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You might not believe it, but Luke Chapter One is one of the most theologically, doctrinally, and prophetically packed passages anywhere in Scripture. To thoroughly exegete it would involve going from book to book, passage to passage, and cross-referencing. This video covers just Luke 1:26-30, where the Virgin Mary meets Gabriel. Subsequent videos will cover more of Mary’s response to Gabriel’s news, that she was selected to bear the Messiah, Jesus Christ. There is detail here that should edify and challenge us in our faith.

First, the name Gabriel, means “Hero of God. It’s very interesting that in Luke 1:19, Gabriel says of himself that he stands in the presence of God. This leads a lot of students and scholars to believe Gabriel may be one of the four angels that surround the throne in Revelation Chapter four. But one thing we do know, whether we’re looking at Gabriel, whether we’re looking at Michael, all the angels reflect God. Their job, their task, their purpose for existence is to reflect God in different ways. Michael is a warrior angel. Gabriel is a teaching and an encourager and exhorter. Note that whenever Gabriel appears, he appears as a man. And when Gabriel appears, the only thing he delivers is information about the coming of the Messiah. We only have three people in the Bible to which Gabriel appears. There may have been more, but he’s not named otherwise. He appears to Daniel in Daniel, Chapters 8 to 12 where Daniel stands there listening, and Gabriel is basically teaching and explaining (and in some cases giving visions) of the Messiah. And then, of course, he appears to Zacharias in Luke 1:11-20, where he revealed the miraculous birth of John the Baptist. Why is that important? Because John the Baptist is the forerunner of the Messiah. And then of course, shortly afterward, Gabriel appeared to Mary, who would be the virgin mother of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And so Luke 1:26 says “that Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth.” That’s very important. This is the town in which Mary lived. It’s significant because it fulfills a prophecy that you might have pondered or maybe wrestled over. You’ll remember in Matthew 2:23, when Jesus’ family comes back from Egypt, it says that Joseph led them to Nazareth. “He came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, “He shall be called the Nazarene.” There are no real passages that say, “he shall be called a Nazarene.” You’ll search in vain. You can’t find it. And yet Matthew said that this was a fulfillment of the “prophets,” plural. You’ll probably remember that there are several passages in the Old Testament that refer to the Messiah as “the branch” (Isaiah 4:2, Isaiah 11:1, Jeremiah 23:5, Jeremiah 33:15, Zachariah 3:8, and Zachariah 6:12.) The word branch in Hebrew is “Netzar,” is the root of Nazareth. Is it amazing? God named a town just so a prophecy could be fulfilled concerning the Lord Jesus Christ

Our passage in Luke goes on to tell us that “Mary was betrothed to Joseph of the House of David.” This is going to become significant, but I’m going to save that for the next video. Suffice that it is the fulfillment of a prophecy. “Mary” is derived from the Hebrew name “Miriam,” which goes all the way back to the sister of Moses. It’s very interesting that Miriam is probably derived from the Egyptian “Meri,” which means “beloved.” Isn’t that appropriate? In Luke 1:28, Gabriel identifies the character of Mary using three phrases. These should be a challenge to us. First though, many scholars have suggested that probably every generation of young women in Israel dreamed that possibly, maybe they would be the one who bears the long-awaited Messiah. Well, here of course, it came down to Mary. And I think Gabriel explains something about why she was chosen. He says that she was highly favored. Now favor, of course, refers to Grace. And we’ll see that in a moment. She was highly favored or highly great, highly blessed. This shows me that she was living in intimate association with the grace of God. Her life was enveloped in grace. How does that happen? This fellowship and Grace are available to every one of us. The Apostle Paul amplifies this when he says in Romans Chapter 5, “grace upon grace” and “much more grace.” Much more than what? Much more than anything you’ve known up to this point. There’s more grace available. How do we get it? Well, it’s very simple. In 1st Peter 5:5, Peter said, “God resists the proud, but He gives grace to the humble. Also, Jesus began his public teaching ministry with the Beatitudes, and he began with the statement “Blessed,” or you could say “Grace.” “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” The word for “poor” here in the Greek language conveys a person is so poor, so destitute, so helpless that when people walked by, they would just spit on them. They were what you would call the dregs of the earth. God gives grace to we who realize how poor we really are in comparison to our God

Luke 1:28 continues, “The Lord is with you.” This indicates that Mary was living by faith. You must realize that Mary is likely just 14 or 15 years old, the typical marriage age in her time. How spiritually deep could she be? Let’s not deify Mary, which is idolatry, but let’s give her a rightful place, because she was a very magnificent young woman. She was living in fellowship with God, living in the sphere of grace. Gabriel said, “blessed are you among women,” indicating that she represented the ideal woman. Notice he did not say “above other women,” but, “among women.” Mary represented one half of humans. Immediately our mind goes to Genesis 3:15 where the first promise of the Messiah that tells us essential that “the seed of the woman would crush the head of the serpent.”

Now in Luke 1:29, Mary responds within herself in two ways. She was “troubled,” and she “considered.” First, the word “troubled” is actually an intensified verb, which literally means “terrified.” You know, there’s an interesting reaction that you will find in everyone in the Bible when the invisible, unseen realm intersects with the human realm. They’re terrified. If you want to see a vision of angels or the Lord, prepare yourself to be terrified, because the spiritual realm is something that we’re not qualified or capable of taking in. Second, I love this word “consider” which in the Greek is the word “logizomai.” It’s a mathematical term. What a magnificent young woman! What kind of facts do you think she’s adding up here? She’s had an appearance of an angel that calls himself Gabriel who tells her that she is highly favored and she’s standing there dumbfounded, terrified, and she’s in her mind casting about with what? Scripture! She’s beginning to add up the facts she knows of scripture. Being a young Jewish woman, you know, there wasn’t a lot of training. A young man, on the other hand, was trained in the law. Before a young man’s bar mitzvah, he got some intensive training, but not so much a young woman. Something interesting, however, is revealed in the Song of Mary (Luke 1:46-55). There are 15 direct references and allusions to Old Testament scriptures. Off the top of her head, she begins to sing a song composed of fifteen Old Testament texts. Anybody here want to try that? We might get John 3:16 and a couple of others. Mary was obviously a scholar of scripture, and likely, because she was not pushed into knowing the law like a boy would be, she was probably searching on her own.

To me this means she loved the word of God!

Gene Cunningham - January 28, 2003

Hebrews 13

Hebrews 13

Heb 3:1-6 We are challenged to consider Jesus, to keep our eyes on Him. Heb 2:8-9 When we don’t see the sense of everything going on around us, we can see Jesus. Heb 8:1 It is the main thrust of the book, to keep our eyes on our High Priest. Heb 11:27 Moses’ eyes were fixed on Jesus, and that is why he was able to endure. Heb 12:1-2 Fix our eyes on Jesus for each of our individual races. Seven things the author wants us to consider about Jesus Christ: 1. His Aposteship-purpose of the apostle to speak in God’s place. Jesus did this better than anyone else. He is the spokesman of God, by what He said, by what He did, and by His death. 2. His Priesthood-present session of Jesus Christ is His current role as our High Priest. He has a ministry at God’s right hand as our representative. 3. His faithfulness-He surpasses Moses in faithfulness so much so that it becomes a synonym for His name. 4. His worthiness-He is worthy of greater honor than Moses. This is an epistle to the Hebrews, and they thought Moses was the greatest man, and the author points out that Jesus is greater. 5. His Diety-He built the house and God builds all things, Jesus is God. 6. His Sonship-important to the family of God 7. He is the foundation of spiritual steadfastness-those who keep their eyes on Jesus will be able to be steadfast in any trial If we get our eyes off Jesus, no matter what the cause of the distraction, it will cause us to sink. Hebrews written around 67 AD. The Jews had become very rebellious toward Rome. Insurrection broke out in 64 AD. It gained momentum. In 64, persecution because the policy under Nero toward the Jew. If you were a Jewish believer, you had extra persecution. The nation fell because they rejected Jesus. Compare the sentiment to your own country. Can we suspect a similar judgment? Believing Jews wanted to go back to the Jewish Temple as a way to hide from persecution. They clung to a worn out system, and God had to discipline them. The one thing that will sustain you is to develop a spiritual sensitivity and habit to keep your eyes on Jesus. Things in this life always change, Jesus never changes. There were Jews that joined the Christian sect, but did not accept God’s gift. God has given us Jesus’ righteousness Justification- the Holy God has committed Himself and declared Himself willing to show mercy to sinners who have not right to call on His grace, to all the sinners who believe in Jesus to be unfailingly unshakable toward them in grace. The only time God deals with our performance is when it has to do with having fellowship with Him, so He can bring us back, keep us in His purpose. Eph 1:6 Heavenly calling- we have inherited the role Israel Consider-whole realm or system of thinking. It affects all of your decisions. It’s saying “THINK!” bear down with your mind, and concentrate so you can develop the right way of thinking. We can keep our eyes on Jesus in the ways this passage just laid out. Each of the seven have practical application to how we can think about everything. It will change how you view things in the future, and how you think about other people. There is a sense of urgency behind the command. (Do it now!) Within three years these people were going to suffer great things if they didn’t wake up. We can come through any trial blessed, but only if we take heed to His word by keeping our eyes on Him. No command is given with any purpose other than to bless us. Attitude determines altitude. Humble attitude leads to spiritual values which leads to wise decisions to right actions to blessing He wants you to know Him deeper and truer than you ever have before. He wants you to experience Jesus’ fellowship. God’s commands are impossible for us to accomplish, apart from faith in Him. God values faith more than anything else. He values faith above purity. Ask Him to keep your eyes fixed on Him. Act 21:26 Paul violated what the author of Hebrews warned about. Heb 6:6 crucifying the Son of God afresh. This was the greatest failure for the apostle of grace. This tells us that when we start being used by God, Satan will try to get every blinder on you that he can. Seven considerations about Jesus: Apostleship-someone sent with ultimate authority, exo 3:7, luk 10:16, joh 17:8, ambassador, admiral, voice of God, display the power of God, He draws everyone to make a decision about Him, how you respond to Jesus is how you respond to God joh 3:36, consider Jesus as the ultimate representative to the human race, heb 12:25

Scripture References: Hebrews 6:6, Hebrews 3:1-6, Acts 21:26, Hebrews 12:25, Ephesians 1:6, John 3:36, Hebrews 12:1, John 17:8, Hebrews 11:27, Luke 10:16, Hebrews 8:1, Exodus 3:7, Hebrews 2:8-9

Related Topics: The Preeminence of Christ | More Messages from Gene Cunningham | Download Audio

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