As we are in this Advent season, it is a season of blessings. Of course the greatest blessing that we could possibly have is the blessing of eternal life that was made possible by Christ coming into the world and paying the price for our sins on the cross so that we could be in fellowship with God the Father and one day spend eternity with Him. There can be no greater blessing than that. But there are people through out scriptures that seemed to have been blessed by God in such a special way. When we focus upon the season of Advent, two people come to mind real easily that were especially blessed of God. The first one is Mary. Out of all the women on earth, young Mary was chosen to be the mother of the Son of God. She would give birth to the Savior of her people. Of course not only would He be the Savior of her people but He would really end up being the Savior of all people who put their faith in Him. Mary wrote a song that we know as the Magnificat. In it she wrote, “From now on all generations will call me blessed, for the Mighty One has done great things for me…” And she is right, for generation after generation, reaching now into the 21st Century we call Mary a person who was truly blessed. Now some people have deified Mary and have seemed to have forgotten that she was a human just like you and I. But make no mistake about it, Mary was a wonderful woman of God and that is why she was chosen for such a terrific blessing. The second person who was tremendously blessed was Elizabeth. Elizabeth and her husband Zechariah, who we looked at last week, were a godly couple. But they had gone many years without giving birth. During that time for a woman not to have a child was considered almost like you were cursed. It was a tremendous emotional strain on a woman for her not to be able to conceive a child. But when Elizabeth was well along in years, the Lord fulfilled her dream and desire to have a child. But He didn’t give her just any child. He gave her John the Baptist. The man who would prepare the way for the Messiah. The man who Jesus said this about him, “I tell you the truth: Among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist.” Elizabeth was a blessed woman. Now like I said we have all been blessed by God, if God didn’t do another thing for us we are blessed by His plan of salvation alone. But I believe that we can live our lives in such a way that we too can be blessed of God in a special way. Today in our scriptures we will look at Mary and Elizabeth as Mary comes to share her news with Elizabeth. In this text we will see qualities of their life that will help us to be a blessed people.
Luke 1:39-45
Listen again to what Elizabeth said to Mary in verse 45, keeping in mind that we’ve already been told that Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. “Blessed is she who has believed that what the Lord has said to her will be accomplished!” You see Mary believed that indeed what the Lord said to her through an angel would come to pass. God said it, and she believed it. And she was blessed through that belief. I believe that it still rings true today; people are blessed of God when they believe what He says. You are blessed of God when you believe what the Lord said will be done. You see we don’t just have this one statement here to make this case. All throughout scripture we see people being blessed for believing that what God said will be done. It all started with Abraham. Abraham had basically said to the Lord, what can you give me since I remain childless and my slave will be the one who inherits my estate. God responded by saying “This man will not be your heir, but a son coming from your own body will be your heir.” Then if you remember he took him outside and said, “Look up at the heavens and count the stars--if indeed you can count them. So shall your offspring be.” Now comes the kicker to the whole thing. Right after God tells Abraham this, the very next verse, Genesis 15:6 the scripture says, “Abram believed the Lord, and he credited to him as righteousness.” For a man who seemed to be hopeless about ever having a son or any children of his own, what an incredible amount of faith to now believe God’s statement that you will one day have so many descendants that you won’t be able to count them. For a person in Old Testament times there was no greater blessing than that. But Abraham was made righteous through his faith that God would do what He says He would do. That faith was an incredible faith. Abraham went on to be a very blessed man. The nation of Israel would come into being all through Abraham’s descendants and most importantly God’s blessing. Abraham went on to be a blessing to all people everywhere that would call upon the Lord. You know your important when you have a song about you. We still sing Father Abraham, because even our lives were blessed through Abraham’s faith in what God said. On our study of the book of Genesis on Wednesday nights we saw the faith that the patriarchs had in this covenant that God made with them through Abraham. Joseph, lying there on his deathbed spoke about the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt and told them to make sure that when they went back to the Promise land that they would bring his bones. Joseph was indeed a blessed man who looked down into the future and knew that God would do what he said we would do. And although Joseph had many difficult times, Joseph indeed lived a life that was blessed of God. Because he believed that when God said something that it would be accomplished.
It hasn’t been that long ago that we talked about the incredible faith of the Centurion. When he asked for his servant to be healed Jesus was going to come to his home and heal the servant. But he said, “I don’t deserve you to come under my roof. Just speak the word and it will be done.” Jesus said, “I haven’t found anyone in Israel with such faith.” The man knew that if God spoke it, it would happen. Besides the blessing of having his servant healed I imagine that the Centurion went on to have many blessings in his life. Because he believed that when God said something it would be accomplished, he knew the job would get done. If we want to have a life that is blessed by God, God calls us to that kind of faith. The kind of faith that when God says it we believe it. Even if we don’t see how it’s going to happen or how it can happen, if God says it, that is all we need. Do you have that kind of faith in your life? Has God been trying to tell you something and maybe you’ve been kind of skeptical that it could really happen? Maybe you’ve just attributed it to you misunderstanding God. If God says it, you can stake your life on it. After all taking God at His Word is what brings us the greatest blessing of all; our salvation. We stake our life on John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believeth Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” Believe and be blessed. Mary was blessed of God because she knew that God meant what he said and she knew He had the power to make it happen. Do you have that same faith that Mary had, the faith that Abraham and many others had? If you do you will be truly blessed by God.
Now this was always such a neat part of scripture that stood out to me. “When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb…” What an awesome experience that must have been for Elizabeth, to have her baby leap for joy inside of her. How that happened is not for us to speculate. I would just say that it was a work of God. But when you read our text today you get a filling that Elizabeth was excited and filled with joy at what God was doing among them. I think Mary was excited as well at what God was doing. And I think that is another characteristic that God likes to see in people that He blesses. You are blessed of God when you are filled with joy at the work of the Lord. You see that is how you know that you have a heart for God. When you have a heart for God you are sensitive to His Spirit and you know when God is doing a special work in your presence and it excites you. Elizabeth and Mary were so excited because they knew that God was breaking into their lives to do something that had never been seen or done before. God was going to come into the world and save them. They had a new hope and excitement of what God was going to do around them and for them. I think of another person who was clued in to what God was doing around them. A man named Simeon. Scriptures called him a man who was righteous and devout. The Holy Spirit had told him that he would not die until he had seen the Christ child. When Mary and Joseph later took Jesus to the temple to be presented to the temple the Holy Spirit guided Simeon to them. The scriptures tell us that Simeon took baby Jesus in his arms and praised God. You could sense the joy in Simeon about what God was getting ready to do in their presence. Simeon says to the Lord basically, “You can go ahead and take me Lord, I have seen your salvation.” He was excited that God had broken through and was coming to save his people and all the people. Simeon had the foresight and knowledge from the spirit to know that this salvation wasn’t just for the Jews, but for every person. That is the story of the Advent. The story of the Advent is about the joy and hopes and expectation that came with Christ when He came into the world. Everyone that understood what was happening or what was about to happen was filled with joy and excitement about what God was doing around them. From Mary, Elizabeth and Simeon to the shepherds and wise men that rejoiced and praised God in the presence of Christ. They all understood that God was doing something special in their lives and they all were blessed of God. If you want to be a person that is blessed of God then you should be a person who is sensitive to the work of God around you. That realization that God is at work should bring a joy and excitement to your life.
You know as I look at this text I get a feeling that Mary and Elizabeth had a special friendship. I know that they were related, but I believe that there was something special there. Elizabeth, especially at this moment in time was a spirit filled woman. I believe Elizabeth was a woman who, like Mary was in tune with God. I can’t help but wonder if Mary maybe had her faith strengthened even more when we she walked into Elizabeth’s home and being filled with spirit the first words out of Elizabeth’s mouth is “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” Now we know that Mary had faith and believed already, but if Mary ever had the slightest bit of doubt about what had happened to this point, it had to disappear right here. She is coming to tell Elizabeth the great news and by the words out of Elizabeth’s mouth it is evident that God had revealed to her already. But Mary would no doubt step back and think, “Wow, God is awesome.” Because she knew that she hadn’t breathed a word of it yet. It had to be God. I imagine that having a spirit filled friend like that was such an encouragement to her as she stepped out in faith in what would be an incredible adventure with difficult challenges ahead. As she stayed with Elizabeth for the next three months I can only imagine the encouragement that she would bring to Mary that would help sustain her through the road ahead. You see, I also believe that you are blessed of God when you have a spirit filled friend who encourages you. Sometimes stepping out in faith can be such a scary thing because often times we can allow our human emotions to take over, and to have a friend who is in tune with God’s spirit that knows what call God has on your life can be such a big help as they encourage you. Some of the most awesome things that I’ve experienced and have known other people to experience is when God has been dealing with me or with a friend, then to have a close spiritual friend of them come up to them and know what God has been dealing with them about. It’s such an awesome feeling, probably like Mary felt, because you know that you hadn’t said a word to anybody so it had to be God’s spirit that told them. The encouragement and affirmation that a friend like that brings is a God-given blessing. To have a friend that is so in-tune with the Spirit of God that they can cheer you on and encourage and affirm for you what God’s will is for you life is priceless. And when you have a friend like that you are truly blessed of God. One of the greatest examples of a friendship like that I can think of is David and Jonathan. David was on the run from Saul because Saul was doing everything he could to kill David. But listen to what I Samuel 23:16,17 says. “And Saul’s son Jonathan went to David at Horesh and helped him find strength in God. Don’t be afraid, he said. “My father Saul will not lay a hand on you. You will be king over Israel, and I will be second to you. Even my father Saul knows this.” What a friend! What a man of God! Jonathan was supposed to be the next king, but he was in tune with God enough to know that it was God’s will for David to be the next king. He gladly accepted that and reminded David that he didn’t need to worry that Saul would not be able to kill him because you will be the next king. He brought encouragement and affirmation to David in a very stressful time of his life. Are you blessed with a friend like that?
You are blessed of God when you believe that what the Lord has said will be done. You are blessed of God when you are filled with joy at the work of the Lord. And you are blessed of God when you have a spirit filled friend who encourages you. The Season of Advent is all about being blessings. Advent brought us the greatest blessing we could ever have, the gift of salvation through Jesus Christ.
