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Call to worship: Isaiah 9:1-7

Text: Luke 1:26-38

Outline:

1. Luke's grounding details, 1:26-27
2. Gabriel's Gospel declarations, 1:28-37
   • Gabriel's greeting, 1:28-30
   • Gabriel's Christ, 1:31-35
   • Gabriel's encouragement, 1:36-37
3. Mary's godly decisiveness, 1:38

Prepare

Questions:

1. Read Luke 1:26-38. As an encouragement to family worship and personal preparation, use the questions that follow:
2. What is the overall purpose of Luke's Gospel? See 1:1-4. How might the jumble of detail he provides in 1:26-27 serve this purpose? What are the details? Take them slowly. Discern any specific revelation about Christ in them?
3. How does Gabriel greet Mary? Is it a positive greeting? Why then might Mary be troubled about it? What does Gabriel discern in her troubled discerning, 1:30? How should we take the angel's word that Mary's found favor with God? As a gift or a wage? Consider what Mary later says about herself at the end of 1:47.
4. What does Gabriel have to say about this child that's to be conceived in Mary's womb? What's the obstacle so far as Mary sees it? What's the solution so far as Gabriel declares it? What excellencies are we to discern about Jesus in these verses, 1:31-35?
5. How does Gabriel encourage Mary's faith in this amazing word of God, 1:36-37? In Gabriel's last words, there's a tie-in to something Jesus will later say in Lk 18:27. What might that tie-in be? What's the connection between salvation and incarnation? How does Mary respond? Don't take her obedience for granted. More than we can weigh is at stake. Can we say that her words would be ours? They are a good precursor to what her son, our Savior, will say . . . and do!