WWUTT 2256 Mary Meets Elizabeth (Luke 1:39-45)

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Mary and Elizabeth greet one another, and there are some words exchanged between the two of them that have been made into more than what they actually are.

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But what we read between Mary and Elizabeth is still really amazing when we understand the text.

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Many of the Bible stories and verses we think we know, we don't. When we understand the text is committed to teaching sound doctrine and rebuking those who contradict it.

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Visit our website at www .utt .com. Here once again is Pastor Gabe.

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Thank you, Becky. In our study of the Gospel of Luke, we're still in Chapter 1. Today we are reading about the meeting of Elizabeth and Mary.

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This is in Luke 1, verses 39 -45, hear the word of the Lord. In those days

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Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country to a town in Judah. And she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted

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Elizabeth. And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leapt in her womb.

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And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. And she exclaimed with a loud cry,

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Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And why is this granted to me that the mother of my

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Lord should come to me? For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leapt for joy.

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And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the

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Lord. Now what have we read thus far in the Gospel of Luke?

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We read of the priest Zechariah who was in the temple burning incense and the angel

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Gabriel appeared to him and said that his wife would be with child Elizabeth, even though Elizabeth was beyond childbearing years.

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She was called barren, as the angel had said to Mary, she who was called barren has also conceived a son.

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So it was already known among the people, Elizabeth was so advanced in age, she was unable to have children.

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So now she's called barren, she'll never have children. But this is a miraculous announcement from the

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Lord. God had heard the prayer of Zechariah. He had given a son to Elizabeth and we know that child would be

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John the Baptist. Six months later, the angel Gabriel appears to a virgin girl in Nazareth named

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Mary. And it is said to Mary that she would be with child, even though she was a virgin and the child that she would carry in her womb would of course be

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Jesus, the savior of the world. Now the angel said to her this, this birth announcement, even more miraculous than the one that was said to Zechariah as a virgin would be with child.

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But the angel also said to Mary that her relative

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Elizabeth in her old age has conceived a son. And this is the six months with her who was called barren.

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And so now what we have in this section versus 39 to 45, we have Mary who has been given this miraculous conception is going to meet

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Elizabeth who's also received a miraculous conception. And now these two women are meeting one another.

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Now it's possible, I don't know this for sure, but it's likely that Mary and Elizabeth had never met one another prior to this exchange.

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How do we see this depicted in the films and in the TV series and things like that? All those things that depict, if they do actually go through Luke one and they show a relationship between Mary and Elizabeth, how is it often shown?

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These are cousins or an aunt and niece or something like that. Relative is kind of indistinct.

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It could be a cousin, it could be distant kin, they could be second or third cousins. Mary is most likely a descendant in the line of David, whereas it was said

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Elizabeth was a descendant in the line of Aaron. So they're certainly kin to a certain degree, but they're not even of the same tribe to one another.

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So she's a relative, but not really close. Not what you would consider to be a relative in the sense of your cousins or something like that.

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So it's unlikely that Mary and Elizabeth have had any kind of personal relationship prior to this.

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If they have ever met in any capacity at all, it would have been through some sort of feast day or a festival or something that the tribes were doing, getting together, something to that extent.

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But it wasn't like Mary had this regular fellowship. Mary who lives up in Nazareth, way up there in Galilee, was a regular visitor to the house of Elizabeth and Zechariah, which would have been down in Judah.

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They very seldom ever saw one another if they had ever even met at all.

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So while it's often depicted in films and things like that, that Elizabeth and Mary were like close relatives to one another, that would not have been the case.

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They're not even close in age. Mary is probably 15 or 16 years old. Elizabeth is past menopause.

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She's quite up there in age. And hence why it is such a miraculous thing for Elizabeth to be with child.

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She was unable to even have children anymore. And yet God has blessed Zechariah and Elizabeth with this baby boy who would be

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John the Baptist. Another thing regarding this is that Zechariah is a priest. And so he has kind of a higher status.

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Mary would have been very much a peasant woman. And again, living up in a small town, a little community, not much to Nazareth at all.

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If you remember from John 1, when it was said that Jesus was from Nazareth, the prophet

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Jesus from Nazareth, it was Nathanael who said, can anything good come out of Nazareth?

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So that was kind of the reputation that Nazareth had. It was a podunk town. It was out in the sticks.

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It was way out there. These were not a group of people that it was thought of anything great might come out of this particular community.

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And here is the mother of the Lord who has come out of Nazareth down into the hill country of Judah to meet

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Elizabeth, whom the angel told Mary about. Mary wouldn't have known about Elizabeth being with child.

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It wasn't like it was circulating around the family or something like that, except that the angel told her. And so hence why she goes to visit

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Elizabeth for these two have been given these miraculous announcements. And Mary may be wanting to meet someone else who has been given this conception from the

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Lord, something that is miraculously occurred to Mary and has also been given to Elizabeth. And we see the joy that they share with one another at this particular exchange.

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It's really a beautiful section of text, not often considered in Luke 1, 39 to 45, or if it is considered, it's often filled with a lot of myth.

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So let's read it for what it is. Going back to verse 39 here, in those days, that's a phrase that'll come up a few times in the gospel of Luke.

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And it seems to be indicating here that this is all happening in the same sort of span of time that Gabriel appeared to Zechariah and then

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Gabriel appeared to Mary. And so while she and Elizabeth are with child, then

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Mary goes to see Elizabeth. And so in those days, Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country to a town in Judah, and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted

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Elizabeth. Now you've probably heard the Roman Catholic teaching that Mary is the new

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Ark. She's the new Ark of the covenant. This is common among Roman Catholicism, but I've heard others repeat this as well, that like Mary is an

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Ark because she's carrying the word of God. Jesus is called the word of God in John chapter one.

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In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. So since Jesus is the word and he's inside Mary, then she's the new

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Ark of the covenant. The Ark of the covenant in the old Testament was a gold box with the gold cherubim, the angels that were on the top, the angels prostrate facing toward the center.

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And then God would reside right on top of the Ark between the two cherubim. And so whenever Moses would go in and converse with God, that's where he would be talking with God.

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The voice of God would sort of emanate, so to speak from that position there on the

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Ark on the top of what was called the mercy seat on the inside of the Ark contained the word of the

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Testament, the 10 commandments that were written on stone tablets were inside the Ark and also the golden pot that had manna in it.

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And Aaron's rod that had budded as well as the tablets that contained the 10 commandments.

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So that was originally previously what was inside the Ark of the covenant, the Ark of the covenant didn't exist anymore.

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At this time, as we had talked about with regard to Zechariah going into the temple and burning incense, there would not have been an

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Ark of the covenant inside the Holy of Holies. There may have been a platform where it was expected that the

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Ark would stand. And therefore that platform was regarded as something of an altar. Whenever the day of atonement would come

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Yom Kippur and the high priest would enter in and sacrifice a lamb and sprinkle the blood on the place where ordinarily the altar would have been, because that's where the blood would be sprinkled is on the

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Ark. Instead, they would sprinkle the blood on that place where the Ark was expected to stand.

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But the Ark had been carried off after the Babylonian exile, when the Babylonians came in and took over Jerusalem.

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It was depicted for us in the Old Testament that God left the Ark. His presence up and left the temple.

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And so since his presence was no longer with the Ark, then it would not have been a curse to anybody to touch the

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Ark. And you remember the curse that came upon the Philistines when they carried the Ark of the Lord and many of them died and they had to create this cart and put it on the cart and kind of send it in the direction of Israel so that they could return this cursed thing back to the

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Israelites. God was cursing the Philistines. And so they didn't want to have anything to do with the Ark of the covenant.

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Well, that was when God's presence was with the Ark, but it's not any longer by the time the Babylonians come in and take over Jerusalem.

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And so the Ark, after having been carried off, was likely melted down and doesn't exist anywhere on the earth today.

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Much to the chagrin of films like Raiders of the Lost Ark, where Indiana Jones is looking for the Ark of the covenant.

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You won't be able to find it anywhere. It is a fool's errand. But anyway, the Roman Catholics like to say that Mary is the new

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Ark. And they give various arguments for this that they claim come from scripture, but a lot of it is very much reaching.

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And some of the connections that they try to make aren't really there in the text. So about the closest association that you could make to argue that Mary is the

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Ark of the covenant, or is the new Ark, is because she's carrying Jesus, who is called the word in John 1.

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That's about the best that you can do with making an argument for that.

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But of course, Mary doesn't have Jesus in her womb anymore. So it's kind of pointless to call her the

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Ark of the covenant. We all have the Holy Spirit of God dwelling within us. Those who are Christians and followers of Jesus have the

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Holy Spirit dwelling within us. So if anybody is the Ark, it would be all

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Christians. Yeah, I even think that's reaching. That's not necessary to have to make that connection or that correlation.

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So some of the Catholic arguments that are made for Mary being the new

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Ark, we find some of this from Catholic Answers. This is the website that I pulled up here to see some of the arguments that they make.

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So Mary arose and went to the hill country of Judea. We read that here in Mark 1 .39.

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And that's just like how the Ark of the covenant came from the hill country into Jerusalem when

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David brought it into the house of the Lord. Well, not exactly. Because Mary going into the hill country to see

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Zechariah and Elizabeth, she most likely would have been journeying to a place that was to the southwest of Jerusalem.

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That was where the hill country was considered to be, to the south and to the west of Jerusalem. The Ark of the covenant, when

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David had it carried into Jerusalem, was in Gibeah, which was to the northeast of Jerusalem.

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So no, Mary and the Ark of the covenant did not travel the same routes to come into or to bring the word of God into Jerusalem.

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So that's quite a stretch. And then there's also this argument that Catholic answers makes. When David saw the

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Ark, he rejoiced and said, how can the Ark of the Lord come to me? Elizabeth uses the same words.

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Why is this given to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? Two completely different questions.

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David asked his question in fear because Uzzah had tried to rescue the Ark when it was falling off the cart that David had made for it.

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And when he touched the Ark of the covenant, he died. And so now David was filled with the fear of God and asked, how can the

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Ark of the Lord come to me? In other words, how can I get it from where it's at into Jerusalem?

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That's not what Catholic answers depicts here. It says when David saw the Ark, he rejoiced and said, how can the

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Ark of the Lord come to me? No, that's not what happened. David feared God and said, how can

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I get the Ark of the Lord to come to Jerusalem? Elizabeth asks it not as not as a question that, you know, somebody answer me this, but as an expression of joy.

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So Luke is not making any parallels here, even though Catholic answer says Luke is telling us something, drawing our minds back to the

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Old Testament, showing us a parallel. No, nothing like that is happening here at all. That's Catholic answers who is trying to draw parallels where there aren't any to try to make an argument about the perfection of Mary, which they talk about even here in this article, that if Mary is going to carry

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Jesus within her, then she must be perfect. She must be holy and sinless and stainless, just like Jesus is.

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That's part of the argument that they're making here. So anyway, that's just a few of the arguments that they make regarding Mary being the new

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Ark. But it's silly. And that argument to say that Mary is the new Ark puts all of the emphasis on whom?

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It puts all the emphasis and focus on Mary. Who is the focus supposed to be on?

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The focus is supposed to be on Christ. And that's even what Elizabeth says here. The mother of my

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Lord has come to me, not just Mary, the perfect saint, the sinless saint, as the

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Roman Catholics would teach, no, the woman whom God had chosen to carry the savior of the world.

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It's because the savior of the world would be within her, not because she herself was immaculate.

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So again, in verse 40, she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. And when

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Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby, remember, she's six months pregnant at this point,

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John the Baptist inside of her entering into her third trimester, the baby in the womb leapt.

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And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. Now, there are some who will use this passage to talk about how children in the womb are every bit as much alive and persons worthy of dignity and respect and are image bearers of God.

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Children in the womb are as much human beings as those who are born.

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And they're absolutely right. And this verse does demonstrate that for us, that John the

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Baptist is even emoting from inside the womb when the one who has the infant

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Jesus inside of her has come into the house. John the Baptist leaps with joy.

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The very thing that God is consecrating John the Baptist for, to announce the coming of Christ already, he's feeling it.

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In the womb, he's feeling it. Remember that the angel had said to Zechariah that the child in Elizabeth's womb would be filled with the

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Holy Spirit even from the womb. So we're seeing an expression of that said here in the personage of John the

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Baptist. There's a real baby in there. This is not just a lifeless blob of tissue.

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This is a child who is already doing the work of God even from the womb as God would designate for him to do.

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Back in Matthew chapter one, when the angel of the

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Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, the angel said, Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take

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Mary as your wife for that which is conceived in her is from the

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Holy Spirit. She will bear a son and you shall call his name Jesus for he will save his people from their sins.

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And when we had read about Elizabeth being with child, the announcement of the angel to Mary in Luke chapter one, verse 36, we read, and behold, your relative

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Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son. And this is the sixth month with her who was called barren, conceived a what?

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Conceived tissue? No, she conceived a son. And so the person, the life of the person begins at conception.

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Even in the testimony of angels, the angel to Joseph, the angel to Mary, it is testified by angels that human life begins at conception.

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That is the argument that is made from scripture and there's no other way to take that. So we have this testimony that is made from angels and we have even the testimony of John the

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Baptist leaping in the womb of Elizabeth. And if there's anybody that knows for sure that that happened, it was

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Elizabeth. So Elizabeth says to Mary, blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb.

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And I love the way that Luke puts this to Elizabeth is filled with the Holy Spirit. She exclaimed with a loud cry.

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Have you ever seen two women get together and just ecstatic to see one another and they just loud cry.

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I don't ever see guys do this, but I've seen women do this quite a bit. In fact,

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Becky and I went to a conference a few years back and there was a gal that we had been corresponding with just through email and things like that, but had never met in person before.

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And so while I'm standing in line to get our registration, Becky goes off to find her and I heard like rows down the two of them finding one another and squealing.

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And I knew that these women had found one another. Yeah, it's a ladies thing going on right here in scripture as well.

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Apparently also Holy Spirit blessed because the Holy Spirit has filled Elizabeth and she exclaims with a loud cry, blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb.

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Now, if you know anything about the rosary prayer that the Roman Catholics pray, they have taken that phrase from Elizabeth and fit it into the rosary prayer.

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Elizabeth is not praying to Mary. No one in the Bible ever prayed to Mary.

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And in the rosary, you have one our father to every 10 hail

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Marys. That is idolatrous. It is just downright blasphemous. Stop praying the rosary prayer.

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The devil delights in it. It does not benefit you in any way. And it dishonors the

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Lord, even disrespects Mary as much as Roman Catholics want to claim that they they give all this great respect and and what's the word they use veneration to Mary?

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No, not at all. They don't care anything about Mary. It's all for themselves. Elizabeth is not praying to Mary.

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She is rejoicing in the Lord. Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb.

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And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me now?

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It is often said of Mary that she is the mother of God. And I don't think theologically that the statement is wrong because Jesus is, of course,

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God. Mary is Jesus' mother. And so, therefore, Mary is the mother of God.

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You're not saying something theologically inaccurate when said, but I never use the phrase because of the idolatry that surrounds

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Mary worship within the Mary cult, Roman Catholicism and even among Eastern Orthodoxy.

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So for that reason, I won't use the title. It needs to be qualified. It needs to be said. God does not originate with Mary.

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The incarnate son of God was born to Mary, but he even he was infinite prior to his incarnation.

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So it needs to be understand. God has no mother, that God is uncreated, uncaused from before time began.

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But to understand Mary as the mother of my Lord, yeah, certainly that's a phrase that Elizabeth used.

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It is not necessarily the same, though, as calling Mary the mother of God.

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So while again, while the term or the title is theologically correct, we must be careful when using it because of how

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Mary is worshipped by so many different cults all over the world. So then going on, verse 44, for behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leapt for joy and blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the

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Lord. Now, that's kind of funny. It's a funny statement from Elizabeth to say that to Mary, because who did not believe what was spoken from the

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Lord? Zechariah didn't. And because he didn't believe what the angel said to him, he was afflicted with muteness.

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As Mary comes in greeting Elizabeth, Elizabeth knows, oh, well, you believed what the

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Lord said to you. And so blessed are you knowing that God will fulfill his promises through you and that he has chosen you for this task.

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Remember what the angel Gabriel said back in verse 37, nothing will be impossible with God.

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God is the one doing all of this and accomplishing all this. It is incredibly miraculous that all of this take place.

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It cannot be coincidence. It can only be by the hand of God. Elizabeth acknowledges that she even recognizes that Mary believes that.

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And so here are these two women rejoicing in God, fulfilling his purposes through them, drawing them into this plan of redemption that he had foreordained from before the foundation of the world.

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All who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ will be forgiven their sins and will be saved.

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We go from here to read the song of Mary, which we will be looking at tomorrow, also called the

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Magnificat. Heavenly Father, we thank you for what we've read here. And I thank you that you continue to work in us an understanding of who you are and the plan of salvation that you are doing in the world.

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You have included us in that purpose in that not only we would come to hear and believe, but that we would then take the message of the gospel out to others so that they would hear and so be saved, so that the word would continue to be shared and even your body would be sanctified.

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And so I pray that you continue to do this work in us and may we be bold in these days to believe the gospel and share it.

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It's in Jesus name that we pray, amen. Thank you for listening to When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes.

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If you'd like to support this ministry, visit our website www .wutt .com and click on the

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Give tab in the top right corner of the page. Join us again tomorrow as we continue our Bible study, When We Understand the