Mary's song of thanksgiving and praise in response to the news that she would be the mother of the Christ-child is remarkable for both its theology and its use of the Old Testament. Because she received God’s grace as one who was favored by Him, she rejoiced that God had graciously delivered her from her wretched estate. Thus, in saving her, God became her Savior. She wasn’t immaculately conceived, she didn’t live a sinless life nor remain a perpetual virgin throughout her adulthood, and she most certainty was not and is not the co-redemptrix of sinners who warrants our praise and prayers. She was a sinner saved by grace, and for which she was most thankful.
05 - The Magnificat: Mary's Song
Luke 1:46-55
January 28, 2024 • Pastor Ronald H. Gann • Luke 1:46–55
More from
Luke
21 - The Lord of the Black Sheep
June 23, 2024 • Pastor Ronald H. Gann • Luke 5:27–32
The conversion of Levi the son of Alphaeus (cf. Mark 2:14), also know as Matthew the tax collector, was not a conversion celebrated among Jewish believers in the first century. As a tax collector, he was vilified as the scum of the earth whose conversion to Christ was thought to be impossible; he was more of an embarrassment to the Church than a praise report. If anything, the story of Levi's conversion tells us that nobody, no matter how despicable or despised, is outside the reach and grace of Jesus Christ and those whom He sovereignly calls to follow him.
01 - Introduction - The Son of Man
December 17, 2023 • Pastor Ronald H. Gann • Luke 1:1–4
Luke wrote his gospel from the perspective of a Gentile writing to another Gentile, named Theophilus, about Jesus being the Son of Man. Despite his anonymity, we see in the first four verses of his prologue a few elements that hint at, or point to, the type of Christian man that Luke was. They are both implicit and explicit. In addition to being a physician (Col. 4:14), Luke is revealed to be a biographer, a historian, and a theologian who took it upon himself to write the most expansive, complete, and thorough gospel on greatest story ever told—the life and ministry of Jesus Christ.
02 - The Parents of John the Baptist
December 31, 2023 • Pastor Ronald H. Gann • Luke 1:5–13, Luke 1:18–25
In writing to Theophilus, it was essential that Luke begin the saga of salvation with the forerunner, John the Baptist. His story is the tie that binds the Old and New testament together. He’s the last of the prophets to come the order of the Old Testament but the first to grace the pages of the New Testament. Most significantly, the story of John the Baptist established that he was in fact the divinely prophesied forerunner to the Messiah. His testimony concerning Jesus, therefore, carried a lot of weight and verified that Jesus was in fact the Christ. And John’s story first begins with his godly parents, an aged priest named Zechariah and his barren wife Elizabeth, and how God broke 400 years of silence in Israel with a personal revelation to them about the miraculous birth of their son that was to soon come.