WEBVTT 00:00:00.800 --> 00:00:04.679 When you're talking about glorious passages of Scripture, you're going to be redundant. 00:00:04.679 --> 00:00:10.320 But this is truly one of the most beautiful passages I think in all the Bible. 00:00:10.320 --> 00:00:15.160 Luke 1, 46-55, I'm reading from the ESV. 00:00:15.160 --> 00:00:23.039 And Mary said, "My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior. 00:00:23.039 --> 00:00:38.320 For He has looked on the humblest state 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. 00:00:38.320 --> 00:00:40.600 He has shown strength with His arm. 00:00:40.600 --> 00:00:43.240 He has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. 00:00:43.240 --> 00:00:49.200 He has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate. 00:00:49.200 --> 00:00:54.560 He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich He has sent away empty. 00:00:54.560 --> 00:01:05.599 He has helped His servant Israel in remembrance of His mercy as He spoke to our fathers to Abraham and his offspring forever." Let's pray. 00:01:05.599 --> 00:01:15.719 Father, as we think on this prayer of Mary's, this praise from her lips, we cannot help but praise You this morning. 00:01:15.719 --> 00:01:22.659 We are all coming in here with different situations and challenges and trials and even sorrows. 00:01:22.659 --> 00:01:31.019 And yet You are so much greater as this prayer captures than anything we are staring down in the face in our daily lives. 00:01:31.019 --> 00:01:32.019 Those are real. 00:01:32.019 --> 00:01:34.379 The challenges and trials are real. 00:01:34.379 --> 00:01:37.120 The battle with sin is a real battle. 00:01:37.120 --> 00:01:43.079 And yet You loom so large over our lives as Christians. 00:01:43.079 --> 00:01:44.079 You are awesome. 00:01:44.079 --> 00:01:45.079 You are high. 00:01:45.079 --> 00:01:46.079 You are lifted up. 00:01:46.079 --> 00:01:47.219 You are good. 00:01:47.219 --> 00:01:48.760 You give us great joy. 00:01:48.760 --> 00:01:54.519 You come to young women who are anonymous and unknown, and You bless them beyond belief. 00:01:54.519 --> 00:01:56.560 And You do the same for all of us. 00:01:56.560 --> 00:01:58.439 You love Your people. 00:01:58.439 --> 00:02:00.359 You forgive Your people. 00:02:00.359 --> 00:02:04.980 You are majestic in righteousness and great and tender mercy. 00:02:04.980 --> 00:02:12.319 This morning I pray that everyone in here would be profoundly encouraged, not through me, not through anything original. 00:02:12.319 --> 00:02:15.680 I have to offer because I don't, but through Your word. 00:02:15.680 --> 00:02:31.199 I pray that You would do this through Your Spirit, and I pray for any who are not Christians at this time, I pray that You would use even this material from Your word to give faith, to draw them nearer and nearer to Yourself, to win them over to Christ. 00:02:31.199 --> 00:02:33.960 And we pray all this in Jesus' name. 00:02:33.960 --> 00:02:34.960 Amen. 00:02:34.960 --> 00:02:50.719 The context of the Magnificat, as it is often called, it's called Magnificat there because verse 46, my soul magnifies the Lord. So in the Latin translation of this verse, Magnificat applied there. 00:02:50.719 --> 00:02:58.120 Magnification is the concept then that many have seized on in this passage from Mary. 00:02:58.120 --> 00:03:00.139 The context is joy. 00:03:00.139 --> 00:03:04.879 The context is incredible, surging joy. 00:03:04.879 --> 00:03:08.080 That is what Mary is praying to God. 00:03:08.080 --> 00:03:10.919 This is an entirely unprecedented act. 00:03:10.919 --> 00:03:18.879 Wild things have already happened as we pick up in Luke 1 46 to 55 talking about the Magnificat for those of you who are coming in. 00:03:18.879 --> 00:03:20.759 We have seen this in verse 41. 00:03:20.759 --> 00:03:25.560 When Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb and Elizabeth's womb. 00:03:25.560 --> 00:03:27.759 That's John the Baptist in the womb leaping. 00:03:27.759 --> 00:03:29.360 That's remarkable, isn't it? 00:03:29.360 --> 00:03:37.560 And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and she exclaimed with a loud cry, blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb. 00:03:37.560 --> 00:03:42.719 Why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? 00:03:42.719 --> 00:03:46.840 For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, here's the repetition. 00:03:46.840 --> 00:03:53.919 The baby in my womb leaped for joy, leaped for joy, she identifies. 00:03:53.919 --> 00:03:59.840 So not just a random leaping due to Elizabeth's pregnancy diet or something like this. 00:03:59.840 --> 00:04:02.759 This is not merely a natural effect. 00:04:02.759 --> 00:04:04.300 This is a spiritual effect. 00:04:04.300 --> 00:04:14.199 It's altogether miraculous that a baby would leap in the womb for joy, but everything that attends Jesus, everything that surrounds Jesus is miraculous. 00:04:14.199 --> 00:04:21.120 And just remember that there's not going to be normal events that attend to this, at least in several cases. 00:04:21.120 --> 00:04:28.040 This is the only response that ultimately captures the surging joy of the coming of Christ that a baby really could perform. 00:04:28.040 --> 00:04:41.879 A leap, a leap of joy and Mary addresses God following Elizabeth telling her that John the Baptist leapt in the womb and Mary's prayer here, stay with me, is I think a leap. 00:04:41.879 --> 00:04:44.699 It's a leap of a prayer. 00:04:44.699 --> 00:04:50.439 In other words, it quivers and it reverberates with joy in God. 00:04:50.439 --> 00:04:58.879 Verse 46 to 55, my soul magnifies the Lord right from the bat. 00:04:58.879 --> 00:05:10.879 Right off the bat, we have joy and rejoicing identified as the context of the good news that Mary hears. 00:05:10.879 --> 00:05:12.779 Mary's words mirror Mary's action. 00:05:12.779 --> 00:05:16.800 Her whole life is a demonstration of the greatness of God's plan. 00:05:16.800 --> 00:05:20.240 Her whole life, in other words, is a magnification. 00:05:20.240 --> 00:05:22.620 It's not just this one little moment. 00:05:22.620 --> 00:05:31.160 Mary herself is really committing herself, even as God has already committed her to magnifying God. 00:05:31.160 --> 00:05:34.160 And right off the bat, that's very encouraging for us as well. 00:05:34.160 --> 00:05:41.800 We're not supposed to gaze at Mary as if she is a spiritual all star, as if she is qualitatively different than all of us. 00:05:41.800 --> 00:05:48.100 Mary is a normal young woman who God blesses and makes his own. 00:05:48.100 --> 00:05:55.839 And now Mary is able to live, yes, in a very unique way as the bearer of Christ, but as a normal person for the glory of God. 00:05:55.839 --> 00:05:58.779 And that is in reach of everyone in here. 00:05:58.779 --> 00:06:04.220 Everyone in here is fully invested with the spirit of God when saved. 00:06:04.220 --> 00:06:12.439 Everyone in here is fully able to live for the glory of God and magnify God in a hundred different professions and vocations. 00:06:12.439 --> 00:06:18.319 Mary is going to live from this moment forward of very normal life. 00:06:18.319 --> 00:06:21.319 So this is a very unusual event, right? 00:06:21.319 --> 00:06:26.240 The announcement that Mary is going to bear the Messiah, that we're not going to hear that. 00:06:26.240 --> 00:06:27.240 You're not going to hear that. 00:06:27.240 --> 00:06:33.120 Some of you are very relieved that you are not going to have pregnancy in that respect because that would be very difficult in technical terms for that to happen for you. 00:06:33.120 --> 00:06:34.120 Okay, good. 00:06:34.120 --> 00:06:35.120 Well, let me relieve you of that. 00:06:35.120 --> 00:06:37.040 But here's what you can do. 00:06:37.040 --> 00:06:41.480 Magnify God as a normal person in much of your life. 00:06:41.480 --> 00:06:46.839 She's not going to really lead a spiritual all-star sort of existence. 00:06:46.839 --> 00:06:51.480 Just walking through the clouds, she's going to have Jesus and raise Jesus. 00:06:51.480 --> 00:06:55.560 She's going to be a wife and a homemaker until Joseph dies. 00:06:55.560 --> 00:07:01.720 She's going to serve God faithfully, quietly, day after day after day in her life. 00:07:01.720 --> 00:07:04.600 So her whole life is going to be magnification. 00:07:04.600 --> 00:07:05.839 You understand? 00:07:05.839 --> 00:07:06.839 Not just this moment. 00:07:06.839 --> 00:07:09.259 And that can be your life too. 00:07:09.259 --> 00:07:13.639 I'm sure that is your life for a lot of you, but think of your life in those terms. 00:07:13.639 --> 00:07:22.240 Think of your life even if it's normal, even if it's humble, even if it's very ordinary and anonymous. 00:07:22.240 --> 00:07:28.459 Your life too is invested with tremendous significance by God. 00:07:28.459 --> 00:07:30.680 That's how good our God is. 00:07:30.680 --> 00:07:37.720 As Mary praised this in 46 to 55, she's not burdened by the reality that she will bear the Messiah. 00:07:37.720 --> 00:07:41.779 At least she's not now burdened in this context. 00:07:41.779 --> 00:07:51.160 But when the angel Gabriel came to her initially, as you see in verse 28 of Luke 1, she was shocked out of her mind, wasn't she? 00:07:51.160 --> 00:07:55.959 Angel Gabriel came to her and said, verse 28, "Greetings, O favored one. 00:07:55.959 --> 00:08:02.759 The Lord is with you." At that time, Mary had no idea how to react. 00:08:02.759 --> 00:08:09.720 So Gabriel called her favored one, verse 29 records the confusion and even the distress that she felt. 00:08:09.720 --> 00:08:35.919 Verse 29, "She was greatly troubled at the saying and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be." Gabriel gave her incredible news, but Mary did not initially understand what was going on to the degree that when God visited her through an angel with amazing news that I'll cover in just a second, she was greatly troubled. 00:08:35.919 --> 00:08:39.399 She heard this as a burdening reality. 00:08:39.399 --> 00:08:59.639 By the way, that phrase in verse 28, you see that in your translation, it's translated a few different ways, but in mine it's "O favored one." That was translated by Jerome about 1600 years ago as Mary being full of grace, plena gratia in the Latin. 00:08:59.639 --> 00:09:06.440 That phrase, "O favored one," became "O full of grace one," basically, full of grace. 00:09:06.440 --> 00:09:14.919 That is how Roman Catholics have built out the doctrine that some of you are familiar with that Mary is a co-mediator with Jesus Christ. 00:09:14.919 --> 00:09:16.879 Are you familiar with this, some of you? 00:09:16.879 --> 00:09:19.919 That you don't actually really need to pray to Jesus. 00:09:19.919 --> 00:09:27.240 You actually can pray a whole lot of prayers to Mary because Mary will act as your mediator with Jesus on your behalf. 00:09:27.240 --> 00:09:33.519 It's all based on a mistranslation, a total mistranslation of Luke 1.28. 00:09:33.519 --> 00:09:37.080 It's literally this verse. 00:09:37.080 --> 00:09:43.759 Quick commercial for seminary, not just seminary, but training in general for ministry. 00:09:43.759 --> 00:09:48.399 Whether you have seminary or not, whether you have master's degrees or not, there's no Bible verse about that. 00:09:48.399 --> 00:09:53.279 What you do need though are men who can handle the Word of God and translate it rightly. 00:09:53.279 --> 00:10:06.240 That's why you take Greek and Hebrew not just for a week, but for a bunch of weeks because you need to be able to know the Word in the original languages because honestly, there have been major mistranslations of the Bible in church history. 00:10:06.240 --> 00:10:18.240 This is one of those places, a mistranslation, "O full of grace one," funded an entirely bankrupt understanding of Mary as basically almost this divine figure. 00:10:18.240 --> 00:10:20.799 That's not at all what the angel is saying to Mary. 00:10:20.799 --> 00:10:23.759 Mary is saying, "You are highly favored. 00:10:23.759 --> 00:10:27.639 You are greatly blessed with this news." Well, what is the news? 00:10:27.639 --> 00:10:30.879 Verse 30 of Luke 1, "The angel said, 'Do not be afraid, Mary. 00:10:30.879 --> 00:10:37.600 You found favor with God, and behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. 00:10:37.600 --> 00:10:48.879 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. 00:10:48.879 --> 00:10:55.200 Mary at this point has absolutely no idea how this is going to work out. 00:10:55.200 --> 00:10:59.379 She is struggling to handle this incredible news. 00:10:59.379 --> 00:11:09.720 Those of us who have dealt with bad internet could say, "We are buffering." You know at a certain point, like somebody comes to you and gives you some data, you got to download and you're like, "Hold on, honey. 00:11:09.720 --> 00:11:11.039 I'm buffering right now. 00:11:11.039 --> 00:11:12.039 Just give me the wheel. 00:11:12.039 --> 00:11:19.960 The little wheel is turning in your mind, and you're trying to process this, and you're not entirely sure of buffering." It's a little bit like Mary is buffering here. 00:11:19.960 --> 00:11:20.960 She's trying to get this. 00:11:20.960 --> 00:11:26.720 Verse 34, Mary said to the angel, "How will this be since I am a virgin? 00:11:26.720 --> 00:11:27.840 She is unmarried. 00:11:27.840 --> 00:11:37.000 She's a virgin." Verse 35, "The angel answered her, 'The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. 00:11:37.000 --> 00:11:56.120 Therefore the child to be born will be called Holy, the Son of God.' 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, for nothing will be impossible with God." And Mary said, "Behold, I am the servant of the Lord. 00:11:56.120 --> 00:12:02.539 Let it be to me according to your word." And the angel departed from her. 00:12:02.539 --> 00:12:11.000 All this is context for the Magnificat, but for one big reason for our purposes, as verse 47 makes clear, Mary has now come full circle. 00:12:11.000 --> 00:12:12.220 She's no longer buffering. 00:12:12.220 --> 00:12:13.700 You understand the point? 00:12:13.700 --> 00:12:18.960 She's come full circle by the time she prays, this prayer of praise really to God. 00:12:18.960 --> 00:12:23.679 My spirit rejoices in God, my Savior. 00:12:23.679 --> 00:12:24.960 You see that? 00:12:24.960 --> 00:12:29.159 She's no longer greatly troubled as she was. 00:12:29.159 --> 00:12:40.419 The good news of great joy, that's the announcement of the coming Messiah through her womb, it has sunk into her soul and it has saturated her mind. 00:12:40.419 --> 00:12:41.879 She rejoices in God. 00:12:41.879 --> 00:12:43.960 She identifies God. 00:12:43.960 --> 00:12:51.840 She identifies the baby in her womb as Sotere in the Greek, her Savior, my Savior. 00:12:51.840 --> 00:12:57.519 Mary does not in any way think, just to be clear to Doubletown, that she is a co-mediator. 00:12:57.519 --> 00:12:59.919 She's going to be able to give you and me grace. 00:12:59.919 --> 00:13:04.440 She herself, she understands that she needs a Savior. 00:13:04.440 --> 00:13:07.360 Mary was not sinless. 00:13:07.360 --> 00:13:10.039 Mary did not fail to sin. 00:13:10.039 --> 00:13:12.279 Mary sinned just like we all sin. 00:13:12.279 --> 00:13:17.159 Mary needed a Savior, just like every single person in here needs a Savior. 00:13:17.159 --> 00:13:18.919 She knew that. 00:13:18.919 --> 00:13:29.799 So don't be led off, whatever you do, by bad theology out there associated with Roman Catholicism tragically that would tell you that Mary is sinless and Mary is a co-mediator. 00:13:29.799 --> 00:13:40.399 Mary is no such thing and Mary herself didn't think that and Mary rebuked such theology, such bad theology in what she prays here. 00:13:40.399 --> 00:13:43.940 The baby in her womb was to be her Savior, as I say. 00:13:43.940 --> 00:13:48.240 In verses 48 to 49, Mary's prayer stays personal. 00:13:48.240 --> 00:13:53.120 In verse 48, she refers to her humble estate. 00:13:53.120 --> 00:13:57.240 Mary has better theology than many professional theologians. 00:13:57.240 --> 00:13:58.240 She's a young woman. 00:13:58.240 --> 00:14:00.679 We don't know how old she was. 00:14:00.679 --> 00:14:07.360 She might be 12, she might be 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, somewhere in there. 00:14:07.360 --> 00:14:14.200 Girls young women married younger in those days than they do today, but let's suffice it to say probably that she's a teenage girl. 00:14:14.200 --> 00:14:22.600 She's the age of a teenage girl and this is her prayer and she has better theology than a lot of theologians. 00:14:22.600 --> 00:14:26.879 She knows, in other words, that she could not plan this, do this, or arrange this. 00:14:26.879 --> 00:14:37.519 Mary knows that she has no power, no agency, and no levers to pull, but mark this, she is the one God has chosen to give us a redeemer. 00:14:37.519 --> 00:14:40.580 This is how God strikes back at the devil. 00:14:40.580 --> 00:14:51.799 This is how the great warrior Savior comes to the earth through an anonymous woman in a nowhere town with zero political capital and no cultural influence. 00:14:51.799 --> 00:14:55.460 It's almost like God is trying to tell us something. 00:14:55.460 --> 00:15:07.080 It's almost like this is a complete and total upending of all the world's power dynamics, the way to make change, the way to take things over, the way to take back the world. 00:15:07.080 --> 00:15:09.100 Ah, what's the grand strategy? 00:15:09.100 --> 00:15:10.639 How are we going to do this? 00:15:10.639 --> 00:15:13.960 Well, the people of Israel actually did that plan. 00:15:13.960 --> 00:15:14.960 They tried that. 00:15:14.960 --> 00:15:17.179 You remember that in the book of 1 Samuel? 00:15:17.179 --> 00:15:24.200 They clamored for a king like all the other kings and God gave them one, didn't he? 00:15:24.200 --> 00:15:37.360 Tall and impressive and strapped and seemingly regal and mighty, at least in bearing, but it turned out that Saul really was a king like the worldly kings. 00:15:37.360 --> 00:15:39.759 They tried the world's method. 00:15:39.759 --> 00:15:41.000 You understand? 00:15:41.000 --> 00:15:45.080 The people of Israel went in for the world's methods. 00:15:45.080 --> 00:15:53.519 They saw these powerful kings all around them in the ancient Near East and they thought, get us one of those. 00:15:53.519 --> 00:15:58.559 That is the way we're going to overcome all these pagan tribes in the ancient Near East. 00:15:58.559 --> 00:16:01.080 Get us a powerful king. 00:16:01.080 --> 00:16:05.279 Use the power of this world, God, to make us great. 00:16:05.279 --> 00:16:20.679 Exalt us by a powerful king and instead Saul brought really in the end devastation to Israel, collapse, all sorts of terrible problems to the nation. 00:16:20.679 --> 00:16:29.799 Well, what about when God's plan is tried, not a worldly earthly plan for power? 00:16:29.799 --> 00:16:37.639 What does it look like when God launches his plan to make his people great in the earth? 00:16:37.639 --> 00:16:39.360 What are the dynamics like there? 00:16:39.360 --> 00:16:41.600 Does it look really worldly? 00:16:41.600 --> 00:16:44.120 Does it look really as if? 00:16:44.120 --> 00:16:50.799 Is it a strategy that people in global centers of power would applaud? 00:16:50.799 --> 00:16:55.320 Wow, what a display of might. 00:16:55.320 --> 00:17:12.519 It amounts to a pregnant Jewish teenage girl, unprotected by royal soldiers, unaided by public influencers, unknown by political power brokers. 00:17:12.519 --> 00:17:22.279 The most unlikely candidate for her name to be known 2000 years later, she could possibly find. 00:17:22.279 --> 00:17:25.359 This is the plan of God. 00:17:25.359 --> 00:17:29.039 It is cloaked in humility. 00:17:29.039 --> 00:17:33.000 It is robed in lowness. 00:17:33.000 --> 00:17:43.220 It doesn't smell or look like power or overcoming or salvation. 00:17:43.220 --> 00:17:49.039 It looks like a single teenage girl pregnant. 00:17:49.039 --> 00:17:53.279 Behold the plan of God. 00:17:53.279 --> 00:17:57.920 This is what Mary is marveling at. 00:17:57.920 --> 00:18:03.920 It's all together unlike what the world does, isn't it? 00:18:03.920 --> 00:18:07.960 She knows just how significant this is. 00:18:07.960 --> 00:18:13.599 For behold, from now on, all generations will call me blessed. 00:18:13.599 --> 00:18:18.200 For he who is mighty has done great things for me. 00:18:18.200 --> 00:18:20.039 And holy is his name. 00:18:20.039 --> 00:18:37.319 He who is mighty is a warrior term in the Old Testament that's often translated the mighty one and it's used in contexts where Israel overcomes its enemies by the sheer delivering power of God, not by their own strength, but by God's power. 00:18:37.319 --> 00:18:45.279 Mary is using a term from the Old Testament that she knows it's associated with triumph. 00:18:45.279 --> 00:18:50.200 But again, I just repeat to you, it's the most ironic triumph, yes? 00:18:50.200 --> 00:19:04.359 It's not God amassing an army in Jerusalem or Rome or one of the centers of power, a hundred thousand soldiers, a million angels visiting the earth, giving off flames as you look at their appearance. 00:19:04.359 --> 00:19:06.000 They're 10 feet tall. 00:19:06.000 --> 00:19:09.880 They strike you down where you stand just when you see them. 00:19:09.880 --> 00:19:12.480 That's not how the mighty one is working. 00:19:12.480 --> 00:19:29.680 The mighty one is working through a four foot 10 tall, probably Jewish girl in a nowhere town by bringing a tiny baby into the world to make atonement for sins. 00:19:29.680 --> 00:19:37.240 This is what he who is mighty is doing and has done great. 00:19:37.240 --> 00:19:47.680 This is what Mary under the influence of the Holy Spirit says is God doing great things. 00:19:47.680 --> 00:19:53.200 You couldn't get a more striking contrast with the way all of us too tend to think. 00:19:53.200 --> 00:19:59.640 In verses 50 to 55, the prayer shifts from the personal Mary's experience to the political. 00:19:59.640 --> 00:20:03.440 In verse 50, Mary voices the truth that she is not alone. 00:20:03.440 --> 00:20:07.920 The mercy of God is for all who fear him in every generation. 00:20:07.920 --> 00:20:12.400 She confesses God does not give us what we deserve. 00:20:12.400 --> 00:20:18.519 Fearing God for the Christian is not trembling that God is going to send you to hell because he will not do so. 00:20:18.519 --> 00:20:21.640 Fearing God is living in humble reverence for a believer. 00:20:21.640 --> 00:20:23.299 That's what Mary is expressing. 00:20:23.299 --> 00:20:27.119 She is not terrified that God is going to send her to hell for eternity here. 00:20:27.119 --> 00:20:28.799 That's what every sinner deserves. 00:20:28.799 --> 00:20:30.640 That's the just dessert of sin. 00:20:30.640 --> 00:20:32.079 That's not what she's praying about. 00:20:32.079 --> 00:20:36.359 She's praying about humble reverence of those who tremble before God. 00:20:36.359 --> 00:20:39.720 God does not give us what we deserve. 00:20:39.720 --> 00:20:40.720 But not just this. 00:20:40.720 --> 00:20:49.519 In verse 51, we see that God acts in strength to overcome the proud and this theme of undoing continues in verse 52. 00:20:49.519 --> 00:20:55.359 The mighty are cast down from their thrones while God has exalted the humble. 00:20:55.359 --> 00:21:01.039 It seems here that Mary understands again through the spirit that God is effecting. 00:21:01.039 --> 00:21:05.279 God is carrying out cosmic deliverance through the child in her womb. 00:21:05.279 --> 00:21:08.980 She's not seeing things at the present moment alone. 00:21:08.980 --> 00:21:15.059 She seems to be seeing kind of in a broader vision of what her son is going to be. 00:21:15.059 --> 00:21:20.119 The bigger deliverance that God is going to carry out through this baby. 00:21:20.119 --> 00:21:22.319 Through this God-man. 00:21:22.319 --> 00:21:23.519 Truly God. 00:21:23.519 --> 00:21:24.799 Truly man. 00:21:24.799 --> 00:21:27.519 This is a holy word from Mary. 00:21:27.519 --> 00:21:32.440 It's strange because it is at once a common girl's reflection. 00:21:32.440 --> 00:21:34.440 Totally ordinary and normal prayer. 00:21:34.440 --> 00:21:40.920 But it is at the same time a divinely inspired word of God's eschatological triumph. 00:21:40.920 --> 00:21:45.920 Eschatological is a fancy word that means God's eventual end times triumph. 00:21:45.920 --> 00:21:55.119 Mary seems to be seeing it because in technical terms it's not like when the Holy Spirit gives conception to Mary and Jesus is implanted in her womb. 00:21:55.119 --> 00:21:59.660 It's not like all the rulers of the earth get cast out of their thrones, right? 00:21:59.660 --> 00:22:03.420 It's not like every evil ruler ceases to exist. 00:22:03.420 --> 00:22:05.740 Kind of like it sounds like she's saying. 00:22:05.740 --> 00:22:07.640 She seems to be looking ahead. 00:22:07.640 --> 00:22:09.039 You understand? 00:22:09.039 --> 00:22:13.500 She seems to be looking at what all this is going to do. 00:22:13.500 --> 00:22:16.519 It's not going to happen right away. 00:22:16.519 --> 00:22:21.039 That's such an important reality and biblical doctrine and biblical salvation. 00:22:21.039 --> 00:22:28.759 The natural tendency of your heart and mind is to want deliverance and salvation right now. 00:22:28.759 --> 00:22:30.680 In full. 00:22:30.680 --> 00:22:33.519 End this hard situation. 00:22:33.519 --> 00:22:37.000 Bring this difficulty to a resolution. 00:22:37.000 --> 00:22:39.440 Save this one I love now. 00:22:39.440 --> 00:22:40.799 Carry out this work. 00:22:40.799 --> 00:22:42.640 Overthrow the wicked in the world. 00:22:42.640 --> 00:22:43.759 Whatever it may be. 00:22:43.759 --> 00:22:47.619 Whatever righteous desire you have in your heart and I have in mine. 00:22:47.619 --> 00:22:50.160 We tend to want it. 00:22:50.160 --> 00:22:51.759 Right now. 00:22:51.759 --> 00:22:55.720 And God tends to be on a completely different timetable. 00:22:55.720 --> 00:22:57.039 At least much of the time. 00:22:57.039 --> 00:22:58.599 Maybe not all the time. 00:22:58.599 --> 00:23:03.839 But much of the time God is playing the long game. 00:23:03.839 --> 00:23:06.019 And Mary's prayer reflects that. 00:23:06.019 --> 00:23:08.200 And that is true not just for Mary. 00:23:08.200 --> 00:23:10.500 That is true for you. 00:23:10.500 --> 00:23:15.200 God is playing the long game in your life. 00:23:15.200 --> 00:23:22.319 And it doesn't always feel like the mighty are pulled down and salvation is going to come. 00:23:22.319 --> 00:23:24.740 It often feels opposite. 00:23:24.740 --> 00:23:30.640 But Mary is able to see through God's blessing that all this is going to come off. 00:23:30.640 --> 00:23:32.240 That God is going to triumph. 00:23:32.240 --> 00:23:35.200 That it's not just true for her. 00:23:35.200 --> 00:23:37.680 It's true for us. 00:23:37.680 --> 00:23:42.319 This is what we celebrate with the birth of Jesus. 00:23:42.319 --> 00:23:44.519 This is the good news of Jesus coming. 00:23:44.519 --> 00:23:48.119 We don't know the exact birth date of Jesus of course. 00:23:48.119 --> 00:23:51.839 But whatever you think about that entire matter. 00:23:51.839 --> 00:23:57.519 You have to celebrate the birth of Jesus as a Christian. 00:23:57.519 --> 00:23:59.960 Make sure you guard that in your heart. 00:23:59.960 --> 00:24:07.319 Whatever you think about different days and set apart times and so on and so forth and we can disagree over that in love and Christian charity. 00:24:07.319 --> 00:24:13.079 You do have to celebrate the coming of Jesus and you do have to know it is spectacularly good news. 00:24:13.079 --> 00:24:14.079 And I would caution you. 00:24:14.079 --> 00:24:28.680 I would say make sure that whatever you think about this whole discussion that you leave a lot of room for joy in the coming of Jesus because that is what God wants us to have when we consider texts like this. 00:24:28.680 --> 00:24:32.240 Not a hitch in our spirit like oh no we might celebrate the wrong day. 00:24:32.240 --> 00:24:35.200 That's not really what the text emphasizes at all. 00:24:35.200 --> 00:24:38.000 What the text emphasizes is surging joy. 00:24:38.000 --> 00:24:40.680 My spirit rejoices in God. 00:24:40.680 --> 00:24:47.160 So carry out Western tradition or not celebrate Jesus in your heart. 00:24:47.160 --> 00:24:50.799 Enjoy Jesus. 00:24:50.799 --> 00:24:54.119 God has given you Jesus. 00:24:54.119 --> 00:24:57.640 There's nothing better he could give you. 00:24:57.640 --> 00:25:02.039 Verse 53 Mary gives us a lovely metaphor along these lines. 00:25:02.039 --> 00:25:04.000 The hungry she's continuing the theme. 00:25:04.000 --> 00:25:08.880 The hungry are filled but the rich are empty. 00:25:08.880 --> 00:25:13.619 God in other words gives every good spiritual gift to his people. 00:25:13.619 --> 00:25:23.119 There are rich and fat people technically speaking in verse 53 as Mary is exclaiming all of this upward in the direction of God. 00:25:23.119 --> 00:25:27.480 But ultimately here's how she's seeing ultimate reality. 00:25:27.480 --> 00:25:29.440 The rich and fat are going to go begging. 00:25:29.440 --> 00:25:31.859 They're not going to have an eternal harvest. 00:25:31.859 --> 00:25:34.640 They seem to have everything but they have nothing. 00:25:34.640 --> 00:25:43.119 And so all of this shows us that Mary is seeing not just present situational reality but ultimate spiritual reality. 00:25:43.119 --> 00:25:48.799 Things are going to shake out the right way much as it will take ages and ages to do so. 00:25:48.799 --> 00:25:59.279 In fact it's going to take 33 years from the moment she's praying right now for Jesus to die on a cross and make atonement for all the sin of God's people. 00:25:59.279 --> 00:26:02.599 That in itself is a long time. 00:26:02.599 --> 00:26:04.380 God is on his own timetable. 00:26:04.380 --> 00:26:07.779 It takes time for the work of God to work. 00:26:07.779 --> 00:26:09.319 It takes a lot longer. 00:26:09.319 --> 00:26:10.319 Can we be honest? 00:26:10.319 --> 00:26:11.900 We have a moment of honesty here. 00:26:11.900 --> 00:26:16.559 It takes a lot longer for God to work out his plan than we would often like doesn't it. 00:26:16.559 --> 00:26:17.960 Do you feel that? 00:26:17.960 --> 00:26:25.279 I feel as I get older and a little bit wiser I feel my impatience even stronger. 00:26:25.279 --> 00:26:31.880 And here I am raising children and telling them to be patient and that the easiest thing to say to be patient just be patient just be patient. 00:26:31.880 --> 00:26:34.279 And then you look at your own heart is your own heart patient. 00:26:34.279 --> 00:26:36.440 How are you how am I doing with patience. 00:26:36.440 --> 00:26:37.640 Not great. 00:26:37.640 --> 00:26:40.940 Maybe I can sit through the car ride you know a little bit better than they can. 00:26:40.940 --> 00:26:43.819 But what about the things I most yearn for. 00:26:43.819 --> 00:26:45.200 What about God saving work. 00:26:45.200 --> 00:26:47.119 How am I doing with patience there. 00:26:47.119 --> 00:26:54.119 Am I not like a bolting horse trying to get out of the stall on a regular basis and have God just bring this and do that. 00:26:54.119 --> 00:26:55.400 I am. 00:26:55.400 --> 00:27:03.640 But the good news is for a sinner like me God is going to bring his plan to perfect completion. 00:27:03.640 --> 00:27:05.400 What's even now happening. 00:27:05.400 --> 00:27:11.960 God keeps his promises that's what Mary sees in verses 54 to 55 that God has remembered his mission of mercy. 00:27:11.960 --> 00:27:14.599 He's kept the promise of the Messiah. 00:27:14.599 --> 00:27:16.039 Abraham was not misled. 00:27:16.039 --> 00:27:20.839 The people who have lived in bondage are not forgotten at just the right time. 00:27:20.839 --> 00:27:21.839 God is intervened. 00:27:21.839 --> 00:27:25.880 God is acted and God is set in motion the overthrow of evil. 00:27:25.880 --> 00:27:29.440 Look at what a harvest will come of God's promise to Abraham. 00:27:29.440 --> 00:27:36.839 In Genesis 12 here is the promised king thousands of years after the original covenant declaration was made. 00:27:36.839 --> 00:27:39.680 When God keeps his promises please mark this. 00:27:39.680 --> 00:27:47.000 He really keeps his promises and he will keep every one of them for you and for me. 00:27:47.000 --> 00:27:51.539 I would like to preach on the Magnificat for like an hour and 42 minutes. 00:27:51.539 --> 00:27:55.119 I would like to go full Puritan on you but I can't. 00:27:55.119 --> 00:28:04.680 So all I can do oh ma'am is give you four very brief reflections four very brief reflections on this. 00:28:04.680 --> 00:28:10.880 First first reflection consider how unlikely all of this is. 00:28:10.880 --> 00:28:13.400 Mary is like Hannah in first Samuel one and two. 00:28:13.400 --> 00:28:17.039 She's been in a low place but now God has exalted her. 00:28:17.039 --> 00:28:20.559 It's astonishing how often God does this for his people. 00:28:20.559 --> 00:28:35.279 Do not miss how often God does this by the weight as this for men and women alike but do not miss how often God does this for anonymous and struggling women who have no hope and no agency in earthly terms no voice if you will. 00:28:35.279 --> 00:29:07.240 God does not only care about the big guys leading the big works God cares about the voiceless struggling the meek and the helpless and God often chooses to give pregnancy to such women who are in hopeless situations in earthly terms in order to make them the unmistakable bearer of incredibly significant blessing to all his people and even all the earth see Hannah see Ruth and now see Mary. 00:29:07.240 --> 00:29:25.900 Remarkable now just to be sensitive for a moment pregnancy is under the curse and so it is not always the case that every pregnancy comes to term and every baby survives and some of the greatest pain we can know in this life is when a baby dies in the womb. 00:29:25.900 --> 00:29:30.519 So let that be said and let the church care for those who suffer in this way. 00:29:30.519 --> 00:29:34.720 This is a somewhat common experience in truth. 00:29:34.720 --> 00:30:00.799 So we know that pregnancy is such a giver of great joy yes but it can also be a real avenue of of pain because it's distinctly and markedly under the curse in a Genesis three way and how we await that when there will be no curse on little children and on mothers with child. 00:30:00.799 --> 00:30:53.680 Second second reflection I will go very fast they're never going to have me back second know that God is with you when you are greatly troubled God is with you like God was with Mary when you are greatly troubled like Mary initially you don't have everything figured out you're frankly struggling to line everything up the complications of life baffle you and are bigger than you but do not lose heart in God's good time he will iron things out he will do this in his own way and again in his own time God is working in the small the insignificant and the needy to accomplish his purpose and his plan pray for fresh faith when you are greatly troubled pray for fresh faith to trust God's plan. 00:30:53.680 --> 00:34:22.480 Third third give praise to the God who remembers mercy give praise to God this is what Mary explodes with praise this shows us as I was saying a moment ago that there are deep waters in this woman in this teenage girl modern liberal scholars if you read the commentaries doubt that Mary could have spoken the Magnificat they tell us this is too advanced for a young Jewish girl well nothing is more anti-woman than so-called feminist and liberal scholarship by the way truly pro-woman people know that a young Hebrew woman steeped in the Psalms with a God loving heart could easily have spoken this prayer so don't believe critical scholarship for a hot minute believe in the word that reflects the dignity of manhood and womanhood alike savor the God praise the God who uses humble men and women left and right defying all the expectations of the elites and know that children or teenagers can give great praise to God they are not to be silenced in our lives children and teenagers are not to have super low expectations on them that they cannot trust Christ and they cannot give praise to God and even eloquent testimony to God there's not a one size fits all experience but when God works in a heart and God must work in a heart for a child to know Christ it can't be our work it's always God's work the pressure is not on us we pray to God for it to happen as God will bless and lead if it be in his will when God does it a young girl like Mary can give eloquent powerful praise to God and so can youth today in fact whatever your age this is what you do as a Christian you praise God you don't live in a straitjacket you give glory to God you thank God you celebrate God my spirit rejoices and God my Savior Christian be instructed and edified by your sister Mary praise your God this week go on a long walk and recount all God's blessings to you even in tough days fourth and finally remember that God has not forgotten us either God has not forgotten you this is truly the takeaway overall of the Magnificat the baby in the womb did not stay a baby the baby in the womb is all grown up the baby in the womb is at the gates he's not a helpless infant any longer he's a warrior who has passed through shadow through death through all the attacks of the devil he did not stay dead and making atonement for our sin but he rose from the grave and he ascended to the father's right hand and right now that baby all grown up is watching and waiting and he has his eye on you as a Christian and you may feel alone and abandoned now greatly trouble but you are not he is coming for you because of all this we may say with Mary in hope and expectation my soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior let's pray father thank you for this text and this truth I pray that you would encourage our hearts lift our hearts up to you thank you for this time in Jesus name amen them back. 00:34:22.480 --> 00:34:23.480 Thanks for watching.