Title: Mary Great with Child Text: Luke 2: 1-5 Date: December 22, 2016 Place: SGBC, New Jersey Luke 2: 1: And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed. 2: (And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.) 3: And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city. 4: And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David:) 5: To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child. We know that December 25 is not the day that Christ was born. God would have told us the day if it were important but he is silent as to that detail. But suppose that December 25 was the day Christ was born. Go back over 2000 years ago. Put yourself in Mary s place. Here you are Thursday night great with child roughly 2 ½ days before you are to give birth. Every father and mother here remembers what it was like 2 ½ days before their first child was to be born the things on your minds. Now try to imagine what must have been on the mind of Joseph and Mary. At 9 months most mothers surely would not want to walk or ride in a wagon 6-8 miles to be taxed. But God sovereignly arranged for them to be at Bethlehem as God had promised in the old testament scritpures. When Melinda was that close to delivery all I could think about was will I get her to the hospital in time. Imagine what Joseph must have thought when he could not get a room at the inn. Usually, around that time, mothers are thinking about the nursery and cribs and things. Mary had no idea where she would give birth and lay her child. Yet, more than all that, Mary must have been thinking about all the things that had been revealed to her about this child in her womb. Now, let s go back to when it was revealed to her what the Lord had done for her. Luke 1: 26: And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth, 27: To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin s name was Mary. 28: And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women. 29: And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be. 30: And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God. 31: And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS. GOD IN HUMAN FLESH Luke 1: 32: He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest:
At 2 ½ days from the birth of our first child most of us were taken up with a lot of temporal things. Mary must have been thinking one thing, this unborn child in my womb is God in human flesh. What mother would not like to be told by God that her unborn child shall be great! But none was ever as great as the child Mary had in her womb! He is the Son of the Highest! The Son of God. Just imagine! Mary knew this one in her womb was the Son of God who created all things even her! For by him were all things created, (Col 1:16) Mary knew the one in her womb, who she would wrap in swaddling clothes, who she would nurse upon her breast, was omnipotent, allpowerful God who she had read about in the scriptures in Isaiah 40: Isaiah 40: 11: He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young. 12: Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance? 13: Who hath directed the Spirit of the LORD, or being his counsellor hath taught him? 14: With whom took he counsel, and who instructed him, and taught him in the path of judgment, and taught him knowledge, and shewed to him the way of understanding? 15: Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance: behold, he taketh up the isles as a very little thing. 16: And Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor the beasts thereof sufficient for a burnt offering. 17: All nations before him are as nothing; and they are counted to him less than nothing, and vanity. 22: It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in: 23: That bringeth the princes to nothing; he maketh the judges of the earth as vanity 25 To whom then will ye liken me, or shall I be equal? saith the Holy One. (Isaiah 40:11-25) Mary knew the child in her womb was the one every woman in Israel hoped to have: the Seed of woman. God promised way back in the garden, Genesis 3:15: And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. The Lord Jesus Christ is God! He is the GodMan, Mediator. THE KING AND SAVIOR Luke 1: 32 and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: 33: And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end. Another thing Mary must have thought on as she struggled to find a way to sit that was physically comfortable was that this infant in her womb was all her spiritual comfort because he is her King and her Savior.
She knew that inside her womb was the very King of kings and Lord of lords her true King David and our true King David! The one of whom the good king David and his throne and his kingdom were but a type. He ruled the Roman kings and had brought them to Bethlehem that he might fulfill the prophets. Think of the years, she had read in scripture: Jeremmiah 23: 5: Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. 6: In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely: and this is his name whereby he shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS. Now, here she was great with child and that child is the Christ, the King of all his people. He reigns and prospers his people. He executes judgment and justice in the earth for his people. This is how we are brought to hear the gospel at his appointed hour. This is how we are saved and dwell safely. We have nothing to do with making ourselves righteous, he is the LORD our Righteousness! UNBELIEF AND GRACE Luke 1: 34: Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man? Now, that she was great with child, Mary probably thought how foolish she had been to doubt God s ability when she first heard this good news. But is not that just like us with our sinful unbelief? We think that because something goes against the laws of nature, that it is impossible with God. God is the laws of nature. God made the laws of nature. All things are held in place by his word. God is able to change the laws of nature. We imagine that because we cannot do a thing ourselves then it must be impossible. There are a great many temporal things that are impossible with us you and I cannot do anything but what God has foreordained be done we have to say, If the Lord will, we will do such and such. And when it comes to spiritual, supernatural things all things are impossible with us. But listen to the word of God in verse 37: with God nothing shall be impossible. Does anyone here find this gospel hard to conceive? Does that cause you a problem believing God? Listen carefully! God does not call his child and require us to be able to explain or comprehend God or what God is able to perform. God calls us to believe God, to believe that God is able to perform all that he promises in his word. Thereby we simply believe God. Even when we do not understand how. He is God, we are finite creatures with very limited understanding. Yet, in the face of our unbelief, God is so gracious to us. Mary probably thought on how gracious God was to her. Listen to the gracious answer revealed to Mary Luke 1: 35: And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of
thee shall be called the Son of God. 36: And, behold, thy cousin Elisabeth, she hath also conceived a son [John the Baptist] in her old age: and this is the sixth month with her, who was called barren. 37: For with God nothing shall be impossible. Can you imagine being told that within you is the LORD our Righteousness? Well, if you and I are a true believers the only reason dead, barren, sinners like us now have life and faith in Christ is because God on high, highly favored us by his free and sovereign grace, not based on anything in us. It is because he sent his Son to fully establish the law of God for us making us righteous by his obedience and holy by him dwelling in us. We have spiritual and eternal life abiding in us because the Spirit of God came over us and within us and the power of God in the highest formed Christ within us. That one who dwells in us is the King of kings and Lord of lords, the LORD our Righteousness. He dwells in us in Spirit, as real as he dwelt in Mary s womb in a body. Now, through faith in him, God has made us believe and rest in the truth that the righteousness of Christ has been justly imputed to us by God because Christ has made us righteous by his obedience! Since we became totally ruined and helpless by the fall, the Son of God had to come into this earth and be made flesh in order to be under the law and work out a righteousness for his people. Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. (Hebrews 2:17) But if he had been born of Adam, he would have been born of corrupt seed and thus unqualified to be the spotless Lamb of God. All of us are unqualified to attempt to save ourselves because we are born of Adam. So the Son of God had to be born of a virgin. His body had to be formed within her by God, by the Holy Ghost, so that Christ would be without sin and could obey God for his people. Which is also a picture of how Christ is formed in dead, barren sinners like us, by which we are given spiritual life. Only two men began their lives in sinless perfection Adam and Christ and you and I will be found in one of these two. Adam made all his seed die in sin by his disobedience. That is how we all were made sinners. Christ, the GodMan, made all his seed righteous by his obedience and shall make us alive by this marvelous irresistible grace. That is how all God s people are made righteous and called and saved! Oh, let us thank God that in the face of our sin and unbelief, God showed us great grace by revealing Christ in us! THE RESULT OF GRACE Perhaps Mary was thinking about the sure, effectual result that God works in his people by his irresistible grace in regeneration. What will be the result when Christ is formed within a sinner and revealed unto us? Only then shall we bow as God s servants, as servants of Christ our Lord and Master Luke 1: 38: And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord. Mary is not to be worshipped as the so-called Catholic church does. Mary was a sinner saved by grace like all God s people. Mary
bowed to God and confessed herself to be the servant of the Lord. Imagine, that! Mary knows her infant child, the one she will hold and nurse and raise, is her Lord and her Master! Two, when Christ is formed in us by the Holy Spirit, we also bow to the word of God, as did Mary Luke 1: 38: be it unto me according to thy word. And the angel departed from her. We follow the word of our God, our Savior, Christ Jesus. He says believe on me and thereby you have established the whole law of God through faith. He says love one another, be merciful, show forgiveness and longsuffering. By his grace, we do as he commands. But we do not look to our faith or to our feeble attempts at loving one another, only to him. Three, the sure result of God forming Christ in us, is we shall give God all the glory for the great things he has done for us in Christ Jesus Luke 1: 46 And Mary said, My soul doth magnify the Lord, 47: And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour. 48: For he hath regarded the low estate of his handmaiden: for, behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed. Mary did not want anyone worshipping her; she worshipped and magnified the Lord her Savior. All generations of believers call Mary blessed of God for the same reason we call all God s children blessed of God, because God has saved us by his free and sovereign grace in Christ our Righteousness. That is what Mary declared! Luke 1: 49: For he that is mighty hath done to me great things; and holy is his name. 50: And his mercy is on them that fear him from generation to generation. His mercy is on us, not because we fear him, but his mercy is the reason we fear him. And he does not show this grace to all sinners, only his chosen. Listen Luke 1: 51: He hath shewed strength with his arm; he hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. 52: He hath put down the mighty from their seats, and exalted them of low degree. 53: He hath filled the hungry with good things; and the rich he hath sent empty away. 54: He hath holpen his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy; 55: As he spake to our fathers, to Abraham, and to his seed for ever. Do you know the chief way we manifest that God has worked these three things in our hearts? By declaring the good news of Christ. The first thing Mary did was run to Elizabeth s house to tell her cousin the good news concerning Christ Jesus. Brethren, you and I are not in Mary s place as far as what she was about to do in a few days physically. But we are one with her spiritually by all the wonderful works of God worked for us and in us. So throughout this long weekend, as we spend time with friends and family, let our minds be on Christ. If the door is opened by God, let us declare to them what great things he has done for us. And let us thank him and glorify him because God sent his Son, Christ, the Son of God, to be born into this earth and by his obedience Christ has made us complete in him by his grace! Amen!