Sermon Tone Analysis

How do you handle good news?

Building?

Being proposed to

Hearing her say yes to your proposal

The good news of your favorite team winning it all

The good news that you’re expecting a child?

Even yesterday I heard a shout of joy when the countertops came together in the building.

Its amazing how often when we hear good news, really good news, we want to shout and and sing!

We serve a singing God, so it makes sense that we, as his image bearers, sing when we are excited.

This is not only true of us, but this is also true of Mary.

How do you think Mary responded to unbelievable news that she would be the mother of the Son of God, the promised King?

She sings one of the most amazing songs ever sung.

However, the story to get to the song helps us understand how we are to read and hear Mary’s glorious song of celebration.

Now remember the story,

The Angel Gabriel comes to Mary to tell her that she would give birth to the Christ.

The Angel emphasizes that Mary will carry in her womb the high and exalted King, the one whom Israel had been waiting.

The angel says he will be great!

He will be worthy of all praise

He will save his people from their sins

He will be a greater David, a greater Joshua, a greater Samson.

He will be the one who will put Satan under his foot and crush his head.

He will be the one who will trample down death by death

He will be the one who will ascend and sit on the eternal cosmic throne ruling and reigning with eyes of fire and a sword coming out of his mouth.

He will be great!

He will establish his kingdom, and he will rule his kingdom forever!

The heart of Gabriel's message to Mary is that, The King has arrived.

However, Gabriel also lets her know that another miracle has taken place

He tells her that her cousin, Elizabeth, is also pregnant.

Elizabeth is believed to have been 88 years old when she became pregnant with her son, John.

So when Mary hears that not only is she pregnant, but that her 88 year old cousin is also six months along, Mary believed the angels words that nothing is impossible with God.

So after hearing this incredible news, Mary got her stuff together quickly and hurried to visit Elizabeth who is pregnant with John the Baptist.

When Mary arrived I am sure Elizabeth was excited to see her.

Her house had been pretty quite for sometime, as her Husband Zechariah had been mute, unable to talk, for over six months because, unlike Mary, he did not believe Gabriels message to him, that he and Elizabeth would have a son.

He doubted the words of the Angel, so God took away his ability to speak until 8 days after John was born.

So Zechariah was not much of a conversation partner for Elizabeth for the last 6 or 7 months.

Not only that, but after conceiving, Elizebeth kept herself hidden for five months.

Upon arrival I’m sure both Mary and Elizabeth were thrilled to see each other.

However, neither of them, especially Elizabeth was prepared for what would happen when Mary walk into the room.

Could you imagine this!

88 year old Elizabeth, six months along in her pregnancy, sees her young cousin Mary walk through the door, and when Mary greeted her, her baby leaped for joy in her womb!

The first person to rejoice at the arrival of Jesus, was an unborn infant child in the womb of an old barren women.

There are some beautiful notes of symbolism here as well.

Elizabeth womb is a symbol of Israel at the time of Christ’s birth.

It is old and spiritually barren.

Yet, through the grace of God comes new life.

By the Grace of God out of the dead womb of Israel he raised up the last prophet of the old covenant.

The last and the greatest, the one who would from his mothers womb announce the arrival of the Messiah!

John’s whole life and ministry was dedicated to the prophesying, preaching and rejoicing at the coming of the Lord.

John would later describe himself as the voice crying out in the wilderness, yet first he was the infant child leaping for joy in the womb… and both for the same reason… calling all to make straight the way of the Lord.

Elizabeth rejoices when she felt John leap in her womb… the prophetic testimony of her unborn child was enough for Elizabeth to worship and bless the Lord!

I love how how she She exclaimed with a loud cry…

I love it because this is how we are to greet the Lord.

This is how we respond to good news!

Elizabeth was not capable of praising the Lord with the devotion of a moderate voice.

Being full of the Holy Spirit, she was on fire, harboring in her womb the greatest of all prophets who is literally dancing for Joy within her!

Elizabeth then says to Mary,

John’s leaping for joy caused Elizabeth to recognize that in Mary’s womb was her Lord.

Ah my friends, we must never underestimate the way in which God uses his children, even his infant children, in the lives of his covenant people.

For out of the mouths of babes he establishes his praise - we would do well to follow Elizabeth’s example and turn our hearts and ears to the little ones in our midst.

For the Lord speaks through them with much power!

All of the excitement of Elizabeth and John causes Mary to essentially explode with exhilaration and joy

And what better way to show your excitement then to sing a song.

This is what happens to us when we get really excited… you start singing!

And often times, if you’re like me, you start mixing lyrics from all sorts of different songs and tunes and even making up your own words to songs that you know.

This is essentially what Mary does for the next 10 verses.

She mixes lyrics and tunes from dozens of OT texts!

From the law and the prophets, from the psalms, from Hanna’s prayer of praise when the angel tell her that she is pregnant.

When Mary sings her song its like the OT comes flowing forth from her mouth in a glorious fashion.

Mary praises the Lord by singing a prayer to God that we often call, The Magnificat.

Magnificat means to magnify to adore, to make much of.

In latin the first word of this song is the word Magnificat which means to magnify.

This song is one of the greatest songs in Christian history.

God’s people have been singing this song for 2000 years

Mary sang this song from the deepest chamber of her soul.

What we see in this song is that Mary, from the depths of her being, wants God to be exalted.

She is a model of what it looks like to praise and adore the Lord.

Now, what so often happens when we read this song is that we divorce it from the immediate context of the two women, both miraculously pregnant, who are so excited and giddy that they are singing for joy!

Rather than reading this song as a song of excitement and joy, we read it as a solemn prayer, a quite and meek whisper.

And to read in this way is a tragedy.

This song is a ruckus song, a song that should be sung with a clap and a stomp.

Its the gospel before the gospel

Its a song of victory

Its a song of promises fulfilled

Its a song all about Christ the King

Its a song about the power of his kingdom

Its a song of great rejoicing

This song overflows from a heart that longs to see Christ exalted, and it comes from a heart that is thankful to God for his faithfulness and blessings.

Look with me at verses 46-48

“My SOUL magnifies the Lord, she said…

That is the very core of her being, her heart of hearts, the deepest part of her, she says, magnifies the Lord.

She wants more than anything for God to be made much of in her life.

She wants the Lord to be center stage, she wants the glory of the Lord to be seen by all!

Mary also recognized something of great importance in these verses:

And that is that God knew who she was.

He noticed her.

As a peasant girl of Nazareth she was not considered to be important by anybody except her family.

Yet God selected Mary to be the mother of Christ.

So from the depths of her heart she cries out,

“My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant”’

Mary experienced what every human being wants to experience: a sense of dignity.