There had been silence for 400 years. God had last spoken to Israel through the prophet Malachi. His message was a warning for the nation to repent of their sinful ways before the dreadful day of the Lord. In His message, He also promised that the Lord was coming and would stand in the temple, but before He came, a prophet would come to make way for the Lord. With that prophecy and promise, God was silent. It wasn’t that God stopped loving the people of Israel, nor did He abandon His people, He was still working in their midst as always. He had just stopped speaking through the prophets. He didn’t leave the people for they still had God’s Word and like we said last week, His Word is always enough. Generations came and generations went without a new word from God to His people, without the fulfilment of the prophecy that He gave to Malachi, but all that changed one day in Jerusalem at the temple. That day a priest named Zechariah was ministering to the Lord in the Holy Place, offering incense as an offering to God, when God spoke to him through His messenger angel — Gabriel. Gabriel told him that even though he and his wife are old, they would bring forth a son and that son is going to be the one preparing the way for the Lord just as He had promised through Malachi. This was the first domino that would fall in order to bring about that first Christmas — the messenger was coming to prepare the way for the Lord. Now the stage was ready for the fullness of time had come for the Messiah to come. Zechariah’s wife, Elizabeth, was pregnant for about 6 months when the next domino fell. It fell when God spoke again. This time He spoke to a relative of Elizabeth, a young woman named Mary. God’s message to Mary is recorded in Luke 1:28-37.
Gabriel appeared to her and said, “Greetings, favored woman! The Lord is with you!” Confused and disturbed, Mary tried to think what the angel could mean. “Don’t be afraid, Mary,” the angel told her, “for you have found favor with God! You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be very great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David. And he will reign over Israel forever; his Kingdom will never end!” Mary asked the angel, “But how can this happen? I am a virgin.” The angel replied, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the baby to be born will be holy, and he will be called the Son of God. What’s more, your relative Elizabeth has become pregnant in her old age! People used to say she was barren, but she has conceived a son and is now in her sixth month. For the word of God will never fail.”
A few days after this encounter Mary left and visited Elizabeth, and at their initial meeting the baby in the womb of Elizabeth leapt for joy because he knew he was in the presence of the Lord who Mary was now carrying. What a wonderful thought that it was an unborn baby who was the first one to worship Jesus as Lord. The angel's message, her ensuing miraculous pregnancy, and this wonderful interaction at her relative’s house caused Mary to respond to what God was doing in song. Even with all the overwhelming emotion that Mary was undoubtedly feeling over the last few days, her song was not filled with that emotion. It is a solemn insight and reflection that caused her song to be filled with a powerful perspective on who God is and what He was doing and was going to do. This morning I want to look at this song to see how Mary’s song reveals to us the character of God as the first Christmas approached.
God Raises - Luke 1:46-50
Mary responded, “Oh, how my soul praises the Lord. How my spirit rejoices in God my Savior! For he took notice of his lowly servant girl, and from now on all generations will call me blessed. For the Mighty One is holy, and he has done great things for me. He shows mercy from generation to generation to all who fear him.
Mary’s song is known as the “Magnificat”. It’s from the Latin translation of Mary’s song’s first line and would be translated into the English as “Magnify”. That was Mary’s goal with this song. She did not want to bring eyes upon herself, but to bring all eyes to God and to worship Him because of what He was doing in their midst. Mary knew that it was only God that deserves praise and that was what she was going to do. She was going to magnify the Lord even though Elizabeth had told her God had blessed her above all women and that she felt unworthy of a visit from the Lord’s mother. That kind of acclamation from the priest's wife might have gone to her head. However, Mary was humble and knew there was nothing special about her that would have caused God to choose her because she was sinner just like everyone else. This is abundantly clear with the second sentence of her song, when she says “God my Savior!” This is a phrase that we see used specifically by Paul and Jude, and a variation of this phrase is used by all the apostles throughout the New Testament. It was a statement that told people the truth that is found in Romans 3:23 & Romans 6:23 that they were sinners and God was the only One who can save them. Of course since we have the entirety of Scripture we understand that salvation came through Jesus, the second person of the Godhead and by His grace alone. Amongst all the major characters in the New Testament that used this phrase that is a very noticeable exception. Jesus never called God His Savior. Jesus didn’t need a savior, He was perfect. He was sinless. He was God. Everyone else in history that has ever been born or ever will be born needs a Savior. However because Jesus was perfect, was fully human, and was fully God, it qualified Him and Him alone as the only all sufficient Savior. Mary knew that somehow this child in her womb would be used to save the world. She wasn’t sure how, but her faith was in God whose Word never fails. With this introduction in her song, she begins to magnify God and begins by magnifying the fact that God raises.
When we say God raises, our minds might go to the fact that it is God who will raise those who die in Jesus Christ to live again. While that is true and is a glorious truth, that’s not what I’m referring to here and not what Mary was speaking about. She was talking about the fact that God raises up those the world would never expect and uses them for His glory when they follow Him. Mary was starting to understand this from her own experience. There is no doubt that Mary knew Scripture because her song closely reflects some of the structure of Hannah’s Song in 1 Samuel 2. The song contains many phrases that were common in the Old Testament. Therefore, she knew there was a precedence of God raising up those the world would never have used for His glory. She would have known how God used the stuttering Moses to lead His people out of Egypt, she would have known about the laughable size of the army that God used through Gideon to defeat the Mideanites, and she would have known about how God used a lowly shepherd to defeat a giant and lead a nation in the promised land. This truth is something that Paul speaks of in 1 Corinthians 1:26-29 - “Remember, dear brothers and sisters, that few of you were wise in the world’s eyes or powerful or wealthy when God called you. Instead, God chose things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise. And he chose things that are powerless to shame those who are powerful. God chose things despised by the world, things counted as nothing at all, and used them to bring to nothing what the world considers important. As a result, no one can ever boast in the presence of God.” When we are submitted to God and walking in obedience, it doesn’t matter what the world says about us. God will use us for His glory, not only has He said He would (and remember His word is enough), but He has a history of using things this world has no use for to bring about big things for His glory and what He has done. He will continue to do even in your own life when you are sold out to Jesus.
God Reverses - Luke 1:51-53
His mighty arm has done tremendous things! He has scattered the proud and haughty ones. He has brought down princes from their thrones and exalted the humble. He has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away with empty hands.
It has been said that this song of Mary is dangerous. It was considered so dangerous that there was a time in the early 1900’s that England would tell their missionaries to India to not read the song in public. The reason was these three verses. These verses are not meant to be spiritualized, they are meant to be taken literally and that is where the danger lies. Jesus came to reverse the status quo. Mary starts out by speaking again of the mighty things that God has done, but then her tone changes because every verb from that point on is in the future tense. She is declaring what God is going to do, specifically through the Messiah who is going to be born in 9 months. The first thing she speaks of is those who hold themselves in high esteem in this world and are proud of what they have done. These are the ones who do not give God credit for the mighty things He has done in their lives. They have tried to take all of God's glory for themselves. She is saying when the Lord comes, He will drive out those who do not give God the proper credit He is due and are trying to take it for themselves. This was Satan’s sin. He was trying to claim the glory of God for himself and it’s the sin that many in this world struggle with. God will deal with them like He always has. She then speaks of princes being brought down from their thrones and the humble exalted. She proclaims a truth that this world does not like to hear. Its worldly power and authority is an illusion, only God is truly sovereign and powerful. Jesus said the same when speaking with Pilate at His trial. When Pilate said he had the power to release Him or crucify Him, reminding Him that he would have no power unless given to Him from above. It’s God who is sovereign over this world, not the people who think they run it. God has never given up His throne and authority to a King or Queen, to a Prime Minister, or a President. Jesus is the King of Kings and always has been. He answers to no one and does as He wishes. As we have seen, He uses the weak to confound those who think they have it all figured out and have all the power. Mary finishes by telling us that God will fill the hungry and send away the rich. Again Jesus spoke of this in His sermon on the mount when He says, “Blessed are they that hunger and thirst for righteousness for they will be filled.” When Jesus came He came to upset everything and to turn life on its head. The things the world deemed important were nothing to God almighty. However the things that the world ignores are the things God values. When He came those who were so intertwined in the ways of this world needed to be on notice because the Lord was going to change things. The world's attitude versus God’s truth I think was summed up well in an older contemporary Christian song. I know I’ve mentioned before called “Living Life Upside Down” where the chorus says “What if we've fallen to the bottom of the well, Thinking we've risen to the top of a mountain, What if we're knocking at the gates of hell, Thinking we're Heaven bound, What if we spend our lives thinking of ourselves, When we should have been thinking of each other, What if we reach up and touch the ground, To find we're living life upside down Upside down”. That’s what Jesus was coming to do and will continue to do. When Jesus came the first time nothing was the same, when He comes again nothing will be the same. Jesus came to reverse the way things are. Jesus was and still is revolutionary.
God Remembers - Luke 1:54-55
He has helped his servant Israel and remembered to be merciful. For he made this promise to our ancestors, to Abraham and his children forever.”
When Mary says that God remembers to be merciful, it doesn't mean that God is like us that He might forget and something reminds Him of an event. It means the same thing we see throughout the Old Testament. When it says God remembers, it just means He is faithful to all His promises. In the Old Testament the coming of Jesus was spoken about over 300 times and in those times we are told about when He was coming, how He was coming, His lineage, His divine nature, His mission, His suffering, His triumph, and His eternal reign. However Mary speaks specifically of one of those promises here at the end as well as at the beginning of her song, and that is the mercy of God. When we speak of mercy we speak of God withholding the punishment that we deserve and that punishment is the punishment that comes from sin. Romans 6:23 tells us that the wages of our sins is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord. So what are the promises that God was faithful to through Jesus? Like we spoke about last week, Jesus was to bring Salvation and light to all people. Isaiah 49:6 - “He says, “You will do more than restore the people of Israel to me. I will make you a light to the Gentiles, and you will bring my salvation to the ends of the earth.” Jesus was said to suffer and die for our sins. Isaiah 53:4-6 - “Yet it was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows that weighed him down. And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God, a punishment for his own sins! But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed. All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet the Lord laid on him the sins of us all.” This was a promise that God made at the fall of mankind. It was to redeem them and show them mercy. Now all of those promises were coming true through the child that Mary was now bearing.
Mary trusted God through this entire process. She knew what He had done, she trusted what He was doing, and she knew what He was going to do in the future because of who God is. However the question this morning has to be, do you trust God with the entire process? Do you trust that God raises up and uses those that this world doesn't have a lot of use for. This world will reject you, but God never will. When you walk with Him in obedience, He will raise you up because He has a purpose for your life that is far beyond anything you can imagine. Do you believe that God will reverse and turn the things of this world upside down? This impacts our walk with Him because you don't really believe that God's ways are not the world's ways. We will only obey God when it's easy and when it gets tough we will follow the world's way because that is easier. Do you believe all His promises are true? I'm not just saying with your lips, but how does how you live your life show this?
