A Study of the Book of Luke
Sermon # 2

“How Can This Be?”

Luke 1:26-38 

            Life is certainly full of surprises!  But it is hard to imagine that anyone was more surprised than the young woman we are going to meet this morning in Luke chapter one (vv. 26-38).  This young woman received perhaps one of the greatest surprises in history, a surprise that turned her world and ours upside down.  We are going to look at her response to that surprise, which came in the form of a question, a question that has been a part of the Christmas story for over 2,000 years.

            The Bible says that an angel, the same one that had appeared to Zachariah six month previously, and said, in verse 30, “… 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. … (34) Then Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I do not know a man?”

            This story has some extraordinary things to teach us!

 1.  God often chooses to use those that the world would reject.

            The story begins in verse 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!”

            The setting for the announcement of the birth of the Messiah is nothing short of a miracle.  Gabriel ignored Judea which had been the place of so much of God’s work through the centuries and came to Galilee.  Not only did he come to Galilee but to the village of Nazareth,  Nazareth was considered the middle of nowhere.  The person chosen to bear the Son of God, Mary, would in the world’s eyes not have been very important. Some would have discounted her because she was young, she was after all just a teenager.  She was from a poor family and as such would not have even been able to read.  From all the external indicators she would not be extraordinary.  She would live, marry, bear children and never travel more than a few miles from where she was born.  She was a nobody in a nothing town in the middle of nowhere!! 

            The fact is that there is a core truth that both the announcement of the Savior’s birth and the presentation of the gospel, came to needy people, those who realize that that without him they cannot make it, those who acknowledge they need the Savior.

“The message of Christmas is that God intrudes upon the weak and the vulnerable, and this is precisely the message that we so often miss. God does not come to that part of us that swaggers through life, confident in our self-sufficiency. God leaves his treasure in the broken fragmented places of our life. God comes to us in those rare moments when we are able to transcend our own selfishness long enough to really care about another human being.

On the wall of the museum of the concentration camp at Dachau is a large and moving photograph of a mother and her little girl standing in line of a gas chamber. The child, who is walking in front of her mother, does not know where she is going. The mother, who walks behind, does know, but is helpless to stop the tragedy. In her helplessness she performs the only act of love left to her. She places her hands over he child's eyes so she will at least not see the horror to come. When people come into the museum they do not whisk by this photo hurriedly. They pause. They almost feel the pain. And deep inside I think that they are all saying: "O God, don't let that be all that there is."

God's hears those prayers and it is in just such situations of hopelessness and helplessness that his almighty power is born.  It is there that God leaves his treasure.  In Mary and in all of us, as Christ is born anew within.”   Sermon Illustrations, 1999

            Some still hold Mary of little significance or honor. However, on the opposite end of the spectrum is the belief held by Catholics that Mary was more than human. It is a faulty translation of verse 28 that gives rise to the Catholic use of the phrase, “Hail Mary full of Grace.”  This conveys the idea that Mary had every gift, not only spiritual but secular; that she was a dispenser of grace, resulting in prayers being offered to her. The ultimate extension of that was in December 8, 1854 when Pope Pius IX declared the doctrine of the “Immaculate Conception.”  By “Immaculate Conception” we often think that this refers to the birth of Jesus but it does not.  This doctrine is  holding that Mary herself was conceived with out the agency of a man. This doctrine is a sad distortion, which would have scandalized the heart of Mary.

          God often uses those whom the world would reject!

 2. God promises an answer to Man’s Sin Problem

            The text says in verse 29 that, “But when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and considered what manner of greeting this was. 

            Mary stopped to consider what the appearance of the angel meant to her and what his message might require of her.

In verse 30 the angel said to Mary, “… 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?”

            The announcement that Mary received greatly troubled her. The prophecy of the coming of the Christ was well known to every Jew.  Mary, however, would have been the last to imagine that God’s purpose would be accomplished through her.

The first prediction of the birth of the Savior had been given to Man just after the fall in the Garden of Eden.  In the wake of the Adam and Eve’s original sin, not only were they told of the judgment that they had brought on themselves and mankind, God promised them a coming savior.  In Genesis 3:15 God said, “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.”  Here God referred to the supernatural process whereby he would defeat the serpent by the seed of woman, not the seed of any man.

            Scripture foretold the same process again seven hundred years before the birth of Christ when the prophet Isaiah (7:14) said, “Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.”  What striking words, “The virgin shall conceive.”  In the nature course of nature, virgins do not conceive.

You will remember from last week that when told by this same angel that he and his wife were to have a son, that he in unbelief requested a sign. Zachariah wanted some kind of confirming proof.  Mary, however, doesn’t ask for proof she simply asked for clarification. Mary wanted clarification as to what was expected of her, so that she could cooperate with the purposes of God.  Her question stemmed from her faith, the question of Zachariah stemmed from his doubt. 

God promises an answer to man’s sin problem

3. God Is Not limited by what is Physically Possible

Gabriel’s answer to Mary’s question is found in verses 35- 38. “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.” 

            “The angel said you what to know how? I’ll tell your how and he did….He said the Holy Spirit come upon you and the power of God will over shadow you.  Even your aged cousin Elizabeth is in her sixth month. For you see nothing is impossible with God.”   Gabriel’s parting words said it all, “For nothing is impossible with God.”  These words are in fact an unmodified absolute. What a wonderful promise.  You should underline that sentence in your Bible. Gabriel’s words are no less true in our age.

 What are you facing in your life?

Fear?  “Nothing is impossible with God."
Confusion?  “Nothing is impossible with God."
Feel like you’re too tired to go on? “Nothing is impossible with God."

Can’t get along with your family? “Nothing is impossible with God."

Think you’ll never get over your anger?

Think you’ll never be able to forgive?

Think you’ll never feel capable?

Think you’ll never be loved?

Think you’ll never healthy?

Think you’ll never be happy?  “Nothing is impossible with God."

          4. Following God Is Not Without Cost

Mary may have been young but she was not flighty and shallow.  With her words recorded in verse 38 Mary proved that God had indeed chosen the right one.  Her response to the angel was, “Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.”

            Mary’s believing response was to surrender herself completely to God as his willing “servant.” A “maid servant” was the lowest kind of female servant, which shows how much Mary trusted God.  She had experienced the grace of God (v. 30) and believed the word of God, therefore she could be used to accomplish the will of God.

Mary’s response, “let be to me according to your word,” helps us to understand that God never forces his love or his will on anyone.

Mary will bear God’s son, but because she is unwed that privilege comes with a price: there will be accusations of immorality, pointed fingers, and those who whisper behind her back.  This was a part of the pain that Mary would have to bear all her life (Luke 2:35).

            She risked everything to follow God. She risked her future marriage, risked losing Joseph if he did not believe.  She not only sacrificed her reputation, but she put her very life on the line.  The law still said that a woman with child out of marriage was to be stoned to death (Deut. 22:23-24).