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Mary’s Christmas Carol
Lk 1.46-55
!
Introduction
A. What is your favorite Christmas carol?
1.
One of my favorites is “Ring Christmas Bells.”
2. But there are so many beautiful ones, which present such beautiful truth.
B. Henry Wadworth Longfellow wrote one beautiful well-known one.*[1]*
1.
He was filled with sorrow at the tragic death of his wife in a fire in 1861.
The Civil War broke out that same year, and it seemed this was an additional punishment.
Two years later, Longfellow was again saddened to hear the his own son had been seriously wounded as a lieutenant in the Army of the Potomac.
Sitting down to his desk, one Christmas Day, he heard the church bells ringing, and ringing.
It was in this setting he wrote:
a. *I heard the bells on Christmas Day \\ Their old familiar carols play \\ And wild and sweet the words repeat \\ Of peace on earth, good will to men.
\\ \\ And in despair I bowed my head \\ There is no peace on earth I said \\ For hate is strong and mocks the song \\ Of peace on earth, good will to men.
\\ \\ Then pealed the bells more loud and deep, \\ God is not dead, nor doth he sleep.
\\ The wrong shall fail, the right prevail \\ With peace on earth, good will to men.*
b. Longfellow was under dark circumstances, yet we see his praise to God, recognizing God’s ultimate control.
It is a great testimony of faith in a trustworthy God, even when we have sorrows.
2. But there is one we rarely look at right in the Bible.
We might call it, “Mary’s Christmas Carol.”
a.
It is found in Luke 1.46-55.
b.
She composed it on the occasion of a visit to her relative, Elizabeth, who miraculously was going to have a baby in her old age.
The father was her husband Zechariah.
c. Mary, too, had just found out that she was going to have a baby.
But the Father was God through the holy Spirit.
And the child was the long awaited Messiah.
C. As we look at this Christmas carol,
1. we will learn three things about Mary, three things about God, and three things about Jesus.
2. And as we learn these things, I pray we will grow in our sense of wonder at what God has done so that we will use this Christmas season to grow in three ways:
a. to strengthen our relationship to God,
b. to remember our need for the Savior,
c. and to take joy in playing our role in God’s plan, no matter the circumstances we are in.
!
Body
I.
First, What do we learn about Mary? (46-48) READ
A. The first of three things about Mary is that she is in close relationship with her God.
(46b-47a)
1.
The fact that she could compose such a hymn of praise reveals that she knew the Bible, for her the OT, and the God who revealed himself in it.
a.
There are many phrases in Mary’s Christmas carol that go back to passages in the OT.
b.
If you have a Bible with cross references in it, you will some idea of hwo many cross references to other passages from the OT that are similar to statements Mary makes.
The NIV Study Bible lists 20 OT cross references for these ten verses.
I have book about 3 inches thick that is nothing but cross references.
It lists well over 100 from the OT.
2. Mary says that she magnifies the Lord and she rejoices in God.
a. “Magnifying” means not that she makes God big, but that she recognizes that God is big.
She esteems him as great and highly valuable.
She offers a praise to God by saying that he is great.
b.
The fact that she rejoiced even in uncertain times reveals her love and faith in her God.
B. The second thing about Mary is that she knows her need of a Savior.
(47b)
1.
There are many in the Christian world who say that Mary was sinless.
Some even go farther than that and say that Mary is able to plead our sinful case before God.
2. But look what Mary easily admits.
She calls God “my Savior.”
a. Mary knew she was not perfect.
b.
But she did not despair, she had God as her Savior.
C. The third thing about Mary is that she, though of humble circumstances, takes joy in her role in God’s plan.
(48)
1. How was Mary humble?
I think in two ways.
She was humble in character and in means.
a.
She was surely humble in means.
1) When she and Joseph were married, they were not wealthy.
a) Remember when Herod killed all the babies two and under and God told Joseph to take Mary and the baby Jesus to Egypt?
b) They had to flee friends and family who might help — or who might not, given the mysterious circumstances of this pregnancy.
c) How would they live?
No house; no business built up; how was Joseph to care for his precious family given to him by God?
2) When the wisemen from the East came, they brought gold, frankincense and myrrh.
a) These were costly gifts.
Why did God provide this?
b) I think it was to finance the journey of the little family to Egypt.
c) So Mary was humble in means.
b.
But she was also humble in character.
1) We see this in many ways during her life.
But perhaps we see it most clearly in her obedience to God’s plan for the birth of the Messiah.
With all the difficulties of uncomfortable questions, and sly looks, she humbly obeys God.
2) Right here we see it in how she refers to herself, as God’s servant girl.
3) As we saw, she recognized the greatness of her God, but she rightly perceived her status before him, his servant.
2. So, Mary is God’s humble servant, willing to do whatever God asks of her.
a.
But notice her joy in this.
b.
How many of you have children, who when you tell them and tell then to do a chore, they still don’t do it until you get serious?
1) Then they may do it, but they grumble about it.
So maybe you get on to them about grumbling.
2) How many remember themselves grumbling about schoolwork or chores?
3) How many grumble about tasks at work?
c. Mary shows us the proper attitude in serving God.
She joyfully obeys his will and is glad to be a part in his will.
1) She knew her God and his word well enough to know that God was planning to bring the Messiah into the world.
2) She didn’t know when.
God had made so many promises and predictions over so many centuries — when would it happen?
Many had begun to doubt that God was even at work.
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