Sermon Tone Analysis

The Christmas Spirit

/Text: Luke 1:46-55/

 

Place Preached - (Mississauga International Baptist Church)

Date Preached - (12~/16~/01)

 

INTRODUCTION:

 

One of the phrases that you hear a lot at this time of the year is the "Christmas spirit, we need to have the Christmas spirit."

Just what is the Christmas spirit?

To Scrooge the Christmas spirit was a ghost.

To the liquor industry the Christmas spirit comes in a bottle.

Is it the truce that takes place in the family where nobody brings up the issues, the quarrels?

For some people it is expressed in a card that conveys a sentiment of well being.

The average household sends and receives 18 Christmas Cards a year.

This past Friday (Dec.

14th ) is the high day for card sales.

For some the Christmas spirit is an attitude of happiness found in the fellowship of friends, the party spirit, and the big turkey dinner.

For many, however, the Christmas spirit is not so trivial or so frivolous or so fun.

For many the Christmas spirit is one of profound sadness, increased depression because all that is wrong in their life is then measured against the perceived merriment of the time.

For others it's a time for saying thanks for some very basic things.

"/When we were children we were grateful to those who filled our stockings with toys at Christmas, why are we not grateful to God for filling our stockings with legs?/"  - G. K. Chesterton

Mostly though, I guess the spirit of Christmas is giving presents, if the mall is any indication.

Let’s get down to the central issue...what is the true spirit of Christmas?

Is it fun?

Is it fellowship?

Is it giving?

What is it?

Well, as always, the best answer to that question is to go the Bible.

*/How is it exemplified in some of the main participants in the real Christmas story?/*

Elizabeth - *Luke 1:41*

Zacharias - *Luke 1:67*

The realm of the angels – *Luke 2:13*

The shepherds' response -  *Luke 2:20*

Simeon – *Luke 2:25*

Notice how many of these people have an unusually described relationship to the Holy Spirit...

Anna - *Luke 2:36*

The wise men - *Matthew 2:2*

Elizabeth, Zacharias, angels, shepherds, Simeon, Anna basically had one response.

And that one response, in a word - "worship."

This then is the supreme attitude of Christmas.

This time of all times is a time of worship.

Now to find a pattern for our worship, we are drawn to another person.

None other than His mother Mary.

Without question she gives the most magnificent psalm of worship in the whole New Testament (*Luke 1:46-55*).

It is her psalm of praise to God for the coming of Jesus Christ.

Mary knew that she was to be the mother of the Son of God.

She had been told that.

Back in verse 35.

And so she bursts forth in the only appropriate response and that is the response of worship.

Now in the prayers of Roman Catholics, Mary is called the Mother of God.

There is a sense in which she is – as the mother of Jesus Christ (Who is God).

Many have perverted that reality into developing the worship of Mary as somehow contributing to the divinity of Jesus Christ.

In fact, in many cases you will find Jesus is somewhat incidental and Mary is the main figure.

These are unalterable, fixed, unchanging doctrines in the Roman Catholic Church.

And here are the five that relate to Mary:

*/1.

The Immaculate Conception of Mary.

/*

It does not mean that she immaculately conceived Jesus Christ.

It means that she was immaculately conceived by her mother.

It is teaching the virgin birth of Mary.

*/2.

The sinlessness of Mary/*

Teaching that she lived her entire life and never sinned.

She was free from original sin.

*/3.

The perpetual virginity of Mary.

/*

*/4.

The Assumption of Mary /*

Or the bodily ascension of Mary into heaven.

It is a doctrine teaching that Mary never died.

*/5.

That Mary is the Queen of Heaven./*

When she ascended into heaven she was coronated as the Queen of Heaven, a position of sovereignty and a position of authority.

Jesus Himself is put in a position on occasion to be appealing to His sovereign mother.

So the whole plan of Salvation rested then on Mary's authority and on Mary's agreement.

Now all of that presents a perverse picture of Mary.

If that's true of Mary, then she is the object of worship.

But in this hymn, Mary is not the worshiped, Mary is the worshiper.

It is a hymn of worship from Mary to God.

*/Now, let us look at the elements that are in this psalm that speak of the significance and the meaning of worship./*

!

I.

The attitude of worship.

Vs.46-48

*/What are the characteristics of a right attitude in worship?/*

!! A. It is internal.

"/My *soul* doth magnify the Lord/."

And then "/My *spirit* hath rejoiced in God my Saviour/."

The term "soul" and the term "spirit" speak of the inner person.

Worship rises from inside.

It's not something you do on the outside.

It's not a performance.

It's not a set of words or a set of actions.

It is in the mind and the will and the emotion.

It sums up the whole inner being.

It is not singing a hymn alone.

It is not reading words in a Bible, hearing a sermon.

It is not just giving something in the offering.

Those are effects of a worshiping heart, but they cannot stand alone as true worship.

Superficial worship finds no place of acceptance with God.

*Isaiah 29:13*  Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men:

In the Christmas vernacular, “ they put things about Me on their Christmas cards, they sing My carols but they do not honor Me.”

!! B. It is intense.

Notice, "/My soul doth *magnify* the Lord, and my spirit hath *rejoiced* in God my Saviour/."

The word "magnify" is the word megaluno.

Now you know a little about the word mega.

It often gets transliterated over into English when we want to say something is bigger than normal.

Literally the word means to cause to swell, or to cause to grow, or to crescendo.