Sermon: The Handmaid of the Lord (Luke 1:26-38)

The Handmaid of the Lord Sunday, December 14th, 2025 Christ Covenant Church – Centralia, WA Luke 1:26–38

Prayer

O God Our Father, nothing is impossible with You. And so grant that new life may spring forth in our hearts even now, a life of faith formed by love, which alone is pleasing to You and profitable for our salvation. Grant Thy Holy Spirit to overshadow us, even as it overshadowed the virgin, so that Christ may be perfectly formed in us, to the glory of the undivided Trinity, One God Forever, Amen.

Introduction

From the earliest days of the Christian church, it has been necessary to believe and confess that the Lord Jesus was, “conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary.” And this morning we come to a passage in Luke’s Gospel that is a foundational proof text for this article of faith.

• Our belief in the virgin birth of Christ is a truth we confess in the Apostles Creed, the Nicene Creed, the Definition of Chalcedon, and it is a truth that unites all of Christendom (Protestants, Roman Catholics, and Orthodox alike). However, it might not be obvious at first why this truth matters. Of course, it matters because the Word of God teaches it, and therefore we must believe it, but how does the virgin birth relate to who Jesus is and what He came to do? Why did God choose to enter our world in this way, conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary?
• Wel this morning, I want to begin to answer that question as we study this passage before us. And so let me give you the outline of our text, and then we’ll consider some of the implications of it.

Outline of the Text

Here in verses 26-38 we have a conversation between the angel Gabriel, and the virgin Mary. And this conversation unfolds in three parts:

• In verses 26-29, the angel greets Mary, and Mary responds with silent wonder.
• In verses 30-34, the angel prophesies that she will bear the Son of God, and Mary responds with faith seeking understanding.
• And then in verses 35-38, the angel explains how God will work this miracle, and Mary responds with Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word.
• And what Luke is doing in this section is setting up a contrast between Mary and Zacharias (who we learned about last week). He is giving us a contrast between an old man and a young woman, between a priest in the Temple and a girl from the countryside. An angel appears to both of them with good news of great joy, a miraculous son shall be born, but the responses of Mary and Zacharias differ. And so as we walk through this text together try to note those differences, because Luke is teaching us, his readers, how we should respond when the most certain word of God is preached to us. So with that in mind, let us walk through our text.

In verse 26 we have the setup.

26And in the sixth month [referring to the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy] the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth.

• Where is Nazareth? It is about 75 miles north of Jerusalem (about week’s journey walking), and about 15 miles west of the Sea of Galilee, which is where Jesus will later call his disciples.
  • Now we know from Nathanael’s comment in John 1:46, that Nazareth did not exactly have the greatest reputation. In modern day terms we would say it was “flyover county,” perhaps a place to pass thru but not a vacation destination. Nathanael says to Philip, Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth? Philip saith unto him, Come and see.
  • And so already God is teaching us a lesson here that will recur again and again in Luke’s gospel, and that is: God loves to take foolish things and shame the wise. God loves to use weak things to humiliate the strong. It says in 1 Corinthians 1:28-29, God uses the base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: That no flesh should glory in his presence.
  • It is not good for us to be proud and mighty and to boast in our beauty or strength, for all flesh is as grass and our beauty as the flower, but the kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven, is forever, unfading in its glory.
  • And so mark this theme of Luke’s gospel: God’s kingdom turns the kingdoms of men, and Satan’s kingdom upside down. God’s kingdom brings justice and equity where corruption and oppression has been institutionalized. When Jesus shows up on the scene pronouncing “Woes” and “Blessings,” he separates by His words those who love the evil status qu