THE STORY OF MARY Six Men & Six Women Series

Transcription

1 This morning we are going to look at the life of Mary in our series, Six Men & Six Women. And the Mary that I will be talking about in the Bible is Mary, the mother of Jesus. We don t talk a lot about Mary, unfortunately, in Protestant churches. And I think when it comes to the person of Mary, there is an over exalted view of her within Catholicism. And I don t mean that in a derogatory way toward anyone who is a professed Catholic; I just mean when looking at the Biblical data of who Mary was, there is an over exalted view. Yet I think in Protestant circles there is a de-emphasis on the person of Mary. And I think we would be amiss to not focus in on this wonderful character known as Mary, the mother of Jesus in this series. And so what I want us to do is look at the Scriptural data and see what we can learn about Mary from God s word. And then after I walk us through sort of a biographical sketch on Mary s life, what we will do is we will ask the question, if Mary could speak to us today, what would she want to say? So buckle your seatbelts as this is pretty cool. We get the opportunity to learn about Jesus mother. And as I was preparing this message that put a little pressure on me, because no one wants anyone to talk wrong about their mom. So as I got ready this week I said, I m going to talk about your mom this week, Jesus. Please be with me in this message. So I want to share with you in an overview fashion a panoply of her life. Please just listen carefully, and at the end of Mary s sketch I will try and drive home some application for us to consider. When it comes to Mary s life we don t learn anything about her in her childhood. The first glimpse we get of her is after she is betrothed to Joseph in the Scriptures. So she would have probably been a young teenager at this time. And she was a virtuous young lady. She is betrothed to Joseph, and shortly after that she has this encounter with the angel Gabriel. And as she has this encounter she learns that she is going to be impregnated with the Son of God. Now she asks the question, But how does this happen? And we need to realize that there is a sceptical kind of doubt and there is a sincere kind of doubt. Mary s doubt was a very sincere doubt, and so was her question. It was like, But I am a virgin. How in the world am I going to be with child? And what Mary was told was the Holy Spirit was going to overshadow her. So this was going to be a supernatural experience, a supernatural conception. And Mary believes God. She takes the angel at his word at this encounter. Now juxtapose that with the experience that Gabriel had with Zechariah, a relative of Mary. Zechariah is told that his wife, Elizabeth, is going to bear a child in her old age. Mary was able to ask her question because of a right kind of doubt. There is negative doubt and there is positive doubt, and Mary was able to doubt toward faith. She was sincere in Page 1 of 14 pages 5/22/2016

2 her question and was just seeking some affirmation. Zechariah had a doubt toward unbelief. He should have remembered the story of Abraham and Sarah where God gave them a child in their old age. Just as a means of observation here at the outset, it is interesting what can happen to us. There is something about the young spirit to believe in the audacious, to belief in the ridiculous, to believe that God can do big things. Sometimes the older we get the more cynical we become. And Zechariah was a priest, but he doubted in that moment. So just because he was in the ministry didn t mean he was excused from doubting God, or in doubting what God could do. Perhaps he had become cynical in his later years. Mary is told that the Holy Spirit will overshadow her and that she will be with child. After that she would make her way over to Elizabeth and Zechariah s home and she would spend three months with them. After taking a long journey she would arrive there, and when Elizabeth saw Mary she told her that her unborn baby leapt in her womb. And Elizabeth said, Blessed are you of women. And she encourages Mary. What an amazing moment that must have been between Mary and her relative Elizabeth. And Mary stayed with Elizabeth for three months. Maybe she was going through some morning sickness or some other difficulties. Perhaps she was experiencing a little bit of fear or uncertainty about going back to her home town of Nazareth. Nazareth is a city in the Galilee region. And Mary was of the tribe of Judah. But eventually Mary makes her way back to Nazareth, and she was probably wondering what kind of rejection she would experience when she is back in her home town. Maybe people would be wondering what in the world had happened to her. Maybe they would think that she had had an affair. Maybe they would believe that she had been unfaithful to Joseph. And even Joseph would need some assurance. Thankfully God gave Joseph a dream to show him that the child that had been conceived in Mary was of the Holy Spirit, and that Joseph could trust her. And that brings out another observation. One of the things that we can be assured of when we are following God in His will, is that we can trust Him to go before us and deal with those who are supposed to partner with us in His vision for our lives. I think of when we were called to go to Dallas Seminary. When I first sensed that tug, Heather wasn t feeling it. She wasn t sensing it. But I believed we were to go there. And in time God also showed Heather we were to go. And during Seminary she was the one who would tell me, You can do this. You can do this. You can do this. So God had a way of aligning us because we were two people who were willing to be spiritually sensitive. And sometimes when more than two in church leadership are willing to be spiritually sensitive we can trust that God will go before us, and He will create an alliance. Page 2 of 14 pages 5/22/2016

3 Now Joseph is aware, and he is able to affirm to Mary, that he had a dream from God. Can t you imagine how thankful Mary must have been when she heard that from Joseph? Thank you, Jesus. Thank you so much for showing him that I wasn t unfaithful. Thank you for showing him that I have been true to him. No doubt these two were criticized in their community. They probably heard remarks like, Joseph, you are an idiot. You are so naïve. How can you possibly believe that the child has been conceived by the Holy Spirit? Mary had an affair on you. Can t you imagine the criticism that they would face? Then what would take place is Joseph would leave with Mary to go on a trek from Nazareth to Bethlehem, which would have been a lengthy trip as Bethlehem was near Jerusalem. Mary and Joseph would travel together because of a census that needed to be taken. Joseph had to show up at this census in Bethlehem. Obviously, he also had to show up there because this was a providential move so that Scripture could be fulfilled. Because according to Micah Chapter 5 and verse 2, Jesus would be born in Bethlehem. So that is why there was a demand for a census to get them out of Nazareth and into Bethlehem. Now Mary and Joseph arrive in Bethlehem, but there is no room in the Inn. So Mary gives birth in a cave and she places baby Jesus in a manger. There were shepherds out in the field around Bethlehem, and they experienced all kinds of angelic praise as they heard about the birth of Jesus. And then much later wise men would show up to bring gifts to young Jesus. Mary and Joseph named the child Jesus; and they would circumcise him. And after Mary s time of purification was finished they would go from Bethlehem to Jerusalem which would be a short trek. They would go to the temple in Jerusalem to present Jesus, and Simeon was there in the temple. And Simeon had been told by God that he would not die until he had seen the Messiah. So Simeon blesses Jesus. He says amazing things about Jesus in the presence of Mary and Joseph. And Mary treasured the things that Simeon said in her heart. Mary and Joseph and the baby would then leave the temple in Jerusalem and go back to Bethlehem. And then Joseph would have a dream telling him he needed to quickly take Mary and the baby and go to Egypt because Herod was going to kill all the children two years old and younger. What does this tell us? It tells us that Jesus would have probably been less than two years of age before they left for Egypt, because Herod called for the death of those two years old and younger. When the wise men found Jesus they did not take word back to Herod about where He was. And Herod was irate and he called for the death of all the children under two years of age. Joseph has the dream and then he, Mary and Jesus escape to Egypt, Page 3 of 14 pages 5/22/2016

4 which was also Scripture being fulfilled, because the Scripture says He would be called out of Egypt. After Herod s death, Joseph has another dream telling him it is now safe to leave Egypt and so they would go back to Nazareth. And that is where Jesus would be raised, hence Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus was from the Galilean region known as Nazareth. And then we don t hear anything more about Jesus during his early years. We have a lot of Scripture around the nativity scene and the temple in Jerusalem. And we learn that they went to Egypt until the death of Herod, and then they returned to their home in Nazareth. And then it goes silent in Scriptural data. The next Scripture reference about Jesus is when He is at the age of 12, and He is in the temple at Jerusalem. The families in that day would travel by caravan every year at Passover. So picture if you will, a caravan with lots of people, and they are traveling from Nazareth to Jerusalem. And they would do this annually to celebrate Passover. This would be sort of their vacation as they would travel with a large group of people to go to Jerusalem to worship. Can you imagine if today we would announce that Life Fellowship is going on vacation. We are going to walk from here up to the Blue Ridge Mountains and we are going to worship God there. And people would be like, Uh, no thanks, bro. I m not really into that sort of thing. I would need to take an airplane to go anywhere, and I really don t want to be around a big bunch of people. But in these times they were a very spiritual community and they wanted to travel together to Jerusalem to worship. So after the celebration of the Passover in Jerusalem everyone is heading back to Nazareth. And Scripture says Mary and Joseph can t find Jesus in the group. There were lots of people traveling in this caravan so it wasn t like they were being irresponsible. The kids are probably in one group and the adults would be in another group so Jesus obviously wasn t missed right away. But then Mary and Joseph go back to look for Jesus and they find Him in the temple. And He is absolutely mesmerizing the teachers there in the temple with His knowledge and His questions. How cool that would have been to see Jesus teaching these learned men. And then Mary asks Him why he had not been with them returning to Nazareth and Jesus replies, Did you not know that I must be about my Father s business? So He is putting up a little bit of boundaries. And here is what I want to say to you 12 year olds. Love the Scriptures. Jesus blew people away with His awareness of the word of God. People were hanging on His every word. Young people, fall in love with the word of God. Read it, learn from Jesus. Become a lover of truth. Jesus so blew away the adults because of His love for the word, and by His ability to teach it. To hang out with Jesus you would have been included in Page 4 of 14 pages 5/22/2016

5 spiritual conversations. Young people, if you want to be like Jesus you need to become like Jesus by being interested in Scripture dialogue. Become like Jesus in His character, in His virtue and in His habits. And then after the passage about Jesus in the temple at 12 years of age, the Scriptures go silent again. So for about 18 years the Scriptures are silent of Jesus until He is about the age of 30. We don t read anything else about Mary or about Jesus during those 18 years. The next passage is when Mary and Jesus are at a wedding in Cana. And no doubt Mary has seen Jesus do some extraordinary things. Unfortunately we won t be able to find those out until we are in Heaven someday. But we know that at this wedding Mary seems to be expecting Jesus to do something when they run out of wine. And Jesus does His first recorded miracle in Scripture by turning water into wine at this wedding. And obviously Mary would have been very grateful that Jesus provided wine for the guests at this wedding. Then the Scriptures go silent again about Mary, until we see Jesus doing some ministry at a house. There is a knock on the door and some people come to Jesus saying that His mother and brothers are outside waiting to see Him. And Jesus answers, Who are my mother and my brothers? I tell you these are my mother and my brothers. In other words He was using a spiritual opportunity to teach us truth. He was saying His disciples were His family, and that those who follow Him were His family. And we see Jesus putting a little distance up here. The next time we see Mary again is at the cross. Remember that Simeon had said this to Mary when he held Jesus as a baby, A sword will pierce your heart. And undoubtedly Mary s heart was pierced as she saw her son hanging on a cross. And Jesus said to Mary from the cross, Woman, but that was not meant in a derogatory way. In a cultural term we read it and wonder where Jesus manners were. But that is not how it was meant in those days. He said, Woman, behold your son. And then He said to the disciple whom He loved, Behold your mother. In other words Jesus is making sure that His mother s needs would be cared for, that the disciple whom He loved would take care of His mother. And from that point forward, His mother was cared for by the disciple whom Jesus loved. We get one more glimpse of Mary in Scripture. It is found in Acts Chapter 1 where Mary is praying in the upper room with the disciples after the ascension. They were praying to the One mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus, for the Holy Spirit to come. So let s step back and realize that is the only Biblical material we have about Mary. That is the biography of Mary that we have. We don t have anything of her Page 5 of 14 pages 5/22/2016

6 childhood; our first picture of her is as a young woman being betrothed to Joseph. There is the nativity scene and Jesus early childhood. Then we fast forward to Jesus ministry and occasionally have a glimpse of her during those years. We see her at Jesus death scene and then at the upper room, but we really don t know about her life after that, or how she died. But if Mary could come back today, folks, based on this Biblical picture that I just painted for you, what are some things I think she would want to say to us? First of all I think Mary would say this if you want to be used by God in great ways, and find favor before Him, then determine to live set apart and wholly available unto Him. We see that Mary found favor before God as found in Luke Chapters 1 and 2. I would encourage you to go and read that later and get to know Mary better. If you want to be used by God in great ways, and want to find favor before Him, we have to determine to live set apart and wholly available unto Him. Maybe you wonder, How do I know that Mary was living set apart? Well, we know that Mary lived an honourable life. She was a virgin, she had stayed pure. She did not cheat on Joseph, and they had waited to be together. Mary loved God and she was available. When Gabriel appeared to her and told her the plan, she was all in. She was willing to do whatever God desired. Now when it comes to following God, don t you want to follow God in His will? Don t you want to fulfil His purpose for your life? I know I do, and I also know that sometimes life can get so busy that we can get derailed, and forget the bigger picture of what life is supposed to be all about. But it is so important that we live set apart, that we live holy and that we seek to fulfil God s will for our life. Often before God will reveal His missional will for us, He first tests us to see if we are willing to follow His moral will. Many people aren t willing to follow God s moral will but they want to know what His missional will is for their life. And if we want to understand God s missional will, we first need to apply what He has already revealed in His moral will. In this case, Mary was living holy and she pleased God. And then she was also available. Sometimes people are living totally outside of God s will, yet they ask God to show them why they were created, they ask Him to show them what He wants for them. And more than likely, you will not get God s missional will for your life until you are following Him in His moral will. That is to say we are to follow Him in what we know He wants us to do. And that s how I know He worked in my life. I was a guy who didn t know I was called to the ministry until I got clean and sober in my life. God didn t call me to the ministry when I was out partying, drinking and doing bong hits. That is not how it Page 6 of 14 pages 5/22/2016

7 worked. I had to get cleaned up, I had to surrender, I had to learn to live set apart. I went to AA meetings every day so I could get cleaned up. It was probably at least a year and a half before I even begin to feel this tug for ministry. I had to get clean and set apart before I could align my life with God s will. I would go to church and to small groups as I was seeking to repent and to begin living for God. And I finally got to the point where I wanted to be in God conversations, to be in spiritual conversations, and people started saying they could see me in ministry. And eventually God revealed His missional will to me. And if God would have called me into full time ministry while I was still struggling with drinking, I would not have been able to glorify Him in that. I had to be set apart first. He tested me to see if I was willing to live out His moral will and then He revealed His missional will for me. See, some of you have been waiting to find out what your purpose in life is, but you first need to find your passion to live in purity. And then when we live that way in time our purpose in life will come. It saddens me to see many people go through life just dangling, and never figuring out what their missional purpose is, what God has wired them for, what they are here for, why they exist. So you need to get yourself so wrapped up in God, so excited about Him, so thoroughly committed to surrendering to Him that you can live a Biblically measured God aligned life. And out of that, in time I feel confident that you will get some missional awareness for your life. I think Mary would also want to say this to us sometimes God will call you out of your comfort zone and invite you into the seemingly ridiculous, and when He does trust and obey Him. Out of our comfort zone and into the seemingly ridiculous. Mary learned that she was going to be with child, and she was a virgin. Believe that. Joshua, walked around the walls of Jericho once every day, and on the seventh day he did it seven times. Naaman was told to go dip himself seven times in this river right here. Ezekiel was told to lay on his side for 390 days and then turn over for another 40 days. Isaiah was told to strip down to his undergarments and go do a ministry. So we have all of these things going on in Scripture and we wonder about it. There are odd things recorded there. Maybe you are scratching your head and having a hard time relating. And by the way, folks, if you are having a hard time relating to some of these things in Scripture, know this: I can t relate to our culture five years ago. And I can t relate to what the culture was like in the 50 s, with segregation of bathrooms and drinking fountains and school buses. I mean that all seems so bizarre and so wrong. So when we think we are just the culture that finally has everything all figured out, it doesn t take remembering back very far in our culture to have us scratching our heads over some of those things. Page 7 of 14 pages 5/22/2016

8 God will sometimes call us into the ridiculous. He will invite us to do something that doesn t make sense, and it is a trust test. He will invite us to do things that, according to practical sense, seem absurd. Are you willing to trust Him in the ridiculous? Are you willing to follow Him in the ways that don t make sense? It is a Jewish subtheme that we see running throughout Scripture in the undercurrent where God is constantly calling people to do things that don t make sense. And then if they trust Him, He ends up coming through, and that is how God affirms that He is with them. And sometimes God will call us out of our comfort zones to test us. When I wrote the book, The Fifth Gospel, I wrote a chapter called Fools For Christ. And in this chapter I tell a story about Beth Moore when she shared an experience she had at an airport when trying to catch her flight, and it is this: The terminal was packed to overflowing that day when suddenly all eyes focused on an elderly man in a wheelchair pushed along by an airline hostess. This old man had long fingernails and his pants were bunched up as if he had lost a lot of weight. His hair was long and stringy and looked as if it hadn t been washed in a long time. Overwhelmed at the sight of this man, Beth sensed God was up to something. Then a thought popped into her head. God wants me to witness to this person. That may have been intimidating enough, but then her heart was immediately filled with fear as she sensed God saying, Beth, I am not asking you to witness to this person. I am asking you to go brush his hair. All of a sudden witnessing sounded a whole lot easier. Brush his hair, Lord. Really? And that is when the internal struggle of excuse making began. But I don t even have a hairbrush, God, she protested. But the thought refused to leave her mind. And so as discretely as possible Beth walked over and quietly said to the man, Sir, may I have the honor of brushing your hair? The old man said, What? So she repeated herself a little louder. May I have the honor of brushing your hair? The man said, Lady, if you want me to hear you, then you are going to have to speak up. She must have thought, God, you are not going to make this easy, are you? At last she repeated the ridiculously foolish statement so loudly that virtually everyone in the terminal could hear. Sir, may I have the privilege of brushing your hair? Everyone turned and stared, and Beth felt humiliated. The old man looked at her and simply said, If you want to. She thought to herself, Of course I don t want to. But instead she replied, Yes sir, I would love to. But the problem is I don t have a hairbrush. To her surprise the man said, I have a hairbrush. It is back in my bag. Page 8 of 14 pages 5/22/2016

9 Stepping around to the back of his wheelchair, Beth bent down and unzipped the little duffle bag. She rummaged through his undershirts, pajamas, almost everything in his bag until finally she located the elusive hairbrush. By this point she had become overwhelmed with the love of Christ for this man. Her feelings had shifted from resistance to genuine gratitude to be serving him. And she proceeded to patiently brush the man s matted hair. Beth was so into her mission that she became oblivious to everyone watching, continuing her task until the man s hair was a smooth as silk. When she had finished, she said to him, Sir, do you know Jesus? And he said, Why yes I do. Then he confessed with tears in his eyes. I was just sitting here thinking what a mess I must look like for my bride. He exclaimed he had been in a hospital for months and was finally going back home. The airline hostess soon returned and wheeled the old man onto the plane. A few minutes later she came back out with tears streaming down her cheeks. What made you do that, she asked Beth. Beth paused and then simply said, Jesus. And then she shared Christ with the lady. But Beth shared more than words that day in the airport. She proved herself to be a living witness before all who observed her act of kindness. She was a living observable gospel for all eyes to see, a fifth gospel Christian in action. Sometimes God calls you and me into the ridiculous, and it will look absurd before others, but are we willing to love the world in that way? Are we willing to follow God in the ridiculous? Because if we seek to live a make sense life we will miss out on a lot. If we seek to live our lives to be as comfortable as possible, we will no doubt be overlooked for opportunities because fear will get in our way of stepping out into the great unknown. Don t be surprised if God shakes you up from time to time and invites you into the seemingly absurd, and invites you into the ridiculous, and invites you into the unknown. Don t be tempted to excuse yourself out of the opportunities to follow God into His big awesome audacious plan for you. Next, I think that Mary would want to say this know that you will be misunderstood and perhaps falsely accused. If and when that happens remember that we are ultimately living for an audience of one. No doubt Mary and Joseph would have been deeply misunderstood. She would have been falsely accused. And imagine how hard that would have been to be walking in God s will and being criticized. But guess what, there is no way around it. When you follow God and attempt to do great things for our great God, people will misunderstand you. People will criticize you. Like when Nehemiah went out to build the wall, there will always be a Sanballat and Tobiah who come out to say, It can t be done. You are attempting something too great. There will always be the dream squashers in your midst. But if you will follow God in the ridiculous, He will come through for you, and then that will affirm His Page 9 of 14 pages 5/22/2016

10 leadership through you. That will affirm that He is working through you when you are willing to trust Him when others can t understand it. And if you are in leadership, in particular, you need to know that that is going to be a test that will always come your way in life. God will invite us as leaders to do things that don t make sense to the followers, to test our loyalties to see if we are going to follow Him or if we are only doing this to please others. And then when we follow Him we will get criticized. But when we follow God faithfully He will come through and others will begin to see that God really is in this after all. Maybe that is happening in your life. Maybe you are misunderstood for a decision that you are making in your job. Maybe you are being misunderstood by your spouse for something and it is really hard. Maybe you are being misunderstood by your parents and they are questioning your motives. Maybe you are being misunderstood at your school for the stand that you are taking. Stay faithful. That is what Mary did. She was willing to be rejected and she was willing to be a reject for God because she wanted the greater prize of pleasing God. I think also that Mary would want to say to this to us God won t abandon you when you step out in radical trust and follow Him. While He may seemingly be silent at times, He will also provide assurance along the way. And let s step back and think about the assurance that was provided for Mary. She received this incredible revelation from Gabriel that she was going to be with child. But what kind of affirmation for this revelation did God give her to comfort her and let her know she was doing the right thing? Well, she goes to Elizabeth s home and Elizabeth s baby leaps inside her, and Elizabeth begins to affirm Mary and share what is going on. Then Mary goes back home to Nazareth and Joseph has a dream confirming to him that this is the real deal. And think how much assurance that must have provided Mary in that moment. And then she knew assurance at the birth scene when all the shepherds came from their fields, sent by an angelic host to see Jesus. And later she received more assurance when the wise men showed up with their gifts of gold, myrrh and frankincense. This would have been further affirmation for Mary. And then when Mary, Joseph and the baby went to the temple in Jerusalem, Simeon shows up. All these moments along the way were affirmation to Mary. And of course the greatest affirmation was when Jesus rose from the dead. Mary had to know that she had given birth to more than a man. When you step out in faith it can get lonely and scary and you can wonder where God is at sometimes. He shows you something so awesome and you believe and then you get out there and you may start wondering if you were just hearing things, if you were just deceiving yourself. And then when you need it the most, and sometimes when Page 10 of 14 pages 5/22/2016

11 you expect it the least, God can show up and give you assurance that He really is with you. Maybe you are in that silent moment right now. Maybe you have stepped out and you are trusting God in a big kind of way and now you are wondering, God, where are you? Hang on, don t get disillusioned. God knows His timing. He won t be silent forever. There will come a point where He will burst out of the silence and break into your soul and calm your anxious heart with His everlasting holy nearness. I also think Mary might also want to say this to us While I am thankful to have been used in a mighty way by God, don t over exalt me. Like you, I am just a human in need of the same redemption that you do. So now we are back at where we began. I said that I believed that the Catholic Church has an over exalted view of Mary. And I believe that we de-emphasis Mary in Protestant circles. So in order for me to kind of clear up some misconceptions about Mary, I want to take a brief look at her Magnificat. Her Magnificat is this speech, this praise that she uttered when she showed up at Elizabeth s house. And to see this Magnificat you need to read Luke Chapter 1 and verses 46 through 55. There are four misconceptions that I want to clear up but not all of them are in the Magnificat. First of all, Mary is not co-redemptrix with Jesus. That is to say she was not a coredeemer. Jesus is the only redeemer. Jesus is the only Savior. And Catholicism looks different in Latin America than it does here in our country or in Western Europe. But there is a co-redemptrix teaching that is taking place amongst some people where they have basically juxtaposed Jesus and Mary as co-equal saviors, annexing them together. But we don t want to do that. Look at Luke Chapter1 and verse 46 where Mary says, My soul magnifies the Lord. The word magnifies is a word that means to make large, to increase. Now we can t make God bigger, but He can become bigger in the way we view Him by magnifying Him, by making much of Him. And what a great statement Mary made. That is what we are to do. Our soul is to make God large, to magnify Him, to increase Him, to get a bigger awareness of who He is. Mary goes on to say, And my spirit rejoices in God my Savior. This is very important. Only a sinner needs a Savior. Mary is recognizing that God is her Savior, that she is a sinner. And if Mary was co-redemptrix she wouldn t be calling God her Savior. Mary is a person in need of redemption. While she delivered Jesus, Jesus needed to deliver her because she too was a sinner and needed a Savior. And we can t over exalt who she is in that way. Page 11 of 14 pages 5/22/2016

12 Luke 1 and verse 28 says, For He has looked on the humble estate of His servant. For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed; for he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is His name. And His mercy. What is mercy? It is something that God gives to those who don t deserve it, and Mary is including herself in that. And His mercy is for those who fear Him from generation to generation. And Mary feared Him. She had a holy awe of Him, a respect for Him. So Mary is not co-redemptrix. Not only that, but there was not an immaculate conception. Mary had a fallen nature like we do. Some will say that Mary was spared from having a fallen nature. That is not the case. She needed a Savior. She calls God her Savior. Mary was not perfect in that way. The Holy Spirit worked and served sort of as a surrogate in this conception. I would also say that Mary wasn t a perpetual virgin. How do we know that Mary wasn t a perpetual virgin? It is because Mary and Joseph had other children. Jesus had brothers and sisters. James, the pastor of the church of Jerusalem, was Jesus halfbrother. And by the way there is nothing wrong or dirty with Mary having sex with her husband. In fact that is just fulfilling what Genesis Chapter 1 says to do, The two shall become one flesh. It is the way that marriage is to be consummated and celebrated. It is a good thing. And fourth and finally, we don t see anything in the Scriptures of the Assumption of Mary. That has just become later church tradition stuff that says Mary didn t die but like Enoch and Elijah she was assumed in Heaven. We don t know that. Maybe she was, but we certainly don t know that. I would assume that she died, but the Bible doesn t tell us how she died. So those things need to be put in check and we need to realize then that Mary was a virtuous godly woman who trusted God, who followed God, who believed God, who saw God work in an amazing ways, but who still needed a Savior. And the final point that I believe that Mary would want to say to us today is this I had the privilege of delivering the deliverer so that the deliverer could deliver you. Have you been delivered? Is Jesus your Savior too? What was this whole birth narrative about? It was the story that Mary was going to carry the one who would carry our sins to the cross. I love these lyrics of Mary, Did You Know. Mary, did you know that your Baby Boy would one day walk on water? Mary, did you know that your Baby Boy would save our sons and daughters? Page 12 of 14 pages 5/22/2016

13 Did you know that your Baby Boy has come to make you new? This Child that you delivered will soon deliver you. Mary, did you know that your Baby Boy will give sight to a blind man? Mary, did you know that your Baby Boy will calm the storm with His hand? Did you know that your Baby Boy has walked where angels trod? When you kiss your little Baby you kiss the face of God? Mary did you know.. Mary did you know The blind will see. The deaf will hear. The dead will live again. The lame will leap. The dumb will speak The praises of The Lamb. Mary, did you know that your Baby Boy is Lord of all creation? Mary, did you know that your Baby Boy would one day rule the nations? Did you know that your Baby Boy is heaven's perfect Lamb? The sleeping Child you're holding is the Great, I Am. Mary gave birth to the self-existent one. Mary, did you know that this child that you delivered would one day deliver you? And Mary would want to say to us, He did deliver me. The question is has He delivered you? That sword did pierce through my heart when I saw Him bleeding and dying on a cross for my sins. Has that sword pierced your heart, believing that He died for your sins so that you could be forgiven, and so that you, like me, could be delivered? Let s pray. Father, thank you for your word. I pray that you will use your teaching to deepen our love for you. If anyone here doesn t know you as their personal Savior, I pray that in the quietness of their hearts they will say this: Jesus, deliver me from my sins. I believe you died on a cross and rose from the grave. I don t understand everything about Christianity and what it means to follow you, but I want to start a relationship with you Page 13 of 14 pages 5/22/2016

14 right here and right now. I believe and I surrender my life and ask you to help me to turn away from my sins and to follow hard after you. In Jesus name. Amen. The preceding transcript was completed using raw audio recordings. As much as possible, it includes the actual words of the message with minor grammatical changes and editorial clarifications to provide context. Hebrew and Greek words are spelled using Google Translator and the actual spelling may be different in some cases. Page 14 of 14 pages 5/22/2016