Scriptures: Luke 1:26-38, Matthew 2:13-15, Luke 2:41-50,
Mark 3:20-21 & 32-35, Luke 14:31-33 and John 19:25-27.
Video Link: https://youtu.be/cBEKGkHA5rE
Audio Link: Stream Sermon – 7 Jun 2026 – Mary Said Yes by tawabaptist | Listen online for free on SoundCloud
Structure:
- Introduction
- Saying yes requires faith
- Saying yes changes you
- Saying yes costs you
- Conclusion
Introduction:
Good morning everyone.
Yes, is a powerful word. Yes, makes things happen. Yes, can change the course of your life and sometimes the course of history.
Some yeses are relatively low impact, like when someone asks you for the time or when they ask you to open a jar of pickles and you oblige. Other yeses cost you more and cannot be taken back, like enlisting in the army or agreeing to start a family.
Today we begin our annual Renew Together campaign in support of Arotahi, our New Zealand Baptist missions organization. The Renew Together campaign runs over the first three Sundays in June, culminating with a special appeal on the 21 June.
Today’s message draws on the story of Mary, the mother of Jesus. Let’s read how Mary said yes to God, from Luke chapter 1, verse 26…
26 In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, 27 to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28 The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favoured! The Lord is with you.” 29 Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. 30 But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favour with God. 31 You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.” 34 “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?” 35 The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be calledthe Son of God. 36 Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month. 37 For no word from God will ever fail.” 38 “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Then the angel left her.
May the Spirit of Jesus illuminate God’s word for us.
Today’s message is about saying yes to God: saying yes requires faith, saying yes changes you and saying yes costs you. Let’s continue with the faith that’s required to say yes to God.
Saying yes requires faith:
A river is a powerful thing. Sometimes deep and calm, other times wild and rough, but always moving forward. A river nourishes the land; it serves people, plants and animals alike.
God’s purpose, his redemptive will, is like a river; powerful, life-giving, unstoppable. Saying yes to God’s purpose for our lives is a bit like climbing into a whitewater raft. It is an act of faith. It requires courage.
Whitewater rafting puts you close to the action. It’s not some easy pleasure cruise. You are bound to get wet. Sometimes the water is slow moving and you need to paddle quite hard. Other times its swift and raging, and all you can do is hold on.
The thing with the river of God’s purpose is that we never know what’s around the corner or when it will end. Our best bet is to stay in the raft, follow the instructions of our rafting guide (the Holy Spirit) and take care of others on the river with us.
When Mary said yes to the angel, it was like she was climbing into a whitewater raft. Mary’s yes required real faith. She didn’t know what she was in for.
As far as yeses go, they don’t come much bigger. Mary was a teenage girl engaged to Joseph the carpenter. For Mary to get pregnant while still engaged was a huge risk for her personally.
Worst case scenario, she could have been stoned for what others would have wrongly presumed to be her infidelity. More likely though, Joseph would have been obliged to divorce her, which would leave Mary a single mum with little or no means of supporting herself financially.
For Mary to say yes, in this cultural context, was brave indeed. It required a high level of trust in God to provide for her. She really didn’t know how her yes would play out.
Mary’s faith was rewarded though. After Mary said yes in faith, God confirmed his call and gave Mary encouragement along the way. When Mary went to her cousin Elizabeth, it was as the angel had told her. Elizabeth was pregnant with John the Baptist and greeted her warmly.
On returning home Mary was not stoned and Joseph did not divorce her.
He stuck by her. Mary’s yes was supported by Joseph’s yes.
Later, after Mary had given birth to Jesus, the holy family received a visit from the wise men, who brought gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. Then, when at the temple, the elderly Simeon and Anna, both spoke prophecies over the Christ child. God confirmed his call.
Mary pondered these things in her heart, not really understanding their meaning or where it would lead her.
In speaking about Mary’s faith in saying yes to God, we must also acknowledge God’s faith in trusting Mary with his son. God could have gone with a far safer plan, but he didn’t. God relied on the help of a vulnerable young woman.
God’s choice of Mary is interesting in itself. Mary embodied the righteous poor. The Lord worked through ordinary human beings (like Mary and Joseph) who were willing to say yes in faith. This shows God trusts us. Will we trust him?
Saying yes to God requires faith. Saying yes also changes us.
Saying yes changes us:
At the start of the Hobbit, An Unexpected Journey, Gandalf asks Bilbo to come on an adventure with him. Bilbo is not sure. He takes a while to say yes.
Gandalf says, “You’ll have a tale or two to tell of your own when you come back”.
And Bilbo asks, “Can you promise that I will come back?”
To which Gandalf replies, “No. And if you do… you will not be the same.”
For some, the call to overseas mission work is like Gandalf inviting Bilbo on an unexpected journey. There Bilbo is, minding his own business, enjoying his garden and his books, when quite out of the blue a wizard interrupts his hobbies and his peace. Bilbo does eventually agree to follow Gandalf on the journey, but he has no idea what he is in for.
Saying yes, changed the direction of Bilbo’s life. He did return to the shire, but he was not the same. Saying yes to God, set Mary on a journey of change too.
Parenting is a journey that changes us. We embark on that journey not knowing what we are in for. You have settled times of course, but you also get blindsided occasionally. There’s no terror like a parent’s terror.
Not long after giving birth to Jesus, Mary and Joseph were forced to flee to Egypt. They became refugees, living in exile, for a couple of years. Being away from home in a forced exile is no easy thing. Having to learn a new language and new customs. Not knowing anyone. Trying to fit in. Missing loved ones. Eventually, though the holy family were able to return to Nazareth.
Those sorts of experiences shape us; they change us somehow. We return from a cross-cultural experience seeing the world and own culture differently.
Another scary moment came when Jesus was around twelve. The family had travelled to the temple in Jerusalem for a feast and, when it came time to leave, Jesus was left behind by accident.
When Mary found Jesus again (three days later) she said to him, “Son, why have you treated us like this. Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you.”
Jesus replied, “Why were you searching for me? Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?” But they didn’t understand what he was saying to them.
Even at twelve, Jesus knew who he was, but his parents were slow to catch on. They did not understand their son. We might think we know Jesus, but do we really? Jesus won’t be tamed or domesticated. He will surprise us.
On another occasion, when the adult Jesus was preaching to the people, his mother and brothers heard about his ministry and thought he was out of his mind. They tried to take charge of him, but they could not get near him because of the crowd. Jesus was not out of his mind. He was in God’s will.
When someone told Jesus that his mother and brothers wanted to see him, he replied: 33 “Who are my mother and my brothers?” 34 Then he looked at those seated in a circle around him and said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! 35 Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.”
Saying yes to God redefines our relationships with others. To say yes in obedience to God is to choose a new loyalty.
Saying yes to God requires faith and it sets us on a life long journey which changes us. Mary also discovered that saying yes to God would cost her.
Saying yes costs us:
Over the past couple of months Robyn and I have been watching the TV programme Grand Designs New Zealand. Grand Designs documents the house building process from architectural drawings to new build and lived in.
At the beginning of each show Tom Webster (the host) asks the owners what their budget is and at the end of the show he asks them what it actually cost. Almost every time the owners end up going over budget by hundreds of thousands of dollars. Building houses usually costs more than you expect.
Saying yes to God is like building a house. It takes time and energy and despite your best laid plans, there will be hold ups and challenges and frustration and it will cost you, probably more than you expect.
A hundred and twelve years ago thousands of men said yes (in good faith) to the call of king and country to go overseas and fight in the first world war. When these men enlisted, they had no idea of the real cost of war. Many did not return and those who did were not the same. The war left its mark.
Saying yes to God is like enlisting in the army. You give up your freedom and your comfort for a time, and you follow orders, so that others may be set free.
Saying yes to God will cost you in blood, sweat and tears. You won’t be the same on the other side.
In the gospels, Jesus tells a parable or two about counting the cost of discipleship. In Luke 14 the Lord says…
“…suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Won’t he first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? 32 If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace. 33 In the same way, those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples.”
Saying yes to following Jesus, means surrendering our lives to the Lord’s purpose. It means saying no to many other things. No to the selfish pursuit of fame, fortune and our own grand designs. Not to mention the more painful decision of saying no to family at times.
Saying yes to Jesus may cost us dearly, in this life. It certainly cost Mary.
In John 19 we read something of that cost…
25 Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother… 26 When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to her, “Woman, here is your son,” 27 and to the disciple, “Here is your mother.”
From that time on, this disciple took her into his home.
Mary saw her son die in the worst way imaginable. We often talk about Jesus’ sacrifice, and it is right that Jesus gets the glory; but Jesus’ sacrifice was also Mary’s sacrifice.
The bond between a mother and a child is profound. I imagine, next to Jesus, no one at the foot of that cross felt the anguish more than our Lord’s mother. As the prophet Simeon had said to Mary in the temple over 30 years earlier, “And a sword will pierce your own soul too.”
Mary was able to take comfort in knowing Jesus’ death was not in vain; that her son’s death meant our salvation. Mary knew Jesus’ resurrection.
We might not know (in our lifetime) how our saying yes might serve God’s purpose and benefit others. That’s okay. We do know God does not waste anything, especially what we offer in love for him.
Whatever our yes may cost us, God is able to restore in full measure. The Lord gives and the Lord takes away and then the Lord restores again. Orientation, disorientation, new orientation. (It’s the cost that changes us.)
Conclusion:
Saying yes to God reminds me of the Mainland cheese ads. ‘Good things take time.’ Mary’s yes was a life-long response. As a teenage girl, Mary may not have known what changes her yes would bring about or how it would cost her, but Mary saw it through in faith that God would work it all for good.
As New Zealand Baptists we have said yes to ongoing partnerships with Christians across Asia, with Maori in Aotearoa and with people in other parts of the world. Our work and relationships are for the long haul.
Our goal, our hope, is to see gospel renewal in all places and for all people.
This doesn’t happen quickly; it takes the faith and work of many generations continuing to say yes to God’s purpose of salvation.
Mary’s yes begs the question: What is your yes to God? What is our yes?
A question like that may leave you feeling burdened. Yet another thing to do and another thing to feel bad about if it doesn’t get done. Saying yes to God doesn’t just mean doing things for God, as important as that is. Saying yes begins with receiving what God wants to give us, by his Spirit.
Grace comes first. We can only give to others what God has given us.
Without the Holy Spirit, Mary would not have been able to bear God’s Son. Without the Holy Spirit, we cannot become vessels of God’s word either.
So the question becomes: What particular grace has God given you to share? What grace has God given us?
If you are not sure what God has given you, then ask him to reveal it.
You probably won’t be visited by an angel, as Mary was. Often the grace we have been entrusted with is so familiar, so natural to us that we take it for granted, not realising the treasure we hold in these jars of clay.
Let me finish now with a prayer written by the people at Arotahi…
God, you who first spoke yes, are the One who breathed life into being.
You, who drew close, spoke to Mary, calling her to bear your hope into the world. Teach us to listen to the movement of your Spirit, and to walk humbly in your ways, so that we too may say yes, echoing the love and openness that Mary showed. Weave our response into the fabric of your kingdom work: to notice the faithfulness of others, to nurture the seeds of courage, and to invite others to say yes. May our yes be to the work of justice and renewal: to stand with those at the margins, and to go to the places you call, from here to the ends of the earth. Like Mary, may we carry your hope. May our yes join with your work, so that your kingdom of justice and peace may take root in our world. Amen.
Questions for discussion or reflection:
- What stands out for you in reading this Scripture and/or in listening to the sermon? Why do you think this stood out to you?
- Imagine being Mary. Put yourself in her shoes. How would you feel? How might you have responded to the angel? Why was Mary’s response brave?
- How did God confirm his word/call to Mary? How has God confirmed his word/call to you?
- In what ways has God shown trust in you?
- What is your (personal) yes to God? What particular grace has God given you to share?
- If you have been saying yes to God for a while, how has this changed you?
- What has it cost you to say yes to God? In what ways has your yes served God’s purpose and benefited others?
Tawa Baptist 