STORY OF GRACE

LUKE 1:26-38

  I. Advent of grace (1:26-27)

      A. Plan

      David Smith wrote, “The life of our Blessed Lord and Savior Jesus Christ differs in one momentous respect from every other which has ever been lived on earth. It did not begin when He was born.”

      B. Place

      Jesus, a Galilean and Nazarene, grew up in the obscure village of Nazareth, the hometown of Joseph and Mary.

      C. Person (without a physical father, with a pure mother)

      Martin Luther said, “He might have gone to Jerusalem and picked out Caiaphas’s daughter, who was fair, rich, clad in gold embroidered raiment and attended by a retinue of maids in waiting. But God preferred a lowly maid from a mean town.”

 II. Announcement of grace (1:28-30)

      A. Favor

      Mary received, not conveyed, divine grace. Mary’s preparation in godliness allowed her to be a fit vessel.

      Speaking of how Mary's song revealed the life she lived, George H. Morrison wrote, “Mary had a heart so full of all that was written in the Word of God, that in that hour it came welling to her lips. Upon the Word she had fed her heart. She had lived in the fellowship of all its noble teaching.”

      B. Fear

      Robertson stated, “Luke tells his story from the standpoint of Mary as Matthew gives his from the standpoint of Joseph.” Robertson observed, “If the mother of Jesus was still alive, Luke could have seen her. She may have written in Aramaic an account of these great events.”

III. Arrival of grace (1:31-33)

      A. Prophet (Prophet like Hosea, priest like Melchisedec, and king like David)

      B. Priest

      C. King

Is. 9:7. Of the increase of [his] government and peace [there shall be] no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.

Dan. 2:44. And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, [but] it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever.

Heb. 1:8. But unto the Son [he saith], Thy throne, O God, [is] for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness [is] the sceptre of thy kingdom.

 IV. All of grace (1:34-35)

Jn. 1:12-13 [ESV]. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God,

 13. who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

      A. Conception (outside of human work)

Rom. 1:4 [NIV]. And who through the Spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord.

      B. Creation (operation of the Holy Spirit)

      Adam Clarke wrote, “The rudiments of the human nature of Christ was a real creation in the womb of the virgin, by the energy of the Spirit of God.”

Mt. 1:18 [NIV]. This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit.

  V. Answer of grace (1:36-38)

      A. Hope

      Mary willingly denied self to do the will of God. Edersheim noted, “The words, which she spake, were not of trembling doubt. . . but rather those of enquiry, for the further guidance of a willing self-surrender.”

      B. Humility (Lk. 1:48)

      God lifted the low estate of an humble servant. George H. Morrison stated, “A woman who could so forget herself was a woman of a singular humility.”