Introduction
Commentator Tom Wright asks the following question: “What would make you celebrate wildly, without inhibition?”
He then offers several suggestions.
It could be the news that someone close to you who had been very sick was getting better and would soon be home.
It could be the news that your country had escaped from tyranny and oppression, and could look forward to a new time of freedom and prosperity.
It could be seeing that the floods, which had threatened your home, were going down again.
It could be the message that all your money or business worries had been sorted out, and you could relax.
It could be the telephone call to say that you had been appointed to the job you had always longed for.
Whatever it might be, you would do things you usually would not do.
You might dance round and round with a friend.
You might shout and throw your hat in the air.
You might phone everybody you can think of and invite them to a party.
You might sing a song.
You might even make one up as you went along—probably out of snatches of poems and songs you already knew, or perhaps by adding your own new words to a grand old hymn.
And if you lived in any culture where rhythm and beat mattered, it would be the sort of song you could clap your hands to, or stomp your feet on the ground.
“Now,” says Tom Wright, “read Mary’s song like that” (Tom Wright, Luke for Everyone [London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 2004], 13-14).
Mary’s song, the Magnificat, is an expression of enthusiastic, excited, and exuberant praise of God.
You may recall that after the angel Gabriel told Mary that she was going to conceive and bear the Son of God (Luke 1:31), he also told her that Elizabeth, her relative, had conceived a son and was in her sixth month of pregnancy (1:36).
So Mary arose and went with haste to visit Elizabeth (1:39).
The meeting between the two relatives was a time of great joy and celebration.
Elizabeth burst out singing the Benedicta, pronouncing blessing upon Mary, Jesus, and all who believe in Jesus.
Mary responded with equal joy and elation by singing the Magnificat.
The Magnificat is a song of praise to God.
Mary praised God for a number of his attributes.
Today I would like to study Mary’s song of praise, known as “The Magnificat.”
Luke gave us five nativity hymns. They are:
• Elizabeth’s Benedicta (1:42-45),
• Mary’s Magnificat (1:46-55),
• Zechariah’s Benedictus (1:68-79),
• the angels’ Gloria (2:14), and
• Simeon’s Nunc Dimittis(2:29-32).
The name for each of these nativity hymns comes from the first word in the Latin translation of the Bible.
Theologian R. C. Sproul said that “Mary’s song, the Magnificat, is one of the most important hymns in the history of the church” (R. C. Sproul, A Walk With God: An Exposition of Luke [Great Britain: Christian Focus Publications, 1999], 22).
And Bible commentator William Barclay wrote, “It has been said that religion is the opiate of the people; but it has also been said that the Magnificat is the most revolutionary document in the world” (William Barclay, The Gospel of Luke, The New Daily Study Bible [Louisville, KY; London: Westminster John Knox Press, 2001], 19).
These are strong words for a song that we do not know very well.
So, as I said, today we will learn about Mary’s Magnificat.
And then, Lord willing, we will close our Worship Service today by singing a version of the Magnificat.
Scripture
Let us read Luke 1:46-55:
46 And Mary said,
“My soul magnifies the Lord,
47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
48 for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant.
For behold, from now on 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 for those who fear him
from generation to generation.
51 He has shown strength with his arm;
he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts;
52 he has brought down the mighty from their thrones
and exalted those of humble estate;
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 offspring forever.”
Lesson
Luke 1:46-55 shows us several ways in which every Christian should praise God.
Let’s use the following outline:
1. We Should Praise God for His Condescension (1:46-48)
2. We Should Praise God for His Holiness (1:49)
3. We Should Praise God for His Mercy (1:50)
4. We Should Praise God for His Power (1:51)
5. We Should Praise God for His Sovereignty (1:52-53)
6. We Should Praise God for His Faithfulness (1:54-55)
I. We Should Praise God for His Condescension (1:46-48)
First, we should praise God for his condescension.
Mary began her song by saying, in verses 46b-47a, “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.”
Magnifies translates a form of the verb megalyno, which literally means, “to make great,” “to magnify” (hence Magnificat) or “to enlarge”; figuratively it means, “to extol,” “to exalt,” “to celebrate,” “to esteem highly,” “to praise,” or “to glorify” (John F. MacArthur, Jr., Luke 1–5, MacArthur New Testament Commentary [Chicago: Moody Publishers, 2009], 79).
Rejoices is another intense word. It is an expression of supreme joy.
Mary began her song by expressing supreme joy and delight in making God’s name great.
That is foundational to praising God.
We are to magnify his name, and nothing else.
But why was Mary expressing supreme delight and joy in making God’s name great?
It was because of God’s condescension toward her.
She praised God that he took notice of her.
She said in verse 48a, “For he has looked on the humble estate of his servant.”
Mary was stunned that God would choose her.
She knew that she was a sinner.
She had just praised God as her Savior.
Mary was not sinless or immaculate, as the Roman Catholic Church claims.
She was very aware that she needed a Savior to deliver her from her sin.
Mary would vehemently deny that the reason God chose her to conceive his Son was that she was without spot or blemish.
As Bishop J. C. Ryle, in his somewhat antiquated English, said, “We may safely affirm that none would be more forward to reprove the honor paid by the Romish Church to the Virgin Mary, than the Virgin Mary herself” (J. C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on Luke, Vol. 1[New York: Robert Carter & Brothers, 1879], 35-36).
Mary was astonished that God had looked on her humble estate.
She was just an ordinary girl from an insignificant Galilean village (Nazareth) that was scorned by other Israelites (John 1:46).
Mary did not view herself as exalted in any way.
In fact, she saw herself as God’s servant (see also 1:38).
The Greek word for servant (doule) is the feminine form of the word for “slave.”
Mary was the first person in the New Testament to identify herself as the Lord’s slave—a designation that became the norm for Christians after the death and resurrection of Jesus (see 1 Corinthians 7:22; Ephesians 6:6; Revelation 1:1).
And even though Mary was God’s servant, she also recognized the incredible blessing that God was bestowing on her.
She said in verse 48b, “For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed.”
To be the mother of Jesus was an incredible honor.
No other woman in all history will bear that honor.
And yet, Mary recognized that God chose her, not because she was meritorious, but rather because of God’s grace.
He condescended to bless Mary, and for that she praised him.
We also should praise God for his condescension.
None of us has any merit to present to God.
Instead, we deserve God’s judgment.
But, in mercy, God has reached down to us and given us his grace.
II. We Should Praise God for His Holiness (1:49)
Second, we should praise God for his holiness.
Mary said in verse 49a, “For he who is mighty has done great things for me.”
Mary knew that she was blessed because God is mighty and that he had done great things for her.
To become the mother of Jesus was astonishing.
I am sure that she did not, at the time, comprehend all that would be involved in being the mother of Jesus.
Nevertheless, she praised God for what he had done for her.
She praised God because she knew that “holy is his name” (1:49b).
God’s holiness is his most dominant attribute.
To be sure, God’s attributes consist of love, mercy, grace, purity, justice, and so on.
But the attribute that is God’s most preeminent attribute is his holiness.
In Biblical times, when something important was said, the word was repeated.
So, for example, when Jesus wanted to emphasize something to people, he did not simply say, “Truly.”
No, he said, “Truly, truly” (see John 1:51; 3:3, 3:5, 3:11; 5:19).
That meant that Jesus was about to say something significant.
But, to say something three times was really, really important.
And the only thing in the entire Bible that is said three times concerns the holiness of God.
It is found in Isaiah’s vision of the Lord in the Old Testament.
When Isaiah saw the Lord sitting upon a throne in the temple, he also saw angelic beings known as seraphim who called to one another and said,
“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;
the whole earth is full of his glory!” (Isaiah 6:3).
The only other instance of a word repeated three times is in the New Testament book of Revelation.
John said that the four living creatures worshiping God around his throne in heaven never cease to say,
“Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty,
who was and is and is to come!” (Revelation 4:8).
We should praise God for his holiness.
We need to recognize that we are not coming into the presence of a buddy or pal.
No.
We are living in the presence of God, who is altogether holy and who cannot look at wrong (Habakkuk 1:13).
III. We Should Praise God for His Mercy (1:50)
Third, we should praise God for his mercy.
Mary said in verse 50, “And his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation.”
This is a rough quote of Psalm 103:17.
Actually, the Magnificat is filled with allusions to the Old Testament Scriptures.
It indicates that her heart and mind were saturated with the Scriptures.
The Magnificat as a whole has many similarities to Hannah’s prayer of thanksgiving (1 Samuel 2:1-10), which she offered to God after he blessed her with a baby.
Furthermore, Mary began in verse 46 by praising God with the words, “My soul magnifies the Lord,” which echo Psalm 34:2a: “My soul makes its boast in the Lord.”
Mary’s reference to God as her Savior (1:47) is reminiscent of Old Testament passages such as 2 Samuel 22:3; Isaiah 43:11; 45:21; and Hosea 13:4, while her statement, “For he has looked on the humble estate of his servant” (1:48) reflects Hannah’s prayer for a child in 1 Samuel 1:11.
And there are several other allusions as well.
Mary was extremely well-grounded in the Scriptures.
She clearly knew her Bible and had memorized vast portions of Scripture.
And remember, she was only thirteen years old!
Children, you are never too young to memorize God’s word.
God’s word will be your sure and certain guide throughout your entire lives as you memorize it and live by it.
The Psalmist says in Psalm 119:105, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.”
Mary praised God for his mercy in verse 50, “And his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation.”
Those who fear God are Christians.
They are the ones who submit to God with reverence and respect.
And, Mary said, God’s mercy is for them!
They are blessed by his forgiveness, love, and grace.
We should praise God for his mercy.
We deserved to go to hell for all eternity because we had broken God’s law.
Yet, despite our sin and rebellion, God extended mercy to us.
He loved us and set his heart upon us.
He forgave us all our sins, not because we deserved it or had earned it, but because of his mercy.
IV. We Should Praise God for His Power (1:51)
Fourth, we should praise God for his power.
Mary said in verse 51a, “He has shown strength with his arm.”
This is a figure of speech.
It reminds me of young boys who are just learning about their muscles.
They show others how much muscle they have in their arms.
But that is incomparable to the power of God.
God is all-powerful.
And because God is all-powerful, “He has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts” (1:51b).
The proud are those who think that they are first and foremost.
The proud are those who think that they know better than God.
The proud are those who think that there is no God.
And Mary said that because God is all-powerful, he would scatter them.
V. We Should Praise God for His Sovereignty (1:52-53)
Fifth, we should praise God for his sovereignty.
Mary said in verses 52-53, “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.”
Mary demonstrated in these verses that she had an excellent grasp of Old Testament history.
She remembered how God had put down Pharaoh, the Canaanites, the Philistines, Sennacherib, Haman, and Belshazzar.
She remembered how God had exalted Joseph and Moses, Samuel, David, Esther, and Daniel, and had never allowed his chosen people to be destroyed.
She remembered how God had fed the Israelites in the wilderness and how, in judgment, he had sent the rich packing.
We should praise God for his sovereignty.
VI. We Should Praise God for His Faithfulness (1:54-55)
And finally, we should praise God for his faithfulness.
Mary said in verses 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.”
Mary also understood God’s covenant with his people.
She knew that God had spoken to her fathers, and in particular to Abraham.
God had promised to make from Abraham’s spiritual seed a great nation that would be a blessing to the world.
And now Mary saw that God was fulfilling his covenant faithfulness by bringing the promised deliverer into the world through her.
No wonder she was so filled with joy and excitement!
We should praise God for his faithfulness.
When things don’t happen the way you want them to happen, or things don’t turn out the way you want them to turn out, it is not because God is unfaithful.
No.
God is ever faithful.
We should never blame God when things don’t go as we want.
We should constantly adjust our thinking and attitudes because God is ever faithful.
Conclusion
So, having examined the various ways of praising God, every Christian should praise God.
Mary shows us that we should praise God for his condescension, holiness, mercy, power, sovereignty, and covenant faithfulness.
The Magnificat is rich in biblical truth, and we can spend many seasons of prayer using Mary’s song as a model for praising God.
Are you a Christian?
You should praise God for his condescension, his holiness, his mercy, his power, his sovereignty, and his covenant faithfulness that he has demonstrated to you.
You have been adopted into the family of God by the finished work of Mary’s son, Jesus, who was born, lived a perfect life, died to pay for your sin, and then was raised to life for your justification.
You have many reasons to praise God.
Are you not yet a Christian?
I invite you to ask God for the gift of faith.
Ask God to help you believe that Jesus really is the sinless Savior of sinners.
And then repent of your sin and ask God to forgive you.
Then you too can join with Mary, the angels, and all the redeemed throughout history who praise God for all that he has done for you. Amen.
