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Savior Announced / Luke 1.26 - 38

Good Questions Have Groups Talking
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OPEN

What is your name and what are your plans for Christmas?

DIG

1.      Verse 26 mentions Elizabeth. What do Elizabeth and Mary have in common?

The similarities between the two stories are striking. Both John and Jesus were born to godly women who apart from divine intervention were unable to bear children. Writing in the fourth century, Maximus of Turin described how “Mary, conscious of her virginity, marvels at the fruit hidden in her belly, while Elizabeth, conscious of her old age, blushes that her womb is heavy with the one she has conceived.” The births of both cousins were announced by the same awesome angel, who told people not to be afraid, proclaimed the birth of a son, gave each child his name, and explained his mission in life. The people who heard these announcements—Zechariah the priest and Mary the virgin—questioned the angel and were given a confirming sign. — Philip Graham Ryken, Luke, ed. Richard D. Phillips, Philip Graham Ryken, and Daniel M. Doriani, vol. 1, Reformed Expository Commentary (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2009), 28–29.

2.      How were there stories different?

Yet for all their similarities, what Luke mainly wants us to see are the differences. Like a white paint chip next to an off-white paint chip, the comparison is made to show the contrast. So who is greater: John or Jesus? John’s mother was barren; the mother of Jesus had never been with a man at all. John would be a prophet crying in the wilderness; Jesus would reign on David’s everlasting throne. John would be “great before the Lord” (Luke 1:15). Jesus would be “great” without qualification (Luke 1:32), the Son of the Most High God. John would be filled with the Holy Spirit, but Jesus would be conceived by the Holy Spirit. John would prepare for God’s coming, but when Jesus came, God was there, in the flesh. Who is greater: John or Jesus? Luke argues from the lesser to the greater to give more glory to Jesus. Jesus was like John, but superior in every respect—infinitely superior. — Philip Graham Ryken, Luke, ed. Richard D. Phillips, Philip Graham Ryken, and Daniel M. Doriani, vol. 1, Reformed Expository Commentary (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2009), 29.

3.      What exactly is the relationship between Mary and Joseph at this point?

According to Jewish custom, based upon the arrangement made between their parents, a couple could become engaged even as young children. Then, a year before their marriage, they would become espoused, which meant that although they would not consummate their relationship, they would be considered husband and wife in a legal binding so strong, it required a divorce to break the relationship. — Jon Courson, Jon Courson’s Application Commentary (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2003), 297.

4.      Luke calls her “espoused.” (verse 27) How else is she described in this verse?

In referring to Mary, both Luke and Matthew employ the Greek term par-thenos, which means “virgin.” Some have argued that this merely points to a girl who is young and eligible for marriage, not necessarily one untouched by a man. But the ancient Greeks took this term quite literally. For instance, Artemis, the goddess whose temple in Ephesus is considered one of the seven ancient wonders of the world, was emphatically virginal. She was thought to protect chaste young men and women, and she symbolized the cultic power of virginity, representing “young and budding life and strict innocence.” Consequently, a young, unmarried woman was called a parthenos. To be anything other than a virgin before her wedding would have been unthinkable! — Charles R. Swindoll, Jesus: The Greatest Life of All (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2009).

5.      Why is the doctrine of the virgin birth important? Can you be a Christian without it?

We need to think about the word virgin in view of the physical miracle that God performed. The Word became flesh. A virgin conceived! Miraculously, the seed of God entered the womb of a woman who had never been in a sexual relationship with a man. Life was born in the dark pocket of her womb, which was still sealed off by her virginity. Light and life entered, and the darkness began to breathe with life. I wish for you a “Mary” Christmas, so that in the dark pockets in your own life, there would enter today the seed of the Word of God—that Jesus would fill you, until you abound with His life.

I find the Latin word for word interesting. It’s where we get our English word sermon. When a man gives a sermon, people say, “What a marvelous sermon the pastor delivered today.” I’m fascinated that we use that term “delivered the sermon.” When the seed of the truth of God’s Word entered into a woman, the promise was, “You shall conceive and bring forth a son.” It’s the very thing that we say we want to happen. We want the life of Jesus Christ to be manifest in us. Romans 8:29 is God’s target. His whole purpose for us is that we be conformed and shaped to the likeness of Jesus. He wants there to be such a full entry of the life, truth, and Word of God that we deliver Jesus. Wherever we go, we deliver the Word, the sermon, if you please. That’s exactly what happened in Bethlehem two thousand years ago. The sermon was delivered. The Word was delivered—made flesh. Mary delivered a baby boy.

We need to understand the significance of Mary’s virginity. Mary says, “From henceforth all generations shall call me blessed” (Luke 1:48 KJV). Did she mean that every generation of people would worship her? She’d be the last person to think that. Do you see Mary at the cross? She was in the same place where we need to come. Do you see Mary in the Upper Room receiving the Holy Spirit? She received the Holy Spirit in the same way we need to receive Him. Mary’s moving along on the same pathway as other believers. I think she’s saying, “I’m the first one this has happened to, where into the darkness of human impossibility, the life of God entered. A pattern has been struck with me, where the life of Jesus Christ enters human flesh.”

The word blessed means “happy.” And I would say, “Mary, sweetheart, you really are happy, because it happened to you before it happened to anybody else.” But she certainly isn’t the last, and she doesn’t summon our worship. Instead, she says, “I want you to see the way it happened to me.”

We tend to think of virginity only in terms of innocence and purity. Of course those terms are appropriate, but Mary’s virginity did not provide an earned holiness to which God might respond with a miracle. If we think the Mary Miracle can only work in us if we are innocent, pure, and untouched, then most of us will give up and go home. I’m not talking about whether you have been tarnished or sullied in the sexual dimension. That’s not the point. All of us have been marred in numerous ways by our sin and weakness. Mary’s virginity is telling us this today: we don’t have to be pure, innocent, or untarnished to receive the miracle.

Mary’s virginity represents the impossibility, humanly speaking, of life coming forth. We need to see her virginity as a picture of the hopelessness of the situation. When we have a virgin involved, and the angelic messenger says, “You’re going to bring forth a child,” it’s a small wonder that she says, “How can this be?” — Thomas Nelson, On This Holy Night: The Heart of Christmas (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2013).

6.      There is another phase that gets confused with the doctrine of the virgin birth: immaculate conception. Is that the same thing or something different?

Nor should the virginal conception of Jesus be confused with the Roman Catholic doctrine of the ‘immaculate conception’ of Mary herself. That doctrine states that, when Mary herself was conceived, she was entirely free of original sin. That is completely non-biblical, and reflects much later belief-systems which have nothing intrinsically to do with Jesus himself. — N. T. Wright, Who Was Jesus? (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1992), 77.

7.      How old is Mary at this point?

According to Jewish custom, based upon the arrangement made between their parents, a couple could become engaged even as young children. Then, a year before their marriage, they would become espoused, which meant that although they would not consummate their relationship, they would be considered husband and wife in a legal binding so strong, it required a divorce to break the relationship. — Jon Courson, Jon Courson’s Application Commentary (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2003), 297.

8.      What do we know about the town Nazareth? Locate it on a map.

Nazareth was a tiny village of no more than 180 people—many of them relatives— and it felt cut off from the rest of the world. The town sat in a shallow basin high above the Jezreel valley, far enough from the main roads to be missed by anyone not looking for it— and no one looked for it. Roman soldiers often stayed in Nazareth because it gave them a good view of the territory, so our regular contact with Gentiles made us undesirable to other Jews. We were often the subject of gossip and prejudice. Honestly, though, many in Nazareth earned us the bad reputation. Some of the families were too friendly with the soldiers and their daughters paid an awful price. Father told us to respect the men but to keep our distance.

A remote, tight-knit community like ours was both a blessing and a curse. We were one big family, so we took care of each other, but everybody knew everything about everyone. I loved most of the people, but I also longed to get away from them! So, when Father announced that it was time to consider my future—meaning marriage—I was horrified. Most of the young men I knew had been playmates—they were too much like brothers for me to think of any one of them as a potential husband. But I trusted my father. — Charles R. Swindoll, A Bethlehem Christmas: Celebrating the Joyful Season (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2007).

9.      What do we know about the angel—Gabriel?

Six months after Gabriel delivered God’s message to Zechariah (1:11–20), God sent the angel with another message, this time to a virgin named Mary who lived in Nazareth, a village in Galilee. The angel Gabriel had also appeared to the prophet Daniel more than five hundred years earlier (Daniel 8:15–17; 9:21). Each time Gabriel appeared, he brought important messages from God. This time was no exception. — Bruce B. Barton et al., Luke, Life Application Bible Commentary (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 1997), 16–17.

10.  The KJV has verse 28, “Hail, thou are highly favored.” What does that mean?

What did Gabriel mean by this famous greeting? Certainly not the Douai Version’s “Hail Mary full of grace” derived from the Latin Vulgate’s “Ave, gratia pleta.” Raymond Brown, the acknowledged dean of Catholic New Testament scholars, agrees, saying that “full of grace” is too strong a rendering, for if Luke wanted to say this, he would have used the phrase he employed in Acts 6:8 when he described Stephen as “full of God’s grace.”

Brown notes that the Vulgate’s faulty translation gave rise to the medieval idea that “Mary had every gift, not only spiritual but secular, even above those given to angels,” thus giving rise to the idea of Mary being a dispenser of grace, resulting in prayers being offered to her. The ultimate extension of this thinking came on December 8, 1854, when Pius IX declared the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception, teaching that “From the first moment of her conception, the Blessed Virgin Mary was, by the singular grace and privilege of Almighty God, and in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, Savior of mankind, kept free from stain of original sin.” That doctrine is a sad, totally unjustified distortion. Mary would have been scandalized at the thought. Karl Barth aptly responds, “Can such a figure meet with worse misunderstanding than that which happened to her in the Catholic church?” — R. Kent Hughes, Luke: That You May Know the Truth, Preaching the Word (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1998), 31–32.

11.  Catholics call her, “the Blessed Virgin Mary.” Are you comfortable with that terminology?

But at the same time, the Virgin Mary is in fact the most blessed of women, and therefore “the Blessed Virgin Mary” is a fitting designation for her. The title springs naturally from Mary’s own self-bestowed beatitude in her Magnificat, “From now on all generations will call me blessed” (Luke 1:48). Mary was the only woman of the billions who have inhabited our planet who was chosen to carry and nurse God’s Son. For that we must call her “blessed.” “Hers … was the face that unto Christ had most resemblance.” The Savior bore some of her human features—Jesus’ face could be seen in hers. Think of it. She is blessed indeed. Just because others have thought too much of her, we must not imagine that our Lord is pleased when we think too little of her. We, as part of the subsequent Christian generations, are to call her “blessed.”

Gabriel’s salutation, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you,” was a dual declaration. First, Mary was the recipient of special divine favor. She was specially graced. Her humble estate and matching humility of soul made her the ideal receptor of God’s greatest favor. As such, Luther praised her: “O Mary, you are blessed. You have a gracious God. No woman has ever lived on earth to whom God has shown such grace. You are the crown of them all.” God bypassed Judea, Jerusalem, and the temple and came to a despised country, a despised town, and a humble woman.

The second part of her being divinely favored is Gabriel’s declaration, “The Lord is with you.” This unconventional phrase declares the dynamic power of God’s presence, which runs like a golden thread in the lives of great saints in Old Testament history. And in Mary it reaches its glorious culmination. The Lord was with her.

So Gabriel’s dual declaration to Mary is one of God’s special favor and his special presence. It is a stupendous declaration and certainly justifies the translation some scholars give to Gabriel’s initial word “Greetings” as “Rejoice”—which is the literal sense. “Rejoice, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.” — R. Kent Hughes, Luke: That You May Know the Truth, Preaching the Word (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1998), 32.

12.  Verses 30 – 33. How would Mary have understood these words?

Mary would not have missed the significance of the angel’s words. For as long as anyone could remember, prophets foretold the coming of a larger-than- life King who would claim the throne, destroy Israel’s enemies, inaugurate an unprecedented time of peace and prosperity, and ultimately rule over the whole earth. And every Jew anticipated the arrival of the Messiah in his or her own way. The rich and powerful hoped He would not come in their lifetime, because that would end their personal claims to wealth and status. The poor and downcast longed for Him to come and break their yoke of oppression.

After centuries of what undoubtedly felt like God’s silence, Mary learned that she would be the mother of the Messiah. Thousands of Hebrew women for more than a dozen centuries had hoped to be the one to bear Israel’s Savior. It was an honor too wonderful to describe, but the privilege would require immense sacrifice. — Charles R. Swindoll, Jesus: The Greatest Life of All (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2009).

13.  How did Mary respond to Gabriel? What can we learn from her example?

Mary’s response to Gabriel’s greeting reveals another of her blessed heart’s qualities: “Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be” (v. 29). The literal sense is that she kept pondering the meaning of the greeting. Whatever Gabriel’s glorious form was like, Mary was able to get past it to his greeting, upon which she meditated as she sought understanding.

This is a truly remarkable picture. Young and inexperienced as she was, Mary was not a flighty, shallow “young thing.” She was reflective and meditative. It is said that contemplation is not a psychological trick but a theological grace. Mary had this grace. She stood on the ascent of the mount of grace and meditated upon what the angel’s message meant for her and what it would require from her.

Mary’s example has a practical relevance for our frenetic, uncontemplative age. Those who experience the birth of the Savior in their lives are those who take the time to ponder God’s Word to them. “I will meditate on your precepts” (Psalm 119:78). We need such hearts today. — R. Kent Hughes, Luke: That You May Know the Truth, Preaching the Word (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1998), 32–33.

14.  Verse 35. The power of the Most High will overshadow you. What exactly does that mean?

The angel used imagery that would have been familiar to any Jew. After Moses led the Hebrew people out of Egypt, the Lord directed him to construct a tabernacle—a portable house of worship. When it was complete, God overshadowed the tent, which the people saw as an eerie glow in the form of a cloud (Exodus 40:34–38; Numbers 9:15–16). The angel used this imagery when he said “the power of the Most High will overshadow you” to explain that God’s spiritual presence would miraculously conceive a male child in her womb. While the child would be human in every respect, He would not have a human father. His father would be, quite literally, the Almighty God. — Charles R. Swindoll, Jesus: The Greatest Life of All (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2009).

15.  Verse 38. How did Mary see herself? Again, what can we learn from her example?

The Greek word translated “bondslave” describes a particular kind of servitude common throughout history. The term refers to someone who voluntarily sells himself or herself into slavery. God obviously chose this humble maiden for good reason, not the least of which was her complete submission to the will of her Creator. “Behold, the bondslave of the Lord.” In other words, I willingly commit myself to the unconditional service of my Lord. — Charles R. Swindoll, Jesus: The Greatest Life of All (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2009).

16.  Imagine the day Mary told of this event to her family. How do you picture that?

No one in the world loved the Lord more than my father, which made me love my father completely. As I looked around the table, I found Joseph staring at him with a look of admiration and love that gave me great peace. Their shared devotion to the Lord cemented their bond as men and made the world safe for me.

What I was about to say would put my trust in them to the test. And while I knew that my bond with my father and Joseph would be strained to the point of breaking, I knew the truth would eventually restore us. After a few moments of silence, I spoke.

“I have wonderful news that will be difficult for all of you to believe.”

Every eye around the table rested on me. When I had everyone’s attention, I continued.

“The promise of that song is about to be fulfilled. I am carrying the promised Son; the Prince of Peace grows inside me as we speak.”

As I looked around the table, my eyes met blank stares. Time seemed to stop for several minutes as everyone sat in stunned silence. Eventually, my father leaned forward and searched my eyes. “What did you say?”

“Two days ago, I was visited by a messenger from the Lord, an angel. He was sent to tell me that I would conceive a child by the Holy Spirit and would give birth to the Son of the Most High. It’s just like the song, Father. This is how the Messiah will come to Israel. When the prophet told us about Immanuel, ‘the Lord with us,’ what did he say?”

My father answered, shaking his head in confusion, “A virgin will be with child and bear a . . .” Suddenly, his eyes widened, and then became slits through which I saw an icy glare. He had never looked at me that way before. It broke my heart, but I understood. If what I had said were not true, I would have been guilty of blaspheming the Lord in the worst way.

When I finally looked at Joseph—my beloved, my betrothed husband—the anguish in his tear-filled eyes made me feel like I had plunged a knife into his heart. He rose slowly to his feet and stumbled out of the house into the darkness. It would be more than three months before I saw him again.

My mother leaned on my father’s shoulder and quietly sobbed. She was a simple woman. Quiet. Sensitive. Selfless. Father stimulated my mind, but Mother’s childlike purity taught me how to be uncritically, unconditionally devoted. She cared not whether what I said was true, only that it caused pain for the most important people in her life, including me. — Charles R. Swindoll, A Bethlehem Christmas: Celebrating the Joyful Season (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2007).

17.  Think about Mary’s life. What did obedience mean for her? How did following God’s calling affect her? What do we learn from this?

Luke and Matthew report two subsequent events, but we must use our imagination to determine which came first. Luke tells us that Mary “went in a hurry to the hill country” to visit Elizabeth (Luke 1:39). Matthew describes Joseph’s struggle to accept Mary’s story. In my book A Bethlehem Christmas, I imagined Mary’s telling Joseph about the miraculous way in which she became pregnant and then retreating to Elizabeth’s house. But it is just as likely that she hastily scratched a note to her betrothed husband and quickly departed in order to put off a difficult face-to-face conversation.

Either way, I can only imagine how difficult this time was for both of them. Mary must have sounded insane. A virgin conceiving a child without having intercourse? Unbelievable. How ironic that young Mary would be the bearer of the most wonderful secret in the history of humankind and yet suffer the consequences of a sinner. What a commentary on the spiritual dullness of her community that such a privilege would come at the cost of so much pain. And not for Mary only.

Joseph didn’t receive an angelic visit until later. Imagine his private pain and confusion. Perhaps he’s looking forward to another visit with Mary’s family after a hard day’s work, another evening in the company of the woman he loves, another time to relax and dream of their future together. Then, suddenly, she’s gone. A hurried trip to the hill country of Judea.

Three months pass before Joseph receives word that she has returned. Upon first glance, he notices a slight bulge in her outer garment. He doesn’t know much, only that life has suddenly become very complicated. — Charles R. Swindoll, Jesus: The Greatest Life of All (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2009).

18.  Think of Joseph’s life. What price did he pay for following God’s calling on his life?

After describing a most unusual story, Mary revealed that she was pregnant.

The words hit my chest like a boulder. I sat stunned as she continued with a preposterous, blasphemous story about conceiving the Messiah and the invisible God behaving in a manner that seemed to me like the deviant gods of Rome. A wave of questions flooded my mind. Who was the father? Was she taken advantage of, or did she consent? How could I have been so wrong about someone I knew so well? Is she insane? Is she in love with him? Does she not love me? Why would she do this?

I looked across the table at Mary to find her gazing at me with obvious compassion, which outraged me. Was her delusion so complete as to believe what she said? Or, worse, her deceit so profound as to feign concern for the lives she destroyed? The room began to spin and I felt my stomach rebel. I had to get outside.

I nearly tore the door off its hinges, ran into the night, and didn’t stop until I stood on the ridge outside Nazareth. Exhausted, I sank to my knees then sat for hours in the darkness, staring across the plain and into the night sky. When I was a child, I had found comfort in the vast expanse of stars, a symbol of God’s power, permanence, and unchangeable character. So, I found the appearance of a new light—a bright dot high above the horizon—a little unsettling. But my anguish would allow no other thoughts for very long before the utter absurdity of my circumstances overtook me. Each time I recovered, a new dimension of this tragedy invaded my mind and brought with it another spasm of sobs.

As the horizon turned light blue and then pink, I made my way home. My parents, though grieved and bewildered by the turn of events, advised me to delay making any decision regarding Mary. It was wise advice. One moment I wanted to rush to her side, the next I wanted to wash my hands of her. But one constant remained through all of my pain and confusion: an unrelenting love for Mary. — A Bethlehem Christmas: Celebrating the Joyful Season. Charles R. Swindoll

19.  What choices did Joseph have?

According to Jewish law, Joseph had the right to demand a public stoning, which would not only salve his wounded honor, but would also clear his name in the community. But he was too honorable for that.

And Joseph her husband, being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her, planned to send her away secretly. Matthew 1:19

What a remarkable man! What a tactful stand he took! He had every reason to believe that Mary had been unfaithful. And to marry an unfaithful woman who clung to such an outlandish story would have been irresponsible. Nevertheless, Joseph planned to deal with her mercifully. He would pursue a quiet divorce. He could get on with his life. She could remain with her family, who would care for Mary and the child. It was a logical, wise decision. — Charles R. Swindoll, Jesus: The Greatest Life of All (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2009).

20.  What do you want to recall from today’s conversation?

21.  How can we support one another in prayer this week?