of David, wasn't just taking the throne for Israel, but it was through this throne that God had promised. All the nations of the earth would be blessed, which includes us, right? So if we come to the realization that this king is the king of the world, if this is the final king who is ushering a new kingdom and a new heavens and a new earth, if this is a king who establishes a kingdom that is even not of this world and all the implications that come to us, if he is the fulfillment of the covenant, we have to ask, well, what does that mean for my life?
[00:24:40] Just as Mary had to ask, what does that mean for my life?
[00:24:46] One thing that means as we begin to close here is that we cannot forget this.
[00:24:53] You cannot forget if your check engine light goes on in your car and you just put a piece of black tape over it as the car talk guys used to joke about old reference.
[00:25:06] That's not good enough.
[00:25:08] You can't just ignore these things and expect that life will go on as normal.
[00:25:15] If one of your children comes running out of their bedroom and says, fire, fire, fire, and there's smoke pouring out of their bedroom, you don't say, well, that's okay, we'll just move on.
[00:25:26] Reality has changed. Something new has happened. You need to think about what you're going to do about that, and you cannot forget it.
[00:25:36] The fact that God has sent His Son into the world, the fact that he not just was promised to be born, but was born. The fact that he not only was born, but lived his life righteously, that he obeyed all the commandments of God, that he demonstrated his mercy to sinners like you and me, that he died on a cross for our sins and then rose again from the dead and ascended into heaven.
[00:26:05] Well, that changes things, doesn't it?
[00:26:09] Means we're no longer hoping for a Messiah. Means we're no longer waiting for a king. We are trusting him as the fulfillment of all these promises.
[00:26:19] It means we cannot forget.
[00:26:22] This needs to be. These facts need to be a part of our everyday thinking, our everyday living.
[00:26:29] As we think about to whom we owe our ultimate allegiance, whom we follow, whom we believe.
[00:26:37] It means that as we focus on all the different things of this life.
[00:26:41] For my family right now, that's the end of school and some birthday parties and taking care of, you know, household stuff, just like we all do.
[00:26:51] As we focus on these things, we have to remember that they go in a certain order, that they're not supreme, that they come under the lordship of Christ.
[00:27:02] It also means that when we struggle with our own sin, when we struggle with uncertainty, when we struggle with doubts, when we don't know what to do, we have a king to whom we can turn, a king who promises to hear us, a king who promises to keep us safe, and a king who is actually able to do that because he's not just a man, because He's God and nothing's impossible with God.
[00:27:31] You might be in circumstances and situations in your life where you feel like, I don't see any way out of this. I. I don't see any hope. I don't see any resolution. I don't know what to do.
[00:27:43] You need to remember Jesus.
[00:27:47] You need to remember that he is your king and that he can and does work all things, not just some things, all things together for your good.
[00:28:00] This gives us certainty when we remember his steadfastness, when we remember his faithfulness, when we remember his omnipotence and his power and his capability.
[00:28:13] And finally, when we remember his grace.
[00:28:16] This gives us direction, it gives us comfort, it gives us hope, and it gives us salvation.
[00:28:24] Philippians 2, 6, 11 talks about this, and I'll read this to you.
[00:28:33] Paul talks about these events from a big picture perspective, which is where we've been in Philippians 2, 6, 11. He says that though Jesus was in the form of God, he did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking on the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
[00:29:12] Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that here's the reason, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
[00:29:37] This is what Jesus came to do, and Mary's own reaction to these things is helpful and telling. And the Holy Spirit records these words for us in her response in Luke 1.
[00:29:54] She responds by saying, in verse 47 my soul magnifies the Lord when the Lord brings salvation into the world and brings his promises to completeness when he proves his steadfastness, let our souls magnify the Lord and rejoice in God our Savior.
[00:30:17] She confesses his grace in this in verse 48, when she says, for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant.
[00:30:25] And again when she says in verse 51, he has shown strength with his arm he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts he has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate.
[00:30:43] Mary knew her own humility.
[00:30:46] Mary knew her humbleness.
[00:30:48] Mary knew her own needs.
[00:30:51] She knew that she was like many who needed a Savior and calls him that.
[00:30:58] Let him be your Savior too. Let him be your Lord as well. Bow your hearts before the Lord and the great King who reigns on the throne of David. Trust in his grace that is extended to all who call on Him. Trust in his power, his ability to do the impossible, his and trust in his faithfulness. He is steadfast and he keeps his promises.
[00:31:27] Let's pray.
[00:31:31] Our Father in Heaven in various moments it is easy to forget the things that you have done.
[00:31:37] It is easy to forget the strength in which you keep us, the strength in which we stand, with a passage like Luke.
[00:31:47] Luke 1 Here we ask that you would remind us that you are not overwhelmed by our guilt and our shame and our fears, that you are not overwhelmed by the circumstances of our lives. But you know how to take even the most difficult and terrible and even sinful things, like crucifying the Lord Jesus on the cross and turning these for the greatest goods ever known to man.
[00:32:14] We ask that because of these promises to us that you would help us not to look into ourselves and try to just find inspiration and motivation but that you would help us to look up to the source of all truth, the source of power and of strength the source of the one who has done the impossible and help us to trust you.
[00:32:41] Trust you because you have kept your promises. Trust you because you are keeping your promises and are able to Lord we ask that you would humble our hearts and help us to put our faith in your Word.
[00:32:54] Let it be to us according to your Word. Let salvation be to us according to your Word. Let obedience and good works and mercy be to us according to your Word. Let fellowship and union with your people be according to your Word.
[00:33:10] Let peace the peace that passes understanding be upon us according to your Word be at work in us. Lord, help us to see our lives as part of this grand story, this great history of redemption and under the lordship and salvation of the greatest king, our King Jesus in whose name we pray.
[00:33:36] Amen.
