Good morning. Please open your Bibles to Luke 24
How many of you know the name Isaac Watts?
Isaac Watts is typically referred to as “the father of English hymnody.” Over the course of his life, he wrote over 600 hymns, including Alas and Did my Savior Bleed, O God, Our Help in Ages Past, and When I Survey the Wondrous Cross. He also wrote what is arguably the most popular Christmas hymn ever, which is why we are talking about him this morning.
Isaac was a genius and a child prodigy. He had learned Latin (by age 5), Greek (by age 9), French (by age 11), and Hebrew (by age 13). As a boy, he had the annoying habit of echoing his parents’ commands in rhyming couplets. It was like being in the house with Dr. Seuss. Once, his father got so annoyed with it that he laid him across his lap to give him a whipping. Isaac looked up at him and said, “O father do some mercy take, and I will no more verses make.”
Isaac Watts never married, but he came close to it, once. A young woman named Elizabeth Singer, who was herself a published poet, actually fell in love with Watts sight-unseen through his published poems. Elizabeth was so taken with this man who could write so deeply and passionately that she threw caution to the wind and asked him to marry her in a letter.
Unfortunately for poor Isaac, he was not a handsome man. When they finally met, she retracted her offer. She wrote later that he was "only five feet tall, with a shallow face, hooked nose, prominent cheek bones, small eyes, and deathlike color.....I admired the jewel but not the setting that contained it.” So she swiped left.
So while Isaac might have lost out on love, this didn’t diminish his devotion to God or his joy at the coming of the Messiah. In 1719, he wrote his great hymn, “Joy to the World.” [transition]
This morning, we’re going to talk about how the Lord came into the world. And it starts with a love story. And if Isaac and Elizabeth isn’t a great love story, well, this one kind of is. I want to talk about three Christmas love songs. Kind of like a compilation CD.
The First Love Song: Joseph and Mary. Let’s look at Luke 1, starting in verse 26:
26 In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, 27 to a virgin betrothed[b] to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin's name was Mary.
Let’s unpack that word “betrothed.” We usually think of that word as meaning the same thing as “engaged.” And while the word can be translated that way, the concept of betrothal in the first century was way different than the way we think of being engaged today.
In Mary and Joseph’s time, a legally binding marriage happened in three stages. First, there was the contract, or covenant. By this time, it was common for the prospective groom to take the initiative. The prospective bridegroom would travel from his father’s house to the house of the prospective bride. He would negotiate the price of purchase of the young woman with her father to become married to the bride. Once the bridegroom had paid the agreed upon price the marriage covenant was established, and the couple were regarded to be husband and wife.
However, they wouldn’t live together as husband and wife because he still needed to build a home for her. A betrothal would last twelve months, which would give the young man time to get their house ready. The young couple’s house would be in the same compound as his father’s house, or might even adjoin it.
So during this time, Joseph and Mary were getting to know each other. What made each other laugh, how they handled challenges and hard days, the strengths of their personalities that shone and the imperfections where they failed, their hopes and fears and dreams for the future, how many children they hoped to have one dayEach day that passed, their love for one another continued to deepen and grow.
And soon, the work on the house would be done, and the groom would come to take the bride to live with him. This usually took place at night and would involve the groom, best man and other male escorts who would leave the father’s house and form a procession to the bride’s home. Traditionally, the arrival of the groom would be announced with a shout, or maybe even a trumpet blast, and he would come and take his bride to the house he had prepared for her.
At least, that was how it was supposed to work. But this wasn’t going to be a typical betrothal. Let’s look together at Luke 1, when the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary and spoke with her. Now, some of you ladies might claim you heard angels singing the first time you laid eyes on your husband. Lisa Green, Jeff told me you did. Is that true?
But Mary actually had an angel speak to her. Luke tells us that in the sixth month (which was the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy—you can read about that in the first part of Luke 1), the angel Gabriel came to Mary and said “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!”
Now, if you’re Catholic, or if you grew up Catholic, you know this as the Hail Mary. he said, “Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee.”
Mary is, understandably, a little freaked out by this. Verse 29 says, 29 But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. 30 And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. Now look at verse 31
31 And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. 32 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, 33 and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”
We will come back to Luke’s version of the story in a minute, but I want us to flip over to Matthew for just a minute, because Matthew gives us the story more from Joseph’s perspective:
18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed[f] to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit.
Try to imagine how Mary broke the news. “Joseph, I know this sounds crazy, but an angel visited me and told me I’m going to have a baby. And the angel said His name will be Jesus, and ‘He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High.’ He’s the Messiah, Joseph! You have to believe me. It’s a miracle, but it’s true because . . . because . . . I’m pregnant.”
Everybody knows there is only one way to get pregnant, and Joseph knew he had not been involved. Everyone would have known he had not been involved—unless he dishonored Mary and her family and all he held to be true. And if he had, then he too would be a disgrace to all their society.
While legally he could have taken Mary to the courts and had her tried and potentially stoned to death, he still loved her. And his love for her outweighed his hurt and anger at what he believed to be her sin against him. So verse 19 says he resolved to divorce her quietly and not make a public disgrace of her.
That’s when, in this supernatural love story, God knew that Joseph needed some supernatural love. So Joseph, too, got a visit from an angel with this message:
20 But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”
God knew exactly what was at the heart of Joseph’s hurt: fear. And God gave Joseph the reassurance he needed to trust Mary and her love—and ultimately to trust God and His love to make a way in their amazing, unbelievable, dangerous, supernatural, and triumphant love song.
Which brings us to the second of our three love songs: Mary’s love song to God.
Let's go back to Luke chapter 1. As you look at the conversation between Gabriel and Mary, the two things that stand out to me are Mary’s faith and obedience. You see her faith in verse 34:
34 And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” Unlike Zechariah, who said, to Gabriel, “How do I know you’re telling the truth?” Mary never doubted that God would do what He said He would do. She was just interested in the mechanics of it.
Gabriel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; (verse 35). Which doesn’t really clear things up very much. But here’s the most important part: Verse 37 says, “For nothing will be impossible with God.” And when Mary hears that, then we see her obedience:
38 And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant[f] of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.”
Man, I wish I could have faith that leads to obedience like that. Sometimes I want to have all the specifics spelled out before I act in faith, or before I say yes to God. Even though Mary didn’t understand, she obeyed. And not long after that, she goes to visit her Aunt Elizabeth. And after hearing Elizabeth’s greeting, she breaks out into the first Christmas song.
And after hearing Elizabeth’s greeting, she breaks out into the first Christmas song. This won’t be up on the screen, so read it with me in your copy of God’s Word:
46 And Mary said,
“My soul magnifies the Lord,
47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
We call this song the Magnificat, which comes from the Latin word meaning "magnifies," (v. 46). By the way, this is the longest passage spoken by a woman in the entire New Testament!
Mary’s love song gives us so many reasons to love and worship God. But let me point out three of them, that all focus on how the holy, sovereign king of kings and Lord of Lords pays special attention to the humble and lowly. Here’s the first:
1. God is mindful of the humble.
Verse 48 (NIV)
for he has been mindful
of the humble state of his servant.
Think about the circumstances here. Everything about Mary is humble. She lives in Nazareth, which was such a tiny, backwater town that you couldn’t even find it on a map. Later, Nathanael, one of Jesus’ own disciples, would hear that Jesus came from Nazareth and dog it.
She was also poor. We know this because when Mary and Joseph came to present Jesus at the Temple after he was born, they brought the offering of poor people– a pair of doves or two young pigeons (Luke 2:24)
Finally, she was a woman. That means she wasn’t formally educated. Most men wouldn’t even talk to women. But here the angel of the Lord talks to her!
God is mindful of us. What does it mean to be mindful? It means he remembers us. He thinks about us. He is considerate of us. If God had a refrigerator, your picture would be on it! You are on God’s mind!
Here’s the second reason to love and worship and magnify God:
2. God magnifies the humble!. I know this is a song about magnifying God, but look at how it magnifies the humble and lowly. Verse 51:
51 He has performed mighty deeds with his arm;
he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.
52 He has brought down rulers from their thrones
but has lifted up the humble.
53 He has filled the hungry with good things
but has sent the rich away empty.
Mary’s Magnificat has scared a lot of people throughout history because of these verses. In the past century, three separate governments banned the Magnificat from being read or recited in public.
During the British rule of India, it was prohibited from being sung in Indian churches. In the 1980’s, the government of Guatemala was so afraid of revolution from the poor that they banned any public readings of it. And when Argentina was going through its civil war, the military outlawed any public display of it.
We should remember that God has never cared much for the rulers and authorities and politicians of the world. There are over 30 verses in the Bible that contrast the proud with the humble. And on every one, the proud are on the losing side.
• God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. James 4:5, 1 Peter 5:5
• Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, but whoever humbles himself will be exalted.
• Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall (Pr 16:18)
Here’s the third reason Mary’s love song gives us to love God: He is mindful of the humble; he magnifies the humble, and 3…
3. God is merciful to the humble
In verse 50, Mary sings, His mercy extends to those who fear him, from generation to generation. And then in 54-55.
54 He has helped his servant Israel,
in remembrance of his mercy,
55 as he spoke to our fathers,
to Abraham and to his offspring forever.”
This word mercy corresponds to the Old Testament word for “covenant love.” hesed. It’s the word used to describe faithful love, that keeps on loving no matter what. Mercy is when we don’t get what our sins deserve.
In the Christmas story, we hear a love song from Joseph to Mary. Then we hear one from Mary to God. But as we come to a close this morning, I want us to talk about the Number One song on our compilation CD. It’s the love song that God sings to us
Earlier in the sermon, we talked about the steps a man would take in first century Palestine when he wanted to tale a wife. Let’s revisit those.
Imagine that one day, the boy Jesus is sitting with his earthly father Joseph in the carpenter shop. And He says, Abba, how did you and mother meet?
Imagine Joseph, the old carpenter (tradition says he died while Jesus was young) thinks to himself, “Okay… its time to have The Talk.”
So he sits down next to Jesus and says,
My son, when a man finds the woman he wants to marry, he first makes his intentions known to the girl’s father. He goes to the Father and he says, “Sir I have chosen my bride.”
Her father will tell the groom the price he will have to pay. The more precious His child is to Him, the higher the price will be. But if the groom truly loves His bride, He joyfully agrees to pay the price.
Then, the groom begins to prepare a place for His bride in His own Father’s house.
And when the room is ready, the groom will come and get His bride. He would come back for her with a shout and the blast of a trumpet. He would bring her back to His father’s house, and she would be with him forever.
I wonder if Joseph looks at His adopted son, Jesus, and says, had “the talk” with Jesus, and said, Son, someday, you’re going to fall in love. And this is what you will do for the one you love. When the Father tells you what your bride will cost you, You will have to decide, is she worth it. And the answer will be “Yes.” Because when you love someone, you will do anything for her.
Years later, the night before Jesus paid the price for us with His death on the cross, he gathered His disciples in an upper room and said:
14 “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God;[a] believe also in me. 2 In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?[b] 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.
Here’s a fun fact about Isaac Watts’ Christmas carol, Joy to the World: Watts didn’t intend for it to be a Christmas carol. We’ve made it a song about the birth of Jesus, but it actually isn’t.
See, we know that, because we look at the world as it is today and we know that the third verse isn’t true yet.
No more let sins and sorrows grow,
Nor thorns infest the ground;
He comes to make his blessings flow
Far as the curse is found.
Sin and sorrow are still growing. Thorns still infest the ground. There are days when we don’t see His blessings flowing. And that’s when we realize that Joy to the World isn’t really about the birth of Christ. It’s about the return of Christ.
But one day, Jesus is going to come back for His bride, the church. He has been working on a room in His father’s house for each one of us. And when everything is made ready, the bridegroom will come.
The trumpet will sound, and the dead in Christ will rise, and we will be changed. We will join him at the wedding feast. Just as with an earthly wedding, where you see people you haven’t seen in years, there’s going to be a massive reunion of everyone we’ve ever loved. And the food is going to be great, and the band is gonna be awesome, because its gonna be an angel choir, and the wine is going to flow, and that will be ok because we’re in heaven… and there’s going to be dancing, and that will be ok too, because we’re in heaven…
And at the head of the table will be the Bridegroom. And his nail scarred hands will be open wide, and He will say, Welcome home, my beloved bride. I’ve been working on this place for over two thousand years now.
Verse 3 of Joy to the World will finally be true. There will be no more sin. No more sorrow. No more thorns infesting the ground.
And verse four will be true, too. And for all eternity, you can experience
The wonders of my love for you.
