God's Promised Favour
God's Promised Favour: Advent 2023 • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Introduction
Introduction
Let’s read:
And Mary said,
“My soul magnifies the Lord,
and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant.
For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
for he who is mighty has done great things for me,
and holy is his name.
And his mercy is for those who fear him
from generation to generation.
He has shown strength with his arm;
he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts;
he has brought down the mighty from their thrones
and exalted those of humble estate;
he has filled the hungry with good things,
and the rich he has sent away empty.
He has helped his servant Israel,
in remembrance of his mercy,
as he spoke to our fathers,
to Abraham and to his offspring forever.”
Every culture in the world is built upon promises, and our ability to remain faithful to those promises provide an important foundation. Relationships, financial markets, political decisions are rely on promises that are made and the trust we place in the one with whom we make the promise.
It is in our relationships that most of us first remember the importance of a promise. A marriage covenant is a promise. Though relationships between friends do not go through such a formal process as a marriage, friendships too are sustained on promises and the trust attached to those promises.
Recently, I was teaching a group of History students about the Klondike. And in our discussion of the Klondike we examined one of the most famous poems set in the Gold Rush era. The poem is the Cremation of Sam McGee by Robert Service.
I assume that many of you are familiar with this poem. If you ask my wife, there’s a good chance she can recite most of it. How she knows this poem from memory is a good question and you can ask her some time.
The poem is about two men who are searching for gold in the Yukon, and trapped in the bitter cold one of the men knows that he won’t make it. He implores the other man to promise him that he will bring his body back to his home in the American south where it’s warm. He’s tired of the nothern cold (This story would hit home a little better if we were having a typical December winter, but I won’t complain.) The man assures him that he will do as he requests - he makes the promise. The rest of the poem is the story of this man hauling his friend’s body across the tundra - it’s quite a macabre story, but a story built on a promise though a somewhat unusual promise.
I asked my students what they would have done in this man’s shoes. Most said that they would probably do their best to fulfill their friends wishes, despite the unusual request.
And then I asked them if they had ever been asked to fulfill a promise to someone else that they felt ill equipped for. To my surprise, very few had. Very few described an experience where they were challenged to fulfill a meaningful promise.
My next question was, would they like someone to challenge them with such a request?
Did they seek for someone to ask something big of them. Did they seek the challenge?
Mary is presented with quite the challenge as pastor Daryl described last Sunday.
Last week Pastor Darryl walked us through Luke 1:26-38 and I was struck by Mary’s response to the angel’s message.
And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.
When confronted with this overwhelming responsibility, to bear the world’s saviour, to help fulfill God’s ancient promise, Mary simply surrenders to the will of God.
Total surrender to God’s will.
Our study of Mary’s song occurs a short time after Mary meets the angel.
Mary visits her cousin Elizabeth who had also been visited by an angel and in her old age was about the give birth to a son. A son that would have his own role to play in the fulfilment of God’s promise as he would become John the Baptizer - the one who would may a way for the Lord.
And it’s in the meeting of Elizabeth and Mary that we find Mary’s Song. A passage steeped in Old Testament allusions and tradition, but before we examine her specific words, let us first consider the context of these words.
They come after hundreds of years of prophetic silence. The prophets of the Old Testament remind the people of Israel of God’s promise to them, ending with the prophet Malachi, who in Malachi 4:2 says,
But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall.
The sun of righteousness. The light in the darkness, the Messiah. Malachi is pointing to the coming Messiah and then over 400 years of silence.
There’s 400 years of prophetic silence.
Until this moment. It’s at this moment with the work of the Spirit through Elizabeth and Mary that we get our first glimpse of the fulfillment of the promise. And it will be Elizabeth’s son, John, who in Matthew 3:2 says,
“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
The Messiah has come!
You can imagine old men living in the time of the prophets, with their children and grandchildren around them reading the covenant promises and the words of the prophets. The children would raise their hands and ask, “When, when will God’s promise come? When will we see our Messiah?” And the old man would say, “I don’t know, but that day will come.” And soon that generation would pass away, and the next would read the covenant promises and the words of the prophets looking forward to their fulfillment and they would pass away until finally at this moment we see God’s hand at work to show his favour on his people and remember his promise to them.
Slide 1
God’s favour may be one of the most misunderstood concepts in Scripture. I quick search online or through a list of podcasts will give you many options to discover what God’s favour looks like. Most will focus on teachings that call you to seek God’s blessing and favour so that you can enjoy good health, wealth, a promotion, a relationship. So, what is God’s favour and how does it relate to his promises? Let’s examine Mary’s song as it reveals for us how God bestows favour.
God’s favour is not earned, like Grace, it is unmerited. Grace is unmerited favour. God shows his favour by extending to us mercy. And so God’s favour can be described as someone to whom God has extended mercy and through them is revealed tangible evidence that a person has the approval of God.
So, favour is closely connected to both grace and mercy and God’s favour will produce tangible evidence. And as Mary described the work of God in the fulfilment of his covenant, we see God’s favour revealed.
Let’s read:
And Mary said,
“My soul magnifies the Lord,
and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant.
For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
for he who is mighty has done great things for me,
and holy is his name.
First, we see that God extends his favour to Mary.
Slide 2
And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.
He extends his favour to Mary by choosing her play a part in bringing the Messiah.
First, Mary recognizes in her need for a saviour. Mary herself needed saving, and God would use her to bring forth his saving grace.
She says that she will be blessed and we see the truth of that statement as we continue to remember Mary even today 2000 years later. And despite that fact nowhere in here do we see Mary elevate herself. We remember her 2000 years later but she always directs her praise toward God and not herself. She says, “Holy is His name.”
God shows his favour to Mary. Next, he shows his favour to those who fear him.
Slide 3
And his mercy is for those who fear him
from generation to generation.
He shows his favour to those who fear him.
What kind of fear is this? For Mary it’s the kind of fear that’s filled with awe. It’s a reverent fear. Awe and reverence because Mary in this moment recognizes the providential work of the Lord in the revealing of the fulfilment of the covenant promises.
Who shows favour on those who fear him
Slide 4
Luke 1:51 (ESV)
He has shown strength with his arm;
What does this mean, He shows strength with his arm? It’s a metaphor to help us understand God’s strength in the work he demonstrates.
Say therefore to the people of Israel, ‘I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from slavery to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment.
God’s outstretched arm reveals his strength and is always a sign of intervention. In exodus he intervenes on behalf of his people to redeem them from the hands of the Israelites, just as Mary reveals that God in fulfilling his promise in bringing the Messiah is intervening of our behalf by bringing redemption to all who believe. The Messiah has come, God has intervened and provided redemption to all those who choose to believe.
The verses that follow provide us examples of God’s intervening work. Some translations of verse 51, instead of describing God’s strength, describe this instead as his mighty deeds. So what are God’s mighty deeds. We see his mighty deeds in the verses that follow.
Luke 1:51 (ESV)
he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts;
He scatters the proud.
I pulled into the grocery store last week and I saw a women stepping into her car and I noticed she had a fish sticker on her back window. You’ve probably seen the fish before, it marks someone as a believer. But this fish symbol was different, this fish symbol had legs.
No doubt this is to symbolize or rather mock the symbol and point our it’s backwardness and point to evolution, or naturalism as a better understanding of the world, but she did this by mocking, Christ and his followers.
This fish symbol which was used by the early church to identify themselves in such a way that they could avoid persecution from the Romans. The fish was a common symbol, it was used by various groups in the Roman world. So, unlike the cross, the fish attracted very little suspicion. So the early Christians would use this symbol to help them find safety from a world that was seeking to kill them. And this women took this symbol and openly mocked it and what it stands for.
He scatters the proud.
Look at King Nebuchadnezzar who in the book of Daniel stands at the top of one of the greatest empires the world had ever seen.
Just like we are times are tempted to stand on what we believe we have built. We say, look at what I have done.
We point to our success in business.
Our success in our relationships, and perhaps popularity - our social empires.
But we are reminded, King Nebuchadnezzar who stood at the top of this great empire very soon finds himself mooing like a cow and eating grass.
Everything good in your life is a blessing from God and a gift of his mercy - his favour.
Don’t say, Look at what I have done, or see what kind of person I am that God would choose me.
What did Mary do? She responded with humility and gratitude.
Why?
Because he scatters the proud.
he has filled the hungry with good things,
and the rich he has sent away empty.
He sends the rich away empty.
If we examine God’s mighty works closely we will find when he sends the rich away empty, he doesn’t often take their wealth from them.
When we look at the life of King Solomon, one of the richest men who ever lived, God doesn’t take his wealth from him but that doesn’t stop God from revealing to Solomon the emptiness found in the pursuit of wealth as we can read in Ecclesiastes.
Some of you might be familiar with the very powerful music video of the Johnny Cash song Hurt. He performs the song in his 70s and he’s beset by a variety of health conditions and in the music video he’s reflecting on his life and everything that he’s accumulated. In that song he describes what he’s built as his ‘empire of dirt.’
It’s a recognition of the emptiness of the pursuits of the things of this world.
He sends the rich away empty.
God shows his favour first to Mary. Then it is revealed that God shows his favour to those who fear him, and at the same time he scatters the proud and sends the rich away empty.
Finally, we see that he shows his favour on his people Israel.
Slide 5
He has helped his servant Israel,
in remembrance of his mercy,
as he spoke to our fathers,
to Abraham and to his offspring forever.”
To understand this passage in Luke we must examine God’s work in it’s broader context.
God entered into a covenant, a promise, with Abraham way back in Genesis. Abraham, who became the nation of Israel. God built on this covenant with another covenant, a promise with Moses, whereby the nation of Israel was given the Law. The law which revealed man’s inability to meet God’s holy standards. The law which revealed our need for redemption. The law that could not ultimately be fulfilled by the blood of animals, but needed a perfect sacrifice.
And Israel lived under God’s covenants for hundreds of years. In that time recognizing their need for the covenant to be fulfilled.
In Jeremiah 31, Jeremiah the prophet looks forward to a time when God will forgive his people’s iniquity and remember their sin no longer.
Mary is indicating here that God has remembered his promises to his nation Israel. Because through Mary God’s promised Messiah has come.
So what about us? God presents his favour on his nation Israel as he remembers the covenant and brings his promised Messiah.
In Romans 11, the Apostle Paul presents the image of an olive tree. The tree is an image of Israel and the covenant promises given to them. Paul declares that Gentiles, those who are not Jews, have been grafted into this tree. That anyone who believes that Jesus Christ is Lord, repents of their sin and looks to Jesus for their salvation can be grafted into the covenant.
So God’s favour, his mercy is granted to Mary, it’s granted to those who fear him, and it’s granted to each one of us when God remembered his covenant promise and through the work of Jesus we can be grafted into this promise by acknowledging him as Lord and Saviour and receiving his gift of grace.
I explained earlier that God’s favour, his mercy, his unmerited grace, comes with tangible evidence. When we have God’s favour, there is evidence.
The evidence is likely not wealth, it is likely not popularity or health. He may choose to give us these things. But remember, he also scatters the proud and leaves the rich empty.
So why should we seek God’s favour?
We should all desire God’s favour.
What does that mean?
It’s quite common to hear preachers on tv calling their congregants to seek gods favour. God’s favour, according to them means God’s blessing. God’s blessing means increased financial security, freedom from an illness, a promotion at work.
That’s not what Gods favour looks like.
Is that what it looked like for Mary?
Mary endured ridicule and persecution when she began to show she was pregnant because she was not yet married. Many didn’t understand the miracle that was taking place.
She had to travel pregnant from Nazareth to Bethlehem, 150 kms.
She had to deliver her baby in a stable
Once she had the child, she was forced to flee to Egypt and live in a foreign land.
Once her son grew up she had to watch him face persecution and rejection and ultimately she had to see her son hang on a cross. An not only did she have to endure his suffering, but she did so with the acknowledgement that it was her sin that pierced him.
God favoured Mary. Doesn’t look like it. Not the way we may see favour.
That’s not the favour that God brings. It’s not health and wealth that we should be pursuing. That’s not to point of seeking gods favour.
No, gods favour brings us purpose. When we are in God’s favour, he directs us, he molds the desires of our hearts to his will. He directs and guides us. He sets our desires.
Mary presented herself humbly before God and was filled with a desire to fulfill the mission God had established for her.
And this should be our desire. We seek God’s favour so that we can live out the purpose he called us to.
As we look through Scripture, who was given God’s favour specifically? Noah (built an ark), Abraham (move hundreds of miles across the desert), Joseph (rejected and imprisoned), Samuel (serve God and his kings), Ezra (call the people back to the Law- Torah) . No where in these stories are we told that God granted them favour and then they were blessed with riches and health, no each of these men were favoured by God and given a purpose.
That’s what God’s favour does. It’s not a promise of wealth and provision, it’s a promise of purpose.
If you walk in God’s favour, God will give you purpose. Why should we seek God’s favour, because he gives us purpose. Why should we seek a purpose from God? Why not create my own purpose? Because God created us and he created us for a purpose and only the purpose given to us by God our created with grant us joy and fulfillment. To seek your purpose anywhere else will leave you empty and wanting.
I explained earlier that when asked, most of my students indicated that they couldn’t really a time that someone had asked them to make a promise that really pushed them. They hadn’t really been asked to do something that they felt ill-equipped for. And the reason I asked, would you like to be asked something like this, is to point to purpose.
We need purpose.
This is what God’s favour gives to us. He shapes our desires into his desires and in doing so directs us.
Slide 6
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
We can try to find our purpose outside of God’s will but it will only leave us empty, for our purpose can only come from the one who created us. The creator sets the purpose for the creation.
God’s favour is the light that illuminates the path toward his good purpose.
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
The covenant gave God’s people purpose. Israel stood proudly and said that God established his promise with us and we are his people and he is our god. Our purpose is to serve him.
They looked forward to the fulfillment of this promise. We look back. We rejoice in the truth that we’ve been grafted into that promise. That all who believe in Jesus, repent of their sin and trust him as lord and saviour can find God’s mercy, his grace, his favour, and find a direction and purpose that grants us a fulfillment that only our creator can provide.
So, this Christmas season, when you think about the role of Mary, think about how she walked in God’s favour and was faithful to the purpose he set out for her and that God is faithful to his promises, and how we are part of that promise.