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Last week, we began a three-part lesson on the birth narratives of Christ.
And you'll remember, I hope, those of you who are here, that what we are doing in our run-up to the celebration of the birth of Jesus at Christmas is we are studying the three gospel narratives that deal with the Incarnation.
Matthew has his version, which includes the birth of Christ.
Luke has his version, which includes the birth of Christ.
John does not mention the birth of Christ, but does refer to the Incarnation.
In fact, it is in John's gospel that we get the strongest language of God becoming a man in the person of Jesus Christ.
And so, that will be our subject of next week's lesson as we go to the gospel of John.
Now, this was the same handout that I was teaching from last week, and I just decided to give it to you tonight, because originally I didn't hand it out last week, but I decided to give it to you because I wanted to show you one thing that would have been hard to simply say.
I wanted to actually show you on here.
If you notice on the handout, this is what we call a harmony of the gospels, and as I said last week, one of my goals in life, and it may come soon, is I want to teach a harmony of the four gospels, literally starting at the beginning and preaching through all four gospels, but together.
Not preaching through Matthew, preaching through John, preaching through Luke, but preaching the narrative as one narrative.
And this is a portion of a book that does that, that gives you the outline.
So, basically all I did was cut and paste it onto this sheet.
I didn't write this myself.
This is from a handout from a book.
But you'll notice that Luke's gospel contains a lot more than Matthew's gospel and John's gospel when it comes to the subject of the birth of Christ.
Notice with me, if you will, that under Matthew's column, there are only four sections of text, and under John's column, there are no sections under the birth and early childhood, only under the preface section, the God, the Word preface there.
But if you'll notice, Luke, it is Luke's gospel that provides to us a lot of the narrative that we think about when we think about the Christmas story.
And last week, I asked the group, for those who were not here, I asked to tell me some of the elements that we think about when we think about the Christmas story.
And does anybody remember? They're not on the board anymore, so we can put a couple more things, a couple things up here.
What are some of the elements of the Christmas story that most everyone is familiar with? Okay, so we said three wise men.
What else? Angels, shepherds, Jesus, we'll just say Jesus, Mary, Joseph, that's the three main people involved.
What else? We've got the wise men.
How about the manger? Right? That was a big one.
The inn.
What's another one? The voice of God.
What else? Star.
That was a big one.
What else? Got shepherds.
Okay.
The reason why I'm doing this is because most of us, as I mentioned last week, most of us have a mental picture of the Christmas story that we've associated with growing up in essentially a Christianized world.
And so, you know, the only thing that isn't up here that we might mention is like Santa Claus, you know, because that's often associated with Christmas or gifts or trees often associated with Christmas.
I'm doing the same lesson at set free last week, last Thursday, I did the lesson I did the night before at set free the next day.
And they came up with a whole bunch of stuff, you know, but a lot of it wasn't necessarily biblical stuff.
It was just stuff that was associated with Christmas.
And so what my goal in making this list is simply is to say, OK, which which part of this comes from which gospel and which part of this isn't biblical? It's just maybe traditional.
And one thing that we noted last week is the three wise men.
Matthew's gospel doesn't tell us there were three.
It only says that wise men or magi came from the east and it says they had three gifts, the gold, the frankincense and the myrrh.
But it doesn't say how many there were could have been an entire entourage of wise men could have been only two.
We know it was plural, so we know it was more than one.
But it was enough to get the attention of the king.
They were enough to get an audience with the king.
So that tells us something.
So Matthew's gospel also is the only one that mentions the wise men.
The wise men are not mentioned at all in Luke's gospel.
And so that's part of what we're going to see tonight.
We're going to see what Luke's gospel includes and what Luke's gospel does not include.
As I said, Luke's gospel does have more information, but there's a reason for that.
Is anyone like to take a stab at the reason why? Well, he was a doctor.
That is true.
Well, he certainly was an educated man.
Matthew was not a fool, though.
Matthew was a tax collector, a businessman.
So, no, you're right.
No, Luke does focus more on the humanity.
John focused more on the divinity.
Matthew focuses on Jesus as king of the Jews.
Mark, the suffering servant.
But if everybody has their Bible, turn to Luke 1, and I'll show you why I think Luke's gospel has more information.
Because not only does Luke's gospel have more information about the birth of Christ, overall, Luke's gospel has more information throughout.
In fact, there are many parables that are only found in Luke's gospel.
The Good Samaritan is a good example.
But there are several narrative parables of Jesus and narratives from Jesus's life that are only found in the gospel of Luke.
And we find out why, I believe, in the first chapter and the first verses of Luke's gospel.
It says right here, he writes, So, Luke's preface to his gospel basically tells us this.
He has sought to take the way of the historian.
Luke is writing as a historian, and he has taken it upon himself to compile a narrative from eyewitnesses and from those who have seen Jesus, walked with Jesus.
Remember, Luke is associated with the apostle Paul.
Luke did not walk with Jesus.
Luke was not with Jesus.
And so Luke is writing, and I believe Luke is writing third.
I believe that Matthew and Mark came before Luke.
And that's why I think he says, he says here, As many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have taken place, I think he could be referring there to Matthew's gospel and Luke's gospel or Matthew and Mark's gospel.
I think it's possible that he's referring to the other gospels, which may already be in circulation, may already be among God's people.
And Luke's gospel is, as I said, much longer than Matthew and Mark and particularly longer than Mark.
Mark is very short in comparative to Matthew.
And Matthew's gospel is very Jewish.
It's passage after passage after passage, trying to make the argument that Jesus is the king of the Jews and using Old Testament scriptures.
You will not see that in Luke.
You'll see some, but you will not see the same reliance upon the Old Testament scriptures that Matthew has, because Matthew is writing to an audience for a reason.
So I just did a little study for myself.
Matthew quotes the Old Testament, Mark quotes the Old Testament 46 times.
So half or a little less than half.
Yeah.
Awesome.
Thank you.
That's very helpful.
I didn't have that number in front of me.
So you see, Luke is again, a different audience when you're writing, not necessarily to a primarily Gentile audience, but to a mixed audience that includes Gentiles.
The pointing backward to the Old Testament scriptures is still important, but it's not as vital as when you're Matthew writing to a Jewish audience, for a Jewish audience, for the purpose of showing Jesus as the king of the Jews.
And so we have Luke telling us why he's writing.
We have Luke telling us the circumstances of his writing.
He even tells us who he's writing to, Theophilus.
The word Theophilus means a lover of God.
So this could be an individual whose name was Theophilus.
It could also be a euphemism for the people of God, the people of God who love God.
Most people assume it's an individual, but my doctoral work was actually on the Gospel of Luke, so I spent a lot of time kind of thinking through these.
And I do think it's possible that Theophilus could be a nickname for God's people.
Again, theos means God, philos means love, so Theophilus is one who loves God.
So it could be a nickname, could be a proper name, could be a name for the people of God.
So we have here the introduction to Luke.
Now we immediately go to John.
In verse 5, we jump to John the Baptist, and we have him being foretold to his father, Zechariah, who was a priest.
And we will not, last week we read two chapters in Matthew.
I had time to stop and make comments, but we can't read two chapters in Luke because Luke's chapters are so comprehensive and long, we won't get through the first chapter for the sake of time.
So just know this, from chapter 1, verse 5 to verse 25, we have the situation where John's birth is being foretold to his father, Zechariah.
And for those of you who don't remember the story, Zechariah is in the temple, he is doing the duty of the priest, and he is visited by an angel.
The angel says, do not be afraid, your prayers have been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear a son, you'll call his name John.
And what was unique about Elizabeth having a baby? She was old.
That's right.
And so Luke is telling us there is something miraculous about the birth of John, because he's being born to a mother who is past the normal age of childbirth.
So we have two miraculous birth narratives in Luke's gospel.
John being born to a mother past her childbirth season, and a woman who had not known a man marry his mother.
So that's the two women that are here.
And again, I know I'm going to stop every two seconds and say something, but something else is important.
Every gospel makes a point to reference John.
Every gospel.
And we're going to see this when we look at John's gospel next week.
Matthew mentions John in chapter three, starts with his ministry.
Luke, or rather Mark, mentions John.
Luke here mentions more about John because he's telling about his birth.
And then the gospel of John, first chapter, talks about John.
The point that I'm making is John is a fulfillment of prophecy.
Jesus is a fulfillment of prophecy.
John is a fulfillment of prophecy that the forerunner would come and make the way straight for the Messiah.
So the writers of the gospels are making sure that we understand the interweaving of these two lives.
And Luke is giving us the most comprehensive understanding of how that interwove.
Not only are these two men men of God, but they're cousins, right? Not only are these two men both prophesied, but they are born in the same family.
And what we're going to see in a moment is when Mary announces or sees Elizabeth, John leaps in the womb, which we'll talk about that in a moment when we get there.
But the point is, up to verse 25, we have the the pronouncement by Gabriel, the angel about Zachariah.
We have Zachariah being struck without the ability to talk.
And that entire situation that comes now, verse 26 is when we get to the birth of Jesus or excuse me, the announcement of the birth of Jesus.
We have the announcement of the birth of John by the angel Gabriel.
Now we're going to have the same angel make an announcement to another woman or to a woman because before it was to the father.
In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city in Galilee named Nazareth to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph of the house of David.
And the virgin's name was Mary.
He came to her and said, Greetings, oh, favored one, the Lord is with you.
But she was greatly troubled at the saying and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be.
And the angel said to her, Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.
And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son and you shall call his name Jesus.
He will be great and will be called the son of the most high.
And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father, David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever and of his kingdom.
There will be no end.
All right.
Stop right there.
If you were here last week, you heard this, but I know some of you weren't.
Matthew's gospel gives this narrative from Joseph's perspective.
It doesn't even mention the angel visiting Mary and it doesn't name the angel that visits Joseph in the dream.
It doesn't say Gabriel by name.
So, again, this is another example of Luke's little bit more meticulous, if you will.
Of course, it's all under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
But ultimately, more information is being given by Luke than was Matthew and another perspective.
Mary is Mary's side of the story, if you will.
Because what was Joseph when he heard that Mary was pregnant? What did he do? He said he's going to divorce her.
You know, he's going to break off the betrothal because if she's pregnant and he knew he didn't do it, he assumes someone must have done it.
So he's got to break off the betrothal.
But Mary, at that point, had this has already happened.
This is prior to the Joseph situation because Joseph found out she was with a child that had to have been after this because this is prior to the conception.
Gabriel comes, the Holy Spirit's going to overshadow you and the one inside of you is going to be called the Son of God.
You know, that's that's happening now.
So this is prior to Matthew's account with Joseph.
Just for a timeline.
Mary asked the question.
Verse 34.
Mary said to the angel, How will this be since I am a virgin? Now, some of your translations may say since I do not know a man or have not known a man.
But the Greek word here is important.
You know, Greek isn't always necessary, but sometimes words do matter.
And the word Parthenos, Parthenos is the proper Greek term for a virgin.
And it is the same word that is used in the Greek translation of the Old Testament called the Septuagint.
It was written about 200 years before Christ, translated rather about 200 years before Christ from Isaiah 714.
Isaiah 714.
Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son.
So she asks, How can this be? I am a virgin.
And the angels answered her.
The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.
And therefore, the child to be born will be called Holy, the Son of God.
That's how it's going to happen.
And he goes on.
Verse 36.
And behold, your relative Elizabeth and her old age has conceived a son.
And this is the sixth month with her who is called barren, for nothing will be impossible with God.
Notice the use of that term.
Nothing will be impossible with God.
Why is Gabriel making a point about that? That's it.
That's again, that's a reference to God's omniscience or omnipotence.
Rather, what's the point? The old woman is going to have a baby and the young unmarried virgin is going to have a baby.
So God is doing two miracles here, the one who was past the age and the one who is prior to having known a man.
And why? Because nothing will be impossible for God.
Nothing is outside of God's control.
Does this bring to mind any other stories? Yeah.
And Sarah, right? What did Sarah do when she heard that God was going to give her a child in her old age? Laughed.
She laughed at God.
Mary doesn't laugh.
Verse 37.
For nothing will be impossible with God.
Verse 38.
And Mary said, Behold, I am the servant or handmaiden of the Lord.
Let it be to me according to your word.
And the angel departed from her.
She didn't laugh.
She believed.
Mary is an extraordinary woman.
I do hate how she has been misrepresented in Roman Catholicism.
And we're going to talk about that when we get to the song of Mary down in verse 46.
But just for now, let me say this.
There is good reason to be encouraged by Mary's response.
But we should not allow that encouragement to lead to any form of idolatry.
Mary is an idol for many.
Is she an example of faith? Yes, she should be seen as an example of faith.
Is she used of God as a tremendous vessel for his living word? Absolutely.
But she's not divine.
She is not the co-mediatrix with Christ, as some have conceived her to be.
And she is not sinless.
But she is a woman of faith.
When Gabriel said, This is what's going to happen.
You're a virgin.
But the Holy Spirit is going to conceive in your womb the son of the most high.
She said, May it be to me according to your word.
I am the servant of the Lord.
Now, verse 39.
In those days, Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country to a town in Judea.
She entered the house of Zechariah and greet Elizabeth.
And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb.
And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.
And she exclaimed with a loud cry, Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.
You ever heard that? That is the that's very common.
I have no brother, and he's heard it.
From the Roman Catholic days.
You know, blessed.
Blessed are you among women.
Blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
That's part of the Hail Mary.
Hail Mary, full of grace.
Lord is with thee.
Pray for sinners now at the time of our death.
You know, they say, Blessed are you among women.
Blessed is the fruit of your womb.
This is part of what is used in the Roman Catholic prayers.
But I want to I want to make note of verse 41 for one second.
Notice the baby leaped in her womb.
Now, I'm going to say something that is not controversial, but is a question mark.
We know that it is, generally speaking, a truism that a person is regenerate and comes to faith.
And this happens at some point in their life, whether they be young or old.
That's that's the God opens their heart to believe they believe and they are then saved there.
They're justified by faith.
The question that some have, though, is is this an example of a regenerate person in the womb? Is John expressing regeneration in the womb? Because John's not sinless.
Is he? There's only one sinless, right? Jesus Christ, the righteous.
There's only one mediator between God and man, Jesus Christ, the righteous.
So so is John regenerate as he expresses elation at the presence of Christ or not? I don't think there's enough information here to prove one way or the other.
But this does lead to the argument of some in the Presbyterian Church that infants can be regenerate and therefore it justifies infant baptism.
So isn't that an interesting side? Just a little side note that this would be used as a as a somewhat of a proof text that a child can be regenerate.
What are your thoughts, Brother Andy? Do you think John's regenerate? Or do you? I know we don't know for sure.
I mean, I think so.
It's possible.
And so it is an interesting moment, though.
We have a child here who is is expressing faith and worship from the womb.
You know, this is a again, some may think you're reading too much into it.
Some may think you're putting a little too much into it.
I think it's it leads to an interesting question.
We know one thing.
We know it happened.
We know he late leaped in the womb, why he leaped, how he leaped, what it felt like when he leaped.
We don't know any of that because then tell us that.
But this is I recently, you know, I spend some time sometimes reading arguments online between different theological persuasions.
And the one argument that is seems constant is the argument between Presbyterians and Baptists on the subject of when you should baptize a child.
And the reason for baptizing infants in the Presbyterian denomination, Presbyterian belief, is that that child is a is a family member of a believer, meaning they're born into a believing family and therefore are a member of the covenant by birth.
So they are a member of the new covenant by birth.
We would reject that.
I do not believe that my children are yet members of the covenant.
I believe they become members of the covenant by rebirth.
I think that's what distinguishes the old covenant and the new covenant, that the the rebirth is what designates a member of the new covenant.
But another argument that I have seen come out recently is the argument.
Well, children can be born again, infants, even if they don't know it.
And they using passages like this.
And so I think that's proving try to prove too much from a passage like this.
For sure.
Absolutely.
So I kind of took a side note there.
I'm sorry.
These are things that, you know, just on my mind as I'm going through the text.
But moving on now, we have Elizabeth and we have Mary.
We've we've seen Elizabeth give the blessing to Mary.
Blessed is the fruit of thy womb.
And why is it granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy.
So again, expressing what has happened and blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what has what was spoken to her from the Lord.
Now, here's the song that Brother Andy mentioned.
This is Mary's sometimes referred to as the Magnificat.
This is the song of Mary.
And Mary said, my soul magnifies the Lord.
My spirit rejoices in God, my savior, for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant for behold, from now on, all generations will call me blessed for he who is mighty has done great things for me and holy as his name and his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation.
He has shown strength with his arm.
He has scattered the proud and the thoughts of their hearts.
He has brought down the mighty from the thrones and exalted those of humble estate.
He's filled the hungry with good things and the rich with he has sent away empty.
He has helped his servant Israel in remembrance of his mercy as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his offspring forever.
And Mary remained with her about three months and returned to her home.
Now, we're not going to read on because of time, but I do want to make a point simply about what we see here.
Mary is stressing that she has been chosen by God, as Brother Andy was mentioning earlier that God has considered her lowly estate.
And she makes a grand distinction between those who are rich and those who are poor.
And the thing about it in scripture, rich and poor is often a not only rich money, poor money, but it refers to proud and humble.
And so it isn't just that she's poor because I don't know if you know this, but poor people can be proud and rich people can be humble.
It's not always, you know, a lot of rich people are very prideful, but I've met some pretty prideful poor people.
You know, the point Mary is making is God looked at her in the state of her humility, in the state of her humbleness.
And God has blessed her in that state.
And he considered her in that state.
Now, we could say this.
Roman Catholics believe Mary is sinless.
There is nothing that would indicate that she is sinless.
In fact, I would say this proves the opposite, because verse 46, she says, My soul magnifies the Lord, verse 47, and my spirit rejoices in God, my what? Savior.
Why does that matter? Because she needed a savior just as much.
She gave birth to her own savior.
Mary needed a savior as much as anyone else needed a savior.
Was she a humble woman? Was she born or was she in a humble estate? Was she was she used of God? Did she did she believe? Was she a faith? Yes, all those things.
But she still needed salvation and she needed God to send her a savior just like we do.
And God considered her and sent her a savior.
For the sake of time, let's move on.
Verse 57 down to verse 80 is about John.
So we're going to jump past that only because we're focusing on the birth of Christ.
Chapter two, we get to one of my favorite passages.
And this is Luke's narrative of how the mother and father of Jesus, earthly father of Jesus got to Bethlehem.
By the way, Matthew doesn't mention this at all.
He just says he was born in Bethlehem.
Doesn't say how they got there.
Doesn't say why they went there.
Doesn't make that doesn't say anything about it.
It's only Luke's gospel that tells us this story.
So that's why I think it's an important thing to note.
In those days, a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered.
This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria.
Now, again, think about this from the perspective of a historian.
Why does anybody care who is the governor of Syria? Because this is giving us a time frame for the birth of Christ.
In fact, it is because of this passage that we actually believe the date is off for Jesus's birth, because we are in year 220, right? Or 2020.
And in year 2020, you would think Jesus was born 2020 years ago.
But that's actually not the case.
We don't know exactly the year he was born, but most likely it was four or five years before what we would count as year one.
And why do we know that? Because Luke is giving us extra biblical information, not extra biblical, extra historical information that tells us Quirinius, the governor of Syria, this is an event that we can use to designate the time.
And all went to be registered each to his own town.
And Joseph also went up from Galilee from the town of Nazareth to Judea to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem because he was of the house and lineage of David to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child.
And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth.
And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger because there was no place for them in the inn.
Notice what's missing.
No, no stable and no innkeeper.
I don't, I, every Christmas play I've ever seen has had somebody dressed as an innkeeper who comes to the door and says, there's no room in the inn.
I don't know why I did an accent, but yeah, no room.
There's, you know, this is the, huh? Yeah.
So yeah, I don't know why he's an Italian in Bethlehem.
But there's, you guys know that, right? Every, every Christmas cantata you've ever seen has had an innkeeper.
There's no innkeeper mentioned.
There's really the story we've sort of built around it is based on just a few sentences, but we can see what's happening.
They go into town.
How many children did David have? Lots, right? Like he had multiple wives, multiple children.
So the city of David, everybody who's of the line of David has to come back to Bethlehem, which is honestly, as far as a footprint, the size of the village, about the size of a super Walmart.
I mean, it's, it's the village is small.
I mean, now it's obviously got big area around it, but I'm talking about the village itself, pretty small place.
And so you got all these people sort of descending upon this very small village, no place to sleep.
Baby's about to be born.
Mom's about to pop.
Got to find a place to give birth.
We're going to give birth in the feeding trough.
That's what a manger is, feeding trough.
Again, none of this is in Matthew's gospel.
I just find that interesting, right? We only have one narrative that tells this tale.
And it's a true story.
When I say tale, I don't want to sound like I'm saying it's fictional.
It's a true story, but there are only one narrative gives us these little bits and pieces.
One, one gospel writer is the historian Luke, who gives us all of this wonderful information.
And it says in verse eight, and we're going to start to draw to a close here.
I won't get all the way through this chapter, but ultimately it says in verse eight, and in that same region, there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.
And an angel, the Lord appeared to them and the glory of the Lord shown around them.
And they were filled with fear.
Ever notice that everybody who sees angels in the Bible are filled with fear, but every modern day prophet that sees an angel thinks it's great.
You ever hear these guys on television? Oh, I saw an angel or I saw Jesus.
And I, you know, we walked around, had a cup of coffee, blah, blah, blah.
No, you didn't.
No.
When you see these celestial beings, when you see Christ, you are awestruck.
And that's what we see here.
The angel said to them, fear not for behold, I bring you very bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people front to you.
And he's born this day in the city of David, a savior who is Christ the Lord.
And this will be a sign for you.
You'll find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.
And suddenly there was with the angel, a multitude of heavenly host praising God and saying glory to God in the highest.
And on earth, peace among those with whom he is pleased.
Now, that particular translation.
Many people don't know it that way.
A lot of people know peace on earth and goodwill toward men.
That's the way that it's in the song.
That's the way it is.
But that is a that is what we call a textual variation.
There is some variation there and how that text has been passed down.
I do think the peace among those whom he is pleased is is the is the appropriate one.
I think it's the accurate rendering of that phrase.
Um, because Christ does not come to bring peace to all men.
Christ comes to bring peace to those with whom God is, you know, has chosen those whom he is pleased to choose.
So, um, but that but that again, time doesn't allow us to dig into all of that.
But notice it goes on when the angels went away from them into heaven.
The shepherd said to one another, let us go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.
And they went with haste and they found Mary and Joseph and the baby lying in a manger.
And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told to them concerning the child and all who heard it wandered at the shepherds and what the shepherds told them.
But Mary treasured up these things, pondering them in her heart.
And the shepherds returned, glorifying, praising God for all they had heard and seen as it had been told them.
Now we're going to stop there.
I want to finish by bringing up something.
How many of you have ever heard the song? Mary, did you know that particular song has over the last few years and engendered some controversy? Mary, did you know? Pretty popular Christmas song, right? Do you know it? You know the song? Well, the controversy that has sort of arisen around the song was, of course, she knew.
And there's even some people that have come out and said, and I'm probably going to do a podcast on this, because this is going to take me longer than I have tonight.
But there are people who have come out and said, we shouldn't sing that song because it's wrong.
Mary did know.
And I want to take a little issue with that.
I think Mary knew a lot, but I don't think she knew everything.
And I think the heart of the song is not necessarily trying to demonstrate her ignorance, but to ask the question, what did she fully understand? And we see here in this passage, it says she was pondering these things in her heart.
She was asking questions.
She was pondering in her heart what exactly all this, what was going to happen? You know, Mary had information, but she didn't have all the information.
Like, I wonder, you know, when Jesus was at the wedding feast, she said, you know, what he does, what he tells you to do, do it, which is the greatest sermon in history, right? Mary tells the people what Jesus says do, do it.
That's the greatest sermon ever.
Outside of maybe Jesus' Sermon on the Mount.
But just what he says do, do it.
This is a great sermon.
But the idea, though, isn't it? This is so simple.
What he says do, do it.
But when she said that, Jesus, you know, she goes to Jesus.
She says, they're out of wine.
Jesus says, what's that got to do with me? My time has not yet come.
And then she doesn't say anything else.
That ends her part of the story.
And Jesus goes and turns the water into wine, which, again, I wasn't there.
But I know the way moms can give you that look, let you know what's up, you know, let you know what they're asking for.
And whatever she said to him, he went ahead and did what she wanted him to do.
But how did she know he could do it? Had he done it before? I mean, I mean, it says this was his first miracle, but it was his first public miracle.
Had she seen him do anything? How did she know what he could do? So she did know much more than maybe we think she knew.
But I still don't think there's anything wrong with the song, because the song is asking, you know, the blind will see, the deaf will hear, the dead will live again, the lame will leap, the dumb will speak the praises of the Lamb.
Mary, did you know that all of that was going to happen? And I don't think she knew everything.
But she did know this.
She knew it was the Son of God in her womb.
She knew she'd never known a man.
She knew she was about to give birth to the Savior of the world.
Those things she did know.
And so when we sing the song, if we sing the song, whenever we sing the song, we should know this.
We're not singing about Mary's ignorance.
We're not displaying any kind of anything like that.
We're simply saying that she did ponder these things in her heart.
The text tells us she did.
When she saw the shepherds come to her, and later, we don't know how much later, but later the Magi would come.
Certainly, she pondered those things in her heart as well.
Well, I hope tonight was encouraging to you.
It's fun to walk through the text.
And next week, we'll look at the Gospel of John.
Let's pray.
Father, thank you for your word.
May you be glorified in our study of it.
And Lord, may we continue to just want to know more about what your word has to tell us, especially about Jesus.
What an amazing life.
What an amazing Savior you have given to us in your son.