Word of Salvation – Vol.24 No.32 – May 1978

 

Super Religious Experience – Part II

 

Sermon by Rev. G. I. Williamson, B.A., B.D. on Luke 1:26-38

Scripture reading: Luke 1:26-38

Psalter Hymnal: 195; 34:5,6,10,11; 253; 192

 

The difficult thing, in a passage like this, is deciding what to leave out.  There is so much here that we could deal with if we had reason to do so.  Suppose, for example, that you were under the influence of this great error of exalting the virgin Mary, and had this idea that she is the Queen of heaven, the one through whom we can reach the Lord Jesus Christ.  Well, then I would try to show you that this whole idea is right against this part of the Bible.  After all, the Bible doesn’t say that Mary gives grace.  No, what it says is that Mary received grace.  It doesn’t call her the Queen of heaven, but the handmaiden of the Lord.  Yes, and Mary herself says that God was her Saviour too, and that her spirit rejoiced in Him because He looked upon her low estate and had mercy upon her.

Or again, you might be one of these present-day advocates of the so-called women’s liberation movement’.  And then I would try to show you that there is probably no portion of the Word of God that shows us more clearly than this how utterly wrong this is.  For here was a woman who was chosen by God to be the instrument through whom the Messiah came into the world.  And what was she doing?  Well, she was contemplating marriage and motherhood.  She was walking humbly in the proper pursuit of the God-ordained role of the woman.  And the Bible says that she was honoured above all other women who lived in history, for to her was granted what I would call ‘the super-religious experience!’  In our situation, where so many people are seeking ‘the super-religious experience’ it seems to me that this is the thing that we ought to bring out of our text.

Just imagine what it would be like to have an experience like her’s – a personal visit from one of the angels standing in the presence of God and that angel comes down to speak to you personally to tell you that you are highly favoured and that you have been chosen as the one person in all of history to be the mother of the divine Messiah!  I can’t think of anyone in all of the history of the human race who had a higher religious experience that that.  And yet how contrary it was to much that passes for ‘super-religion’ today.

I.  SOVEREIGN

Why was it that the angel Gabriel came to this girl in this rather obscure little town of Nazareth – on the outskirts of the nation of Israel, you might say – where the sea of the Gentiles begins?  Was it because she was seeking some great thing for herself? – because she was following the crowds, as it were, and attending the great religious meetings down there in Jerusalem? – or because she was devoting herself to prayer and fasting and so on?

No, the fact is that the virgin Mary was planning to marry Jeseph.  She was engaged to a man who was a true believer from the house and lineage of David.  Not very pious, you might say – not very religious – hardly what you would expect as a preparation for the greatest religious experience that any woman ever had in this world.  But that is because we tend to think in a non-biblical way.  We are still influenced too much by man-made ideas of piety and holiness.  And that, after all, is what this cult of the virgin Mary really is – it is a man-made concept of holiness.  The Biblical way of thinking is something very different indeed.  The Bible says “Let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband.  It says that God invented marriage and the husband and wife relationship and the home and so on.  So this whole idea that Mary was in and of herself a super-holy person, so pious, and pure that she could look the angel of God right in the face without blushing, is as false as it could be.

And so is the talk of people who say that they have a religious experience and they are just caught up, as it were, to see the face of God and it is all so thrilling and wonderful.  It wasn’t that way for Mary.  No, the Bible says that she was greatly troubled.  And the word in the Greek means something like the agitated waves of the sea when a strong wind is blowing.  She was in turmoil.  She felt agitation within herself because of this confrontation.  And the Bible says she began to have a dialogue with herself.  She began talking to herself a mile a minute, as we would say, within her own mind and heart, debating what it could mean.

You might notice that this is often the way it is with God’s people.  It is not pleasant to come face to face with one of the angels of God.  You remember what Jacob said after he saw the angels of God ascending and descending, don’t you?  He said, “this is a dreadful place”.  You remember how Abraham felt too, when the Lord appeared to him in that night vision of horror of great darkness.  It was not pleasant, it was unpleasant.  He felt agitated too, and had dialogues in his mind and heart.  No, beloved, you cannot come near to God – or even one of His mighty angels – without feeling this tremendous sense of your own unworthiness and sin.  That is the first ‘hallmark’ of genuine religious experience.  It has the element of agitation and unpleasantness.

If you ask why Gabriel came to this out-of-the-place – to this young woman – to tell her that she was to be the mother of Jesus – then the answer will always have to be exactly as it was when Mary herself first asked that question.  It was because Mary was highly favoured.  And you know what that means, don’t you?  It means that you are an object of grace.  It means unmerited favour.  It means that not one hair of your head can be put on the balance in favour of God having chosen you to have part with Him.  Not one thought that you ever thought, or one word that you ever spoke, can be put in the balance scale in favour of your being considered worthy.  That is what grace means.  It means the totally and completely undeserved mercy of God by which He, in amazing condescension, simply reaches down and says ‘I have chosen you.  The only difference is that Mary was not only favoured in being chosen as one of God’s children, but also given the tremendous privilege of being the one who gave birth to Jesus.

No wonder Mary cast into her own mind for an explanation.  For there is no explanation.  There is no way that we can ever understand the wonder of God’s sovereign mercy.  I can understand reprobation.  That is no problem.  That God would pass me by and leave me to the just punishment of my sins, that is not difficult to understand.  God did that with the angels who fell, and I have no problem with that at all.  But how could He ever look upon a sinner such as I and say “You are highly favoured.”  Well, that is the first thing that you see here in the experience of this wonderful Christian.

II.  SUPERNATURAL

The second thing is that when this happened to Mary she asked the inevitable question: “How can this be, seeing that I know not a man?”  Now at first sight you might think that Mary was doing the same thing that Zacharias did when he spoke to the angel.  Remember how he said to the angel when the angel had told him that he and Elizabeth were going to have a son the forerunner of the Messiah, “How shall I know this for I am an old man and my wife is advanced in years?”  Remember how the Lord afflicted him with dumbness of speech because he did not believe?  Well, why didn’t the Lord do the same thing to Mary?

In answer to that question the first thing we need to remember is that God sees more than we do.  God looks on the heart.  We only see the outside of people.  And right here we need to remember that appearances can be deceiving.  Remember how Abraham and Sarah both laughed when God told them that Isaac was going to be born?  Why then did God rebuke Sarah and not the patriarch also?  Well,the answer is that Abraham laughed with the laughter of wonder, amazement, yes, even delight.  But Sarah laughed the laugh of scorn.  Think again of the day when Sodom was destroyed, Yet Lot’s wife and Abraham both looked on the city.  Why then did Lot’s wife perish and not Abraham?  Well, again, the answer is simple: The look was entirely different.  And so it was with Zacharias and Elizabeth.  Don’t forget that Zacharias was an older man, too, and God always holds us responsible in terms of our maturity and experience.

Remember too that Zacharias was a priest from the house of Aaron.  It was his function to teach the law of God.  That is why the New Testament says: “Do not many of you try to be teachers, for their judgement will be heavier.”

Yet, apart from all that it seems to me that there is a yet more significant difference.  Because a closer look will show that Zacharias did waver in unbelief.  When he said: “How shall I know this?” what does he mean?  He means that he doesn’t really have confidence that God is going to do it.  But with Mary it was different.  For her the problem was the complete lack of any historical precedent.  After all, Zacharias could read the Old Testament, and he could say: “Well, God did that already for Abraham.  But there was nothing in all the Word of God about anyone else who was given a child without a man.  So, Zacharias doubted that God would actually do it.  Mary only wondered how such a wonder as this could be.

But my main point is that true religious experience doesn’t mean that all of the difficulties of faith are removed.  To hear some people talk today you would think that it did if you are really caught up by the Spirit and have this tremendous experience – then everything is wonderful – no more problems, no more difficulties, no more questions.  And that is exactly what you never find in the Biblical record of true religious experience.  Remember Abraham, the day the Lord told him to go and sacrifice Isaac?  Talk about difficulties – how is that for a problem?  Just think of the argument that must have gone on in his mind and heart!  And it wasn’t solved until Abraham came to believe in the bodily resurrection.

No, beloved, true religious experience does not smooth out all the bumps in the road.  It does not melt away all problems.  On the contrary, it makes you more conscious of them than ever – like the virgin Mary who was so amazed and perplexed by it all that she said: “How can it be?”  And if you haven’t felt that and said that, then you haven’t had the real experience.

Just stop and think for a moment.  How is it really possible that God can take all of my sins and remove them as far as the east is from the west?  How is it possible that He can take this vile heart of mine and take it over so that I will be like Jesus when I see Him as He is?  Yes, and how is it possible that this flesh, after the worms have eaten it, shall yet stand at a later day upon the earth so that these eyes of mine, and no other, will see the Son in His glory?  That is what the Christian faith is all about, and the more you understand it and the further you go into it, the more you are going to say exactly what Mary said, “How can this thing be!”

III.  AUTHORITATIVE

Well, you notice what the answer was that the angel gave to Mary.  You might, at first sight, say that the angel explained it.  But listen while I read what he said: “The Holy Spirit shall come upon you and the power of the Most High shall overshadow you, therefore also that holy thing that is begotten of you shall be called the Son of God.” Is that an answer to how?  No beloved, it is not.  God does not tell Mary how.  He simply tells her Who.  He answers her, in other words, by telling her that God will do it.

What you have here is a reminder of the Old Testament Shekina – the pillar of fire and of cloud – that was with Israel in the desert.  It was that mysterious thing that covered the presence of God and enveloped His presence in mystery.  So the angel is saying that God will draw near to Mary and overshadow her so much that she is completely eclipsed and the result will be that the son born to her will be the divine Messiah.  So he doesn’t say ‘how’, but ‘Who’.

And he strengthens her faith by telling her of the marvellous thing that God had already done to her relative, Elizabeth.  Always notice that when it comes to true religious experience, God uses the lesser thing to strengthen us to believe the greater.  He uses the things that have already happened to help us believe the things that are future.  Like a minister I know who was reading the book of Malachi in the early days of his ministry.  He came to this passage which talks about tithing, and it says: “Prove me now herewith saith the Lord, bring the whole tithe into my storehouse and prove me now herewith.”  Notice that: prove me now.  “If I will not open the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing that you cannot receive.” Suddenly it struck him with great power: “How silly to pass up this opportunity!  I hope that God will raise me from the grave that I will be able to stand before the judgement seat spotless but now, here, God is saying I can prove Him right now and demonstrate the truth of His Word.  So he began to give the tithe, and God did begin to demonstrate His blessing.  And so it was that the Lord encouraged Mary to believe in this greater wonder through the encouragement of what happened to Elizabeth.

Modern people sometimes think that they are different – that they have a right to understand all mysteries and have all questions answered.  So they talk about these ‘old timers’ as ‘pre-scientific’ people, who were naive in these matters of faith.  No, beloved, the point is that they were really believers.

They did not sell God short.  They believed that all things are possible with God and they were certainly right, even if the United Nations Assembly says it is impossible with God, even if all the scientists in the world agree that it is impossible, because God says so, nothing is impossible with Him.  And that is really the crux of this story.  Mary deserves honour – not for the reasons that men have invented, but because she truly believed – “behold the bond- slave of the Lord.  Be it done to me according to Your Word!”

Jesus was going down the road one day when some people began to say, “Blessed is the womb that bore Thee,”  But Jesus said, “No, rather are those blessed who hear the Word of God and keep it.”  He was preaching one day and some people came and said, “Your relatives are here to see You.”  And Jesus said, “Who is My mother and My sister and My brother?  It is he who hears the Word of God and does it.”  And that was the glory of Mary.  And that is the essence of true religious experience.  Here was a humble peasant girl, who wasn’t seeking anything great for herself.  And when it came it did not make her feel wonderful and uplifted.  On the contrary, it humbled her to the dust.  And she didn’t start shouting about the fact that she now had ‘the power’ – the power of God in her hands.  No, what she did was to humble herself in order that she might become the instrument in God’s hands, saying in effect: Lord, I don’t understand how You could choose me, to make me the instrument of Your wonderful purpose, but Lord, Your will be done on earth as it is done in heaven.’

The Psalmist put it like this:

O Lord, I am Thy servant, bound yet free
Thy handmaid’s son, whose shackles Thou hast broken
`           Redeemed by grace I will render as a token
Of gratitude my constant praise to Thee.

May God grant the same experience to you and me.

AMEN.