Proper Responses To Christ

Introduction

Continue through the Gospel according to Luke, we turn our attention tonight to a very amazing encounter between Mary and Elizabeth.

Mary immediately left on a three day journey to head to Elizabeth’s house. And while she’s there, she has a very interesting encounter with Elizabeth.

It’s interesting because what’s happening now in Luke’s narrative is that Luke is explaining to us the responses to the pronouncement’s of Gabriel.

We’ve had Zechariah’s response, Elizabeth’s response, Mary’s response, now Elizabeth is responding to Mary who responds with a song.

So one of the most important concepts that we can focus on in this chapter are proper responses to Christ.

So let’s take at look at the various responses to Christ:

The Response of Elizabeth

Now it’s interesting because we can see from the context that Mary is probably barely pregnant. Elizabeth refers to the fruit of Mary’s womb, and Mary immediately left after the angel told her what was happening.

Probably not showing, and so forth.

Furthermore, Mary only greets Elizabeth. There isn’t anything in the text that states that Mary had informed Elizabeth yet what was going on.

It’s possible that Marys greeting was, “Greetings relative, I’m pregnant with the Messiah”.

But at any rate the reality is that Elizabeth is filled with the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit is controlling Elizabeth’s response. Most likely, the Holy Spirit reveals to her that Mary is carrying Jesus.

And Elizabeth’s response is absolute, pure joy. And in just case there’s any mistake about what Elizabeth’s joy is, it is not that Mary is pregnant.

Mary is not married. This would horrible news for a 1st century relative. Mary has committed sin. She fornicated either with Joseph or she fornicated with someone else.

So think about all the ways that this essentially could go wrong. Mary from Nazareth is pregnant out of wedlock. The response would more naturally be, “yep, that’s Nazareth for you”. Or just utter disappointment.

Then the law would have to be enacted. even reveals that Joseph was totally unwilling to Mary to public shame, he decided he would send her away quietly.

What on earth would cause Elizabeth to greet Mary by saying she is blessed among women? Elizabeth is totally excited for Mary. Not one drop of negativity towards Mary’s state.

, Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, that’s the first important thing. And then secondly, Mary became pregnant by the power of the Holy Spirit.

And she’s carrying Elizabeth’s Savior. It’s even more interesting that Elizabeth says that Mary is the mother of her Lord.

She’s already responding not just to Jesus as Savior but also to Jesus as her Lord. Mary is blessed in the eyes of Elizabeth and Elizabeth is ecstatic because her Lord is coming.

The one who rules her life, who gets to call the shots in her life who is king of her life, is someone that brings her great joy and excitement.

And Jesus in His humanity isn’t even further along that month. She acknowledged the month old pre-born Christ as her Lord.

So ultimately, the primary reason for Elizabeth’s excitement is that she is excited about her savior, her Lord.

Under the influence and control of the Holy Spirit, she sees this visit as far out of the ordinary.

Not only that. But 6 month old John the Baptist, still in his mother’s womb, and according to , being filled with the Holy Spirit, also has a response to the presence of one month old Jesus.

And of course these are literal months of life, not months of life considered outside the womb.

John moves out of Joy for Jesus.

Honestly, that has to be one of the single most convicting passages in the entirety of Scripture.

6 month old, in utero John the Baptist has a way more physical reaction of Joy to Jesus than most professing Christians today.

Plus this is excitement over Jesus who is one month old in utero Jesus. Jesus hadn’t been born yet, and hadn’t performed the miracles that he was going to.

He hadn’t died on the cross rose from the dead, etc. So it’s like having the least amount of information about Jesus, no Gospels being written yet, and so forth.

And having the least amount of capacity to rejoice over Jesus, and yet with Joy and excitement, has a better response than most who have the full revelation of Jesus Christ.

And have Jesus Christ having already conquered sin, death, hell and the grave, seated at the right hand of the Father, ruling and reigning over His people, waiting to simply put the necks of his enemies under his feet.

We get so excited about so many things that are not Jesus. We can’t wait for movie premiers, we can’t for things to buy, we can’t wait for relationships.

We get so excited by things that are not Jesus. I can’t help but think of the absolutely simplicity of pre born John appropriately excited about pre born Jesus.

He’s almost even already in his role as the forerunner of Jesus. His life from the earliest stages is characterized by his role to proclaim Christ.

I think we should we focus on these responses and adjust our lives to have more opportunities to respond with excitement about Jesus.

The Response of Mary

Now. Of all the ways that Mary could respond, her response in our text is the one that makes the least amount of Sense.

Elizabeth has just sung your praises, you are blessed among women, you’re the mother of my Lord, and so on.

This is the chance for Mary to rise up and brag about being Jesus’ mother. She could easily focus on the fact that she’s carrying the God-man, Jesus Christ to term.

In fact her and Elizabeth can have this huge party about how they’ve specially selected and have had miracles conceptions.

It’s time to go around the countryside and and be stoked about their situations and look down on other’s, right?

Did you notice first off, that Elizabeth hasn’t even been recorded in this section as information Mary about her state?

Her focus was on Jesus. She did speak highly of Mary given the fact that it really is a special thing to carry Christ.

With all the nice things that Elizabeth said about Mary, Mary responds in a rather peculiar way. She bursts out into a worship song.

She says,

(ESV)

46 And Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord,

46 And Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord,

47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,

46 And Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord,

47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,

48 for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant. For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed;

48 for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant. For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed;

49 for he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name.

47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,

Now before we say, “she did boast. She talked about how all generations would call her blessed”.

But let’s focus on the content of what she’s saying. First she says that her soul magnifies the Lord.

To Magnify here means to cause to be large. Her soul greatly esteems the Lord for His good deeds towards her.

It make absolutely no sense that she would say, my soul shows the Lord for how big and amazing he is, to then say, also, make sure that I look bigger than I am.

And she even defines the state that she’s in and what makes her blessed, or happy.

God looked on the humble estate of his servant. Or most literally, God looked at the humiliated state of his female slave.

So, when she says that all generations will call her blessed the reason she gives is because of God’s unearned, undeserved involvement in her life.

And what her life is, is a humble state of being enslaved to God. And she says this is cause for praise, and everyone from this moment forward will know how happy I am, because God is involved in my life and my life is capable of magnifying God.

Did you notice that? She is in the lowest state that she could be, so that God’s glory is on the maximum setting.

Me low, so that God can be shown to be high. Her worship is all about the maximizing of the display of God’s glory in her life.

That really should be the ongoing activity of believers. Not simply calling Mary blessed. But pursuing humility to maximize God’s glory being displayed in our lives.

And the only way to do that is through a greater emphasis on Jesus in our lives.

The Response of Worship

(ESV)

49 for he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name.

50 And his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation.

51 He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts;

52 he has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate;

53 he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty.

54 He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy,

55 as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his offspring forever.”

56 And Mary remained with her about three months and returned to her home.

In Mary’s response we can see very clearly that she is a representation of what happens to us. As we looked at last week, Paul was in labor pains until Christ is formed in us.

God took us in our lowly state, but specifically our humiliating state as sinners and grants special favor and status with Him.

He saves us, by letting us bear the name of Jesus Christ as Christians and followers of Him.

So the response that Mary gives in worship is definitely the response that we all should have.

Notice a few specific elements of her praise:

1). Verse 50, God’s mercy is for those who fear him.

Verse 50, God’s mercy is for those who fear him.

This is the verb φοβέω. It’s in the present middle/passive participle, φοβουμένοις. For the ones having feared God.

φοβουμένοις

It’s an continuous action, and God is the reason for the fear. The worship that Mary provides indicates that things are going to be different with Jesus from now on.

And one of the differences is that Christians would be constantly fearing God.

They would be very concerned about how they behave in the presence of this God. They’re not interesting in doing what is displeasing to God their interesting in doing what is pleasing to God.

That’s one of the most significant aspects of fearing God is the absolute interest and concern for what is and is not pleasing to God.

And the sincere desire to avoid what is not pleasing to God in favor of what is pleasing to God.

And the motivation for that is seen in the fact that God has done great things for us. We have given God no reason to be good to us and God has given us every reason to be good to Him.

underscores more of how God changes the statuses of people. Rich made poor, poor made rich, hungry made satisfied.

God is capable of changing everything that is wrong due to sin in our lives into everything that is right and pleasing to Him.

But notice, that two specific qualities are made known in the lives of those who receive God’s mercy:

Fear

Humility

Those two components are such essential fruit in the lives of God’s people. Are you fearing God? Are you humble?

Because the whole point of God choosing Mary wasn’t because of anything valuable in Mary but it was so that God’s glory would be shown to be great.

So God picked lowly Mary for His infinite majesty to be on display.

So this begs the question, what things are in your life that are competing for glory with God?

What aspects of your life are in competition with God? Your whole purpose for existing is for God to be made much of and for us to be made little of so that God’s muchness will be even more on display.