Responding to the Holy Spirit

Good Morning!

Thank you, Leah for leading us right into this passage this morning.

Thanks to all of you who shared testimony this morning!

Last week we covered vs 39-45, in which we learned about Mary’s visit to Elizabeth.

Upon hearing Mary’s voice, John leaped in Elizabeth’s womb, and both mother and child were filled with the Holy Spirit.

In response, Elizabeth exclaimed loudly that Mary was blessed among all women because of what God was doing through her and that her child, the messiah, was blessed.

In that passage, we saw God working in both of their lives in a way that we have become familiar with.

God spoke, Mary obeyed, and because of her obedience, Elizabeth experienced the fulfillment of God’s promise to fill her with the Holy Spirit before John was born.

We learned that our abiding has a direct effect on the rest of the people in our lives.

Our faithful obedience can bring about the fulfillment of God’s work in someone else’s life.

In that same passage, we got to hear Elizabeth’s response to God’s work in her life and how she felt about it.

Today we are going to hear Mary’s response to what God has just done.

We are going to see that Mary’s faith is brought to a new level as she experiences more God-exclusive activity in her life.

Before we get into that, let’s read this next section which is often referred to as the Magnificat.

Just as an FYI, Magnificat is the first word of this passage in the Vulgate, which was the first Latin translation of the bible.

Read along with me at Mary’s response to God’s work.

Luke 1:46-56

What a testimony!

If we took this section out of the context of this story, it would look and feel like it was taken from Psalms or some other section of the Old Testament wisdom literature.

Mary, like so many before her, had an experience with God and proclaimed that testimony.

The testimony was so great that it has stood the test of time and is recorded for us here in Luke.

As we look at this passage, we see two distinct sections.

They aren’t visually divided out, but we can see it in the grammar.

The first section is Mary’s response of praise to God for what He has done for her.

The second is her response of praise for what God is doing for all people.

In this first section, verses 46-49, Mary responds to God’s work in her life by praising Him.

Read it again with me.

Luke 1:46-49

Mary praised God before the work was completed.

We will talk about this a bit more in the second section, but we need to see that while Mary is praising God for what she has experienced thus far, she knows that all of the work is not complete.

At this point, she has had the visitation of Gabriel, who shared God’s plan with her.

She visits Elizabeth, and Elizabeth confirms her pregnancy at only the sound of her voice.

Mary experienced Elizabeth’s joy at their entrance into her home.

Mary responds with praise to Elizabeth’s testimony confirming the miraculous work God is doing.

This is all the information that Luke gives us.

There is no evidence that Mary had any hard proof that what Gabriel said was true.

She simply has Gabriel’s message and now Elizabeth’s miraculous testimony.

And Mary didn’t have time to share her vision with Elizabeth and ask for her opinion.

Mary walks in the door and greets Elizabeth, and mother and John are filled with the Holy Spirit.

Elizabeth shares what just happened in her with Mary, and Mary responds in faith.

How often do we respond in faith to God’s promises with praise like this?

Mary didn’t have proof; she had faith.

Do we require proof before we will praise God, or can we simply believe and respond accordingly?

Not only did she have faith, but she says in vs 46 and 47 that her soul magnifies the Lord and her spirit exults/rejoices in God.

Her faith didn’t just rule her decisions, but it also affected her emotionally.

This response is not just a, yeah, God did a thing.

This is a shout-it from the rooftops, tell everyone you know and meet kind of testimony.

But why is she responding this way?

Luke 1:48

Mary thanked God for considering someone like her.

Mary wasn’t from a family of high status.

Her family wasn’t wealthy and didn’t hold any particular place in society.

She was ordinary.

We’ve talked through some of this already.

Her praise was personal.

She knows who she is and her status, and according to societal standards, she shouldn’t have been the one.

This is part of the depth of this praise and one that you and I can personally identify with.

We are a bunch of nobodies trying to tell the world about somebody.

However, notice the change of status from the beginning of vs 48 to the end of it.

She describes herself as a person of “humble condition” in the first half, but in the last part, she says that all generations will call her blessed.

I want to point out that her view of herself didn’t change because of anything she or anyone else did.

Her view of herself changed because of what God did.

Mary will be called blessed because of what God had done for her and through her.

Because of conversations that I’ve had with many of you, I know that you consider yourself a people of “humble condition”.

What God wants us to see is that while that may be true in some ways, that doesn’t mean he isn’t interested in working in your life.

In fact, if you allow God to work in you and through you, others will call you blessed as well.

This is a throwback to what we talked about last week, but God wants us to see again that what He does in our lives is not only for us.

One of the passages that are referenced in this passage is 1 Samuel 2:1-10.

This is the prayer of praise from Hannah, another barren woman who God blessed, and she gave birth to the prophet Samuel.

As we read through this, I want you to notice two things.

The similarity of this prayer to Mary’s.

The work that God does in Hannah’s life will affect far more than just her.

1 Samuel 2:1-10

Why is Samuel important to this story?

Samuel is the prophet who eventually anoints both Saul and David.

God uses Samuel to establish the reign of things two kings, and God uses them both to pave the way for Jesus, who is going to be born in the line of David.

As you read scripture, you are going to see this pattern pop up everywhere.

God’s work in people’s lives is part of His cumulative work to redeem His people.

By using Mary and Elizabeth in this particular way, God is reminding all that hear their story of what He has been doing all along.

Mary closes the first part of personal praise in vs 49 and makes the transition of focus.

In the second half, Mary’s focus turns to what God is doing for Israel and the world.

Luke 1:50-55

God’s work is not random, nor is it happen by chance.

In studying this out, I ran across two passages from Genesis that showed this work.

Gen 17:7-8

This land where Mary and Elizabeth are living is the fulfillment of God’s promise and work.

In addition, God is completing another promise that He made.

Gen 22:16-18

God has been telling His people for generations that they would live here and they would be a blessing to all nations.

God did what He said, albeit differently than Israel expected.

God fulfilled his word.

These five verses in the second half are not direct quotes from the Old Testament, but they are echoes of many things that God has said through his people over their history.

Actually, there are 475 different scriptural references for this section.

Did y’all read through all of those in preparation for today? lol

What does this tell us? What is God doing, and what does Luke intend for us to understand through this section?

Mary’s song of praise is God’s proclamation about who this baby is and what He will do.

God is speaking through Mary’s testimony and reminding all of us of what He is doing.

Jesus will be the fulfillment of all the things that God’s people failed to do.

He will look upon all people with mercy.

He will be more powerful than the rulers of the earth.

He will feed the hungry.

He will care for the poor and neglected.

Most importantly, He will fulfill all of God’s promises.

Mary praises God for what she knows He will do as He fulfills His promises.

About this section in Luke, one commentator said...

Luke Luke 1:51

It describes the future work of God’s Son with the certainty of a past event. Mary saw as already accomplished what God would do through her son.

There is such steadiness in this young woman’s testimony.

She has heard God speak, her relative confirmed it through her testimony, and Mary responds with complete faith.

I want you to ask yourself today, how do you respond to the Holy Spirit?

What are the promises that God has made in your life?

What work have you yet to see him complete?

I can tell you from my own life that there are times when what God has spoken seems impossible.

Just these last few days have been a test for me.

We had lots of things happening this week.

Many of them things that God spoke for us to do.

Yet, when it came time for those things to happen, the world flipped upside down.

Car pickup fell through because the order was canceled for some unknown reason.

Supposed to be leaving for vacation and getting ready for that on Saturday.

Friday night our septic system backed up and flooded the kids bathroom.

I dug up the septic tank Saturday to see what problem was and discovered that part of it was broken and the top is rotting out.

Can I be honest, in the middle of all that my initial response to the Holy Spirit was not reflective of what God was teaching me through Mary’s response.

But, as I took a moment alone and talked with God about it, He fixed my heart, and gave me a new perspective on all of it.

One thing in particular is that the car fell through because I needed the day to take care of the septic system.

God taught me something this week that I want you to learn as well.

Literally, no matter what is going on in your life, God is at work.

Don’t respond like me, be like Mary.

Trust God, seek him, and let Him show you what He is doing.

All of us have opportunities to respond to the Holy Spirit, and as we have learned over the last few weeks, God won’t just use that in your life.

God’s work in Mary’s life was much bigger than her.

Likewise, God’s work in your life is much bigger than you.

What role is your life playing in God’s cumulative redemptive work?

His work is going to overflow into other people’s lives, and they are going to experience God through your faith and obedience.

As I was finishing this up Saturday night, the song “Faithful” by Elevation came on.

“When I felt like the burden was more than I could hold,

When the whispers of worry overwhelmed my soul,

You never left me alone, You were there all along,

You are faithful, Why should my heart be afraid?

You are faithful.”

This song has been out for a number of years, and it always seems to pop up on my playlist when I need a reminder that God is working.

It is so easy to get fixated on the overflowing septic tank and forget that God working.

Even when life’s circumstances don’t look like it, God is working through our experiences for your good and His glory.

We see these stories in scripture and then compare them to our lives and think that their lives aren’t like ours.

We assume that Mary’s life was so much simpler than ours.

We haven’t talked about it yet, but during this same time, Mary is experiencing the ridicule that would have come from her being in this condition and not being married. Matthew 1:18-19.

In the midst of the joy and the hardship, Mary’s testimony is that God is great, he has done great things, and there is even more that He is going to do.

If we will walk with God, our testimony is going to be the same because we are going to have moment after moment of God doing what He said He would do.

In the huge, medium, and tiny stuff.

God is always faithful.

As we experience both the ups and downs of life, let’s respond to His faithfulness in faith.