Son of the Highest (Lk. 1:26-38)

Good morning!

For the past two weeks Pastor Mike has prepared us for Luke’s introduction of Jesus. In doing so, he has helped to solidify the trustworthiness of Luke’s account by pointing to the careful detail with which Luke writes to his friend Theophilus. Last week he explained the events surrounding the announcement of the birth of John, the forerunner of Jesus. Today, we get to take a closer look at the events surrounding the announcement of the birth of Jesus. There are noticeable differences between the two events as we’ll see.

Stephen Harris, author of The New Testament: A Student’s Introduction, focuses our attention on the care taken by Luke in the particular language he uses to convey his account of the Messiah. Not only does Luke want to honor the witnesses who share their details of Jesus’ life, but, as a Gentile, he writes in such a way that resembles and respects the Messianic community.

In composing his infancy narratives, Luke adopts a consciously biblical style, writing in the old-fashioned Greek of the Septuagint Bible. The effect is akin to that of reading the birth stories in the archaic language of the King James Version and most of the Gospel in more contemporary English. (WHY?) Luke’s purpose here, however, is more than merely stylistic: He is echoing the ancient Scriptures, both by his style and by extensive quotations from the Hebrew prophets, because what he relates in these passages is the climatic turn of history...”.[1]

Today, we get to travel from the religious capital to a small, out-of-the-way town not known for much good (Jn. 1:46). Today, we move from the prestigious to the poor. From the messenger to the Message.

Thabiti Anyabwile reminds us that

What God does in the world has nothing to do with our ages or our hometowns [, or our finances]. God uses whomever he wills.[2]

Let’s read our scripture for today and see what we can learn.

Luke 1:26-38

26 Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth,
27 to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary.
28 And having come in, the angel said to her, “Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!”
29 But when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and considered what manner of greeting this was.
30 Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.
31 And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name Jesus.
32 He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David.
33 And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.”
34 Then Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I do not know a man?”
35 And the angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God.
36 Now indeed, Elizabeth your relative has also conceived a son in her old age; and this is now the sixth month for her who was called barren.
37 For with God nothing will be impossible.”
38 Then Mary said, “Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her (Luke 1:26–38 NKJV).

Six months after the announcement of John’s birth Gabriel was sent to Mary, a teenage virgin from Nazareth, with another birth announcement. Mary is not officially married yet. However, she is engaged to Joseph. During this time an engagement was tantamount to an actual marriage. It lasted for about one year and if anyone changed their mind they had to get a certificate of divorce. This may explain why Matthew refers to Joseph and Mary as husband and wife.

Matthew 1:19–20 NKJV

19 Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not wanting to make her a public example, was minded to put her away secretly.
20 But while he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.

Nazareth

If we compare the birth of John with that of Jesus, there are a few noticeable contrasting details in the two birth narratives. Zachariah and Elizabeth are old. Mary is a teenager. Elizabeth is barren. She can’t have kids. Mary is celibate. Zachariah and Elizabeth are well respected in the community. Mary is of no major significance. Zachariah is a priest in the capital of worship, Jerusalem. Mary is believed to have been poor (Lev.12:8; Luke 2:24) and from a poor community, Nazareth. 

Nazareth was once a subject of debate among scholars and served as evidence for doubt for some people. It was believed by some that Nazareth never did exist during the time of Jesus and if that was truly the case then it served to reason that Jesus didn’t exist either. However, archeologists have actually discovered the town of Nazareth, which included about 50 small houses, dating back to the exact time of Jesus and more discoveries are being made.[3]

Nathanael asked an important question in his day,

46 And Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.” (John 1:46 NKJV)

It would be similar to asking, “Can anything good come out of the southside of OKC? Or out of the Highlands area where we are located? Or Britton Elementary? Or John Marshall Middle School? Or public schools in general.

It’s very important for us to remember the words of the apostle Paul before we look down our noses at other people.

23 and the parts of the body which we think to be less honorable, these we clothe with more abundant honor, and our unpresentable parts come to have more abundant presentability, 24 but our presentable parts do not have need of this. Yet God composed the body by giving more abundant honor to the part which lacked it....(1 Cor. 12:23 The Lexham English Bible)

Thabiti Anyabwile says,

We might be tempted to think Zechariah was chosen because he was righteous and a priest. The angel’s greeting to Mary reveals she is chosen solely as a matter of God’s grace.[4]

I believe that God’s selection of Zechariah and Mary humanizes what we read in 1 Cor. 1:26-29.

26 For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called.
27 But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty;
28 and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are,
29 that no flesh should glory in His presence (1 Corinthians 1:26–29 NKJV).

And so the angel tells Mary, “You have found favor with God” (Lk. 1:30).

The word favor comes from the word for grace and it means “unmerited good will”. It is something that is unearned and to a large degree undeserved, yet bestowed upon someone out of the sheer kindness of another’s heart. Here’s how Strong’s defines grace, 

“A favor done without expectation of return; absolute freeness of the loving-kindness of God to men, finding its only motive in the bounty and freeheartedness of the Giver.”[5]

Ephesians 2:8-10 reminds us that we are saved by the “absolute freeness of the loving-kindness of God to men”, by the grace of God. And God finds pleasure in doing this for us. God enjoyed blessing Mary to carry the Messiah.

Like a Virgin

We are told that Mary was a virgin. The doctrine of a virgin birth is a uniquely Christian doctrine. Many skeptics have taken up the task of trying to discredit and disprove Jesus’ divinity by using mythological stories that sound somewhat similar to what we know of the virgin birth according to God’s Word.

For example, stories often cited to downplay the uniqueness of the virgin birth as told in the Bible are the stories of Horus from ancient Egyptian mythology. Osiris, the husband of Isis, was murdered and dismembered. Isis finds his body parts and puts them all back together, all except one really important piece needed for conceiving children. Since she couldn’t find it, she made her own out of gold and attached it and later she gives birth to Horus. In Greek mythology the birth of Erechtheus is also considered miraculous. Hephaestus, the god of fire and metal-working, tried to rape Athena, but at the moment of climax he spills onto her thigh, she wipes it off and flings it to the earth and, voila, Erechtheus is born. There are plenty of others, but none of them comes close to what we have in our scriptures. Violation, deception, actual intercourse, all of this is missing from the virgin birth of Jesus.[6]

We first learned of this from Genesis 3:15 where God, speaking to the serpent, promises,

Genesis 3:15 NKJV

15 And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel.”

What we understand from this verse is that a woman does not have a seed, the man does, and therefore we conclude that this is an early reference to the virgin birth found in the Gospels. The prophet Isaiah, speaking some 600+ years before Jesus tells of this virgin birth as well.

Isaiah 7:14 NKJV

14 Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.

Isaiah’s words jump off the page in Luke’s Gospel. Up and until this point, Mary had never had sex. Our Catholic brothers and sisters believe that Mary remained a virgin her entire life. While that is a comforting thought, scripture does not support this belief. I don’t say this as a judgement against them, but rather in love so that we may all know the truth of God’s Word.

In verse 34 Mary asks how could it be possible for her to have a child as a virgin? Leon Morris shares a helpful thought on Mary’s question.

Some exegetes hold that the question implies that Mary had made a vow to remain a virgin perpetually. But (a) this reads something into the text (and into other passages also, for we read of brothers of Jesus), and (b) there seems no reason for her to get married if she planned to remain a virgin.[7]

Whatchu Talking Bout, Gabriel?

When Gabriel comes to Mary with the news about her pregnancy, he tells her that she is highly favored and blessed among women. The intersection of Mary’s life with God’s plan changes her life entirely. However, Mary is really bothered by this news and tries to understand what this could possibly mean.

Earlier (Lk. 1:31-33), Gabriel gave Mary some important details about her bundle of joy.

• It’s a Boy!

• You are to call Him Jesus. The reason He is to be called Jesus, according to Matthew 1:21, is because “...He will save His people from their sins.”” John, the son of Zechariah and Elizabeth, later confirms this by stating, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world!” (Jn. 1:29)

• He will be great.

• He will be the Son of the Highest. (Divine)

• He will be a Davidic King. (Human)

2 Samuel 7:12–15 NKJV

12 “When your days are fulfilled and you rest with your fathers, I will set up your seed after you, who will come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom.
13 He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.
14 I will be his Father, and he shall be My son. If he commits iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men and with the blows of the sons of men.
15 But My mercy shall not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I removed from before you.

• He will rule over all of God’s people.

• No one will replace Him as King. He reigns forever. (Isa. 9:7).

Isaiah 9:7 NKJV

7 Of the increase of His government and peace There will be no end, Upon the throne of David and over His kingdom, To order it and establish it with judgment and justice From that time forward, even forever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.

Even Daniel testifies to the eternal kingdom of the Messiah.

Daniel 2:44 NKJV

44 And in the days of these kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed; and the kingdom shall not be left to other people; it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever.

That’s a lot to take in for a young, impressionable, and inexperienced girl, right?

Luke 1:34 NKJV

34 Then Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I do not know a man?”

Compared with Zechariah’s response to the birth announcement of John, Mary’s response is obviously different. Zechariah basically asks, “How can I believe this?” While Mary asks, “How is this going to happen?” Zechariah's query is filled with doubt and skepticism. The angel tells us plainly in Lk. 1:20 that he flat out did not believe. Mary’s question, on the other hand, smacks of bewilderment. She does believe it. She just doesn’t understand it. Again, the angel plainly states that Mary believed (Lk. 1:45). Basically, Mary says, “Look, I know that I’m a virgin and all, but I still know how this childbirth thing works. I’m missing one of the pieces, if you catch my drift.” And this is when one of the major themes in Luke’s gospel starts to take shape. 

The angel gives Mary two pieces of evidence in response to her question and they seem to satisfy her need to understand. The first piece of evidence focuses on the future work of God. The angel says,

Luke 1:35 NKJV

35 ...“The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God.

The association of power with the Holy Spirit is typical as you read the pages of the Bible. And we should  expect nothing less from God in our own day. What is clear from God’s Word is that before Mary’s encounter with the Holy Spirit she was not pregnant, but after her encounter she was!! There was a noticeable difference in Mary. At first only she knew it. Her hair didn’t fall out anymore. Her hormones started to change. She began craving pickles and ice cream. She developed morning sickness and her clothes started to feel a little too tight. But as time went on, the evidence of the Spirit’s work would become clear to others.

In his book Forgotten God, Francis Chan says, 

“if I told you I had an encounter with God where He entered my body and gave me a supernatural ability to play basketball, wouldn’t you expect to see an amazing improvement in my jump shot, my defense, and my speed on the court?  After all, this is God we’re talking about. And if you saw no change in my athleticism, wouldn’t you question the validity of my “encounter”?[8]

 This is the problem with many so -called Christians today. They are good at quoting scripture, but terrible at showing love. They have perfect attendance when it comes to Sunday morning worship, but absent when it comes to loving their neighbors. They pay their tithes and offerings but give no consideration for the strangers among them. They are filled with self-righteousness, but starved of kindness and compassion and grace. They claim to have had an encounter with Jesus but their lives look no different after their alleged encounter than it did before and for that reason the world “question[s] our integrity, our sanity, or even worse, our God.”[9]

Luke, as a Gentile, is very fond of the Holy Spirit. We will see that in his gospel and in Acts. When compared to Matthew and Mark, Luke uses this term more than both combined. Stephen Harris points out that

Luke is convinced that Jesus’ career and the growth of Christianity are not historical accidents, but the direct result of God’s will which is expressed through the Holy Spirit.[10]

To emphasize the power and presence of God in Mary’s life to bring about this “Holy One”, Walter Liefeld connects the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit with the covering of the tabernacle by the cloud in the Old Testament (Ex. 40:35; Num. 9:15-23). The word translated as “overshadowed” in Luke’s gospel, is the Greek word episkiazō (ἐπισκιάζω), which is translated as “covered” with regard to the Transfiguration in Matthew, Mark and Luke. 

Likewise, in each account the voice comes out of the cloud identifying Jesus as God’s Son, a striking reminder of Luke 1:35 where the life that results from the enveloping cloud is identified as the Son of God.[11]

The second piece of evidence that the angel gives to Mary focuses on the past work of God. This is an encouragement for each of us to remember what God has done, so that we can be more confident to trust what He will do in our lives. The angel says,

Luke 1:36 NKJV

36 Now indeed, Elizabeth your relative has also conceived a son in her old age; and this is now the sixth month for her who was called barren.

2 Cor. 1:3-4 NIV

3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.

The angel uses the work of God in the life of Zechariah and Elizabeth to build the faith of Mary. For some of us, our friends, neighbors, and co-workers know more our political views than they do about the ways God has worked in our lives. They know more about our vacation travels than they know about how God has come through for us in tough times. Folks, our world seems to be in a rapid freefall, and while your positions on social, political and cultural issues may gain you some friends in this world, it will not gain you favor with God. Stick to sharing the hope that you have in Jesus. Preach Christ crucified and watch God do the miraculous.

Luke 1:37 NKJV

37 For with God nothing will be impossible.”

And to that, Mary surrenders.

Luke 1:38 NKJV

38 Then Mary said, “Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.

Respond

Let me close with a few words from pastor Thabiti Anyabwile,

Mary yields in faith. Doesn’t she sound a lot like Isaiah saying, “Here I am. Send me” (Isa 6:8)? Doesn’t she sound a lot like Esther saying, “If I perish, I perish” (Esth 4:16)? Doesn’t she sound a lot like Ruth saying to Naomi, “Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God” (Ruth 1:16)? It brings to mind Job’s, “Even if he kills me, I will hope in him” (Job 13:15). It reminds us of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane praying, “Father, … not my will, but yours, be done” (Luke 22:42). This is how faithful people respond to God’s plan, even when they do not understand it.
The only way a person can genuinely say what Mary says is to believe that God’s plan is better than our plans for ourselves.[12]

What about you? Do you know that God’s plans for your life exceed anything you might plan for yourself?

1 Corinthians 2:9 NKJV

9 But as it is written: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”

Today is your opportunity. Will you, like Mary, trust God and allow Jesus to live in you. If you’re not a Christian, come and confess your need for Jesus. You are no different than the rest of us. You don’t have to understand everything, Zechariah, Elizabeth, even Mary didn’t understand all that God was doing in their lives. All you need to know is this:

1. You are a sinner.

2. You need a savior.

3. Jesus is the Answer.

Works Cited

1. Stephen Harris, The New Testament: A Student’s Introduction, 197

2. Thabiti Anyabwile, Exalting Jesus in Luke, Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary (Nashville, TN: Holman Reference, 2018), 26.

3. https://www.jpost.com/israel/archeologists-uncover-house-in-nazareth-dating-to -time-of-jesus.

4. Thabiti Anyabwile, Exalting Jesus in Luke, Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary (Nashville, TN: Holman Reference, 2018), 26.

5. The Complete Word Study: NT. p945

6. https://www.livescience.com/42187-miracle-birth-stories-beyond-jesus.html

7. Leon Morris, Luke: An Introduction and Commentary, vol. 3, Tyndale New Testament Commentaries (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1988), 90.

8. Francis Chan, Forgotten God, p32.

9. Francis Chan, Forgotten God, p33.

10. Stephen Harris, The New Testament: A Student’s Introduction, p192-3

11. The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: with the New International Version, p831-32

12. Thabiti Anyabwile, Exalting Jesus in Luke, Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary (Nashville, TN: Holman Reference, 2018), 28.