Title: Mary’s Song
Text: Luke 1:46-55
Truth: Christians celebrate God’s mercy at Christmas.
Aim: I want them to appreciate God’s mercy and appropriate God’s mercy to their life.
Life ?: Why do we celebrate God’s mercy at Christmas?
INTRODUCTION
Mary would not have made Barbara Walters 10 Most Fascinating People of 4 B.C., but she is the most famous and fascinating woman in history. People still claim to see her today. Lourdes, France, in the S.W. of France, has a population of 15,000. In 1858 a young woman claimed to have 15 apparitions of “a Lady” that was interpreted to be Mary. Today, this town of 15,000 has 270 motels to accommodate the five million that make a pilgrimage to where Mary was supposed to have appeared. In fact more than 400 reported appearances in the 20th century, more than the three previous centuries combined, has caused some to refer to the 20th century as “Mary’s century.” In August 1997, Newsweek reported a growing movement in the Roman Catholic Church that wants the Pope to proclaim a new, controversial dogma: that Mary is a Co-Redeemer! (Aug. 25, 1997, p. 49)
Because of serious disagreements evangelicals have with the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church about Mary, we have not given much emphasis to her. Our Catholic friends teach that not only was she a virgin when she conceived Jesus, but Pope Pius IX in December 1854 proclaimed she was conceived and born without original sin. The Church teaches that Mary remained a virgin all her life. The brothers and sisters of Jesus mentioned in the Gospels were from Joseph’s previous marriage of which we have no record. In November 1950, Pius XIII made it official Roman Catholic doctrine that Mary ascended to heavenly glory with Jesus.
This distortion of the biblical record has blurred our view of the mother of Jesus. Mary was a wonderful, godly young teenage girl. This song reveals that her mind was saturated with the Old Testament. Her heart was filled with love and trust and worship of the living God. We do well to follow her pattern of devotion, but we are not to prostrate ourselves as though she is a deity. In fact, this song is a celebration of the mercy of God she receives as a sinner. What do we learn from Mary? Christians celebrate the mercy of God at Christmas. This would be a memorable Christmas if we marveled over God’s mercy as Mary did.
This story fits with the intent of Luke’s gospel. Luke gives an orderly presentation of the coming of the Savior of the world. He makes it clear that John the Baptist is not the expected Messiah but the prophetic fulfillment of the forerunner before the Messiah. This Messiah comes for all people. He is so powerful and inclusive that he uses the most unexpected people to accomplish his salvation. The woman picked to be the mother of God’s Son is an example of the surprising methods of God. She is a teenage peasant girl. Luke being a physician is particularly fascinated that she conceived though she was a virgin. Mary, too, marvels at the mercy God has shown her.
The song is divided into two stanzas. She praises God for receiving his undeserved mercy (v. 46-50). Next she praises God for his rescuing power (v. 51-55). Each stanza has two parts. Two stanzas with two parts make up my four-point message. Mary’s song stresses the mercy of God. This is why Christians celebrate God’s mercy at Christmas because of God’s kindness.
I. CHRISTIANS CELEBRATE GOD’S MERCY AT CHRISTMAS BECAUSE OF GOD’S KINDNESS (LUKE 1:46-48)
Read.
This song has been called the Magnificat. That’s the Latin translation of the word “glorify.” The word (megaluno) means, “to cause to grow, expand, or swell up.” She just lost her reputation of purity. Who would believe her story? The 21st century woman may not value a reputation for purity, but for Mary it could mean life or death. It certainly determined if her future was going to be good or bad. What I am saying is that Mary has experienced a depth of God’s mercy that is so great, so expansive that it overwhelms all the potentially terrible things this premarital pregnancy could cause in her life.
In Mary’s day they would fill a glass globe with water. The closer the water filled globe got to an object, the bigger it looked. It could magnify an object three times its original size. Mary has just had a close encounter with the living God. His mercy is so magnified it overwhelmed every negative associated with her premarital pregnancy in a society that took that as the greatest sin a woman could commit! She wants us to know the greatness of God’s mercy.
This leads her to sing that God’s mercy is great enough and kind enough to save sinners. Mary confesses she is a sinner and needs a Savior. She’s overjoyed that God has provided forgiveness for sinners. I read about a famous atheist who said what she most envied about Christians was they had a Someone to forgive their sins.
Mary’s theology burst forth in doxology. What Mary believed about God caused such joy that she had to sing about it. This occurs over and over in Paul’s letters in the New Testament. He is explaining what it means to be saved or to be the church of God. Then he just stops and takes a moment to praise God for being so good and gracious to us.
Think of the hymns we sing at Christmas time. These hymns are nothing more than someone being overwhelmed with their understanding of the kindness and goodness of God and putting it into song. “Joy to the World, the Lord has come, let earth receive her King.” Can you hear the doctrine and the joy? “Hark! the herald angels sing, ‘Glory to the newborn King; peace on earth, and mercy mild; God and sinners reconciled.’ Joyful, all ye nations, rise, join the triumph of the skies; with angelic hosts proclaim, ‘Christ is born in Bethlehem!’ Hark! the herald angels sing, ‘Glory to the newborn King.’”
What do you believe about God’s goodness and grace? Meditate on it this Christmas season. Let it become your song as God enlarges your knowledge and experience of His mercy.
What causes Mary to glorify the Lord and rejoice in her spirit is found in v. 48. Read.
What surprised Mary about God’s mercy was that “he has been mindful” of her. The word means, “to turn the eyes upon,” “to gaze at,” and “to pay attention.” In Luke 9, a desperate father uses this word when he begs Jesus to look upon his demon-possessed son. He is asking Jesus to heal the boy. Jesus does.
This picture is used throughout the Old Testament (Isa. 40:27). When God turns his face to look upon his people it means he will be their Deliverer and strength and hope. Mary’s life was transformed by this visitation of the angel Gabriel. What Mary is testifying in song is that right now God is personally visiting you and me. Of all the billions on earth, He looks at you this morning as though you were the only person on the face of the earth. He looks at you with mercy and kindness.
No wonder she surrenders to the Lord as his servant. She would trust Him to care for her as she carried and cared for the Son of God. In fact, she has such a thorough understanding of what is taking place, she says in faith that all future generations would call her the most blessed woman whoever lived, and they do.
Simon Wiesenthal wrote The Sunflower in 1969. It speaks of the pain he experienced at the hands of the Nazi’s during WWII. He describes being taken from a Nazi death-camp to a makeshift hospital. He was ushered by a nurse to the side of a Nazi soldier who asked to have a private moment with a Jew. The soldier was fatally wounded and bandaged from head to toe. Struggling to face Wiesenthal with broken words he confessed the heinous act of setting ablaze a village of Jews. Men, women, and children burned to death. Those that tried to escape the flames were shot to death. This German soldier had been unable to silence the screams of those innocent people. Now the man was seeking the forgiveness of a Jew. The man begged Wiesenthal to stay, and repeatedly cried out for forgiveness. Wiesenthal walked away. Nazi soldiers like this man had killed eighty-nine of his own relatives.
Years later Wiesenthal wondered if he had done the right thing. Should he have accepted the man’s repentance and offered forgiveness? Or was his silence the appropriate reply? To find an answer he wrote thirty-two men and women of high regard—scholars, Nobel laureates, psychologists and others. Twenty-six said that his action of not offering forgiveness was right. Six speculated on the costly, but superior, road of pardon and mercy.
Mary celebrates God’s mercy because she was the Nazi soldier and her Jewish Messiah chose to forgive her. I don’t know what it would take for a man to know forgiveness in him who had burned innocent people to death simply because of their race. That is the crime of a monster. But Christmas is a time of celebration because men now understand we who killed the Author of life, the Prince of peace, the Son of God; God forgave by sending us a Jew to be our Messiah.
Christians celebrate God’s mercy at Christmas because of God’s kindness.
Christians celebrate God’s mercy at Christmas because of God’s character.
II. CHRISTIANS CELEBRATE GOD’S MERCY AT CHRISTMAS BECAUSE OF GOD’S CHARACTER. (LUKE 1:49-50)
Mary’s thoughts turn from thankfulness of what God has done for her to thoughts about God himself. She lists three characteristics of God’s character. It doesn’t matter that she is a nobody; the God who is at work is mighty, holy, and merciful.
The conception of the Messiah in her womb is one expression of his might. The angel had told her earlier that nothing is impossible with God.
We are seeing an amazing contrast of the power of God with the power of men. The Big Three automakers, GM, Chrysler, and Ford, once owned 91% of the market shares in America. Today they appear before Congress with their hand out wanting billions of our tax dollars. If there is anything more provable about human power it is that eventually it passes away. But this cross reveals how mighty our God is. Is there anything more helpless than a newborn baby? Is there anyone more powerless than an impoverished peasant? Is there anyone more powerless than a convicted criminal of the state hanging on cross of death? Yet in the greatest demonstrations of human weakness God has revealed his power to rule over the hearts of men and nations for 2,000 years!
This time of the year reminds us of another way that Christ demonstrates he is the Mighty One. When our families gather for the holidays many of us will have an empty chair that a loved one occupied. For my family it is my father-in-law. OU football games, passing a golf course with old guys teeing off, or short people bring him to mind. He’d play cards until everybody was played out. Everybody liked Bob. His family loved him. This God of Mary’s is so mighty He breaks the power of death and promises we will one day be reunited with our saved loved ones. That power never wanes.
The second characteristic is the holiness of God. Fundamentally, the word “holy” means separate one. He is different than us. We are sinful. He is sinless. We are morally imperfect. He is morally perfect.
“Name” refers to His person. Everything about God is holy. His love is holy. He exercises His power in holiness. We are assured that every thing He does and chooses not to do is right and good.
Mary’s God is also merciful. He shows us undeserved compassion though we are sinners.
One of the great promises of the Christian faith is God is with us. We speak and sing about Immanuel. But the only reason that is a great promise of encouragement is because of the kind of God that is with us. Just because someone is near doesn’t mean it is comforting. You know what I mean? There are some folks I’d just as soon be alone in a mausoleum than to have their company.
We celebrate the nearness of God because the God who is near is powerful, absolutely good, and compassionate toward sinners.
Christians celebrate God’s mercy at Christmas because of God’s kindness, because of God’s character, and because of God’s control.
III. CHRISTIANS CELEBRATE GOD’S MERCY AT CHRISTMAS BECAUSE OF GOD’S CONTROL. (LUKE 1:51-53)
The commentators say that our English translations leave us with the impression that Mary is continuing to recite the habitual actions of God. But actually there is a change in the tense of the verbs. They are in the past tense. These things are viewed as completed actions. Often times the Bible speaks of things that God is going to do in the future. Since God is going to do it his actions are so certain it can be described as already accomplished.
What Mary sees from her experience with God is that one day there will be a complete reversal of human values. It is not the proud, the mighty, or the rich that have the last word. In the ancient world it was expected that the rich would be cared for. Poor people were expected to be hungry. But Mary sings of a God who is not bound by what men do. He can turn human attitudes and the power structures of society upside down if need be. (Leon Morris, Tyndale)
More than one Bible student has seen an echo of the Beatitudes of Jesus in this song. The Beatitudes speak of God reversing human values and power structures. Mary sang, “He has scattered the proud.” Jesus taught, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Mary sang, “He has lifted up the humble.” Jesus taught, “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” Mary sang, “He has filled the hungry.” Jesus taught, “Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled.” I wonder if that part of the Sermon on the Mount came from Jesus hearing his mother sing that song to him as she rocked him to sleep or she was cleaning around the house? I wonder if the first theology taught to Jesus was Mary’s song?
David Aikman, formerly of Time magazine, in 2002 spent three months researching the state of Christianity in China. He tells an incredible story. The Chinese church after fifty years of persecution and repression is thriving. When the Communist took control of China five decades ago the Christian church was estimated to be four million believers. Today’s estimate, though difficult to determine, are around 80 million Christians. That’s a twenty-fold increase in the church during a time when China’s population tripled. Wish to God that we’d see that kind of growth in our land.
It appears that persecution is being toned down. I’m told it depends on the area of China. The head of the state run Bureau of Religious Affairs is an atheist who still attempts to control the church, but on the whole he is giving the church room to live. One of the most startling developments is the growth of Christianity among the intellectuals in the area of academics and the arts. In our terms, the universities and Hollywood would be seeking to know Christ! The most startling of all is the response of Chinese President Jiang Zemin’s when asked what one thing he wished he could secure for China’s future? He said that Christianity would become the dominant religion in China!
Aikman cautioned that this does not mean that the president is himself a Christian. The president said that on purely practical reasons: he believes Christians make good citizens, and so a country of Christians would make a great country. Do you think we could run this guy for President here? The Communist madman Mao-tse Tung’s attempt to destroy Christianity is being destroyed itself before our very eyes. The Communist are not in control, He is in control.
For many 2008 has not been a year of celebration. Health, family, marriage, and jobs have reminded them just how little control we have over our life. They’ve done their best to make it better but it failed. These dear people more than others know the world that Mary was born into when she sings this song of celebration of God’s mercy. People like Mary were the puppets of Herod, the High Priest, the Emperor of Rome, and the chief tax collector of her area. It seems as if they had no control over their life. They were hungry, downtrodden, and there was little they could do about it.
If God is in charge, why the cancer? Why the divorce? Why no job? Why am I going through this?
I wish I knew the answer to that. But I can give you Mary’s answer. She says just like Herod didn’t have the last word neither does cancer, divorce, or the loss of job has the last word. God has the last word. God did not send his Son to just rule over the spiritual dimension of life. God sent his Son to rule over the entire universe. His reign has begun; one day it will be completed.
Hold on to your faith. One day He will wipe every tear from your eyes. One day He will remove all the pain from your body. One day you will be with loved ones and sing of the mercy and grace of God around the throne, and never again will there be a teary farewell. One day all the injustices and wrongs will be made right. Mary sings because this world as we know it will one day be turned upside down and made right side up.
We celebrate God’s mercy at Christmas because we are reminded of God’s kindness, character and God’s control.
Finally, Christians celebrate God’s mercy at Christmas because of His covenant.
IV. CHRISTIANS CELEBRATE GOD’S MERCY AT CHRISTMAS BECAUSE OF GOD’S COVENANT. (LUKE 1:54-55)
Basically, Mary is saying that God is not doing something new, but He is continuing his mercy to Abraham. This is what God promised Abraham. God made an unconditional promise to Abraham that he would make his name great and that his descendents would bless the world.
If there were any group of people that tested God’s willingness to rescind His promise it would be Israel. Over and over they rebelled against God, but He never wavered in his commitment to them. He kept his promise with Abraham and his descendents.
A covenant is more than a contract. Implied in a covenant is the promise you won’t forget your pledge. A wedding ring is symbol to remind married couples of the vows of permanency for better or worse, richer or poorer, in sickness or health, til death do us part. The ring reminds us that we vowed we wouldn’t forget to love, honor, and cherish. God covenant’s to keep his promise to all believers. He promises to never to forget them but to bless them.
It wouldn’t surprise me that nearly everyone here has something you consider very old that you consider valuable. For example, Sue Hunter truly values Bob Hunter!
For me it is my great grandfather Cogburn’s Bible. He abandoned his family for another woman for several years, got saved, and came home with that Bible. Its cover is disintegrating, the pages are yellow, but you can make out notes in pencil in the margin. I value that Bible because of whom it belonged to and what it ultimately did for me. A saved great grandfather resulted in a saved grandmother that resulted in a saved grandson, and the story is not finished. That Bible is a symbol that God has kept his promise to save all who repent and believe.
Actually, the promise goes back farther than that. Six thousand years ago God made a promise to an old man and his childless wife that he would use them to eventually bring a Redeemer for a sinner such as I. Two thousand years ago there was a trial and execution that resulted in a man stepping out of the grave three days later. God’s promise to Abraham was kept and He remembered it when He saved my great grandfather, my grandmother, and me.
Our faith is ancient but all that the centuries have done is witness that we have believed in a promise keeping God that meets the timeless needs of the human soul. He is the God of great mercy, and we glorify His holy name.
CONCLUSION
Christians celebrate God’s mercy at Christmas because of God’s kindness, God’s character, God’s control, and because of God’s covenant. Please pray with me.
INVITATION
We are in a mess economically. The bailout cost is calculated not in millions but billions, and we are even hearing the word trillion. No one seems to really understand what needs to be done. Salvation is not a bailout; it is a wipeout! The debt is forgiven. It is so simple that even I can understand it and explain it. This is it---
