The Visitation

Opening illustration: Think about which person/people’s visit to your home or life have impacted you immensely. Whenever this family we knew in the Middle East visited us, brought joy and impacted our lives. Their daughter who was around 7-8 years old and was diagnosed with down-syndrome taught me how to worship God. Her innocent presence and demeanor swept my heart away. She was one who really knew how to worship God in Spirit and in Truth. I have never seen anyone worship un-inhibit-idly like her. I always desired to reach that level of worshiper of God.

In today’s passage you will see the impactful visitation and meeting of two prophetically conceived women. Their meeting is nothing out of the ordinary. Their conversation is no gossip but spirit-filled …

Let us turn to Luke 1 and catch up with the narrative.

Introduction: These two conception miracles, these two miracles in the womb of two women launch the whole series of messianic miracles. The whole miraculous coming of Christ begins with these two conception miracles. And at that point God has injected Himself miraculously into the otherwise non-miraculous source of life. There hasn't been a miracle in over 400 years; there hasn't been a series of miracles in at least 500 years. Nobody has heard from an angel or even from God in well over 400 years. Miracles didn't happen. God didn't speak. Angels didn't show up until now. And it all begins with these two amazing conceptions ... Elizabeth, chosen to be the mother of John the Baptist, the forerunner of Messiah, and Mary, chosen to be the mother of Messiah, the Son of God. In both cases the angel Gabriel came to make the announcement.

In this text of Scripture we have an amazing event taking place. This meeting of these two expectant women is more than a meeting to speak to each other about babies kicking and moving about. It’s more than a meeting to discuss the issues of pregnancy. It is an amazing prophetic, Holy Spirit empowered declaration that Jesus Christ is the Messiah. Not only do we see Mary and Elizabeth coming together for fellowship and comfort but we see our Lord and John the Baptist meeting for the first time even before they’re born. In this meeting, or as it’s been called by the church through the centuries, “The Visitation,” we see the meeting of the Old Covenant with the New Covenant. This meeting by these two women is a providential coming together. Their meeting is a God ordained meeting. The angel practically extends the invitation for Mary to go see Elizabeth. Many things happen in this short passage.

What kind of visitation did Mary and Elizabeth experience?

1. A God-Ordained Visitation (vs. 39-40)

Luke wants us to understand that in the days that Mary received the angel’s message she went immediately to see her cousin. Again, Mary’s faith is seen and shown to us as a model to be followed. She didn’t wait around; she arose and went with haste. How long does it normally take before you follow God’s Word and do what He has for you to do? Do you wait? Do you hesitate? Do you keep asking immature folks around you what to do? What does it take you to take action on what God has instructed? Mary had a very strong and unwavering faith (a blind faith in God), one that believed God no matter what.

The angel Gabriel had told Mary about her Cousin Elizabeth’s supernatural pregnancy and Mary went with haste to see this great miracle for herself. She had been told that her cousin Elizabeth was also experiencing an unusual, though different, visitation of God’s grace: that now late in life, she was in the sixth month of pregnancy with her first child (Luke 1:36).

Now, almost immediately after she has discovered that she, Mary of Nazareth, is about to become the most unique woman in history, notice how beautifully her attention turns from herself to a need where she can serve. She travels to help Elizabeth, and v. 56 says that Mary stayed with her aged relative and served her until Elizabeth’s baby was delivered. This could well become our most important Christmas lesson for this year. Mary demonstrates a principle of God’s love in action: “May I be more concerned to assist the fulfillment of what the Lord is doing in another person than I am with what He is doing in me.”

2. A Spirit-Filled Visitation (v. 41)

We don’t know whether Elizabeth saw Mary at first, or just heard her voice. She may have been working around the house or in another room when Mary gave her greeting. Hello, Elizabeth, it’s your cousin Mary are you home?

But however it was, Luke tells us that Mary’s voice had an effect on the baby Elizabeth was carrying. The Bible tells us that the baby leaped in her womb. skirta,w skirtao {skeer-tah’-o} Leaped for joy. This was a Holy Spirit moment in the lives of these women and their babies. This leaping is a prophetic leaping. It is something that God’s people had been waiting on for centuries.