God's mercy expressed Part 2
Notes
Transcript
Intro
Intro
Two weeks ago we began to look at Mary’s song of praise.
Mary’s song is an expression of praise and thanks to God for His mercy.
Keeping in mind for one - this praise that Mary responded to Elizabeth with is born out of some difficult circumstances.
She has just left her home, and traveled approximately 70 miles, a 3-4 day journey, to visit her relative Elizabeth after learning from the angel Gabriel that she was to have a child.
Even though she was not married.
The angel told Mary of Elizabeth’s pregnancy as a sign of what he was telling her was true.
We can only imagine the conversation that was likely running through Mary’s head as she traveled.
The first thing she receives when she arrives is confirmation and mercy. It is no wonder that Mary expresses praise for God’s mercy here in these verses.
I asked us to consider a few questions at the end of our last time together.
Can you give thanks to God and praise along with Mary?
Is your whole being magnifying the Lord?
Are you rejoicing in God as your savior?
Are you resting upon the finished work of Christ?
Mary is expressing praise for God’s mercy.
This is a wonderfully prayerful song.
As we read and seek to understand this text better, I hope it causes us to do the same.
And Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant. For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed; for he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name. And his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts; he has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate; he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty. He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his offspring forever.” And Mary remained with her about three months and returned to her home.
We began with Mary’s statement, My soul magnifies the Lord., my spirit rejoices in God my savior.
Mary praises God with her whole being.
Her life is to be like a magnifying glass focused on God.
She is a sinner like the rest, in need of savior, and she knows who that savior is.
Mary’s song is quite similar to that of Hannah in 1 Samuel
And like in the story of Hannah, she is humble.
Remember as we began to introduce Mary - she is essentially and a girl from the middle of nowhere.
Which is where we jump in today and her statement that she makes in verse 48.
For he has looked on the humble estate of his servant.
God chooses the humble.
God chooses the humble.
God came down to Mary's lowliness and does a great thing for her: he makes her the mother of God!
It is such a singular and unimaginable blessing that all generations from that time on have acknowledged Mary's blessedness.
Connecting to the OT a little more,
Mary learned from the song of Hannah and all the Old Testament that God humbles the proud but blesses the lowly who look to him for mercy,
she has found it to be true in her own experience.
Probably it is because she had learned it so well from Scripture that she was ready and able to experience it herself.
This is one of the significant points that is being made throughout Luke’s gospel account.
It is also extremely significant for us today as believers.
How do you approach God?
What does your relationship with God look like?
Is he a there you need it sort of God?
Or do you approach him out of a humble estate?
God everything I have, you have graciously provided for me!
God is at work in unexpected ways.
He is creating His kingdom in His time, in His own way.
God is working in a outside in - upside down sort of way.
I read an article as I was preparing titled
Make a Change from Me-ology to Theology November 07, 2020by: Jen Oshman
The article makes some significant points and helps us to consider God in relation to our culture today.
Oshman writes
“Me-ology is the junk food diet we’ve been serving up in our spiritual lives. The healthy alternative we need to immediately start ingesting is theology.1
Theology is the study of God. It is the examination of his attributes and abilities, his goodness and faithfulness, who he is and what he has done. Theology is substantial, true, and life-giving.
Feasting here will allow us to grow stronger and more into the image of him who made us.Me-ology is frail, precarious, and dependent on you and me who grow tired and weary and make mistakes.
Meology is only as good as we are. And we never feel quite smart enough, or disciplined enough, or pretty enough, or energetic enough, or whatever enough.
When we center our lives and our spiritual diet on theology rather than on me-ology, we choose to renew our minds in the boundless worth of our Lord in heaven, rather than in the very limited power of ourselves.
We lift our eyes off of ourselves, off of the mirror, and off of our social media accounts, and we raise them high to the King who is wise and able and kind and trustworthy and true.
The irony is that when we make the change from meology to theology, our “sense of worth or value that comes through faith in Christ is arguably more secure.”2
Our intuition says the more we prioritize ourselves, the better we will feel about ourselves.
But in reality, the more you and I look at ourselves, the more we loath ourselves because we fall short.
When we fix our eyes on Jesus, when we behold our good God and ponder what he has done, your self-worth and mine is elevated.
We remember that we have inherent value as dearly created children. We remember that we are chosen, adopted, and loved (see Gal. 3:26–27).
In other words, when we transition from self-focus to Jesus-focus, we actually end up with a better self-image—because it’s dependent on him who made us, not on ourselves.
This is an important attitude for us as Christians to have today.
This is what Mary is doing.
In the midst of her situation, challenging from a human perspective to say the least.
She is fixing her eyes to God.
Through Mary’s praise, she is lifting her eyes off of herself, and raising them to God.
Praising him for his sovereign choice of her to give birth to the coming Messiah.
How else ought she respond but to sing praise to God.
She has been set apart for this special purpose.
for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant. For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
Mary is set apart for a purpose.
When we think of being set apart - scripturally it has to do with holiness.
To be holy is to be set apart.
That is where, when you hear the Holy virgin Mary, that statement comes from.
It has been misconstrued in some traditions to mean much more than it should.
There is also however a a sense of continuity between Mary and believers today.
There is similarity though in the church’s calling today.
Paul in writing to Timothy in 2 Timothy 2 speaks of workers approved by God.
Speaking of repentance and living a life of Godliness, Paul instructs Timothy to teach regarding holiness.
Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work.
The church, believers, those who place their faith in Christ have been called out, set apart, made holy.
Do you realize, that if you have placed your faith in Christ as your Lord and savior, that you have been set apart for a purpose?
Specifically, God’s purpose.
God’s purpose for your life is your sanctification.
That you become more like Christ.
Because the more you become like Christ, the more He is glorified.
Paul continues
So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. Have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies; you know that they breed quarrels. And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.
I would challenge you to think and reflect on these verses.
Are there passions you may need to flee?
Are you pursuing righteousness, faith, love, and peace?
Are you calling on the Lord from a pure heart?
Are you involved in foolish, ignorant controversies?
If our focus is on Christ, other things are of little importance.
Are you quarrelsome or kind?
God works through how we interact with those around us.
May God’s mercy be expressed through our lives, our relationships with the Lord.
I pray that God’s mercy would be expressed through us that others may come to repent and come into the knowledge of the truth.
For Mary, Being Undeservedly Set Apart for Special Service Brings Overwhelming Awe and Gratitude
This ought to be the same for us as Christians today.
We have been undeservedly set apart.
To be set apart is what it means to be a part of the universal church.
The called ones.
To be called a saint - a holy one of God.
Most often, we focus on superficial qualities of individuals.
Skills that mark a person, that make them unique.
Each of us here has something that makes us unique.
The specialness of a saint though is simply based upon God’s undeserved gracious call.
Do you realize that that is how God views you when you trust in Jesus.
Holy - Set apart -
Quote: John Lennon is quoted as saying, “Jesus was alright, but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It’s them twisting it that ruins it for me.”
What Lennon is misunderstanding though is that God chose those thick, ordinary men for a purpose.
He chose and ordinary girl from a middle of nowhere town to bear His son.
God chooses ordinary disciples like Zechariah, Mary, Elizabeth, Peter, and all of us to reveal his amazing grace and power.
God upends our human idea of greatness, of worthiness.
This is the upside down kingdom that Luke is seeking to portray.
The Gospel the good news form the inside out.
God chooses the undeserving and sanctifies the.
God deploys the regular, unremarkable people into amazing ministry to show His power.
That it is him alone who deserves all glory and praise.
Our response the ought to be as with Mary.
Praise God!
Thank you God for looking upon my humble estate.
I think we can rightly ask another question which is answered in this text.
Why Mary?
Why Mary?
When we observe her song, what do we notice, proportionately about the content?
How much is about her? How much is about God?
Mary spends most of the time describing the way God is in general.
This general character of God accounts for why he has treated her the way he has in her lowliness and thus leads her to rejoice and magnify the Lord.
The Holy God Helps the Lowly
The Holy God Helps the Lowly
In the second half of verse 49 Mary makes the general statement that God's name is holy.
That is, God's nature, his essence is holiness.
He is completely free from sin, and his ways are not our ways.
He is separate from and exalted above the creature.
All his attributes are perfect, and they all cohere in a perfect harmony called holiness.
But what Mary stresses is the way this holiness expresses itself.
Sometimes we impose the image or idea on God that He doesn’t care about the little guy.
This is mistaken.
Luke will show this time and time again throughout this book.
Mary’s word are a warning to Theophilus and to us not to make the common mistake that because God is great, he is partial to great men, or because God is exalted, he favors what is exalted among men.
Just the opposite is the case.
Here is a direct example of how God's holiness has expressed itself and will express itself by exalting the lowly and abasing the haughty.
God is the greatest champion of the underdog.
It is clear from Mary's words (and from the whole Bible) that God is not partial to the rich, the powerful, or the proud.
How could God be partial to the things which in our world are, more often than not, substitutes for God rather than pointers to God?
Vast numbers of people have perished because they were enamored by pride, power, and wealth.
This may very well have directly applied to Theophilus.
He being a ranking Roman official, has all three, money power, and pride.
Mary’s song is recorded in scripture of a purpose.
It expresses God’s great mercy, and gives us a word of warning.
Thinking from the perspective of Theophilus reading this.
Look at who God chose to bring His son into the world.
And he chose me!
God is not the least bit impressed by your pride, by your power, or by your bank account.
God is most impressed by a humble attitude that fully recognizes shortcomings and failures.
LUKE AIMS AT the heart with these texts.
As believers, we must take God at his word and be amazed at his involvement with the details of our lives.
God cares about little ol you, he cares about little ol me.
God owes us nothing; we who have trusted Christ owe him everything.
God does what he says, and he has said much on behalf of the believer.
The key is to expect a reversal of fortune and a deliverance in the future.
Whatever our lot in this sinful and fallen world now, those who fear God can expect vindication.
Hence, the upside down kingdom.
God honors the humble and poor.
He sees them, while we often ignore them.
This has much to say about the value of every person.
The address that matters to God is not a number on a street or bank account, but the stamp on a human heart.
That is why the work we do as a church, here in the small town of Drummond is so important.
Our church, our family of believers here, matters as much to God as any church in any big city you can think of.
Don’t think you don’t matter, don’t think what you do doesn’t count.
It like working with Craig setting up the cross out front.
His church back home in Illinois puts up a lot of Christmas lights every year.
The guy Craig was working with remarked
“If one person comes in and has even a seed planted to watered by another, it is worth it.
Magnify the Lord with all you do, for he has looked upon your humble estate.