Sermon Notes: Advent - Luke 1:46-55
We resonated deeply with how Chris led us into our response of worship last week. It has been a heavy holiday season for us.
Sometimes you do the right thing, and it doesn’t produce immediate fruit. It’s not an easy story of success. It’s a story of getting hit in the mouth and being left to wonder whether God is good and sovereign and whether he rewards righteousness or lets it get punished by dark forces for no reason.
We have a choice. We can ruminate in that, or we can let God’s word lift our eyes to see beyond.
Mary is in a situation in which she might feel that a little bit. We have no reason to believe that Mary was anything but faithful and obedient and just going about her business as the engaged bride to be of Joseph from Bethlehem.
In Luke 1:26-38, the messenger Gabriel brings the Lord’s word to Mary regarding what the Lord is about to do and his call on her life. It’s not an easy trail to hike.
While Mary is living out her time of engagement to Joseph, she is called on by the Lord for a difficult work because he favored her. Think about that: Called to a difficult work because of the favor of the Lord.
In fact, Gabriel says to her, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” (Luke 1:28), then he tells her that she is to bear the Son of God and will be pregnant by the miraculous creative work of the Holy Spirit while she’s a virgin because she has not yet been married.
These circumstances will look like she’s been doing what she should not before her marriage to Joseph, thus making it look like she has been unfaithful.
God’s call on Mary, and thus Joseph, is so challenging the Lord sends a supernatural messenger to Joseph in a dream to prevent him from divorcing Mary in their engagement (see Matthew 1:18-25). So, Joseph has heard the news and trying to figure out how to divorce Mary in a way that calls the least attention to her and him. The messenger tells him to go ahead with their marriage because that baby is of divine origin. God calls Joseph to a work that appears to outsiders like a compromised situation.
Both Joseph and Mary are subjected to public shame for what appears to be a sin on Mary’s part and then an unwillingness to do what the law says he can and should do on Joseph’s part. Mark 6:3 is the most overt example of how Mary is viewed when Jesus is referred to as Mary’s son with no mention of Joseph. Mark 6:3 is the first century equivalent of calling Jesus a fatherless son.
Favored? It can feel more like being cursed. But that is not the case. Don’t look with mere eyes of flesh. Try to look beyond. Mary and Joseph are favored by the Lord to carry this heavy call.
By faith both Joseph and Mary accept the reproach of men to embrace the call of God.
Then Mary goes to visit Elizabeth who is bearing the prophet John the Baptist who will prepare the way for Jesus just as Malachi foretold. Elizabeth declares that Mary is blessed because she believed the Lord would do all he promised he would do. Elizabeth speaks the truth to Mary, and this exhorting truth leads into our text today.
In response to this heavy calling, Mary worships the Lord. Mary’s response of worship comes in less-than-ideal circumstances. And Mary’s worship is not mournful. Her worship carries a joyful and weighty declaration of hope.
Mary’s response of worship is deeply rooted in a hope filled faith that God’s call and tactical execution of his call is good and right. Because God’s call and execution of his call is good and right, Mary can respond in joyful and weighty worship regardless of the circumstance as she waits in faith on the Lord to keep his word.
Let’s read the text: Luke 1:46-55.
Sometimes I miss the forest for the trees when I’m reading my Bible, and today I want us to see the landscape, the forest, that makes Mary’s worship so special.
So, today we have two questions to help us see the big picture of our text today: Why does Mary respond in hope filled faith? What kind of worship response does hope filled faith produce?
Why does Mary respond in hope filled faith?
Mary responds in hope filled faith for two reasons.
1. The Lord has kept his word.
Verse 33 is a mash up of four references from the Prophet Daniel (2:44; 7:14, 18, 27).
Gabriel, (Gabar’el) the mighty one of God, is sent in Daniel 8 and 9 to help Daniel understand the vision God had given him. The same Gabriel is sent to Mary to make her understand what is about to happen, and we should not be surprised that Gabriel would take from God’s word to Daniel that was about this moment for Mary and show her how it was written and how it is being fulfilled in this moment.
You need to sit with that sentence a little bit.
Mary is getting to experience live and in living color a Scripture she has grown up with. She is experiencing God keeping his word.
God promised the children of the promise that there would be a King like David, but better, who would come and be the One to rule forever over the people of God, the One who is the promised “seed of the woman” to crush the head of the Serpent Dragon. The time has come, and Gabriel informs Mary that God has kept his word and that Jesus is that King, and her calling is to bear him to birth and serve as the Son of Man, the God/Man’s, mother on earth.
God spoke. God promised. God has kept his word.
Mary’s response to God keeping his word is hope filled faith.
Why does Mary respond with hope filled faith?
2. Elizabeth was filled with the Spirit and spoke prophetically to Mary and Mary received what was spoken.
Mary’s situation prompted something in her to go to Elizabeth “in haste”.
When Mary greets Elizabeth, John leaps in her womb and Elizabeth is filled with the Holy Spirit.
The same word used here for “filled” is the same word used in Matthew 27:48 when the centurion filled a sponge with the sour wine to lift it up to Jesus for him to drink. For a person to drink from a sponge that sponge has to be full to its capacity in such a way that the liquid overflows the sponge’s capacity.
That’s how the Spirit works in God’s people. “Filled” in our text is passive, meaning Elizabeth didn’t conjure this up with emotive self-control. Holy Spirit wells up so powerfully in Elizabeth that his word to Mary is beyond Elizabeth’s capacity or skill and his message overflows her capacity.
Luke 1:41-42 (ESV) 41 And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, 42 and she exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!
Elizabeth became an instrument to speak a message to Mary from the Lord in her hard calling. That’s what “prophetic” means. Being so filled with the Spirit that his message spills out to someone through the filled-up person.
Elizabeth continues: Luke 1:43-45 (ESV) 43 And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? 44 For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. 45 And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.”
That’s just what Mary needed to hear from the Lord, and Mary receives it.
We know Mary receives it because she responded in worship.
That leads to our second question.
What kind of worship response does hope filled faith produce?
Remember, worship is communion with God in which believers by grace center their mind’s attention and heart’s affection on the Lord, humbly glorifying God in response to the revelation of his glory and his majesty.
Worship is deeper than the songs we sing yet not less than our songs also. Our songs reflect the depth of our knowledge of and love of God.
So, our question about the kind of worship is rooted in the understanding that worship is complex and multi-faceted and profound and consummate (Consummate meaning that worship is the complete manifestation of the work of God in the person. Worship is the intended apex of our interaction with God.).
God has sent the mighty one who explains God’s work to reveal that God has kept his word.
The Spirit has filled Elizabeth to overflow with a message affirming what Mary heard and has experienced, and the Son has taken on flesh in Mary’s womb, and she can’t help but worship.
Here, the kind of worship Mary offers is a verbal declaration of the greatness of God. Mary is not singing, but she is declaring to those who hear and to God the greatness of God.
1. Mary declares that her soul “magnifies” the Lord and her spirit rejoices in God her savior. 1:46-47
The word “magnify” is “megaluno”, and it means to show something to be great by highlighting it. It doesn’t mean to make something small look large. Magnify might not be the best translation. Magnify here means to declare something to be what it is with a worthy declaration.
Mary’s soul’s response to the Lord is to express the greatness of the Lord, and her spirit rejoices in the greatness of God.
What does Mary say?
2. Mary declares that God has seen her. 1:48
We often wonder if God sees. Does he really know what’s up?
The Lord moves Mary in her worship to remind us of what he reminded her of...The Lord sees.
Listen to what the Lord says to Moses from the burning bush: Exodus 3:7 (ESV) 7 Then the LORD said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings,...
3. Mary declares that God is mighty. 1:49a
God is able to do whatever is needed to keep his word.
4. Mary declares that God’s name is holy. 1:49b
God is the only one like himself. In all his creation, there are none exactly like him.
He stands alone, and therefore, is the only God worthy of worship.
5. Mary declares that God’s mercy is for those who fear him. 1:50
God’s mercy is ultimately for those who turn to him in faith and honor him in worship. Mary declares that the God of the Bible is the only means of salvation.
6. Mary declares that God has shown his strength by scattering the proud. 1:51
7. Mary declares that God has brought down the mighty and exalted the humble. 1:52
8. Mary declares that God has filled the hungry and sent the full away. 1:53
9. Mary declares that God has helped his people like he said he would, that he has kept his word. 1:54
Mary ends her worship as a declaration of the greatness of God with how she was moved to declare his greatness in the first place, the faithfulness of God to keep his word.
Application
1. Jesus has come and he is coming again, so make sure you repent and believe this good news of the kingdom.
Jesus came the first time as a baby, taking on flesh as the faithful Israel of God, to die for sin, be raised to life, ascend to the Father, and send the Holy Spirit for salvation for all who will believe.
When he comes the second time it will be to judge the living and the dead by the standard of the good news of the kingdom.
Repent and believe today.
If you have believed, don’t stop.
2. Believe that if God would promise and keep his word like this, he will certainly keep his word for us who are eagerly waiting on him.
Don’t let the conflict with the kingdom of darkness beat you into walking back your hope in the goodness of God to keep his word that he will complete what he started.
Philippians 1:6 (ESV) 6 And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.
3. Respond to God’s word in worship, declare the greatness of God in song, declare the greatness of God in praise acknowledging his greatness, and declare his greatness in calling on him in prayer.
For right now in our corporate worship, this might look like praying while others are singing or telling God out loud how great he is with words coming from your heart that are not the song’s words. Sometimes I do this. I have words in my heart I want the Lord to hear me say, so I say them while others are singing. Sometimes I pray while others are singing.
It can also look like you just singing at the top of your lungs because that song is just on point with helping you declare to God how great he is.
This looks like us breaking out into declaring God’s greatness in our daily worship of Bible reading and prayer. Don’t be ashamed to declare the greatness of God out loud. I know that’s weird, but if God is great and we have occasion and opportunity to tell it and we don’t we miss a worship and evangelistic moment. Take the shot!
4. How will you taste the faithfulness of God if you don’t have a framework for what God has said and how he has done it by reading and making sense of God’s word on a daily basis?
So, get into God’s word.
You cannot know God, follow him, and love him well if you neglect his word.