Sermon Central
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Mary's Song Series
Contributed by William Huegel on Dec 30, 2005 (message contributor)
Summary: Mary was a nobody. She knew she was unworthy of such a blessing. And she was right. It’s a problem to elevate her too highly. The point of the Gospel is that God only uses people who understand that they are not worthy and without God they are nothing
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Mary’s Song
Luke 1:46ff
Rev. Wm. A. Huegel
Wallingford FBC
November 27, 2005 - 1st Sunday of Advent
“He has scattered the proud …but has lifted up the humble”.
The Song of Mary
46 And Mary said: “ My soul magnifies the Lord,
47 And my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior.
48 For He has regarded the lowly state of His maidservant;
For behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed.
49 For He who is mighty has done great things for me, And holy is His name.
50 And His mercy is on those who fear Him from generation to generation.
51 He has shown strength with His arm;
He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.
52 He has put down the mighty from their thrones, And exalted the lowly.
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 seed forever.”
56 And Mary remained with her about three months, and returned to her house.
The world’s most incredible announcement had come to an unknown, quiet, humble young woman in the back quarters of Judea – from the unknown town of Nazareth. An angel had come to her. In fact we even know the name of that angel – it was Gabriel. The angel Gabriel came to Mary to announce that she would have a child and that this child would be the Son of the Most High God. She was to name him Jesus, or in Hebrew, Jeshua, which sounds like Joshua – the word means Savior. He would have no earthly biological father. She would be impregnated by the Spirit of God.
This was God-in-the flesh, born of the virgin Mary.
Mary was a nobody. She knew she was unworthy of such a blessing. And she was right. It’s a problem to elevate her too highly. The point of the Gospel is that God only uses people who understand that they are not worthy and without God they are nothing.
He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.
52 He has put down the mighty from their thrones, And exalted the lowly.
53 He has filled the hungry with good things, And the rich He has sent away empty.
God is in the habit of using “nobodys”. Think of whom God had used in the Past. Moses was a little boy who was destined to die. His mother had put him into a basket to float among the swamp grass. The Pharoah had ordered all the babies to be killed. He was saved only by God’s grace.
David, was the little kid who had been assigned to taking care of his father’s sheep, while all of his big brothers went to fight the Philistines. He was the least likely of his family to be anything important.
Gideon, one of Israel’s greatest warriors was called of God to deliver Israel. Do you remember his response? He said, “I’m the least important kid in the least important family, in the weakest country in the world.” Gideon knew he was a nobody. God simply said, “Yeah! I know. But I will be with you.”
There are many, many such illustrations. Those who thought there were really somebody, became a nobody, and those who knew they were a nobody became someone powerful, simply because God chose them and empowered them. That is true of all the disciples of Jesus, and all the great men and women of God in both the Old and New Testaments.
He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.
52 He has put down the mighty from their thrones, And exalted the lowly.
53 He has filled the hungry with good things, And the rich He has sent away empty.
I know that today’s society wants to tell us that we really are “somebody”. Self worth and ego boosting, pumping people up and even putting them on a pedestal is popular. We want our children to feel good about themselves. It is one of the highest values in education, today.
We sing Jesus loves me to our children, and it’s good. We want our children to know that God loves them. We want them to feel good about themselves. I’m not advocating that we put anyone down – certainly not children.
But self-worth itself becomes worthless, if the self-worth is followed by Godless and evil behavior, or even it results in simply ignoring God. It is not good for a person to feel so great about themselves that they don’t need God, do not need a Savior, do not need salvation, do not need to repent of anything.
