Why Mary Matters
Outline • Mary as our example • Mary as the model of humanity redeemed • Mary as our help
Discipleship •
Lk 9:23 –
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And he said to all, "If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.
Lk 14:27 –
Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me, cannot be my disciple.
Spiritual models •
1Co 4:16 – Therefore I exhort you, be imitators of me.
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1Co 11:1 – Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ.
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Heb 6:12 – so that you will not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.
Mary’s Example •
Fiat – Luke 1:38 38 And Mary said, "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word." And the angel departed from her. We must conform our wills to His.
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Finding Jesus in the temple – Luke 2:49-51 49 And he said to them, "How is it that you sought me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house?" 50 And they did not understand the saying which he spoke to them. 51 And he went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them; and his mother kept all these things in her heart. We must listen to the voice of God and then meditate on it
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Wedding feast of Cana – John 2:5 5 His mother said to the servants, "Do whatever he tells you."
Mary’s Example • The foot of the Cross – John 19:25-27 25 So the soldiers did this. But standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother, and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Mag'dalene. 26 When Jesus saw his mother, and the disciple whom he loved standing near, he said to his mother, "Woman, behold, your son!" 27 Then he said to the disciple, "Behold, your mother!" And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home.
• Pentecost – Acts 1:14 14 All these with one accord devoted themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers. We must be in constant prayer
Humanity Fully Redeemed • Sinlessness, Holiness, Purity of heart, Humility • Immaculate conception – Gen 3:15 15 I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel." – Luke 1:28 28 And he came to her and said, "Hail, Full of Grace, the Lord is with you!"
Humanity Fully Redeemed •Ark of the New Covenant The Ark traveled to the hill country of Judah to rest in the house of Obed-edom [2 Samuel 6:1-11]
Mary traveled to the hill country of Judah (Judea) to the home of Elizabeth [Luke 1:39]
Dressed in a priestly ephod, King David approached the Ark and danced and leapt for joy [2 Samuel 6:14]
John the Baptist, son of a priest who would himself become a priest, leapt for joy in Elizabeth's womb at the approach of Mary [Luke 1:43]
David shouted for joy in the presence of God and the holy Ark [2 Samuel 6:15]
Elizabeth exclaimed with a loud cry of joy in the presence God within Mary [Luke 1:42]
David asked, "How is it that the Ark of the Lord comes to me?" [2 Samuel 6:9]
Elizabeth asks, "Why is this granted unto me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?" [Luke 1:43]
The Ark remained in the house of Obed-edom for 3 months [2 Samuel 6:11]
Mary remained in the house of her cousin Elizabeth for 3 months [Luke 1:56].
The house of Obed-edom was blessed by the presence of the Ark [2 Samuel 6:11]
The word "blessed" is used 3 times in Luke 1:39-45 concerning Mary at Elizabeth's house.
The Ark returned to its sanctuary and eventually ends up in Jerusalem where the presence and glory of God is revealed in the newly built Temple [2 Samuel 6:12; 1 Kings 8:9-11]
Mary returned home from visiting Elizabeth and eventually comes to Jerusalem, where she presents God the Son in the Temple [Luke 1:56; 2:21-22]
Humanity Fully Redeemed • Ark of the New Covenant Rev 11:19-12:2 19 Then God's temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant was seen within his temple; and there were flashes of lightning, voices, peals of thunder, an earthquake, and heavy hail. 1 And a great portent appeared in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars; 2 she was with child and she cried out in her pangs of birth, in anguish for delivery. Ex 25:10-16 How much care was taken to create an inanimate box to hold holy things
Ark of the Covenant • •
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When the Israelites fought the Amalekites, the Ark provided them with God's protection. When the Israelites, led by Joshua toward the Promised Land, arrived at the banks of the River Jordan, the Ark was carried in the lead preceding the people, and was the signal for their advance (Joshua 3:3, 6). During the crossing, the river grew dry as soon as the feet of the priests carrying the Ark touched its waters; and remained so until the priests—with the Ark—left the river, after the people had passed over (Josh. 3:15-17; 4:10, 11, 18). In the Battle of Jericho, the Ark was carried round the city once a day for seven days, preceded by the armed men and seven priests sounding seven trumpets of rams' horns (Josh. 6:4-15). On the seventh day the seven priests sounding the seven trumpets of rams' horns before the Ark compassed the city seven times and with a great shout, Jericho's wall fell down flat and the people took the city (Josh. 6:16-20). The Ark was taken by the Philistines (1 Sam. 4:3-11) who subsequently sent it back after retaining it for seven months (1 Sam. 5:7, 8) because of the events said to have transpired. The Philistines took the Ark to several places in their country, and at each place misfortune befell them (1 Sam. 5:1-6). At Ashdod it was placed in the temple of Dagon. The next morning Dagon was found prostrate, bowed down, before it; and on being restored to his place, he was on the following morning again found prostrate and broken. The people of Ashdod were smitten with hemorrhoids; a plague of mice was sent over the land (1 Sam. 6:5). The affliction of boils was also visited upon the people of Gath and of Ekron, whither the Ark was successively removed (1 Sam. 5:8-12).
Ark of the Covenant •
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After the Ark had been among them for seven months, the Philistines, on the advice of their diviners, returned it to the Israelites, accompanying its return with an offering consisting of golden images of the hemorrhoids and mice wherewith they had been afflicted. The Ark was set in the field of Joshua the Beth-shemite, and the Bethshemites offered sacrifices and burnt offerings (1 Sam. 6:1-15). Out of curiosity the men of Beth-shemesh gazed at the Ark; and as a punishment, seventy of them (fifty thousand seventy in some ms.) were smitten by the Lord (1 Sam. 6:19). The Bethshemites sent to Kirjath-jearim, or Baal-Judah, to have the Ark removed (1 Sam. 6:21); and it was taken to the house of Abinadab, whose son Eleazar was sanctified to keep it. Kirjath-jearim remained the abode of the Ark for twenty years. Under Saul, the Ark was with the army before he first met the Philistines, but the king was too impatient to consult it before engaging in battle. In 1 Chronicles 13:3 it is stated that the people were not accustomed to consult the Ark in the days of Saul. At the beginning of his reign, King David removed the Ark from Kirjath-jearim amid great rejoicing. On the way to Zion, Uzzah, one of the drivers of the cart whereon the Ark was carried, put out his hand to steady the Ark, and was smitten by God for touching it. David, in fear, carried the Ark aside into the house of Obed-edom the Gittite, instead of carrying it on to Zion, and there it stayed three months (2 Samuel 6:1-11; 1 Chronicles 13:1-13). On hearing that God had blessed Obed-edom because of the presence of the Ark in his house, David had the Ark brought to Zion by the Levites, while he himself, "girded with a linen ephod," "danced before the Lord with all his might" — a performance that caused him to be despised and scornfully rebuked by Saul's daughter Michal (2 Sam. 6:12-16, 20-22; 1 Chron. 15). This derision of David on her part prompted God to take away her fertility. The Ark was with the army during the siege of Rabbah (2 Sam. 11:11); and when David fled from Jerusalem at the time of Absalom's conspiracy, the Ark was carried along with him until he ordered Zadok the priest to return it to Jerusalem (2 Sam. 15:24-29).
Assumption •
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In the book of Revelation the people in heaven are only depicted as souls except in the case of the Woman Two other examples of assumption – Enoch and Elijah • Ge 5:24 – Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him. • 2 Kings 2:11 – And as they still went on and talked, behold, a chariot of fire and horses of fire separated the two of them. And Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.
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What are the wages of sin?
Intercessor • Protoevangellium – Gen 3:15 – The first prophecy of a savior involved a woman who was to play a key role as well
• The New Eve – Pride vs Humility
• Queen Mother – Scripture indicates that the Gebirah assumed a throne alongside her son [1 Kings 2:19] and exercised her role as counselor [2 Chronicles 22:3] and intercessor to the king [1 Kings 2:1321]. In times of conquest, both the king and his mother represented royal power [2 Kings 24:12].
Intercessor • Prophecy of Simeon Luke 2:34-35 34 and Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, "Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is spoken against 35 (and a sword will pierce through your own soul also), that thoughts out of many hearts may be revealed."
• Co-redeemer, Advocate, Mediatrix of All Graces – Primary cause vs Secondary cause