BIBLE STUDY – MARY, ANGEL GABRIEL AND THE HOLY SPIRIT

Angel Gabriel said shocking words to Mary, “Greetings, O highly favored one, the Lord is with you. Blessed are you among women. Mary was surprised to hear such extravagant words said of her. Gabriel said to Mary three things. Each of them was certainly true of Mary who had a unique privilege among any person to ever live.

• She is highly favored.
• That the Lord was with her
• She was blessed.

However, all these things are true of the believer in Jesus:

i)We are highly favored as Mary was – Eph 1:6

ii)The Lord is with us – Matt. 28;20

iii) We are blessed – Eph 1:3

Mary had been chosen by God to be a woman from whom the seed would be born who would defeat the devil. This role would forever set her apart from every other woman. Just like any one of us would have an angel appear to us, Mary was much troubled (perplexed) by the words of the angel and she pondered what sort of greeting this might be (Lk 1:28-29). What Mary was about to hear will change her life over time forever. The angel came with words of comfort and promise, “Do not be afraid. Mary, for you have found favor with God. And now you will conceive in your womb and bear a son and you will call Him Jesus (Lk 1:30-31). The angel continued (see vs:32-33). The focus was not on Mary but on her son, Jesus. The son was to be the Messiah predicted in the Old Testament.

The angel answered “The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the highest will overshadow you. Therefore, the child to be born will be called holy son of God.”

• Mary was still pondering and wondering how? As a teenager Mary was taken aback by the angel’s words /greeting.  The angel then said, “And behold you relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son and she’s in her sixth month she also was called barren.” For nothing will be impossible with God (Lk 1:38-37).
• The angel brought uncommon evidence: If God could do that He can do what He has promised Mary. Mary learned that not only will she conceive a child in a way never heard of before, but the child will play a special role in the salvation of all God’s people. Hear the message of the angel (Luke 2:11)
• Mary learned that the child – the seed of a woman would be like no other.
• There would be no human father.
• Instead, the Holy spirit would cause the child to be conceive in her womb
• While the son of Mary would receive human nature through Mary but he will remain –son of God – second person of Trinity
• He will be true God at the same time true man.

Mary’s respond was one of faithful acceptance (vs 38):  The faith of a young mother chosen by God. The passage tells us 4 things about Mary:

i)The fact of Mary’s life – virgin, betrothed not yet married, a teen with faith, heart for God; ii) The fear in Mary’s heart – confused, perplexed, to build in conservatism, and defense mechanism. Iii)The wonder in Mary’s mind: How could God achieve this since normal way of pregnancy isn’t available – angel’s announcement; Miracle don’t just happen; Response in wonder and faith; Iv). The submission in Mary’s response – a) Here is a teen facing misunderstanding, suspicion, rejection from family, divorce from her betrothed husband-to-be and disgrace or death by her town people; b) And yet she agreed; Mary affirms the bedrock truth that undergirds our discipleship; c) She believes the impossible and accept angel’s proposal.

• Mary said, “All right, I am willing to do my part but explain to me how this strange thing will happen and be handled.”
• Who will believe I had no sexual relationship with nobody.
• Who will be his father?
• I believe without facts – impossible!!!

This is the challenge facing Christians today:

• Sometimes it takes great turmoil in our souls to come to the place of submission.
• Before Jesus was conceived, Mary faced with the decision:
• Will I obey and make way for this king?
• Will I take the easy way that avoids difficulty and pain?
• Yet Mary’s response of faith is to her everlasting credit and elevation
• She realized that this lot was ordained by God for her.

The further information given her, upon her enquiry concerning the birth of this prince.

1. It is a just enquiry which she makes: “How shall this be? v. 34. How can I now presently conceive a child” (for so the angel meant) “when I know not a man; must it therefore be otherwise than by ordinary generation? If so, let me know how?” She knew that the Messiah must be born of a virgin; and, if she must be his mother, she desires to know how. This was not the language of her distrust, or any doubt of what the angel said, but of a desire to be further  instructed.

2. It is a satisfactory answer that is given to it, v. 35. (1.) She shall conceive by the power of the Holy Ghost, whose proper work and office is to sanctify, and therefore to sanctify, the virgin for this purpose. The Holy Ghost is called the power of the Highest. Doth, she ask how this shall be? This is enough to help her over all the difficulty there appears in it; a divine power will undertake it, not the power of an angel employed in it, as in other works of wonder, but the power of the Holy  Ghost himself

(3.) She must ask no questions concerning the way and manner how it shall be wrought; for the Holy Ghost, as the power of the Highest, shall overshadow her, as the cloud covered the tabernacle when the glory of God took possession of it, to conceal it from those that would too curiously observe the motions of it, and pry into the mystery of it. The formation of every babe in the womb, and the entrance of the spirit of life into it, is a mystery in nature; none knows the way of the spirit, nor how the bones are formed in the womb of her that is with child, Eccl. 11:5. We were made in secret, Ps. 139:15, 16. Much more was the formation of the child Jesus a mystery; without controversy, great was the mystery of godliness, God manifest in the flesh, 1 Tim. 3:16. It is a new thing created in the earth (Jer. 31:22), concerning which we must not covet to  be wise above  what is written.

(4.) The child she shall conceive is a holy thing, and therefore must not be conceived by the ordinary generation, because he must not share in the common corruption and pollution of the human nature. He is spoken of emphatically, “that Holy Thing”, such as never was; and he shall be called the Son of God, as the Son of the Father by eternal generation, as an indication of which he shall now be formed by the Holy Ghost in the present conception. His human nature must be so produced, as it was fit that should be which was to be taken into union with the divine nature.

5. It was a further encouragement to her faith to be told that her cousin Elisabeth, though stricken in years, was with child, v. 36. Here is an age of wonders beginning,(divine Possibilities) and therefore be not surprised: here is one among thy own relations truly great, though not altogether so great as this; it is usual with God to advance in working wonders. Greater works than these shall ye do. Though Elisabeth was, on the father’s side, of the daughters of Aaron (v. 5), yet on the mother’s side she might be of the house of David, for those two families often intermarried, as an earnest of the uniting of the royalty and the priesthood of the Messiah. This is the sixth month with her that was called barren. The angel assures Mary of this, to encourage her faith. For with God nothing shall be impossible (v. 37), and, if nothing, then not this. Abraham therefore staggered not at the belief of the divine promise, because he was strong in his belief of the divine power, Rom. 4:20, 21. No word of God must be incredible to us, as long as no work of        God     is impossible     to         him.

Her submission to the will of God concerning her, v. 38. 1.“Behold, the handmaid of the Lord. Lord, I am at thy service, at thy disposal, to do what you commands me.” She objects not the danger of spoiling her marriage, and blemishing her reputation, but leaves the issue with God, and submits entirely to his will. 2. A believing expectant of the divine favor. She is not only content that it should be so, but humbly desires that it may be so: Be it unto me according to thy word. Such a favor as this it was not for her to slight, or be indifferent to; and for what God has promised he will be sought unto; by prayer we must put our amen, or so be it, to the promise. Remember, and perform thy word unto thy servant, upon which thou has caused me to hope.

We must, as Mary here, guide our desires by the word of God, and ground our hopes upon it. Be it unto me according to thy word; just so, and no otherwise.

Hereupon, the angel departed from her; having completed the errand he was sent upon, he returned, to give an account of it, and receive new instructions

• Sometimes God works with extraordinary power in our lives, but it is only afterwards, looking back, that we understand what it was that God did. Only when Mary looked back, and the early Church looked back, did they perceive the overshadowing God in the appearance of the mysterious angel Gabriel to a young girl of Nazareth in the Galilee.

• The angel says, “Do not be afraid.” 

1. i)Life in the Spirit calls for confidence in God not on any human: president, governor, Boss, father figure, high priest or pastor.
2. ii) The angel deals with our first response we have toward God: fear. From Eden’s naked couple hiding in the bushes at the sound of his voice to you reading this, we all hide from God. He terrifies us, and we shrink back, a quivering mass of anger and shame and frustration and defeat. Judgment is in his hands, and we know we cannot survive it.

iii)           Yet God is forever approaching, forever calling our name, always chasing us…… Even though we, like Mary, understand that God’s touch will pretty much wreck our plans, shatter our agendas, yet his will is the most perfect, utterly wonderful, absolutely very good, grace-filled thing that could happen to us. What looked like chaos, interruption, and shame is really a blessing beyond Mary’s ability to understand.

The angel says, “The Holy Spirit will overshadow you. … For nothing is impossible with God.” 

1. iv)Life in the Spirit is an adventure into the unexpected, the impossible, and the unpredictable. God is coming over you, shadowing on you, interrupting the flow of the predictable and bringing the unimagined.
2. V)  We go about our lives, day by day, always calculating the future—relational, financial, political, spiritual. These choices, these decisions, these words…all should result in these outcomes. And yet God is there, the reason these factors never quite add up the way we think they should. God interrupts,  is interrupting ……always interrupting

Mary says, “How can this be?”

1. v)Life in the Spirit recognizes no limitations. Mary tried to calculate the angel’s message with her virginity as part of the equation, and saw that it couldn’t add up.
2. vi) We, too, bring our limitations to the table. “How can this be,” we ask, “since I am … too old, too poor, too rich … I have too much baggage, I’ve got children in the home, I’m not educated enough, I’m divorced, I’m sick, I’m whatever.”

vii)          We’ve got to let go of our personal “how can this be” and recognize that it’s our imagination that’s limited, not God’s.

Mary says, “I am the servant of the Lord.”

viii)          Life in the Spirit is first about identity, and only then about action or behavior or “results.”

1. ix)This is about aligning ourselves with God, identifying ourselves in relationship with him. Mary is not primarily Joseph’s fiancée, Anne and Joachim’s daughter, or even the Mother of Jesus. She is primarily the servant of the Lord. To be filled with the Spirit means first understanding who you are.

Mary says, “Let it be done to me according to your word.”

1. x) Life in the Spirit is first a receptive posture rather than an active posture. Here we come to the heart of Mary’s response: full consent.
2. xi)Here Mary takes the posture that makes the filling of the Spirit possible. This is more than “permission”—it’s generous cooperation with the purposes of God. She is doing more than renting out her womb—she is entering into the mystery of God’s great intentions for the world.

xii)          Mary’s consent encompasses conception, yes, and parenting, yes, but also a willingness to move with God through an unknown future in confidence that God is about something meaningful and life-giving.

xiii)         We too must begin with consent, full consent. And like Mary, this must be something more than, “Okay, fine. Do what you wish with my life.” It must become, with Mary, a resolve to participate fully in the ongoing consequences of consent in full confidence that the Spirit’s overshadowing remains vital, purposeful, and fruitful.

Then the angel left her. 

xiv)Life in the Spirit means picking up the pieces. When we consent to the life of the Spirit, we are not signing up for spiritual highs. Life in the Spirit is often a slog. There, I’ve said it. It’s a long, slow, and often painful trek through the shadows the Spirit casts as he goes about weaving divine will through the warp and woof of our lives. And yet we consent, for we are empty and we long to be filled with the Come, Holy Spirit, Lord and Giver of Life. Suggestion for practice:  At the close of every time of prayer, just before you say Amen, say this: “Let it be done to me according to your word.” Make an active movement of consent every time you pray. Make consent the culmination of your questions, intercessions, laments, praises, confessions. Try it—this little practice has changed not only my prayer life but my whole life.