“The Holy Spirit and Christmas” – Luke 1:35-37

Growing up, we’d sing hymns always omitting the third verse when there were more than three verses. I never understood why it was so, but it happened in every church I ever attended. It was if the Baptist seminaries taught that the third verses were only there to be ignored.

We don’t do that in our church. There’s a reason for it, but we won’t go into it here.

The Holy Spirit is sometimes the third verse of a hymn. Most sermons certain on God the Father or Jesus, the Son. Very few messages speak to the ministry of the Holy Spirit, even though the Spirit is the very presence of the Father and the Son in our daily lives. The Spirit is mentioned as early as Genesis 1:2: Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the water.”

The role of the Holy Spirit is central to the ministry of Christ on earth today. Without the Spirit, we cannot know the mind of Christ and we cannot walk in His ways. Without the Spirit, we cannot have the words of Christ brought to our minds. Without the Holy Spirit, we cannot be shaped and molded into the vessel the Father wants us to be.

We need the work of the Holy Spirit in our world and in our lives. Our world would be vastly different without His ministry.

We see that in today’s passage.

Background

We’ve all been restricted in the things we can do thanks to COVID. I can’t remember the last time I was able to sit down in a restaurant and enjoy a good meal without having to worry about unseen invaders circulating in the air around me.

Many of us have taken the time to use this down time for self-improvement. Some have learned to speak a different language, or have read the books that have been sitting on the shelf too long. Some have taken up a health regimen in light of the heightened awareness of health issues.

About 2,000 years ago, Luke was in somewhat of a restricted movement. His friend and traveling companion, the apostle Paul, was under arrest in Caesarea, and had been so for two years. During this time, Luke had taken the opportunity to travel around the places where Jesus had ministered. He used the time to interview various people who had either known Jesus personally or who had seen His ministry first hand. The result of his interviews is the Gospel account we call Luke.

The fact Luke interviewed Jesus’ contemporaries meant that Luke’s account of what happened during Jesus’ life had to be accurate. Had he embellished the account of Jesus’ life and ministry, people would have called him on the inaccuracies. That wasn’t the case, so we can safely say that the Gospel according to Luke is an accurate representation of Jesus’ life.

It’s unclear whether or not Mary was one of the ones Luke spoke with. Reading the events found in the first two chapters of the book lets us know that Luke either spoke with Mary or spoke with at least one person who was intimately aware of Mary’s story.

Our passage today is one of those uniquely Mary passages, when the angel Gabriel announced to her that she was to be the mother of the Son of God. This passage is a tribute to the faith of the young woman who was open to God’s direction in her life, even it meant potential scandal or the complete alteration of her life plans. Betrothed to Joseph, the announcement of her pregnancy could have ended the marriage before it got started. Matthew tells us that Joseph did consider the possibility of ending their relationship before God intervened to assure Joseph of Mary’s faithfulness to him.

Mary’s courage and abiding faith were elements necessary in her life as the mother of Jesus. The things she would experience would test her faith and understanding time and again. Yet, she was always faithful, even if she didn’t fully understand at the time.

Today, though, we are focusing not on Mary so much as on Gabriel’s answer to her question, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” (Luke 1:34). In the three verses that follow, Gabriel mentions the work of the Holy Spirit in bringing about the birth of the Savior. We see the Holy Spirit in the bringing of Christmas.

Central Truth: The Holy Spirit’s role in Christmas was the creation in the womb.

How the Holy Spirit brought Christmas:

1. He created the child that is Jesus (35)

God the Creator is a theme found often in the Bible. Beginning in Genesis 1, repeated in John 1 and again in 2 Corinthians 5, we are reminded that God creates new things all the time. Both the Genesis and John accounts reminds us that God created our universe by His Word, and that the Word is the source of life. In 2 Corinthians, we are told that those who are born again in Christ are a new creation, unlike anything else in the world.

Going beyond the Bible, a simple view of nature reveals God’s creative nature in the variety of things we see with the naked eye—different trees and plants and animals as well as different people. The variety of God’s creation is seen not only with the naked eye, but with the aid of the microscope and telescope we discover amazing things, all created by the Creator. If for no other reason, God is worthy of praise and honor.

It is the idea of creation that is found in v. 35. When Mary asked how she was to become pregnant, Gabriel’s response is to tell her that the Spirit of God—His Holy Spirit—would work within her womb a new creation. This child she is to bear is not to be conceived in the normal way. Instead, the child she will bear will be a unique creation by God.

This creation will not be unique in that the appearance will be different from anything else in the world. Her child—a son—will look like any other human being born into our world. What will be unique about this child is that He will be the Son of God, holy from His beginning. Gabriel’s words to Mary is that the Spirit will work within her a child created uniquely in the image of God.

Gabriel’s words take on the form of Hebrew poetry, so the first two lines of the verse repeat the same idea with different words. “The Holy Spirit will come upon you” and “the power of the Most High will overshadow you” mean the same thing. This inception of her Son will not be in the terms that Greek and Roman mythology understand a god and a human coming together. No, this inception is a demonstration of God’s creative redemption and ability.

The fact that Mary is to give birth to a Son also defies nature. When an animal in nature gives birth without the use of normal sexual intercourse, then the offspring carries only the DNA from the mother. Of necessity, if a woman is to give birth without the addition of the male genes, then the child would be expected to have only female genes, thus being born into our world as a girl.

But Jesus was not the norm of a virgin birth. The fetus within Mary’s womb, being the creation of God’s Holy Spirit, contained the very elements of His earthly mother and His heavenly Father. Thus, this child that Mary would call her son is fully human, fully God. And this is another unique aspect of the Holy Spirit’s creation.

Normally, we would expect the child to be part of his or her father and mother. I look at my children and I can see parts of me and parts of Kim. That’s true of almost all children. Not so with Jesus. He was not born half-divine and half-human. Jesus is uniquely fully divine and fully human.

This is the work of the Holy Spirit in the creation of the child who would be born to Mary, this child we know as Jesus.

2. He gave Mary assurance through Elizabeth (36)

This whole experience Mary was having with the angel must have been confusing and surreal in its nature. How often does a person get a visit from an angel, much less receive the kind of message he brought to her? To her credit, Mary never expressed any doubt about God’s ability to do what Gabriel was telling her, but there must have been some confusion. After all, what Mary was experiencing was far from normal. Gabriel’s words in this verse are designed to give Mary assurance that his proclamation was valid.

We have no idea how close Mary and Elizabeth were, either in their family or in their familiarity. It’s possible they could have been first cousins or distant cousins. It’s possible that the families spent holidays together regularly, and it’s possible Mary and Elizabeth barely knew each other. Based upon what we read in vs. 37-66, it’s likely that Mary and Elizabeth knew each other well enough to visit with each other and to be aware of each other.

Not only was the Holy Spirit going to create this unique Son for Mary, but He had already been active in the conception of Jesus’ cousin, the child who would be born John and become known as John the Baptist.

Luke has already given us the back story here. Gabriel had appeared not to Elizabeth but to her husband, Zechariah, and told him that Elizabeth, who was considered barren, would conceive and give birth to a son. Sure enough, when Zechariah returned home after completing his temple duties, Elizabeth did become pregnant. At the time Gabriel visited Mary, Elizabeth was already six months pregnant.

The reason Gabriel told Mary this was to assure her that the same Holy Spirit who could allow for a barren woman to conceive could also create a child within Mary’s womb. Yes, Mary’s pregnancy would be unconventional, but it was another demonstration of the Spirit’s power and ability.

I think these words recorded in v. 36 are one of the main reasons Mary went to visit Elizabeth in vs. 39-66.

It’s not that Mary doubted, but she needed and wanted confirmation. This was the Spirit’s way of confirming Gabriel’s message.

3. He affirmed God’s glory (37)

Gabriel’s final words to Mary is a simple and profound declaration: “For nothing is impossible with God.”

The simplicity of the declaration is found in the few words used. It’s a statement of fact designed to give proof of all that God was going to do through Mary and her Son. What Gabriel is saying is, “Mary, don’t give it a second thought; God’s got this.”

The profundity of the statement is found in its requirement for a deep faith in God. What Mary was hearing was far from normal and far from possible. But not for God. Nothing is impossible for Him. This God, who created our world and all that is in it, seen and unseen, is now going to create something new. This God, who is able to sustain and provide for His creation, is more than capable of addressing any of Mary’s fears and doubts.

The fact that God instructed Gabriel to give this statement to Mary is a demonstration of God’s care for her and the awareness of what she would be experiencing as a result of Gabriel’s visit. Even if Mary had no doubt about God’s ability to bring about the pregnancy, there were still the matters of social expectations and opinion. There would be many who would doubt Mary’s story; how could they not? Yet God, in telling her that all this are possible with Him, is assuring Mary of God’s watchcare over her.

The words are also a declaration of God’s power and glory. To know that nothing is impossible for God to do is to find security and assurance, because God’s ability to do whatever He chooses to do is the promise that all He will act in our lives in such a way that brings glory and honor to Him and that He has our best interest in mind. From the beginning of Genesis to the end of Revelation, the Bible is filled with declarations of God’s intervening actions in our world and our lives. From Adam and Eve to Noah, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, we see God’s ability to direct and provide for those He loves. We read of water from stones and manna from heaven and how God directed the children of Israel through their wanderings in the wilderness as He appeared to them as a cloud of fire and a pillar of smoke. David and Goliath, the prophets and the ministry of Jesus and the apostles—all these point to the truth that nothing is impossible for God.

The childhood prayer many of us learned—“God is great, God is good”—is a summary of nothing is impossible for God. He alone is worthy of worship and praise, and we know this because His Holy Spirit—the Spirit that created the child within Mary’s womb—reminds us of God’s glory and Jesus’ great love.

Conclusion

When we celebrate Christmas, it’s important that we recall the work of the Father through His overpowering love in the sending of His Son. It is important that we remember the example Jesus gave us in how to live humbly and obediently. And it’s important that we remember how the Holy Spirit works in our world and in our lives to bring us to the remembrance of all that God can and does do.