Luke The Orderly Account of Truth - Salvation Foretold - Luke 1:26-38

Welcome to the rooms where it's all about Jesus. I can't promise my voice

won't crack again. Greg gave me his dumb cold. I could feel it

coming on. I'm glad you're all here. How's your week? Ben?

Praise God, Praise God. I am living. How do I say this?

Not a bachelor life, a Christian bachelor life. I dropped my wife

and kid off at the airport yesterday morning. They're going to Colorado to spend

time with my wife's family. And it's weird. It's weird being alone.

I like like my quiet time, and trust me, it's I don't get

a lot of that with my wife and daughter. I love them dearly,

but they're not quiet. Yeah, thank you, Jesse. But it feels

weird. It's like as when you're when you get married, that's your life.

Now your other half is missing, your kid, who you love dearly,

is gone. It's weird. So cherish the time you spend with your

family. I'm not going to cry, but that being said, so I

drove him to the airport Saturday morning. I plug in the departure SeaTac in

my navigation and it drives me there and I'm fully trusting in this navigation.

And you know that moment in the office where Dwight and Michael Scott run into

a pond because they trust a navigation, right. I didn't have quite that

level of trust, but I trusted it was going to get me to my

destination. And it took me to an intersection and then now I know where

the airport is, I can get there. I didn't. I wasn't lost,

but it took me to an intersection and just stop. I said,

hey, you've reached it. No, I haven't. And I was just

thinking, like, we certainly can't trust technology for everything in our lives.

And this may be a silly analogy, but I was thinking about how when

we're going through the Gospel of Luke. One of the great things about his

gospel account No, you can throw this slide up there, that's fine,

is we're going through it because Luke tells an orderly account of truth. He

did deep investigation into the story of Jesus, into the truth about Jesus to

show his the most excellent how'd you say it, A coupleies with the most

excellent theophilis the truth of the gospel, the truth of Jesus Christ, and

I was thinking, like, man, I'm grateful that we have the truth

of God's Word that we can rest assured that it's gonna get us where we

need to go. It's not gonna leave us stranded in an intersection or any

hard time that we land find ourselves in in life. His word guides us,

prepares us, and gives us everything we need. Amen. And I

just kind of summarize everything I was gonna say. So I'm gonna I'm gonna

skip verses one through four, Patricia, my sermon today is titled Salvation Foretold.

Then the verses we're gonna read today, we'll look at the birth of

Jesus foretold by the Angel Gabriel to the Virgin Mary. It's the same angel

that spoke to Zechariah that Pastor Duncan spoke about last week. But what we're

gonna see is a stark contrast to how Mary responds to God's word delivered to

her by the Angel Gabriel and how Zechariah responded. So, if you would

turn your bibles or open your apps to the Gospel, Luke, We're gonna

pick up where Pastor Duncan left off in verses twenty six through thirty eight.

Let's read it first, and then we'll pray. In the sixth month of

Elizabeth's pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee,

to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a

descendant of David. The virgin's name was Mary. The angel went to her

and said, greeting you, who are highly favored, The Lord is with

you. Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeding

this might be. But the Angel said to her, do not be afraid.

Mary, you have found favor with God, and you will conceive and

give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He

will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The

Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will

reign over Jacob's ascendants forever. His kingdom will never end. How will this

be, Mary asked the angel, since I am a virgin. The angel

answered, the Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the

Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be

called the Son of God. Even Elizabeth, your relative is going to have

a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable

to conceive, is in her sixth month. For no word from God will

ever fail. I am the Lord's servant, Mary answered, May your word

to me be fulfilled. Then the angel left her. Let's pray, Lord,

thank you for Luke's account of the foretelling of your birth. We thank

you for the truth of your word and that we can rely on it in

all things, for guidance, for comfort, for teaching, for rebuke.

Help us to trust in it, to put aside our doubts and give them

to you. Prepare us to receive from your word, and help me to

deliver it in love and in truth. Amen. All right, So let's

break this down verse di verse. I always say that, but you know

what's gonna happen. We're gonna break down verse by verse. Let's see what

happens. So, starting in verse twenty six, in the sixth month of

Elizabeth's pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee.

So this is just six months into Elizabeth's pregnancy, and the angel Gabriel

was sent by God just like he appeared before Zechariah to deliver his word once

again. Do you remember what God's word to Zechariah was from last week?

You can say, no, that's fine, that joke didn't land. Let's

look at it verse eleven. Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him,

standing at the right side of the altar of incense. When Zechariah saw

him, he was startled and was gripped with fear. But the angel said

to him, do not be afraid, Zechariah, your prayer has been heard.

Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to call

him John. Now it's important. I wanted us to look at this again

because, like I said earlier, we're going to see a stark contrast to

how Zechariah responds to the word of God delivered by the same angel that delivers

God's word to Mary. To stark difference between this Zechariah's response or Zeke's response

is to put here and to Mary's response. So this time, Gabriel goes

to a small town of Nazareth in Galilee, which for historical contexts sit it

sat almost halfway between the Mediterranean Sea and the Sea of Galilee. He was

sent from the presence of God on a mission to deliver a message of extraordinary

importance. Let's keep reading. I'm just gonna reread it. In the sixth

month of Elizabeth's pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town

of Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph,

a descendant of David. The virgin's name was Mary. So there's a

few things we need to unpact here before we go on, and I'm going

to work my way backward in verse twenty seven, starting with a massively important

doctrine of our faith, which is the virgin birth. Here's why it's important.

Firstly, the virgin birth of Jesus is a fulfillment of prophecy that we

find in Isaiah. If we go to chapter seven, it says, therefore

the Lord himself will give you a sign. The Virgin will conceive and give

birth to a son, and will call him a Manuel, which means God

with us. So before he was even born flesh, before the word Jesus

was made flesh, he was already fulfilling prophecies. How awesome is that?

But why is this so important for us to know? And to believe.

Here's why. The virgin birth affirms Jesus's divine name nature and his human nature.

It affirms his divine nature and his human nature because Jesus has two distinct

natures. He is truly human and truly divine. He is truly human and

truly God, as we see in John one to one. In the beginning,

so before anything existed, was the Word, and the Word. Jesus

was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in

the beginning. Through him, all things were made. Without him, nothing

was made that has been made. Jesus existed eternity past. He was there.

He is God. He is fully divine. And Jesus is truly man

because he was born of Mary and is the Word made flesh. As we

see if we skip ahead of verse fifteen Verse fifteen, Good Lord, the

Word Jesus became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his

glory, the glory of the one and only son who came from the Father

full of grace and truth. Amen. So the virgin birth affirms both Jesus's

divine nature and his human nature, two distinct natures. He's not half God

half man, all right, he is truly God, truly man. The

second thing that I want to point out, in verse twenty seven, he

pulled it up again a town in Galilee to a virgin pledged to be married

to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin's name was

Mary, So Mary, as we saw here, was pledged to be married

to Joseph, so pledged or betrothed that some translations will say the pledge was

more binding than today's modern engagement, and back in these days it's virtually a

form of marriage. The couple do not live together, nor do they consummate

the union, and a divorce is needed to break the relationship. It is

official. Next, Luke writes here, pledge to be married to a man

named Joseph. Can you go back one verse? Sorry, I'm throwing you

off. Patricia, You're doing great, a descendant of David. If you

look ahead in chapter three of Luke, and we'll get there at some point,

you'll see that Luke went deep in his investigation of Jesus to show the

most excellent theophilis Jesus's genealogy. Now I'm not gonna read the genealogy. I'm

gonna save that for Pastor Duncan or Greg to stumble through all those names.

You watch now, the rotation is gonna land on my week, and I'm

gonna end up saying it anyway, because God has a sense of humor if

you don't know. But he shows the awfulist Jesus theology. And what's awesome

about this is that Luke not only traces Jesus's family line all the way back

to Adam, but in doing so, Luke confirms Jesus's lineage to King David.

So not only is Jesus God made in flesh, Jesus is human royalty.

All right, that's two verses down. Let's keep going. The Angel

went to her and said, greetings, you, who are highly favored.

The Lord is with you. And Mary was greatly troubled at his words and

wondered what kind of greeting this might be. So, just like Zechariah or

Zeke if you like, Mary was troubled by Gabriel, as the kids say,

she was shook. Eh eh, okay, fine, But what's interesting

here is that Luke writes Mary was greatly troubled at his words. Now,

I'm sure Mary was troubled. By the mere presence of Gabriel. Gabriel an

angel, a created, heavenly being, probably bursting with light and power.

If an angel comes before you like that, you're gonna be scared. It's

gonna happen. But what Luke writes here is interesting. She was troubled at

his words. Why well, let's look at Gabriel's response and then we'll get

into it. But the angel said to her, do not be afraid,

Mary, you have found favor with God. Now try the first. Gabriel

graciously comforts her and reiterates his message to her from God that she has found

favor with God. Try to imagine hearing this from Mary's point of view.

As far as we know about Mary, she never did anything. I don't

want to say this. I'm gonna say what I wrote down. How about

that if I can find where I left off? Ah, here we go,

Okay, okay. As far as we know, Mary had never done

anything worthy of being called highly favored. And that's what makes her encounter with

Gabriel. Gabriel so amazing. She didn't do anything to warrant God's favor.

She didn't do anything to be chosen by God to carry give birth and Raise

Jesus. God chose her just as he chooses us. God chose Mary for

his purposes and plan, just as God chooses us in Christ. So Mary's

response here while she was troubled at his words, imagine again an angelic being

powerful light saying greetings, you who are highly favored. The Lord is with

you. What And now she's wondering what kind of message is this gonna be?

But again, God chose her just as he chooses us. Let's look

at tewod Timothy one to nine. Paul writes, he has saved us and

called us to be a whole Excuse me. He is saved us and called

us to a holy life, not because of anything we have done, but

because of his own purposes and grace. This grace was given us in Christ

Jesus before the beginning of time. So the point is this, God's choosing

is by his grace alone, not by human merit. God's choosing is by

his grace alone and not by human merit. Nothing you will ever or could

ever do, will earn you the right to be called by God, to

be chosen in Christ, and to be saved of your sins. It's all

because of God's plan in your life, that he brought you to salvation,

and it's all through Jesus' work on the Cross that we are freed from sin

and we can call God as our father. Now another point, because God

looked on Mary with favor does not mean Mary herself can give favor or should

be prayed to as if she could. Roman Catholicism anyone. Okay, Mary

was not and is not divine. Mary doesn't hear your prayers. Jesus alone.

Here's your prayers, God alone, here's your prayers. Mary was used

by God for his purposes and plans for his glory. All right, let's

keep going. In verse thirty one, you will conceive and give birth to

a son, and you are to call him Jesus. So, just like

when Gabriel spoke with his Zechariah, Gabriel relays what the name is to be

not suggested. He's like, hey, you should call him Jesus. It's

a good name. He tells Mary. His name will be Jesus. You

are to call him Jesus. There's no such thing as chance when it comes

to God's plans. God doesn't roll the dice and you hope he gets snake

eyes or something. He tells his people exactly what we are to do and

exactly what his plans are, and his plans always come to pass. He

tells his people exactly what his plans are, what we have to do with

them, and they will always come to pass if you want to know what

those plans are. This is like a cheat code for a video game.

It's not a cheat code. This is how we live. This is how

we live our lives as Christians. When Gabriel told Zechariah that his son's name

shall be John, this is something I found out in doing my study for

this sermon. Do you know what the name John means? The Lord is

gracious. That's right, John means the Lord is gracious. And not only

was God gracious in granting Zechariah and Elizabeth the child that they had prayed and

hoped for, John's very name points to the ultimate act of grace found in

Jesus Christ, whom John was sent to prepare the way for in The cool

meanings of names don't stop there either. Do you know what the name Jesus

actually means? The transliteration of Jesus from the Greek means this Yahweh is salvation.

Yahweh is salvation. So God sent Gabriel to deliver his word two chosen

people, Zechariah and Mary. Zechariah is told that the son that his wife

Elizabeth is to be born, is to give birth to will be called the

Lord is Gracious, who will go on to prepare the way for one that

is grace himself. Who Mary is told she will get birth to and is

to name him. Yahweh is salvation. It all points back to God.

How incredible is that it all points back to God. Praise the Lord.

All right, let's keep going. Verse thirty one. Gabriel tells her you

will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him

Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most

High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David,

and he will reign over Jacob's descendants forever. His kingdom will never end.

So here we see even more names attributed to Jesus that affirm his authority and

deity, such as the son of the Most High. And that's not just

a title. God, the Father the most High, calls him, addresses

Jesus as his own son again we're gonna look ahead. No spoilers, but

this is important. We'll get to this in chapter three later on, when

Jesus was being baptized, when all the people were being baptized, Jesus was

baptized too. And as he was praying, Heaven was opened, and the

Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove, and a voice

came from heaven. You are my son, whom I love. With you,

I am well pleased Jesus yahweh is Salvation, the Son of the Most

High. These are all names that only he is worthy to be called.

Continuing on verse thirty two, he will be great and will be called the

Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of

his father David, and he will reign over Jacob's descendants forever. His kingdom

will never end. In this verse thirty two and thirty three, Luke is

writing about a prophecy given to David, which you'll find in Second Samuel,

chapter seven. And I name this David warms Jesus seat because David was a

He was a big deal, all right. If you don't know David,

it wasn't perfect. We all know that story. I'm not going to get

into it. But David had a heart after God. David was a great

king over Israel, but he wasn't the king. He was only keeping the

seat warm for Jesus. Let's read this speaking to David. When your days

are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, or when he dies,

I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body,

and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my

name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. This is

what's known as a double prophecy in the Bible, has two meanings. First,

this prophecy is first fulfilled in Solomon, David's direct son, but the

everlasting nature of David's throne finds its culmination in Jesus. It's not Solomon that

the throne of his kingdom would be established forever. It's Jesus. Jesus kingdom

never ending. Points to another prophecy found in Isaiah. If you go to

chapter nine, for to us a child is born, to us, a

son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulders, and his

name shall be called Wonderful counselor Mighty God. Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace,

of the increase of his government and of peace. There will be no

end on the throne of David and over his kingdom. To establish it and

to uphold it with justice and with righteousness. From this time forth and forever

more. The zeal of the Lord of Hosts will do this. A real

quick point. One thing I love about this verse is the ending. The

zeal of the Lord of Hosts will do this. God's plan never fails.

God is going to see it through. What he promises comes to pass.

All right, let's keep going. Let's see Mary's initial response called this but

how It's a good question asked by Mary. How will this be? Mary

asked the angel, since I'm a virgin. The Angel answered, the Holy

Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow

you. So the holy One to be born will be called the Son of

God. Mary's question is the correct one to ask in this situation. But

here's how it differs from Zechariah's response to Gabriel. If we remember from last

week, Pastor Duncan spoke about how well, and Pastor Greg too. They

give us a history of the presthood of Abijah and how Zechariah was a part

of that priesthood. Anyone in that priesthood they study, they know their stuff,

they know the history of their people, They know God's word, they

know the rules, they know the ins and outs. Zechariah and Elizabeth have

been praying for a son, but Elizabeth was barren. Zechariah would know have

solid knowledge of say Abraham and Sarah, one of the patriarchs of his faith.

He would know that in a similar situation, Sarah was also barren.

She couldn't give birth, and what happened, God worked a miracle and Isaac

came along. He would have known that what we saw was Zeke's response was

doubt in the word of God. Mary's response, at first glance, maybe

this is doubt. No, how will this be since I'm a virgin.

That's a legitistical question. That's a good one to ask. That's the difference.

There is no natural way, natural way that this could happen to her.

It's going to take a miracle. Gabriel again graciously reassures Mary and confirms,

as we saw here that God himself is going to work this out.

The Holy Spirit will come on you and the power of the Most High will

overshadow you. God is going to cause her to con conceive the child Jesus

does not mean, and it certainly does not say that God impregnates her.

This is important because if you look into Mormonism or Greek mythology, it's wrong

and bad and not The Biblical God did not come down to earth and have

relations with Mary to cause her to be pregnant with Jesus. Much like how

the Holy Spirit brought life into the world in the creation account in Genesis,

the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the Holy Spirit creates

life within her. Continuing on, so Gabriel comforts her further. As we're

about to see about her relative, Elizabeth. Let's read it in verse thirty

six. Gabriel continues. He says, even Elizabeth, your relative is going

to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to

be unable to conceive, is in her sixth month. So Gabriel is essentially

saying, here, if you're still wondering, you have no room for doubt.

Your own relative. Elizabeth's also pregnant and has been for six months.

And earlier Gabriel told Mary that Jesus would sit on the throne of his father

David. So Mary, this is just a little history. Oh, I

guess it's more genealogy. Either way, it's information. So Mary being related

to Elizabeth is a descendant of Aaron, just like Elizabeth and the line of

David. We'll get to see more of how Mary reacts to this news next

week. She's gonna run off and like sing a song. It's gonna be

cool. But for now we're gonna zero in on Mary's response to God's message.

I get the band to come up. I'm gonna do some time way

ahead. WHOA, you're gonna get out early? Yeah, I'll keep going.

So the recap, Gabriel greets Mary, tells her that by God's grace,

she is highly favored, that the Lord is with her, that she

is chosen by God to be a part of his miraculous plan to bring salvation

into the world. Gabriel reassures her what will happen and then departs from her

after saying this, for no word from God will ever fail. Look at

Mary's response, I am the Lord's servant. May your word to me be

fulfilled. Then the angel left her. I am the Lord's servant. May

your word to me be fulfilled. This is the stark contrast that I was

talking about the beginning of Zechariah's response and Mary's. Zechariah's response was doubt with

full knowledge of the history of God working miracles of the patriarchs of his faith.

Mary at first asks a question out of some concern for the logistics of

what's going to happen. After Gabriel tells her how it will happen, she

responds with full submission to the plans of God. I am the Lord's servant.

May your word to me be fulfilled. So what's our takeaway from these

verses in loose Gospel? To answer that, we first need to remember why

he wrote it in the first place. So we're going to look at verses

one through four. Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things

that have been fulfilled among us, just as they were handed down to us

by those from whom the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the Word. With

this in mind, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning,

I too, decided to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilis,

so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught.

So Luke carefully investigated everything from the beginning and wrote an orderly account to

Theophilis, so that he might know with certainty of the things that he had

been taught, so that Theophilis would have an orderly account of the truth of

Jesus Christ. The point of these verses is that Jesus, truly God,

truly man, the eternal son of the Most High, was truly born of

the virgin Mary of the kingly line of David, just as the prophecies about

him foretold. The point of these verses is that it actually happened, and

with Mary's example, we know exactly how we should respond to this. I

tried to summarize it in these few words. We confidently trust in God's word

with the full assurance of faith. We confidently trust in God's word with the

full assurance of faith. How how do we actually do that? What does

it practically look like when we're reading God's word, when we're looking for his

plan for us, and we're confronted with maybe it's something we don't like because

of our own feelings, because of our own deceitful heart. Maybe we don't

fully understand it. Maybe we have doubt, like Zechariah did. Whether it's

from an angel or written in his word, we can confidently trust in it.

Whether it's from an angel in the case of Zechariah or Mary, or

written in his word. I should say the written form of his word.

It was God's word delivered by Gabriel to Mary. It was his plan communicated

by Gabriel. The Bible is God's plan communicated to us on paper or on

your phones now, because it's that's the age we live on. It's God's

word, and we can confidently trust in God's word with the full assurance of

our faith. So I would encourage you to do this. No, I'm

going to challenge you to do this. Respond like Mary did. Respond like

Mary did when you are confronted with something in scripture, like I don't like

that, Well, it's God's word, so we need to do the work

of submitting to it as Mary did. If we saw in earlier verses,

how did she say it? I am the Lord's servant. May your word

to me be fulfilled. I challenge you if you read something you don't like,

you don't understand, or you just have doubts of take it to prayer,

Read further in God's word, and trust in it with confidence. All

right, we're going to go into a time of response. Our response time

is how we worship God. There's a few different ways we do that.

God says to give generously. If you came prepared to give, you can

use the envelope drop it off in the box. God says to pray with

one another. If you want prayer, myself and other elders who are available

will be on the sides to pray for you. If you're a little shy,

that's okay. You can write your prayer quest on the connect card and

the church leaders and community groups pray over them, not because of anything special

about us, but because of the one we pray too. If you have

a private prayer request, just write private on there aornonymous. I'm not gonna

make the joke because I always make it, and then that way, if

it's private, the elders will get it and not everyone else. Lastly,

we're going to worship. I'm going to sing one more song. What are

you guys singing? Yes, come behold wondrous mystery. Very fitting. It

was not just for me God's providence. All right, let's uh, I'm

gonna have you stand. Really, I'm gonna pray, and we'll sing another

song of praise to the Lord, Lord Jesus, Thank you for the truth

of your word. I thank you that your word is true and efficient,

for everything that it was written today and all eternity. Help us in our

own doubt, in our own feelings, and our own uncertainty when we read

something that we don't understand, when we read something that we're uncertain about,

Help us to overcome that and to trust and submit to your word fully.

Help us to respond like Mary did, to submit to your word as humble

servants. Help us to trust in you as we see your word fulfilled.

Thank you, Lord for this time together. I pray that the song we

sing would bring you joy. You alone are worthy. We love you. Amen.