God Keeps His Promises ... Through Unlikely People.

Introduction

Good morning church,

We’ve arrived today at the fourth Sunday of Advent, and Christmas is nearly here.

This morning I would like to focus on two things, which are tightly linked together in this passage.

Firstly, we are thinking about how God keeps his promises to his people down through the ages. The main focus of this passage is that God always keeps his promises.

This is what Elizabeth and Mary declare and celebrate. God never promises something and does not follow through.

Elsewhere in Isaiah 55 it says that God’s word shall never return to him void - it never returns to him empty - God’s word, that proceeds from his mouth, his promise ... will always come to fulfillment - it will always accomplish what God intended it to accomplish.

So we’re going to think about God keeping his promises.

Secondly, although this is not the main focus, what I think is really significant is that God keeps his promises through women.

I think sometimes we just get used to it, we know that women share in and declare the story of God, we see it at points throughout the Old Testament, and we see it frequently in the gospels. We could just skip past it, but I want to highlight just how groundbreaking that is.

In a patriarchal society, it’s really important to notice how God chooses to use women and how they are key people in the drama of Jesus’ birth.

Not only is God faithful to keep his promises, but he also does it through those who do not normally get a mention.

Promise and Fulfillment

The key focus of this passage is that God always comes through on his promises.

When Mary comes to Zechariah’s house, we have this moment of God breaking in when the baby leaps in the womb and Elizabeth is filled with the Holy Spirit and she declares that ‘the Lord,’ the promised Messiah, the Christ, has come - and that Mary is his mother.

It is an awesome moment.

One commentator says that ‘movements of the foetus are not, of course, uncommon’ … but I think that when Luke says that the baby leaped, we get the impression that this was quite a significant movement!

At the same time Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. She would have sensed something different and the presence of God in some way.

Elizabeth’s response is then to declare that Mary is the mother of ‘the Lord’ - the Messiah, the Christ - the one who was promised. Elizabeth knows the promises of God about the Messiah, she believed that he would come, and then when she is filled with the Spirit as Mary calls to her, she declares that the Messiah has come and that he is here.

It must of been one of the most memorable moments of Elizabeth’s life - God had promised for centuries to send a saviour to his people, and that saviour was finally here.

God had not given up on his people, he had been faithful, and now the kingdom of God was beginning to break in. Later in Luke 1, Zechariah also prophesies the same thing that:

In the tender compassion of our God,

the dawn from on high shall break upon us

To shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death

and to guide our feet into the way of peace.

Luke 1:78-79

Elizabeth is recognising that a new era is dawning, a new season, the kingdom is breaking in. And we could also say that the unborn child John is also testifying to this.

And then Mary responds and also recognises that God is fulfilling his promises:

Luke 1:46–55 “And Mary said: “My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant. From now on all generations will call me blessed, for the Mighty One has done great things for me— holy is his name. His mercy extends to those who fear him, from generation to generation. He has performed mighty deeds with his arm; he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts. He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble. He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty. He has helped his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful to Abraham and his descendants forever, just as he promised our ancestors.””

These words from Mary are an early summary of the gospel - the good news that the kingdom of God is breaking in.

And again, Mary knows the promises of God, she knows the promises of the Messiah, the Christ … and she is declaring that God has remembered his people, just as he promised her ancestors that he would.

God has not given up on them … and the proof is in her womb.

God always keeps his promises. He is trustworthy. He can be counted on to be dependable.

In 2 Timothy 2 it says that ‘if we are faithless, he remains faithful— for he cannot deny himself.’ 2 Timothy 2:13

God is always faithful to his promises because it is in his very nature, he is dependable.

Fulfillment Through Unlikely People

So, God always keeps his promises, that is what Elizabeth and Mary focus on, but one key thing to note in this passage is how he chooses to fulfill them through women.

And the reason why I want to note this is not to be ‘woke’, but simply because we still live in a society where people are on the margins, where some get an easy ride to the top and others don’t, where some people often get a mention but others don’t. But what we see in the gospels, and Luke particularly shows this, is that God uses all people, in fact he often uses those who society thought were the most unlikely, to bring about his plans and purposes.

We don’t know much about Elizabeth and Mary before the story begins.

We know that Elizabeth is part of a priestly family in the same way that her husband Zechariah is - they are both descendants of Aaron, the high priest at the time of Moses - but more than that we do not know. Presumably Zechariah would have had some standing within the community, in that he was part of a division of priests who were chosen by lot to go in to the temple of the Lord to burn incense. But the key focus on the earlier passage about him is on what God does and not on him. And Elizabeth, we are told, is simply his wife.

Then we know even less about Mary, all it says in Luke 1 is that she is a virgin who is pledged to be married to Joseph, a descendant of David. We also learn a bit later that Elizabeth is a relative of Mary, close enough for Mary to visit her. But apart from those details, that’s all we know.

So, maybe Elizabeth has some status through being married to Zechariah, but we don’t know of any status that Mary has.

And even if they do have some status, it’s not their status that leads to God using them.

I think it’s fair to say that both Elizabeth and Mary are faithful to God … and Elizabeth even says about Mary in verse 45 “Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her!””

So there is something in their faithfulness as followers of God.

Interestingly it is Zechariah who is the one who doubts the promise of the angel of the Lord and so he ends up being silenced for the best part of a year. And it is Joseph who has a wobble when he finds out that Mary is pregnant and thinks about breaking off their engagement quietly. So, it is interesting to see how the women have faith and the men lack faith.

But the only reason we know why God chooses to use Elizabth and Mary, is simply because he does. We have no clear reason, it is just God’s choice.

And I find that comforting and encouraging.

God likes to use all different sorts of people as he keeps and fulfills his promises. He uses broken people who do their best to remain faithful to him.

What does this mean for us now?

Firstly, God is faithful.

When God promises something, he will bring it to fulfillment. God promised that he would send a Messiah, a saviour to his people. It may have taken a while, but in his good timing, he came through on his promise.

So, whatever situations we are facing, let’s remember that God is faithful and he keeps his promises.

Secondly, God uses unlikely people.

You might be aware that God is using you. You might not be aware of how he has used you recently. You might think that God could not possibly use you to extend his kingdom.

But I want to encourage you this morning that God wants to bring his plans and purposes for his kingdom to fulfillment through you.

Whatever you think of yourself, whatever gifts or abilities or lack of them you think you have, God wants to use you. And I want to encourage you to say ‘yes’ to him. You might not know what he is asking you to do at this moment, you might be aware. Whatever it is, wherever you are at, can I encourage you to say ‘yes’ to him. To ask for his strength, to ask for his guidance and wisdom, to ask for the courage to obey … and then say ‘yes’.

And know that God will meet you as you step out in faith.