Let It Be

the following message is made available by truth for life for more information visit us online at truthfortheworld.org I invite you to turn with me to the Gospel of Luke and to chapter one and we'll read from verse 26 Luke chapter 1 verse 26 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 and he came to her and said greetings o favored one the Lord is with you but she was greatly troubled at the saying and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be 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 call his name Jesus he will be great and will be called the son of the Most High and the Lord God will give to him that throne of his father David and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever and of his kingdom there will be no end and Mary said to the angel how will this be since I am a virgin and the angel answered her the Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the most high will overshadow you therefore the child to be born will be called holy the Son of God and behold your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son and this is the six-month with her who was called barren for nothing will be impossible with God and Mary said behold I am the servant of the Lord let it be to me according to your word and the angel departed from her in those days Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country to a town in Judah and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth and when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary the baby leaped in her womb and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and she exclaimed with a loud cry blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb and why is this granted to me that the mother of my lord should come to me for behold when the sound of your greeting came to my ears the baby in my womb leaped for joy and blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord and Mary said my soul magnifies the Lord thanks be to God for his word gracious God we thank you for the Bible we thank you for the work of the Holy Spirit to illumine the page to us to grant to his understanding in order that we might see enable us Lord not only to hear this word but to become doers of it also in both believing and in obeying for we ask it in Christ's name Amen Mary and Joseph were betrothed to one another that's what the gospel record tells us it's an different word isn't it it's translated variously espoused to one another and it means that they were engaged but it means more than what we think of when we think of being engaged it was a more serious word it was a more binding relationship we tend to think of engagement if we think about engagement at all anymore in certain circles as the announcement a public announcement that two individuals have now determined that setting themselves apart from others they will proceed to the day when they're married and in light of that because it's important and serious it is a sad thing when we learn of a broken engagement but a broken engagement is different from divorce in marriage but not in the context of Mary and Joseph because betrothal at that time could only then be broken as a result of the issuing of a writ of divorce and Mary and Joseph were told from the gospel record had not broken God's law Joseph as we will see this evening was described as a just man or as a righteous man and she also was a good girl they had not known each other if we might use the careful terminology of the King James Version which has never really been bettered they had not known each other in intimacy that is reserved for marriage and therefore it is with that background and in that context that the angel appears here in verse 26 and arrives at the home of Mary now let's just keep in mind here that Luke is writing an orderly account when we study the Gospel of Luke we said we would expect a medical man like look to be able to investigate things properly to be able to take a case history to be able to analyze what was presented to him and to proceed in light of that and that is of course what we find in the gospel record and as he introduces his gospel and you can check this in the opening verses of the gospel he says that he has conducted careful investigation he realizes that he is adding to the corpus of gospel material that he has made sure that as a result of his investigation he would write an orderly account and that that orderly account he trusts and hopes and prays will be the basis of his readers becoming absolutely certain concerning these things so that is his objective and when we come to the material that is before us this morning then we need to keep that in mind and in light of that there's no surprise that he explains he tells us when this happened where it happened to whom it happened and so on in in keeping with his orderly detail you will notice that there is a timeline here in verse 26 in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God well anybody who starts at verse 26 is going to have to ask where do you get the six months from and the answer is if you read the previous paragraph that creates the context because the previous paragraph describes the Angelica counter with Zachariah the announcement of the birth that is going to be the privilege of Elizabeth and we're told there by Luke that Elizabeth after she conceived kept herself hidden for five months and so it is the five months which gives the context for in the six month that is the month that was after the five months that had elapsed the messenger on this occasion is our old friend the angel Gabriel I say our old friend if you remember our studies in Daniel we encountered Gabriel there I'm not sure if it's the same Gabriel there's no way that you can actually tell I like the idea that it is you remember he shows up for Daniel and he tells Daniel you know you don't really need to get too upset about this God is in charge he has a plan that he has put in place and it is all going to unfold according to his directive and Daniel doesn't get it all at that point but he basically says yeah okay fine he goes there's bad usually for a week just to recover from the angelic message but nevertheless Gabriel is now here he's identified as the one who stands in the presence of God that's up in verse 19 when he introduces himself to Zechariah I am Gabriel I stand in the presence of God and I have been sent from his presence with his message and he has been sent to a particular person and to a particular place at a particular time in other words let's remind ourselves that we're dealing here with real geography and with real history you're going to read a lot of stuff in the next few weeks that will suggest to you that if you're paying attention to the gospel records you're actually not dealing with geography in history you're dealing with mythology and you're dealing with conjecture so you're gonna have to be very clear that as you read your Bible you can think these things out and be ready with an answer for those who ask of you a reason for the hope that you have within you now this does not read like a mythology this reads as it as it is a gospel and he identifies the fact that he has come to this place in the region of Galilee to a town called Nazareth and it is in that context that he arrives at Mary's house I don't know where Mary was maybe in her bedroom teenage girls spend a lot of time in their bedrooms and not because I spent a lot of time in teenage girls bedrooms but because but because I had two younger sisters who I remember very very well in their teenage years and it wasn't unusual for them to be sequestered away and there they scribbled their notes and there they did whatever they did and listened to their music and so on as new teenage boys I hate and hasten to add nevertheless it is in this context in the privacy of that environment that he appears and in verse 28 he greets her he came to her and he said greetings o favored one the Lord is with you now the response to this we are not to be surprised by verse 29 she was greatly troubled at the same greatly trouble the same the verb that is used here for greatly troubled I think you'll recognize if you have paid attention to the Christmas story over the years there's somebody else surprise for the person who gets is somebody else whom we're told was greatly troubled and that was of course Herod who when the wise men came saying we have seen his star in the east and we've come to worship this King of the Jews and the gospel writer tells us that and Herod was greatly troubled and all of Jerusalem with him in other words when he got troubled everybody got troubled the trouble that is here described as the trouble in the mind of this young teenage girl she is forced to try and figure out hi how and why she should be specially favored by God the Lord is with you you are the favored one now I think we can safely assume that a girl like Mary was familiar with the Old Testament she probably knew a lot more of it than we know of the New Testament and she may well have sat there in her bedroom saying to herself you know this makes me think of something that you find towards the end of Zephaniah because there the profit makes this amazing statement sing aloud o daughter of Zion the Lord your God is in your midst a mighty one who will save know I don't know whether she thought that out whether if she brought that to mind whether she could but I do know the same as what you know that her response to this angelic visit and the statement in the greeting was that she was troubled and she tried to discern what sort of greeting this could be now she could hardly be prepared for what then follows verse 30 and the angel said to her do not be afraid Mary now this is this is this is what angels say if you check in the in the narratives you'll find that if you're an angel the first thing you do when you show up as you say do not fear or fear not because let's face it you're not expect to just see an angel sitting at the end of your bed routinely on a Tuesday and so the angels are constantly saying both behold and do not be afraid and what he is assuring her is that she is the recipient of God's grace not that she is the best or of God's grace as some of you have been brought up to believe but rather that she is the recipient of God's grace and so he says to her don't be afraid Mary for you have found favor with God you are the recipient of God's grace verse 33 31 and behold behold this word is again running throughout the Bible behold says John the Baptist the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world and here the angel employs the same word in order to draw attention to something that is both unexpected and is very very important now in proceeding through this narrative this is the way my mind has gone I'll tell you how it's gone and then we'll see if yours can come along with mine or even if they shoot the angel says what will be is there to declare what will be Mary is then gonna respond how will this be she will then say okay let it be and then in the end she essentially says and can it be all right so you know when we got there that we're ready for our closing hymn which is hark the herald angels sing just to give you something to look forward to okay so the angel comes to declare what will be and here is what will be you will conceive in your womb which is where conception takes place and bear a son you will call his name Jesus he will be great and will be called the son of the Most High and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David he will reign on the house of Jacob forever and of his kingdom there will be no end all right so here you are Mary you're going to have a baby and you're gonna give him the name Yeshua which is God his salvation let me tell you his identity he is the son of the highest he is by very nature the son he possesses a majesty in that he will be given the throne of the father of your father David in other words that promise that had been made all those years before that there is one who will come who will out King all the kings and to him will be given the throne of your father David and he will reign forever and ever Mary sits in her room and the angel says and this is who will be born of you son of the highest Majesty the throne of David in other words a symbol of royal authority and dignity and this throne this kingdom is possessed of eternity not like the kingdoms of the earth where Kings reign for a little while no matter how long it might be whether it's contemporary thoughts or in ancient history his kingdom is the kingdom of which there will be no end I just let's allow that to settle for a moment I'm here to tell you what will be and this is what will be and Mary then responds with a question verse 34 how will this be I'm glad she does that if this was an invention by people who wanted to create a story like this they would probably have Mary saying well yes I've been looking forward to this for quite some time and I can understand just why it is that you've come to me no she is completely puzzled she is destabilized by this how can it be she's not challenging the angel statement she's not saying I don't think it will be she's asking how will it be if you allow your eye to go up the page when the angel declares to Zechariah and Elizabeth these things in verse 18 Zechariah says how shall I know this for I am an old man and my wife is advanced in years and here he's basically saying how can I be sure that this will actually happen Mary's not saying how can I be sure it will happen she's saying how will it happen how will it happen now why does she say how will it happen well because it's based on a conviction that Gabriel meant that she was going to have a child without anything further happening on the human level right you're going to have you're going to have a son and she said well how is this going to be if nothing is going to happen on the human level how would you have a son fair question right they say put yourself in that position what would you have said how would you have responded Yoda said something very similar wouldn't you some of you have come along to church like this and and and statements are made not along these lines but along the lines of the the notion of you know that you can know God in a personal way that you can experience his love and his forgiveness and his power and you sit here and you say how will that be how will that be that's fair that's fair and so it's fair for her to respond in this way from my perspective she says from a human perspective from where I'm sitting here on the end of my bed if we might put it that way this all appears to be impossible it's interesting because you have in the response of Zachariah and then in the response of Mary you have these expressions of mmm I don't know in Zechariah case he is his doubt resulted in him being mute for the entire period of Elizabeth's pregnancy would you realize that I I think I just each time I read it this morning I've thought this now I'm gonna tell you but it's it says down in verse 40 that she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth and as I read that in my mind it says well there was no point in grieving Zechariah because he couldn't say anything all he could have done was write a sign like good morning and hold it up so here's this kind of little detail she greeted Elizabeth the only one the focus of her attention but also the only one that could give her a meaningful response well why then does her question not meet with disapproval and Zacharias question does meet with disapproval why there is there no divine reaction to her question how will they speak well who's to say how do we know one of my friends suggested to me that when we think about the way in which we respond to the Bible and the things that we learn in it there are different kinds of don't there's the kind of doubt that seeks answers and there's the kind of doubt that exists as a kind of defense against the possibility of answers I don't know if you are a doubting Thomas or a doubting Teresa where you would fit in this there's a kind of doubt that says listen I've made up my mind and I don't want you confusing me with facts I really don't care what you have to say I've already decided on stuff like this that's one kind of doubt that's not so much doubt as it is defiance but there is another kind of doubt that says you know what I'm not sure about all this stuff but I am willing to bow down under the evidence if it becomes apparent to me that the truth is different than what I have taken it to be to this point in my life perhaps you're here today and and that's really where you are you've come around you're thinking it's Christmas again you've never resolved these things and and you're not defying about it but you're just saying I need to I need to come to terms with how this can possibly be good good keep thinking keep reading now of course the reply of the angel to her question is is more staggering than she could ever really have am i imagined how will it be I'm still a virgin and the angel answered her now the Angels answer takes us to the very heart of Christianity takes us to the very heart of the mystery that is at the very heart of history takes us to the essence of the Incarnation the Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the most high will overshadow you therefore the child to be born will be called holy the Son of God now we have affirmed this this morning at least verbally we have affirmed it whether we've affirmed it from our heart in the statement of the Apostles Creed saying of Christ that he was conceived of the Holy Spirit and he was born of the Virgin Mary I believe you said that this morning I did too I believe in God the Father the maker of heaven and earth and in Jesus Christ His only Son the begotten of the father conceived of the Holy Spirit born of the Virgin Mary now what we're affirming in those Creed's is found here in the gospel record it's not an invention some point in time inserted into time but rather those it Creed's as they are hammered out through the early centuries of the church are wrestling to find the right language to be able to succinctly say this is what the gospel is and this is what we must affirm and it is quite staggering the language of the angel is delicate it is picturesque and it is clear there is nothing and I'll talk of this esteeming perhaps but there is nothing in this encounter that you'll find coming up almost inevitably in Time magazine and and in the magazines in the next three weeks I don't remember a Christmas in my lifetime when there isn't somebody writing about how the story of the Incarnation has to do with demigods from the Pharaohs of Egypt or from the Greek or Roman world and something to do with Zeus and so on and it all sounds really really really intelligent and makes you feel unsettled when you're having your coffee but listen my friends there is no parallel between that and this there is nowhere that that is engaged with this the vastness between them is vast it's as wide as the ocean there is nothing in all of those statements that comes close to the staggering reality that is conveyed here by the angel the power of the my all God Almighty will overshadow you a girl from the Old Testament knew about God displaying his might and his majesty in the cloud a pillar of fire by day and a pillar of by day in a pillar of fire by night God meets with Moses the cloud descends upon the mountain punched forward into the Transfiguration and Peter James and John behold the glory of Christ as of the only begotten of the Father and the the the the stand in that context and a bright cloud came down and enveloped them so that here the invisible God reveals himself in hiddenness that's how it's going to be he says there's not going to be any direct contact between divinity and humanity that's what you get in the Egyptian pharaohs the stories of the Gods impregnating women there's nothing of that here it is far more mysterious far more incredible far more unreachable this is the doctrine of the Incarnation and my friends it stands as a bedrock of Christianity it is not a piece of lumber to be put up in your attic somewhere and be considered if you're a sort of devotee of of these things no it is at the very heart of it I am delaying myself but I I'm preaching for my evening study already so we'll come back to it tonight those of us who are brave no you see what is about to take place as the angel is not explicable on human premises it is the miraculous work of the Holy Spirit Mary is going to have a baby without the intervention of a human father yeah silence is the only response now those of you who doubt with a defiant doubt or say to yourself virgin births don't happen therefore there was no virgin birth and doubtless are saying resurrections don't happen and therefore there was no resurrection but if you are out there saying this a completely mind-boggling notion if you find yourself saying now if God is Almighty and created the universe out of nothing if God sustains the stars and the planets if God is in charge of all of this why is it that I have such a hard time imagining that God would act in a way that transcends supersedes overwhelms everything that I understand to be as it is supposed to be what about this girl the child will be called holy men and women are sinful he is not he is perfect he is son of God son of God by nature the eternal son of God you know son of God conferred on him by his deeds but son of god by his very nature it's the essence of the Incarnation Wesley did as a great favor didn't he when he wrote veiled in flesh the Godhead see hail the Incarnate deity pleased as man with man to dwell Jesus our Emmanuel Kendrick took it up a notch as well when he wrote meekness and Majesty manhood and deity in perfect harmony the man who is God now while Mary is pondering this while she's still in there how can this be staged the angel tells her that he has an illustration of God's ability to do what he chooses irrespective of whether it seems possible to man or not so the angel says yes he must he's looking at her face this is just conjecture but you know he's looking at her face and he can see that she's going oh so he says well you know while you're thinking about that let me give you another one guess what Elizabeth she's she's five months - which area would have said that's not even possible either because everybody knew if there's one girl that isn't going to get pregnant it's old Elizabeth and he is just reminding her that this is a God who does things that are otherwise viewed as impossible so before heading off for a girls night in Mary moves from how can this be or how will this be - let it be you see it's right there in the text verse 38 let it be to me according to your word and the angel departed end of story no not the end of the story I think it would be fair to say that she still doesn't understand maybe even that she's got more questions than she has answers you think about it you begin to consider this great mystery of faith now you move along the line from Sanok I don't know if I could pay any attention to any of that - you begun to pay attention to it and then you say well listen I'm going to be prepared to bow down under the instruction of God's truth but you're still not there and she's not quite ready to burst into song either all she says is that she's committed to God's purpose according to God's Word and so she does what girls do I know you're not allowed to say that now is it supposed to say and she did what people do but actually it's not about people do it well ladies do that maybe because men do not have babies and I've found that ladies do have babies this is according to God's creative purpose it's a wonderful thing and I've noticed that ladies who are having babies talk to one another about having babies and they have little enclaves where they go and they feel each other's tummies and they tell us whoa so that's what you've got here off she goes she arose and went with haste into the whole country to a town in Judah and she entered the house of Cariah and greeted Elizabeth because remember Zachariah he couldn't say anything and when Elizabeth heard the breathing of Mary the baby leaped in her womb we get that and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and she exclaimed with a loud cry blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb now Mary's got to be going this is unbelievable where did this come from Elizabeth I've known you for ages what are you talking about blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb well--why how well you got to read the text and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit filled with the Holy Spirit who is it that opens blind eyes the Holy Spirit who is it that presents Jesus the Holy Spirit who is it that enables us to bow down underneath the majesty and the mystery of that which from a human perspective is absolutely impossible to believe and then believe it the Holy Spirit God that's what God does and here blessed be you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb and why is this granted to me now here we go a step up that the mother of my lord should come to me what for behold when the sound of your greeting came to my ears though the baby in my womb left for a joy well that's that happens isn't it one of my girls my daughters is pregnant now and she told me that that this particular baby seems to respond very much to my voice soon as it hears my voice goes crazy in there I said well that's what happens with soon she's not in there but the fact is that probably the baby's going let me out and tell him to stop talking or something like that but but no this is a this is a miracle that is happening in here this is another miracle you see the word that Elizabeth spoke was not a wrong word Elizabeth spoke the word of the Lord how did she speak the word of the Lord by that by the power of the Holy Spirit the Holy Spirit enabled her to see what she couldn't see to see what she couldn't see to understand what she could never have known purely by human speculation purely by investigation you see that's why the result ibly no intellectual road to God you cannot argue your way to God you can gradually remove some of your conjectures and set aside some of your prejudices but you cannot mathematically get to God it is God who gets to you that's the story that's the story of Christmas that God comes that God is the God who's not a way up there and doesn't care but he's the God who comes down Calvin has a wonderful section on this in in his in his commentary on on Luke where he says God had chosen John to be Christ's Herald right because remember who's in Elizabeth's womb John the Baptist what is John the Baptist role to save to prepare the way of the Lord what is John the Baptist step out onto the stage of history to do to say behold the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world so the whole reason for John the Baptist is to say hey here's Jesus and before he's even born he's doing it that's the point that's Calvin's point I wish I'd thought of it he says John is Christ's Herald even though he's not a yet assume the office but God was already at work enabling him to proclaim the Lord's coming he had not yet answered a word nor could he see even so the movement which his mother felt was like a trumpet sound and along with Mary she was bound to see in it the proof of Jesus divine majesty are you looking for some kind of religious experience that you can control are you looking for a God that you can keep in your back pocket are you looking for something that you manufacture and analyze and and and and and just make it all work according to your thing then you're not actually looking for God you see because it's God is beyond us God is immortal he's invisible he's only wise and he now comes and that's where I say it moves and with this will stop it moves from here's what will be how will it be okay let it be - and can it be I mean we're gonna deal with the Magnificat in subsequent times but her song is just that song because now she she's going to magnify God as Savior and can it be that I should gain an interest in the Savior's blood ID from me who caused this pain for me who him to death pursued amazing love how can it be that God should die for me my soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior I think it's a progression not only in the discovery of Mary's appreciation of the wonder of God's dealings but it really is a picture of what it means for many of us in coming to faith I end in this way you may be here this morning and you've never really considered what will be because you never read the Bible I told you maybe you could have a Gospel of John but you never took one oh why not take one and figure out how what will be this is this is how you find out what will be and as you read it you find yourself saying how will this be and then maybe somewhere along the line you go well you know what I'm gonna let it be according to your word you show me that this is true I won't trust this and then wonder of wonders miracle of miracles you find yourself saying my spirit rejoices in God my Savior my Savior see your Savior what about Joseph cuz he doesn't know any of this yet she's gonna have to tell him or somebody's gonna have to tell him and when the word gets out that she's expecting and she's not married then people are going to put two and two together and figure that she and Joseph have not been as righteous as they should or even worse that she has been unfaithful to Joseph it's going to cost her a lot to embrace this and if you embrace it it'll cost you a lot as well and maybe that's why you haven't I don't know let's pray gracious God we bow before the mystery of your Providence and your grace we realize that even even when we've done our very best to fathom the depths of your life to think these things out to examine the nature of Christology what it means that God was in Christ that he was reconciling the world to himself even when we've done it all we find ourselves saying his mystery all the immortal dies who can explore the strange design in vain the firstborn Seraph tries to sound the depths of love divine amazing love how can it be allow my God would die for me gracious God accomplish your purposes in US and through as we pray and fill our hearts with a great sense of expectancy let us hear again the sound of the angels as they come to herald this glorious news and in believing it let us share it for we ask it in cry name Amen this message was brought to you from truth for life where the learning is for living to learn more about truth for life with Alistair beg visit us online at truthfortheworld.org

Channel: Alistair Begg

Views: 9,684

Rating: 4.8496242 out of 5

Keywords: Incarnation of Christ, Deity of Christ, Humanity of Christ, Doubt, Luke

Id: aBITNm4MbMY

Length: 40min 37sec (2437 seconds)

Published: Mon Dec 05 2016