Mary's Reaction of Praise

Introduction

So I don’t know if you have noticed but we have a few new faces here at Friendship Church. (New in the sense that we haven’t seen them before and in the sense that they have been more recently formed in their mother’s womb.) Derek and Melanie Leifring have been bringing in little Luke, who was born back at the end of April and is doing well, teaching his first time parents a lot about the value of things they used to take for granted…like sleep and clean clothes and house. Also James Reinhardt made his debut here at the end of August to his proud parents Gus and Kristen, as well as his two older sisters Jule and Alice.

And it is fun to see these parents make new adjustments for the joys and challenges that these little boys are and will continue to bring into their lives. I am sure if you asked either one of these mothers...they could tell you of the world of advice and tips and stories that they have heard from family and friends who have traveled this season of parenting before.

And we all mean really well, and some of our advice is probably even worth sharing, but the wisest that I think any mother can hear is to just admit that there is nothing that completely prepares you for the arrival of a new baby. You have to learn so much of it on the go.

Tension

Maybe no one could say this more than the mother of Jesus. We are in week three of our series called “Christos” where we are diving deep into the life of Jesus the Christ in assurance that we each have more to learn from His story.

This week we are going to look at the response of this young girl who found out that she was specially chosen by God to be the mother... of the Son of God. While it is true that many of our Catholic friends and family members may make too much of unique role that Mary plays in the life of Jesus, sometimes I think that Protestants like us may be making too little of her significance.

As we talked about last week, the story of Jesus began being told way before he was born and that even includes a mention of his role of his mother...

Isaiah 7:14 ESV

14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.

In some ways, the events of Jesus’ birth were similar to other births…but...there were also some things that were uniquely different. Some things that stood out. So much so that they would serve as “a sign” from the Lord. And this is how this part of Jesus’ story begins...

Luke 1:26–29 ESV

26 In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, 27 to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary. 28 And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” 29 But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be.

It is hard to imagine what must have been going through Mary’s heart and mind in this moment. For more than 400 years, God’s people had no new prophets, only the law and the interpretations, and re-interpretations, and tensions, arguments and factions over the meanings of what all these prophets of old said. So to have an angelic messenger appear and deliver a clear Word from the Lord was something very unexpected and quite troubling.

Luke 1:30–33 ESV

30 And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 31 And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”

Do you hear the connections with the Kingdom language that we looked at last week? The fulfillment of the covenants that God made to both David and Jacob? This baby to be conceived through Mary will be given the throne of his father David, for Mary was herself a descendant of David. Not only that, but he will reign over the people of Jacob or the people of “Israel” forever.

These are powerful and prophetic declarations being spoken over this child...but Mary was a little more concerned about the more pressing matters. If she was like most Jewish girls, she was already anticipating being a mother - but how exactly would the father role work in the birth of “The Son of God”.

Luke 1:34–37 ESV

34 And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” 35 And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God. 36 And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. 37 For nothing will be impossible with God.”

How much did we really think Mary understood about her pregnancy at this point?

Do you think she really understood what was all happening here? Do you think she had complete clarity on how this would all work? It is not like she had any experience with a plan like this. She couldn’t relate what this angel was telling her to the advice and tips that well meaning family and friends had given her about what having a baby would be like.

What would the “Holy Spirit come upon her and overshadow her” be like? How would she know it had happend? It had never happened like this before and it will never happen like this again.

The closest thing to this miracle was the miracle of new birth in her relative Elizabeth, but even that was not exactly like this like this. And yet...

Luke 1:38 ESV

38 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.

Wow. Do you see how we may not be giving Mary enough credit. Here she is...this young girl…now facing a mountain of unanswered questions…all the “who’s - what’s - and how’s” and her response was simply…I am the Lord’s servant. The Greek word for servant is that tricky word “doulos” and here specifically it takes the feminine form so that what Mary is really saying here is that she is “a little slave girl” of the Lord, ready and willing to submit to whatever He has planned.

How much could she really have understood at this point?...and yet she has confidence in the one thing that she knows for sure - the Word of the Lord has spoken into her life and she will live obedient to it, leaving all the details into His faithful hands.

How do we move our lives into that kind of attitude, into that kind of response? What gets us there? I am desperate to know…and my hope is that together we will learn some of it from this part of Jesus’ story with His faithful mother Mary

If you haven’t already, turn with me to Luke chapter 1 and we will pick up here in verse 39. I’ll pray and then we will walk with Mary into the next moments of her “young slave girl” life.

Truth

Luke 1:39–40 ESV

39 In those days Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country, to a town in Judah, 40 and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth.

So Mary get’s this visit from a heavenly messenger who tells her that she is going to be the mother of the Messiah, and the very next thing that Luke records Mary doing is to go visit her relative Elizabeth.

Why? Because this was part of the gift that the Lord gave her. She would not be alone in her experiences of an angel visiting with news of a miraculous birth. And of course the son of the...more mature mother Elizabeth was announced to be the forerunner of the Christ, we know him as John the Baptist and we will get to his part in Jesus’ story in a couple of weeks…but for now, lets consider the responses of these two mothers.

For Mary’s part we see her showing great courage in her desire for confirmation of God’s plan, because it is not as if Elizabeth lived across town, she was a several day journey away. Remember how Mary’s story started...

Luke 1:26 ESV

26 In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth,

We talked about the significance of this region of Galilee in Jesus’ story last week. It was the region that was previously known as home to the tribes of Zebulun and Naphtali - I think we have last weeks map to remind us of where that was.

Then the following slide gives us a map of the area as it was in Mary’s day, and what it would take for her to travel to Elizabeth’s front door.

The truth is that between the time of Isaiah and the time of Mary the reputation of this area of Galilee had not improved much. It was still a war torn area with a lot of diverse cultural tensions and ethnic clashes and yet...this is the place where God found the mother for His Son. Not a wealthy powerful family from the historic and blessed city of Jerusalem, but a poor peasant girl of Nazareth in the humbled region of Galilee…which perfectly fits the prophecy of Isaiah hundreds of years before when he said...

Isaiah 9:2 ESV

2 The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone.

After leaving her hometown of Nazareth, Mary traveled for probably about a week to visit Elizabeth, especially if she followed the traditional path around the land of Samaria - something Jesus spoke into later in his ministry.

And we don’t know exactly where the home of Zechariah and Elizabeth was, just that it was in “hill country” in the region of Judea. But any journey like this took great courage, especially when you consider what was motivating the risk. Mary had a deep desire to confirm the message she had received, and she was willing to put her faith into action to find out.

This was what she experienced when she arrived…

Luke 1:41–45 ESV

41 And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, 42 and she exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! 43 And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? 44 For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. 45 And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.”

Elizabeth’s response gave Mary her confirmation, and it leads us to our first theme for the week:

God’s presence demands our honor (Luke 1:39–45).

There was no way for Elizabeth to know about Mary’s condition or role like this without the revelation of the Holy Spirit. It is not like Mary could phone ahead or put it on her facebook feed or something. If she could she probably wouldn’t have risked the trip. But Elizabeth’s response was a profound moment for both these mothers. Through the Holy Spirit, Elizabeth was made aware of the presence of Jesus, and she could not help but cry out over such a blessing. And not only Elizabeth, but the baby with in her responded to the presence of the Lord in their midst.

As a quick side note, especially in light of the election year that we are in right now..I can not help but point out the significance of how the Holy Spirit used the life of an unborn child to communicate this truth to Mary and his mother. There are a lot of conversations that are being had right now, even among Christians, as to how important it really is to be concerned over our nation not only allowing but financing the murder of so many unborn babies. Counting them as nothing but unwanted tissue from the mothers body. I do not know how any Christian could hold such a stance, especially in light of this part of Jesus’ story.

Both Elizabeth and the baby in her womb distinctly responded to the presence of God in this moment. The baby leaps for joy, and Elizabeth filled with the Holy Spirit loudly expresses how honored she is to be counted worthy to take part in such a moment as this. God’s presence demands our honor

And of course Mary then responds in turn...

Luke 1:46–49 ESV

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

Our second theme for the week is that...

God’s glorious character demands our personal worship (Luke 1:46–49).

These verses and the ones that follow make up something that is historically known as “Mary’s song” or in more liturgical circles “The Magnificat” (Mag-ni-fuh-cot) after the first words in the Latin translation of the Bible meaning “ To Magnify”.

It appears that the sign that the Lord gave to Mary has served it’s purpose. She has come to affirm that which she already believed. She had heard the Word of the Lord, took courageous steps of faith into it and then saw it affirmed to be true, and now is responding in personal worship of her Lord.

What do you think of, when I say the words “personal worship”? If you envision every worship experience as having it involve an instrument of some sort, then I guess those of us who can’t play the guitar, piano or organ are out of luck here. Maybe we worship with a kazoo. Anyone who can hum a tune can play a kazoo. Of course those of us who think we can’t carry a tune even in a buck would be out of luck there too.

Is there a way to practice “personal worship” even if you are not musical?

While music does lend itself well to worship and it is certainly not a bad things to be led into musical worship by the words of other song writers or song leaders, at it’s core...worship is as simple as: Making Much of Who God Is. It is declaring the wonderful things that we know that God has done, is doing and will do in the lives of His people. Truth is, we don’t even know that Mary sang these things that we call “Mary’s song”. The text says that she “said” them. But we do know that she declared them from her own understanding and personal experience with her Lord. It was “personal worship”.

But don’t miss this…These were not just Mary’s feelings about God. These words are recognizable as having come from other places in Scripture. From various other Psalms and even the words of Hannah’s “song” found back in 1 Samuel 2. What does this teach us? That Mary was able to declare true and right things about God in her personal worship because she knew His Word. Our personal worship, just like any form of corporate worship, should be saying true and right things about the glorious character of our God. We cannot do this without knowing Him as He has revealed Himself to us in His word.

Let me encourage each one of us to consider what “personal worship” might look like for us this coming week. Our musical abilities aside, how can we be proactive in declaring true and right things about our God this week? One thing I would like to suggest is to begin our personal worship time by reading something right from God’s Word. Just open your Bible to just about any place in the Psalms and you will probably find some point of connection to whatever you are experiencing of God’s glorious character in that moment of personal worship. That is one way you can pursue personal worship, but consider how it might look for you. How can you “Make much of God” this week in a personal way.

Lastly this morning...

God’s involvement with His covenant people demands our humble service (Luke 1:50–56).

Luke 1:50–56 ESV

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.

This next section of the “Magnificat” takes us back to the history of God’s faithfulness with His people. Remember it has been 400 years since God has spoken to His people. That is the passing of 3 or 4 generations, which is a long time to wonder about that status of a relationship. Think about some of your relationships when you haven’t heard from them in a long time. This is much longer than that.

Does God still see His covenant people. After all this time does God still love them. Does He see those who continue to fear him even when everything in this world is telling us to just give up and give in? Is He able to be merciful for those times when we have given up and given in? Can we still hope in those prophecies that promised to reverse, redeem, and restore?

Mary’s song makes the might, power and pleasure of the Lord toward His people clear to see. His mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. God is always faithful to His promises, still He is looking for servants who humble themselves to His service.

Even before Jesus took His first breath here on earth, we learn from His story that

His presence demands our honor (Luke 1:39–45).

His glorious character demands our personal worship (Luke 1:46–49).

His faithfulness demands our humble service (Luke 1:50–56).

Gospel Application

And you might be saying, sure that was Mary’s story but wasn’t she in special circumstances? She certainly was. She was given a special role in Jesus’ story, but that doesn’t meant that we cannot learn from her journey. These same principles apply to our role in Jesus’ story as well. See if you can’t see them presented here in Paul’s letter to the Church in Rome:

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice,(from what little I understand about what a mom’s body go through in and after pregnancy - sacrifice seems like a good word!) present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. (No mention of a song here, but only a holy and acceptable response to the greatness of God)

2 Do not be conformed to this world, (His mercy is for those who fear Him) but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. (discerning the will of God in order to walk in it, because of His great mercy).

Landing

It is hard to know all that Mary knew so early on in her journey as the mother of Jesus, but we certainly aim for her response. We too can trust God’s Word, listen to the Holy Spirit, and humbly serve in whatever aspect of his Kingdom we are privelaged to be a part of.

“Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.”

Will you pray with me, as we prepare our hearts for communion?