Luke 1:46-55 What's so Merry about Christmas? - Christmas Homily

Intro

Merry Christmas!

Those are not arbitrary words that we say every year.

They are potent words.

They mean something, and they mean something big. Even if most of the world has forgotten it.

Those words don’t just mean Christmas Trees, Stockings, Hot Chocolate, all the things we love about Christmas.

Packed in those two little words is a life-changing gospel.

A worldview, a truth that carries with it a command.

A command so powerful that all people, every tribe, tongue and nation is called to obey.

Christmas, of course, has something to do with Christ. That’s obvious enough.

Merry, on the other hand, is where we start seeing this good news.

Merry means cheerful and joyous celebration.

So when we say Merry Christmas! We are saying have a cheerful and joyous celebration of Jesus Christ.

Rejoice in Him. Glorify Him. Praise Him.

You see how Christmas is good news with a command for us to obey.

Christ has come, so rejoice!

Well, today, this Christmas, I want to ask What are we rejoicing in?

What makes Christmas so merry in the first place?

In Luke 1:46-55 Mary, the mother of Jesus, shows us what Merry Christmas truly means.

This is commonly known as Mary’s Magnificat. Its a hymn of praise.

And what led Mary to sing this hymn of praise?

The angel Gabriel had just come and announced that Christ would be born, and He would come from Mary’s own womb.

The angel said, Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. 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, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end (Luke 1:31-33).

In this announcement of Jesus’ birth we see see the two things Mary praises God for in her Magnificat.

First, you shall call his name Jesus.

Jesus literally means Yahweh saves.

Yahweh is God’s holy divine name.

So in Jesus’ own name is a proclamation that Jesus is the one who delivers us from our sin.

Second, the Lord God will give to him the throne, and he will reign, and of his kingdom there will be no end.

Not only is Jesus Savior, He is King of kings and Lord of lords.

He is the promised King who would reverse the curse and make all things new.

And those two ideas are the focal points of Mary’s hymn of praise.

Rejoice! Because Jesus is our Savior who delivers us from sin

Rejoice because Jesus is our King who reverses the curse and makes all things new.

I. Jesus is Our Savior Who Delivers Us from Sin

Luke 1:46-50 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.

Mary says My soul, the core of who I am, glorifies the Lord, and rejoices in God my Savior.

In this part of the hymn she is celebrating God as Redeemer. Deliverer. Warrior, and Champion.

Throughout the Old Testament, calling God the Mighty One was a celebration of God the Warrior who defends His people, fights their enemies, and delivers them from their hand to bring them into God’s blessing, life, peace, and rest.

And that’s exactly what Mary has in mind because she says he who is mighty, the Mighty One, has done great things for me.

That’s not as generic as you might expect.

The term great things isn’t just a catch all way of saying everything good that God has done.

Its a reference to the Exodus.

Its a call back to all the great things God did to deliver his people Israel from their slavery in Egypt and bring them into the Promised Land.

So in saying this, in singing this hymn of praise to God for the child in her womb, Mary is celebrating God’s New Exodus.

A New Redemption where Jesus would deliver His people from their slavery to sin and bring them into the rest of eternal life.

And you might say, “Well how can that be? She says these are things God has done for her. Past tense. Already happened.”

But for Mary, God’s promises are as good as done.

God is faithful. He never lies. If He promises to save His people. He will do it.

Holy is His name.

And then Mary goes from talking about the great things God has done for her to His mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation.

So first, Mary was celebrating her own Redemption, her own deliverance from her sin.

And then she immediately follows up with and God’s mercy is for all those who fear Him from generation to generation.

In other words, God’s mercy is for everyone who trusts in Christ.

Who worship, honor, and fear His Name.

And here’s what I want you to see. When Mary says His mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation, she is again, looking back to the Old Testament.

In Psalm 103:17, God says this.

Psalm 103:17 But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him, and his righteousness to children’s children.

The word, steadfast love, is the Hebrew word Hesed.

It’s God’s covenantal love. His enduring, never breaking, forever love.

So when Mary says His mercy is for those who fear Him, God’s mercy is an expression of His unbreakable love for us.

God did not leave us to die in our sins. He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to deliver us from sin.

He died on the cross and rose again so that through faith in Him, instead of God’s judgment, we received mercy.

He showered us with love, and forgave all our sins.

He is the Mighty One. He did the impossible. When we could never save ourselves, Jesus Christ saved us.

Jesus is Our Savior Who Delivers Us from Sin

And he is also...

II. Jesus is Our King Who Reverses the Curse and Makes All Things New

Luke 1:51-53 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.

There is so much here, but I just want you to see one thing.

Jesus is the great reversal of everything that has gone wrong in this world.

He is the King who makes all things new, and sets all things right according to God’s purpose for the world which is life and blessing.

The proud are the enemies of God.

The ones who exalt themselves as gods in their own hearts.

And the Lord scatters them by the strength of his arm.

What cursed this world, was human pride. Adam’s desire to make himself like God, and Mary is saying Jesus is going to fix all that.

He brings down the mighty from their thrones, and exalts the humble.

He fills the hungry with food, and sends the rich away empty.

This theme of reversal, and seemingly impossible reversal...

How do the mighty come down from thrones? How do the hungry become full?

All this points to the question at the core of the issue: How will the curse ever be reversed?

Answer: King Jesus. He will make all things new.

Luke even shows us this several times in his gospel.

Jesus said

Luke 4:18 ““The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed.”

Luke 6:20-22 Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you shall be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh. Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man!

And Luke 7:22 Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good news preached to them.

Jesus is the King Who Reverses the Curse and Makes All Things New

That’s why Mary closes this Hymn

Luke 1:54-55 He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his offspring forever.

Again you see the word mercy. It is God’s steadfast, covenantal love that led to His promise to send Christ.

That’s what Mary is talking about when she says to Abraham and to his offspring.

What did God promise Abraham?

To you and your offspring I will give this Promised Land, and in your offspring all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

That blessing is salvation. And that offspring is Jesus Christ.

He is the one that delivers us from sin, reverses the curse and brings us into the heavenly Promised Land of eternal life.

God promised to save His people and bring them into His eternal, heavenly rest, and through Jesus, He has done exactly that.

Conclusion

So what are we rejoicing in? What makes it a truly merry Christmas?

Christmas is a time to rejoice because God fulfilled His promise to send Jesus, our Savior and King.

That’s what we celebrate.

Christmas is when we remember that God sent His Son to fulfill His promise to reverse the curse of sin.

Jesus is our Savior lived a sinless life, died a sacrificial death, and rose again from the grave mighty and victorious to deliver us from all our sin.

And Jesus is our King who and makes all things new.

He takes curse and brings blessing.

Death, and brings life.

He rules on the throne forever and ever to bring the Kingdom of God to earth.

To defeat the Kingdom of darkness, death, and curse, and bring to everyone who believes in His name a new Kingdom of life, blessing, joy, peace, and rest.

And what is our response? How do we celebrate a truly Merry Christmas?

We sing to God...

My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.

Let’s Pray

Micah 5:2-5 But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days. Therefore he shall give them up until the time when she who is in labor has given birth; then the rest of his brothers shall return to the people of Israel. And he shall stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God. And they shall dwell secure, for now he shall be great to the ends of the earth. And he shall be their peace.