Luke 1: An Essential Jesus Announced

(1) Sermon Script

Introduction

Christians believe that Jesus is the Christ. That is, Jesus is the long awaited king of the universe. And ‘Christmas’ therefore is a time to celebrate the Christ. His name is in the holiday. So it makes sense for us to think about him on the holiday.

Jesus is important enough to write a book about. Jesus said that the whole Bible is about him. But in the Bible, we have four biographies of Jesus’ life on earth. They are called 'Gospels'. And we are looking at one of them. It was written by Luke. Luke was a doctor, and part of a mission team that traveled around the Mediterranean telling people about Jesus just under 2000 years ago. He with his co-workers announced that Jesus was the Christ who lived, died, and rose again to save the world.

Now Luke wasn’t an eyewitness to Jesus. He makes this clear. But he talked to eyewitnesses. And his account reveals some of his sources. Luke says he investigated everything thoroughly, and that his book is an orderly account of everything Jesus did while he was on earth, until Jesus was taken up to heaven (Acts 1:2). And Luke’s story starts with two big announcements, for two unlikely women were expecting.

What To Not Expect When You Are Not Expecting

Now, as you ladies well know, finding out that you are expecting is pretty stressful at the best of times. This is particularly so if it takes you by surprise. First you need to tell your spouse. And hopefully he will be as happy as you are. And then there’s the inlays and the friends. Then you think about putting on an extra room and setting it up for the baby, start collecting baby clothes, getting used to having less income maybe, or late nights and less sleep. And of course there are all the changes that a woman’s body goes through when she carries a child.

Suppose the announcement is about a very important arrival. Maybe it’s that the Crown Princess is expecting: Princess Diana, or Princess Kate, or Princess Mary, or Princess Fiona, or Angelina Jollie. It’s big news. It requires media coverage, magazine front pages, news bulletins, and even a movie sequel.

But we need to think bigger. Suppose the baby born is the owner and ruler, indeed, the one who made and will buy back the world that he made. How do you announce that? How do you make a fuss over this baby who is to come?

Well, Luke tells us. The first thing you do is you organize to have another baby due about six months before. Now you try and do that! And the whole idea is that this first baby will grow up to point people to the second, more important baby.

For once in human history, a baby who was unplanned by his mother was so important, so crucial, so earth changing, that another baby also unplanned by his mother came at least six months ahead of him to prepare people for him..

Two ladies who aren’t expecting to be expecting will soon be expecting. And so at the very beginning of Luke’s story of Jesus, God arranges two very unlikely pregnancies. They are commenced about six months apart of each other. They are the pregnancies of two relatives, announced by the same angel, Gabriel, who comes in unexpectedly on Zechariah and Mary. And as is usual when people see an angel in the Bible, the appearance provokes fear and the message is disturbing. Both pregnancies are humanly speaking impossible, the first because the woman, Elizabeth, is old and infertile, and the second, because the woman, Mary, is a virgin.

The older boy will serve his younger relative. The older boy will be called John, the name that the Angel gave him. John will prepare the way for his younger cousin by preparing his people. He will call on them to repent and turn back to God, as the Lord Jesus will soon follow after him. And because of his activities at the Jordan River, he will become known as John the Baptist.

The second child is the one for whom John will prepare the way. We see that this second child is unique in the history of the world. In Luke 1:30-33, we read:

‘The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favour with God. You will become pregnant, and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great, and will be called, ‘Son of the Most High’, and the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David. He will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and his kingdom will never end.”

Son of David as Son of God

The days of the king are near. His conception has been announced. His name is Jesus. The name means, ‘Yahweh saves’. And Matthew tells us he is called this because "he will save his people from their sins" (Matt 1:21).

Jesus is also called, ‘Son of the Most High’. This title tells us that Jesus is the Messiah. Jesus is the long awaited ruler from the tribe of Judah, from the line of David. He will inherit the kingdom promised to David, for he is a direct descendant. The blood of king David, the man after God’s own heart, will flow through his veins.

God promised David, "Your house and your kingdom shall endure for ever before me; your throne shall be established forever" (2 Sam 7:16). God said to David, his anointed one, his Christ, "You are my Son" (Ps 2:7). And here is David’s descendant, Jesus, called Son of the Most High, now announced. Jesus’ kingdom will never end.

But there is another reason why Jesus is called ‘Son of God’. It is found in the explanation that has to do with how Jesus was conceived.

Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?” The angel replied, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the child to be born will be holy, and will be called the Son of God.” (Luke 1:34-35) [1]

Mary’s question to the angel is quite a natural one. It does not indicate unbelief, as Zechariah’s question did. Mary is actually blessed by being given a sign to confirm the angel’s words, that her relative Elizabeth is six months pregnant. [2] Indeed, Elizabeth declares Mary blessed because she believed.

Rather, Mary is saying, “Look, I know about the birds and the bees. I know babies aren’t brought by the stork. And all the normal rules of human biology say that this is impossible, because I’ve not been doing that sort of thing. And I’m not going to start, either. I’m a virgin.” And it is as if the angel says, “Mary, throw out your biology text book for this one. God is going to bring about this pregnancy in a completely different way.”

The conception of Jesus will be extraordinary and unique. There will be no human father. The child implanted in Mary is not the result of sexual intercourse. For Jesus would be born as a result of the direct creative power of the Holy Spirit and God Most High. This has been called the ‘virgin birth’ of Jesus. And that is true, although perhaps what we are looking at in this passage is more accurately described as a ‘virgin conception’.

And there are two things said about Jesus from the way he will be conceived. The first is that the child will be holy. And the second is that the child will be the Son of God.

The angel replied, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the child to be born will be holy, and will be called the Son of God.” (Luke 1:35)

Holy Spirit -> Holy child

First, the Holy Spirit will come upon Mary, and that will result in a Holy Son. Jesus is conceived holy, sinless, without any sin. In this he is different to us. Each of us can say with David in Psalm 51, “Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.” (Ps 51:5) But Jesus is not sinful from the time of conception. He is holy.[3] And we shouldn’t be surprised at this, because the Holy Spirit will come upon Mary. The Holy Spirit is especially and directly at work in the conception of Jesus.

The Power of God -> The Son of God

Moreover, second, it is the overshadowing power of God Most High that begets the Son of God. Jesus would take his human nature from his mother, and thus he is truly one of us, a true man, through his mum. But he would only ever be in truth the son of one Father, and that is God the Father, his heavenly Father. In a way different to anyone else, Jesus calls no-man ‘Father’, only God. If Jesus underwent a paternity test, it would come up ‘God’. Jesus is only the supposed son of Joseph (Luke 3:23). Only God is the true Father of Jesus Christ.

So Jesus has an even greater claim to the title Son of God. Not only is he Son of God in the sense of Davidic King and Christ. This he would inherit from his ancestor David, through his mother. But his conception indicates his divinity, his Godhood, and his divine Sonship. And this is indicated by the overshadowing of the Most High and the Holy Spirit coming upon Mary. The Son of God is also God the Son. His conception in his mother’s womb pointed to his eternal sonship. [4]

The Star Wars movies, of course, copied this whole idea from the Bible. How did George Lucas make it clear his main Star Wars character was the child prophesied to bring balance to the force, and rid the world of the evil sith? Give him a virgin birth! So that’s what George Lucas did for Anakin Skywalker. There was no Father for Darth Vader. He was a direct result of the midiclorians.

Something about Mary

And so the world, says, “That’s where the virgin birth belongs – in fantasy movies, along with other myths and fables that just don’t happen in the real world.” For it just doesn’t happen in our world, does it? It all sounds terribly dodgy, a miracle claimed to hush up an unexpected pregnancy.

And that’s what Mary initially thought too. “How can this be, since I am a virgin?” But the angel said nothing is impossible with God. And that was enough for Mary. Mary commits herself to faithfully and humbly believing God’s word.

And we need to be like Mary. Think of Mary: a young woman, engaged to be married, doing the right thing, waiting to be married before she has sex with her husband, and yet no-one less than the angel Gabriel says that she will be pregnant out of wedlock, and will give birth to the Son all Israel has been waiting for, who will rule the universe.

Her response is the right one.

Mary said, “I am the Lord’s servant. May it all happen to me just as you have said.” (Luke 1:38)

Not, no way! That was Zechariah’s mistake. Instead, her response is, “May it come to pass.” And so Mary is blessed for two reasons. First, as Elizabeth says, “You are blessed among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!” She is blessed because she will give birth to God’s Son, Jesus. And second, “Blessed is she who believed that what the Lord said to her would be fulfilled.” She is blessed because she believes. That’s Elizabeth’s Spirit inspired understanding. And Mary’s Spirit inspired understanding agrees. She says of herself in the song (Luke 1:46-55), traditionally known as the Magnificat, “Every generation will call me blessed. For Mary is blessed, and will be recognized so by every generation.”

We agree that she is blessed, and has been highly favoured, and has been given a gracious gift to bear the child Jesus. For we with Elizabeth call the fruit of Mary’s womb ‘our Lord’.

But that does not mean we regard her as sinless. We find no evidence of the Roman Catholic doctrine of Mary’s immaculate conception here. For Mary confesses herself in need of a saviour just as we do. Her spirit rejoices because of God her Saviour. And indeed, the Lord she bears is the Saviour she needs. For she is a righteous Israelite, depending on God’s mercy for the promise of her salvation.

Indeed, in Luke chapter 11 verse 27, a woman who hears Jesus’ teaching and shouted out: “Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts that nursed you.” And here is an opportunity for Jesus to show put his imprimatur on the proposition, “Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb Jesus.” Yet he says, “Blessed rather are those who hear the message of God and keep it.”

In other words, we can be as blessed as Mary, because we can respond to God’s word just like Mary did. None of will ever carry the Son of God in our arms. For baby Jesus doesn’t exist. The only Jesus that now exists is more like terminator Jesus. He died to save all who trust in him, but he will take revenge on those who don’t.

But we still can be just as blessed as Mary. How? By hearing the message of God and keeping it. And so the words of Elizabeth to Mary can apply to us, too. “Blessed is she who believed that what the Lord said to her would be fulfilled.”

And from Luke chapter 1, here is the message of God for us. It is the message that Zechariah prophesied once his tongue was loosened at the birth his son, John. At the beginning of Zechariah’s song we read:

Blessed be the Lord of Israel, because he has visited and redeemed his people; He has raised up a mighty Saviour for us in the family line of his servant, David […] (Luke 1:68-69)

And about half way down:

And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the most high; for you will go before the Lord, to prepare his way, to make salvation known to his people by the forgiveness of their sins, through the compassionate mercy of our God […] (Luke 1:76-78)

Jesus’ name means ‘Yahweh saves’. And he is called ‘saviour’. He has come to redeem, or buy back, his people. He is descended from the great king David, but he is infinitely greater. And this salvation will involves the forgiveness of sins through the compassionate mercy of God. This is why Jesus came. Blessed are you, if you believe what the Lord has said to you today has been fulfilled, in the coming of Jesus.

Let’s pray.

[1] My literal translation is as follows:

34& Mary said to the angel, “How will this [thing] be, since I do not know a man?’ 35& answering, the angel said to her, “Holy Spirit will come upon you and power of [the] highest will overshadow you. Therefore also the holy [child] being born will be called, ‘Son of God’ [dio kai to gennomenon hagion klethesetai hios theou]." So also Alford. 1:448. Tannehill rightly comments that "1:35indicates that the title Son of God belongs to Jesus in light of his wonderous conception, a motif which goes beyond the Old Testament idea of the king as God’s son": Tannehill, 1:25. Plummer cites this but does not prefer it. Bock is against it. This comes out in the Essential Jesus text, unfortunately.

[2] As opposed to the chastisement of Zechariah, who was disciplined with being unable to speak for the term of the pregnancy.

[3] It is said of John the Baptist that he is "filled with the Holy Spirit, even from the mother’s womb". It is not said that he was holy, nor that his conception was the direct result of the Holy Spirit. It is only said that it was a normal biological conception, albeit probably miraculously enabled (as was explicitly said of Sarah, who was beyond child bearing years when she conceived).

[4] MacLeod, The Person of Christ, pp. 37ff, argues that the divine sonship of Christ and the sinlessness of Christ are explicitly connected with the virgin birth from Luke 1:35. At page 40, he says, "We need say no more that the humanity of Christ was created by the Holy Spirit, rather than procreated by sexual intercourse, and that as such it partook of the essential character of all that God creates.: it was very good." For MacLeod, Jesus’ holiness was given with and in the creation of the humanness itself’: op cit, page 41.