Exploring the Richness of the Gospel Narratives

It would seem that all we would need would be to have one life of Christ given to us in the New Testament, one biographical overview of His person and of His work, and yet it pleased God to give us four accounts of the life and ministry of Christ. And of those four, three are called synoptics or synoptic gospels, and the three synoptic gospels are Matthew, Mark, and Luke. [00:00:51]

Luke gives us a good bit of information about His birth and the early years of His infancy, but apart from these brief infancy narratives that we have, the only reference we have to Jesus' childhood is in His visit to the temple when he goes up to prepare for His bar mitzvah. But the rest of the years of Jesus' boyhood and even early manhood are unknown to the church. [00:02:31]

Now one of the most important features of the gospel of Luke is that Luke does contain some interesting observations about the infancy of Jesus, and Luke tells us at the beginning of his gospel that he undertook a program of research by seeking out the eyewitnesses, and tradition has it that he interviewed Mary and learned much of the early years of Jesus from Jesus' mother. [00:04:21]

For example, "The Magnificat" begins, "My soul doth magnify the Lord," and when that goes over into Latin, that's where you get that term. But there is a significance to this; if we remember the Old Testament history, there are those moments, particularly in the early days of Israel's history, where we also encounter some magnificent songs. [00:05:47]

And the reason why these songs are important is that in the Old Testament period, when God visited His people to bring them an extremely important moment of deliverance or of redemption, it was customary for the people to record this visitation of God's mercy by composing a song that would then celebrate it. [00:06:18]

But let’s look at it briefly, the song of Mary: "My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior. For He has regarded the lowly state of His maidservant; for behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed." If I find a parallel in the New Testament to the motif that is found frequently in the popular fairytales of Western civilization, we find it right here. [00:08:53]

Now one of the reasons I think it would be helpful for us to memorize a song like this is because that's not just true for Mary. That's true for every one of us who has received the mercy of God, because compared with God, the estate that we're all in is one of lowliness, and yet God has condescended and stooped to visit us with His love and with His mercy. [00:11:02]

I think of Mary envisioning the powerful rulers of this world who stand in pride and arrogance over against the sovereign majesty of God and set themselves over against God, as the psalmist declared in Psalm two. And I think of God stretching out His right arm and just scattering the mighty, and He looks at those who have been exalted and seated in positions of power. [00:12:04]

Now that term, "Consolation of Israel," was a Messianic title, one of the many rich titles that was attributed to the Messiah that God would bring forth, and the Messiah Himself would be the one who would comfort His people. Do you remember the prophetic pronouncement from Isaiah: "'Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people,' saith the Lord"? [00:13:58]

And so we are told that this devout and righteous man was waiting for this Consolation, "and the Holy Spirit was upon him. And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ. And so he came by the Spirit into the temple. And when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for Him according to the custom of the law. [00:14:45]

And then we read that Joseph and… Joseph and his mother -- that is, Jesus' mother -- marveled at those things which were spoken of Him, and Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother, "Behold, this child is destined for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign which will be spoken against, (yea, a sword will pierce through your own soul also), and the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed." [00:17:34]

This incident from the life of Jesus is not just dropped into the biographical sketch of Jesus for no reason, but there's a kind of foreshadowing here that's preparing the reader to understand something of the impetus of the life of this man -- that from the time He was twelve years old, He had some understanding, some sense of destiny, some understanding that He had a mission to perform in obedience to His Father in heaven. [00:22:43]