“Mary: the Most Honored of All Women”
(Sunday Morning December 22nd, 2013)
Passage: Luke 1:26-38
O.S. There is One Woman in Scripture Who Stands Out Among All of the Others
as the Most Blessed, the Most Highly Favored by God, and the Most Universally
Admired by Men and Women
-> That Woman, of Course, is Mary
-> And This is Because Mary Was the One Who Was Sovereignly Chosen by God,
From Among All the Other Women Who Have Ever Lived, to be the One
Through Whom Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ Came Into This World.
-> In Fact, as Soon as Mary Received This News From the Angel Gabriel, She
Realized Herself That She Would be Revered Throughout History, and She Said,
“For behold, from this time on all generations will count me blessed” (Luke 1:48)
-> She Was Certainly Right About That
-> And Unfortunately, Some Have Taken This to an Extreme That is Unscriptural
and Even Shameful
-> In Fact, It Might Interest You to Know That This Problem Can be Traced All
the Way Back to the Time of Our Lord’s Earthly Ministry
-> In Luke 11, We are Told That, After Jesus Healed a Demon Possessed Man
and Rebuked the Pharisees for Their Unbelief, a Woman in the Crowd Shouted
“Blessed is the womb that bore You, and the breasts at which you nursed”
-> But Then, Jesus Immediately Corrected This Woman by Saying,
“On the contrary, blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it."
(Luke 11:27-28)
-> So, Please Take Note of the Fact That Jesus Did Not Encourage the Veneration
of His Mother Mary
-> He Treated Mary With Respect and He Honored Her, But There Were Several
Occasions When Jesus Deliberately Limited Her Involvement in His Ministry
Q.n = Now, is It Really Necessary for Me to Begin This Sermon by Clarifying Who Mary
Was and Who Mary Was Not in Relation to Her Divine Son?
Ans = I Believe It is, and I Will Tell You Why
Q.n = Do You See That Phrase in Verse 28?
Ans = The Latin Translation of That Verse is “Hail Mary Full of Grace”
-> That is an Accurate Translation; But Unfortunately, Catholics Have Interpreted
This to Mean That Mary is Actually One Who Dispenses Divine Grace
-> The Catholic Theologian Ludwig Ott, for Example, Said This, and I Quote
“Mary is the Mediatrix of All Graces by Her Cooperation in the Incarnation
and by Her Intercession in Heaven”
-> That Statement is a Direct Contradiction of Scripture; Because in 1 Timothy 2:5,
the Apostle Paul Said This; He Said,
“For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man
Christ Jesus”
-> Catholic Doctrine Also Teaches the Perpetual Virginity of Mary, and We Know
That This Too is a Direct Contradiction of Scripture as Well
-> In Fact, I Want to Prove That to You This Morning
Matthew 13:53-56 (Turn and Read)
-> Now, in Those Verses That We Just Read, We are Told That Jesus Had Four
Brothers and Some Sisters
-> Or, to be More Accurate, I Should Say Half-Brothers and Sisters, Because They
Had a Different Father
-> The Brothers are Even Named for Us; They Were James (The Same One Who
Wrote the Epistle of James), and Joseph, and Simon, and Judas – Not Judas Iscariot
-> There is Even a Prophecy in the Book of Psalms Chapter 69 and Verse 8 That
Predicted That the Coming Messiah Would Have Some Siblings; It Says
“I have become estranged from my brothers and an alien to my mother's sons”
-> Catholics Say That This Refers to His Cousins, But That’s Not What It Says
St = In 1854, Pope Pius IX Taught What is Known as “The Immaculate Conception
of Mary,” and He Claimed That She Was Also Sinless
-> In 1950, Pope Pius XII Proclaimed as Church Dogma “The Assumption of Mary”
Which Means That He Claimed That Mary Ascended, and That Mary Did Not
Have to Experience Physical Death
-> Instead, He Taught That She Was Taken Bodily Up to Heaven; and When She Got
There, She Was Crowned as “The Queen of Heaven”
-> They Also Claim That She Now Serves in Heaven as an “Intercessor”, and This
is Why Millions of People Pray Directly to Mary Instead of Jesus
-> Pope John Paul II Even Referred to Mary, of All Things as, “a Co-Redemptrix”
Which, in My Opinion, is Heretical, Because There is Only One True Redeemer
______
Ill: And, of Course, the Veneration of Mary Has Reached Some Ridiculous Extremes
Many Times
-> In Nov of 2004, for Example, a Stale Grilled Cheese Sandwich Sold for $28,000.00
on an Ebay Auction, Because the Owner Claimed That an Image of Mary Had
Been Supernaturally Etched in the Burn Marks of the Toast
-> And Then, a Few Months Later, Thousands of Worshippers in Chicago Built
a Makeshift Shrine to Mary in the Walkway of a Freeway Underpass, Because
Someone Claimed to See an Image of Mary in the Stains on the Concrete Abutment
______
-> All of That is Ridiculous
-> And That is Why I Feel That, at the Outset of This Sermon, a Clarification Needs
to Made
Q.n = And This is It, are You Listening?
-> Mary Was a Great Woman; I am Even Willing to Call Her the Most Honored
of All Women, But She Was Not Sinless; She is Not a Mediatrix; She is Not
the Queen of Heaven; She Most Certainly is Not a Co-Redemptrix; and Therefore,
She Should Never be Prayed to or Worshipped
-> I am All in Favor of Giving Mary All of the Credit That She Deserves, But No More
and No Less Than She Deserves (Can I Get a Witness This Morning?)
I. The Hardships That Mary Endured
1) Mary Endured a Negative Reputation
-> When the Angel Gabriel Told Mary That She Would Bear the Christ Child,
She Was Engaged to Joseph
-> She Was Probably Just a Teenager, Because It Was Customary at That Time
for a Girl to be Betrothed as Early as Thirteen Years of Age
-> She and Joseph Were in What Bible Scholars Refer to as “The Kiddushin”
-> This Means That They Were Legally Bound to One Another But Not Yet Married
-> In Order to Break “The Kiddushin” , They Would Actually Have to go Through
the Process of Getting a Divorce
-> They Were Legally Bound to One Another, But They Were Strictly Forbidden
From Consummating the Marriage Sexually
-> So, When Joseph Learned That Marry Was Pregnant, the Bible Says That He…
“…being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her, planned to send her away
secretly” (Matthew 1:19)
-> That Means That He Was Planning to Divorce Her Without Making His Reasons
for Doing This Public Knowledge
-> But Then, an Angel Appeared to Joseph and Informed Him That Mary Was Still
a Virgin, and That She Was Carrying the Christ Child
-> So, Joseph Knew the Truth
-> But No One Else in That Little Village of Nazareth, Where I am Sure That Juicy
Gossip Was Remembered Forever, Would Have Believed Her Story
-> So, Mary Had to Live With the Accusation That She Had Given Birth
to an Illegitimate Child
-> Thirty Years Later, Jesus Was in a Heated Argument With Some of the Jews;
They Sneered at Him and Said, “We were not born of fornication; …” Implying,
of Course, That Jesus Was Born of Fornication (John 8:41)
St = Now, I Want You to Try to Place Yourself in Mary’s Shoes for Just a Minute
so That You Can Appreciate the Risks and the Scorn That She Was Willing to Face
-> Mary Probably Anticipated All of These Difficulties as Soon as the Angel Gave Her
the News
. She Probably Knew That Her Kind and Loving Fiancee Would Not Understand,
and That Might Choose to Leave Her
. She Probably Knew That Her Relationship With Her Parents Was at Risk
. She Probably Knew That She Would Have to Face Lifelong and Public Ridicule
. She Probably Knew That She Would be Ostracized by Most of Her Friends
Q.n = So, How Did She Respond to All of This?
Ans = Look Again at Verse 38 (Read)
-> Mary Accepted the Will of God for Her Life
-> Mary’s Response, in Essence, Was This; She Said, “Wherever He Leads I’ll Go”
-> You See, This is One of the Things That Made Mary Such a Great Woman
-> She Was Willing to be Totally Submissive to the Will of God Even Though She
Knew That This Meant That She Would Have to Take Some Tremendous Personal
Risks, and She Knew That This Included Some Extreme Hardships
-> Mary, Not Only Excepted the Will of God for Her Life, She Rejoiced About It
-> She Responded by Writing the First Christmas Song of All Time; It is Known
as Mary’s Magnificat, and It is a Song of Praise
-> In Fact, It Begins With These Words; Mary Said “…My soul exalts the Lord,
47 and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior” (Luke 1:46-47)
Q.n = So, Are You Willing to do That?
Q.n = Are You Willing to Accept the Will of God for Your Life, Even if the Will of God
Causes You to Become Unpopular and to Experience Some Great Hardships?
Q.n = Are You Even Willing to Rejoice About the Will of God for Your Life, Because
You Know That God is Using Whatever You are Experiencing, for His
Sovereign Purpose and His Divine Glory?
-> If So, You are Like Mary, and Mary Was the Greatest Woman of God of All Time
2) Mary Endured Financial Poverty
-> When the Time Came for Jesus to be Born, the Bible Says That Mary Placed Him
in a Manger in a Barn, Because There Was no Room for Them in the Inn (Luke 2:7)
-> And When Joseph and Mary Brought Jesus to the Temple Eight Days Later so That
They Could Formally Dedicate Him to God, the Bible Says That They Gave a Sacrifice
of Two Turtle Doves or Two Young Pigeons (Luke 2:24)
-> We are Told in Leviticus 5:7 That This Was an Offering a Poor Person Could Give;
So, This Tells Us That Jesus Grew Up in an Impoverished Home
-> But Listen, Mary Also Experienced the Miraculous Provisions of God
-> When the Wise Men Came to Visit Jesus, He Was No Longer and Infant
in a Manger; He Was About Two Years of Age
-> They Brought Their Gifts of Gold, and Frankincense, and Myrrh Which Were
Symbolic of the Fact That Jesus Was a King and a Priest and a Sacrifice
-> But All of Those Gifts Could be Sold for a Large Sum of Money and the Holy Family
Would Need That Money so That They Could Flee From Herod and go to Egypt
-> So, Those Gifts Came at Just the Right Time
Pt = When We are in the Center of God’s Will for Our Life, God Might Not Provide Us
With All of Our Wants, But He Will Provide Us With All of Our Needs
-> In Philippians 4:19, Paul Said,
“...my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ
Jesus”
-> Not All of Our Wants But All of Our Needs
-> And Mary Experienced That
-> God Came Through at Just the Right Time With Some Miraculous Provisions
______
T.S. 1) Mary Endured a Negative Reputation
2) Mary Endured Financial Poverty
3) Mary Endured Demonic Attacks
-> The Bible Says That, When King Herod Learned About This One Who Had Been
“…born King of the Jews…,” He Became “… troubled, and all Jerusalem with him”
(Matthew 2:2-3)
-> All of the City Became Troubled Along With King Herod, Because They Were Well
Aware of the Fact That He Was a Mad Man
-> Or to be More Specific, He Was a Demon-Possessed Man
-> And When He Discovered That the Wise Men Had Ignored His Request for Them
to Return and Tell Him Where This Christ Child Was, He Became Furious, and He
Gave an Order for Every Male Child Under Two Years of Age to be Put to Death
-> But the Bible Says That Joseph and Mary Were Warned in a Dream About This;
So, They Fled to Egypt (Matthew 2:13)
-> Now, I Don’t Think We Should Overlook the Fact That Egypt Was a Foreign Land;
They Spoke a Different Language in Egypt, and This Was a Different Culture
-> But Nevertheless, Joseph and Mary Became Refugees in Egypt, Because They Knew
That This Was Something They Had to do to Protect Their Child
-> This Tells Us That Mary Was Not Only a Great Woman; She Was a Great Mother
-> And This is Something That Every Christian Father and Every Christian Mother
is Called to Do, We are Called to do All That We Can to Protect Our Child
-> We Will Probably Never Have to go to the Extreme of Relocating and Becoming
Refugees in Order to Protect Our Child
-> But I Can Assure You That Satan Has a Desire to Destroy Your Child Just
as He Had a Desire to Destroy the Christ Child
-> In John 10:10, Jesus Said, "The thief (And That is Satan) comes only to steal and kill
and destroy;…,” and He Has a Desire to Destroy Everyone Including Your Child
-> So, as Parents, We Need to be Aware of the Need to Protect Our Child From This
Ungodly Secular Environment in Which We Live
Q.n = And What do We Need to Protect Them From?
Ans = All Kinds of Things (Ex.. Ideologies, Pornography, Vulgarity, Promiscuity, Drugs)
4) Mary Endured Single Parenting
-> When Jesus Was Twelve Years of Age, Mary and Joseph Took Him to the Temple
for His “Bar Mitzvah,” This is the Last Time Joseph is Mentioned in Scripture