Sermon Dec 8 2024

Luke 1:39-45

Luke 1:39–45 NIV

At that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea, where she entered Zechariah’s home and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. In a loud voice she exclaimed: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her!”

Luke 1:41 NIV

When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.

—> The Holy Spirit moves in us, how do we respond?

—> Do we live into the work of the Spirit?

—> Do we quench the Spirit?

Luke 1:42–45 NIV

In a loud voice she exclaimed: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her!”

—> By calling the coming baby “my Lord,” Elizabeth gives voice to the first confession of faith in Jesus that is recorded in Luke’s Gospel.

Ringe, Sharon H. Luke. Edited by Patrick D. Miller and David L. Bartlett, Westminster John Knox Press, 1995, p. 34.

—> Blessed is she who has believed.

—> Encourage people not just for what they do but for believing.

—> Throughout the New Testament their is a constant refrain of faith and deeds. Its not just about one or the other its about both and.

—> Mary is pronounced blessed because she believed (v. 45). This is a striking contrast to Zechariah, who was cursed temporarily with loss of speech because of his unbelief. Thus the hint is given to us at the very beginning of the Gospel that we must read it in faith, not balking at the miraculous but believing it.

Earle, Ralph. “The Gospel according to St. Luke.” Matthew-Acts, vol. 4, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1966, pp. 215–16.

Luke 1:57–61 NIV

When it was time for Elizabeth to have her baby, she gave birth to a son. Her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown her great mercy, and they shared her joy. On the eighth day they came to circumcise the child, and they were going to name him after his father Zechariah, but his mother spoke up and said, “No! He is to be called John.” They said to her, “There is no one among your relatives who has that name.”

Elizabeth sees her blessing through to the end.

—> She does all that she was told.