Third Presbyterian Sunday Morning Bible Study - November 28, 2021

Below is the Bible Study written by Jim Rudiger for his Sunday School Class which meets at Third Presbyterian Church, Norfolk, Virginia. It's based on Luke 1:26-42.

It’s a sign of the times. Ever hear that said. What does it mean? What has happened is indicative of the times that we are living in. What would be a sign of our time? Facebook. High gas prices. No Bing Crosby or Andy Williams Christmas shows. But, there are other signs we see everyday. When you got your driver’s license, what road signs did you have to know? The railroad crossing sign. The stop sign. The yield sign. Now the signs have these diagonal lines across them telling you not to do something. But, they are signs we have to obey.

There are signs that are bad signs and signs that are good signs. “Red sky at night, sailor’s delight. Red sky in the morning, sailor take warning.” That told sailors whether to be a morning person or a night person. When we had little kids, a child coming home from school with a smile on their face was a good sign. He past the test we spent hours helping him to study for. When I came home from work and there was meatloaf on the table, that’s a sailor’s delight sign for me. A ground hog seeing his shadow on Ground Hog Day” is what kind of sign? A bad sign. Do you pay attention to signs? Do you act on them? When I was a kid, a cracked sidewalk was a bad sign. If I stepped on a crack I broke my mother’s back. You know what? Even today, I avoid the cracks in sidewalks. Of course stepping on crack now means I’ll fall and break a front tooth.

Signs were even more important in biblical times. Especially if they were from God. Isaiah had told Israel, “The Lord will give you a sign. Lo, the young woman is with child and shall bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel.” Our study today deals with that sign in the person of a scared young girl.

Why should Luke write this book? Actually, the Gospel of Luke is the first in a two book set - the second being Acts. All of the books about Jesus that had been written so far had stressed the Jewishness of Jesus. It was important that the Jewish readers understood that Jesus was the person the prophets had spoken about; the Messiah they had been looking for. Luke saw that a lot of new Christians were also Gentiles like he was. Jewish history wasn’t known to Gentiles, so a lot of what was written then had little meaning to Gentiles. He wanted to write a book showing that Jesus was the savior of Gentiles as well as Jews.

You have seen why Luke wrote this book. Now lets look at what he said.

There was a priest named Zechariah was visited by the Angel, Gabriel, who told him that his wife, Elizabeth, was going to have a child and Zechariah will name the baby John. Zechariah protested, “That’s impossible. My wife is barren. Besides that, she is old. That white stuff on top of her head ain’t snow, you know. It’s old hair. And I’m old too. When I talk to her about having a baby, she reminds me that ship has sailed.” Gabriel responded by reminding Zechariah that this came straight from God. Because Zechariah was so sassy, he is going to be mute until the baby is born.

Luke 1: 26 In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, 27 to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David.

How does Elizabeth figure into Jesus’ birth? Elizabeth and Mary were cousins, but, they also shared a special moment in time. An angel named Gabriel came to each of them and told them that they were going to have a baby. He told both not to be afraid promising that both were going to have sons who will be important people. For all of the similarities in how they got the word about the impending births of their sons, there were even greater differences. What were their differences? (1) Age, Elizabeth was old and Mary was young. (2) Elizabeth was married and Mary was betrothed. (3) Elizabeth and her husband Zachariah were educated people. He was priest in the Temple. Mary came from a small town, the daughter of a simple working family. (4) Elizabeth’s son would clear the way for Mary’s son. (6) Elizabeth’s son would be a prophet. Mary’s son would be the Son of God. (7) Most importantly, Elizabeth’s conception would be by her husband. Mary’s by the Holy Spirit. Elizabeth is six months pregnant. Why tells us this? This ties what is going to happen with Mary to what has already happened to her cousin, Elizabeth. The lives of their two sons will be meshed together to reshape all future generations. Mary is being told so she will be the first to know about Elizabeth’s upcoming blessed event and possibly this will make things easier for what Mary is about to hear.

Now, Mary was betrothed to marry who? A man named Joseph. Luke adds here that Joseph is descended from David. Why add that fact? Because the prophets had foretold that the Messiah will come from the linage of David. But Joseph won’t be the biological father of Jesus, so why say that Joseph is descended from David? In those days, if a man’s wife had a baby, it was his unless he disclaimed it. To accept the baby is to give to it all that you have including your heritage. While Joseph was not the legal father, by custom the child he claimed becomes the inheritor of his family tree. Perhaps when the prophets had said that the Messiah will come from the linage of David, they understood that this linage was adopted. After all, God’s son is no more the child of David than he is of Joseph. So Luke adds this information to explain how the prophesies are fulfilled.

Betrothal was more than being engaged. It lasted about a year and was as binding as marriage. It was everything that a marriage was except that there was no physical contact. If the man in the betrothal should die during that year, the girl would be considered a widow with everything that comes with that position. That led to some strange sounding phrases in the Law about “a virgin who is a widow.” So, once two people were betrothed, there was a bond established that only death or divorce could break.

The earliest age for a girl to be betrothed was twelve. It is quite likely that Mary was only twelve or thirteen when she was betrothed to Joseph. How could a girl of twelve or thirteen be prepared for marriage? I was twenty two when I got married and I sure wasn’t ready for marriage. In today’s culture, men and women are waiting later to become married, if married at all.

Luke 1: 28 And he came to her and said, “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.” 29 But she was perplexed by his words and pondered what kind of greeting this might be. 39 The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 31 And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. 32 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 ancestor David. 33 He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”

Here is this little country girl still living with her parents, minding her own business when this stranger approaches her. She had been raised in a close knit family and was probably very shy. She knew as a girl betrothed to be married, she had to be careful about speaking to strange men. Her husband-to-be’s honor was on the line. The man is smiling, but, what does he want with this little girl? Naturally, Mary is a little bit frightened.

Those fears lessen as the man speaks. What does he call her? “Favored one.” When he linked that remark with God being with her, the intent is to tell Mary that God has put her in a special place. I am sure that Mary must have wondered how she deserved to be God’s favored one. She hadn’t done anything special. She had been an obedient daughter but so had thousands of other girls in her home town. And her town - it isn’t like she was living in Jerusalem and had made some big splash at the Temple. Nazareth was 80 miles away from Jerusalem with little there to get anyone’s attention much less God’s. While her fear still shown her eyes, Gabriel tried to calm her down. He tells her just as he had Zachariah, not to be afraid. And he restates that God has seen something in her that he likes. After seeing that Mary has calmed down, Gabriel pops the big news on her. Because God has found her to be a special girl, she is going to have a baby boy who will be called Jesus.

Now, put yourself in Mary’s place. How would you feel? You are twelve years old, living with mom and dad, but, engaged to a carpenter named Joseph, a nice man, but a older man not well educated. Now a complete stranger comes up to you and tells you that you were going to have a baby. How would you have reacted? This would have been a development that you had never figured on. First of all, what would you say to mom and dad? That would be a tough one. Then how would you tell your fiancee? How would Joseph react to the news?

Luke 1: 34 Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am still a virgin?” 35 The angel said to her, “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; he will be called Son of God. 36 And now, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month for her who was said to be barren. 37 For nothing will be impossible with God.”

Mary asks how this can happen. Why should she question it happening? She is still a virgin. This isn’t a matter of questioning the power of God. It is a practical question about the means by which she will get pregnant. Mary is literally asking how she can conceive when she has never gone to bed with a man? How does Gabriel say it will happen? The Holy Spirit will come over her and she will bear a child. The words Gabriel uses about the spirit coming over her are the same words used later in scripture when Jesus promised the pouring out of the Spirit on the church. This conception will be a divine creative act not the result of human desire or activity. There are no sexual overtones in these verses.

The conception of the children of Roman and Greek gods always involved a heavy dose of sex. This conception would not be like the conceptions of heathen gods. I don’t believe that Gabriel’s explanation would have helped most girls. When mom, dad or Joseph asks how she got pregnant and she tells them that the Holy Spirit did it, their jaws would have fallen open with disbelief. They may even have thought that Mary was being sacrilegious by blaming her condition on God. Poor Mary. This is quite a lot to put on such a little girl.

Luke 1: 38 Then Mary said, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.” Then the angel departed from her.

Does Mary take the deal? Mary accepts what the angel tells her. In fact she in effect says, “Here I am. Willing and ready to do whatever my God asks of me.” She has no idea what awaits her. Because of his questioning, Zachariah had been struck deaf when he was told and was unable to rejoice over the impending birth of his son. Gabriel doesn’t punish Mary for questioning because Mary is young and inexperienced and needed confirmation not punishment. Zachariah was a priest who knew scripture enough not to question God’s plans. Mary humbles herself and keeps this information to herself.

Why did God pick such a lowly backwoods little girl for such an important job? What made her the best pick? Maybe God wanted someone who came from a simple home. An everyday kind of person. Someone who had not heard everything the world was saying. Someone young and uncorrupted by the bad things and people in life. Someone still pure who had a growing love of God. A love that didn’t need the reinforcement of beautiful ornate churches or theological gimmicks. The simple “you get what see” attitude of this little girl made her the perfect choice to give birth to the savior of the world. But, God didn’t put Mary in a vacuum. He gave her a fiance who would stand by her when the world was ready to shake their finger at her and abandon her. Only a perfect God can make a perfect pick.

When we read these passages, we cannot escape the world’s reaction to the idea about the virgin birth of Jesus. To deny that the world is critical of this part of our faith is to leave us unable to defend that weak little girl in Nazareth and by doing that not stand up for the unique conception of the most unique man ever born. Only Matthew and Luke tells us about the virgin birth. The secular world would rejoice in tearing down this tenant of the Christian faith so that they could make Jesus just a good guy who hated the rich and loved the poor. There is a real danger when we try to explain how a natural phenomenon could have happened to produce a miracle that comes from God just so the world won’t think we are religious nuts.

I’m not going to ask you how you feel about the virgin birth. That is a matter of personal faith. But, Jesus is the Messiah, the very Son of God. I would rather believe that for such a special man to be born in this world, God would devise a special birth. The Jews had a saying that in every birth there were three partners - father, mother and the Spirit of God. They believed that no child could be born without the Spirit. But this isn’t “any birth or any child.” This is the birth of the Christ Child. For this birth, the Spirit of God was involved in a special and unique way. That’s good enough for me. I can’t think of a more beautiful way of God expressing how he finds all of us so special than to wrap that special love in an act of a divine entrance into our world through the virgin birth.

I can’t help but think what Mary would be faced with today. A child expecting a baby. Planned Parenthood would probably have tried to convince Mary to have an abortion so her life would be easier and more normal. How cursed would our culture be if we aborted the Son of God.

Luke 1: 39 In those days Mary set ouy and went to a Judean town in the hill country, 40 where she entered the house of Zechhariah snd greeted Elizabeth. 41 When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leaped in her.womb And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit 42 and exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among, and blessed is the fruit of your womb..”

Now Mary is all alone. She thought about what she had been told. She didn’t tell anybody what had happened to her, not even her mom and dad. Her family knew that Elizabeth was known to be barren, but, didn’t know that she was actually going to have a baby. If Mary went to her mom and dad and told them, what would they ask? How do you know this? She would have to tell them about Gabriel because that would be the only way she could have had gotten this news before her parents. Now, in those days people didn’t bump into angels in Walmarts or Food Lion. Angels were messengers of God and if an angel said something to you, it was a message directly from God. If Mary said that an angel spoke to her they would have demanded to know what God wanted her to know. Then would come the other part of the message. That she was going to have a baby too. We don’t know much about Mary’s parents. We are pretty sure they were simple hard working people. They weren’t priests. So telling them that she was going to have a baby would only bring up a cart load of other questions and Mary wasn’t prepared to handle those right now. Remember, Mary is only 12 or 13. What was Mary to do?

Mary decides to go see Elizabeth right then and there. Now Elizabeth is probably in her sixties and Mary is 12 or 13, a big age difference there. They sure couldn’t share life experiences. Elizabeth is a big city girl married to a priest who serves in the Temple in Jerusalem, an important guy. Mary comes from Nazareth, a small town in the even smaller Roman province of Galilee. She is engaged to a carpenter who never got through elementary school.

So why does Mary want to go see Elizabeth? There three possible reasons: (1) To congratulate Elizabeth on becoming a mom at last. (2) To tell Elizabeth what had happened to her. It would be easier with Elizabeth because her husband was a priest and would be able to accept what had happened to her. (3) I believe the main reason was that Mary wanted confirmation that what Gabriel had said would happen to her was actually true. You see, Gabriel had told Mary that Elizabeth was in her sixth month. Now if Mary went to see Elizabeth and she WAS in her sixth month, then Gabriel had been right about Elizabeth so the chances are that he might be right about her too. This would the assurance that she needed. If Elizabeth wasn’t going to have a baby, then Mary would have to view Gabriel’s visit as meaning something else. Even so, Zachariah could help her figure it all out. Mary doesn’t know that Zachariah is unable to speak because of his doubts when Gabriel told him he would be a dad.

Mary goes to her parents and asks permission to go see Elizabeth. I don’t believe she said anything about Elizabeth being pregnant. Maybe she said that she wanted Elizabeth and Zachariah to council her on what to expect in marriage. He was a priest so he would be the right guy to ask. After getting her parents permission, she would also need for Joseph to say that it was all right since they were engaged. It would be quite a journey for a young girl. She would travel along dusty roads for eighty miles . It was probable that she would be walking the eighty miles. That would take about four days. She would have to carry the provisions needed to get her there. I’m sure that her parents arranged for a family member to accompany her for safety’s sake. Finally, after packing her bags, she sets out for Judea.

Mary gets to Judea and approaches Elizabeth’s house. As she steps into the house and says hello, Elizabeth lets out a small scream. The baby she is carrying leaps her in womb at the sound of Mary’s voice. Elizabeth understands what this means and before Mary can say a word, tells Mary that she is pregnant. Only a few days have passed since Gabriel told Mary what was going to happen to her. In those few days, the Spirit of God, as promised, had come to Mary. Maybe it was that first night. Maybe it was while she was traveling to see Elizabeth. We don’t know when it happened, but, we do know that when Mary walked through that door, she was pregnant. On seeing Mary, Elizabeth is filled with the Holy Spirit and blesses Mary and the child she is going to have. Can you imagine how that must have made Mary think? There would be no more doubts. This thing will happen. Of all the women alive on that day and all of the women who lived before her and all of the women who will live after her, she was picked to bear the Son of God.

So there you have it. A sign of the times. A birth in a small Judean village. But, what sign is God giving us today? If I’m reading the signs right, it is that time is running out. But for right now, we will celebrate that sign by celebrating the birth of the Babe of Bethlehem and the final salvation prophesied by Isaiah. Christmas is coming, folks. Can’t you almost hear those angels singing in the fields.

Prayer: Father, like Mary, may we accept your signs and act on them as you would have us act. And like Mary, when we hear your call, embolden us to reply, “Here am I.” Amen.