December 8th Sermon

One of the joys of the Christmas season is the music that is unique to this time of year. There are some people who like playing Christmas songs in September because they enjoy Christmas so much. Many songs of Christmas are worship songs while some are not about the true Christmas message.

For example, I cannot picture Mary and Joseph singing, “Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow,” as they were on their journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem. Nor can I imagine them trudging along the dusty trails singing, “Dashing through the snow in a one-horse open sleigh.” I don’t think a jolly, red-clad elf piloting eight flying reindeer around the world has much to do with the real Christmas story.

Instead, I think true Christmas music should lead the heart to the worship of the gracious and loving God who sent His one and only Son to this world to be born that day at Bethlehem. Some of the most beautiful worship songs ever written focused on the coming of Jesus Christ, the one and only Savior, into the world. Hymn writer Isaac Watts wrote, “He rules the world with truth and grace and makes the nations prove the glories of His righteousness and wonders of His love.” John Francis Wade wrote, “Yea, Lord, we greet Thee, born this happy morning, Jesus to Thee be all glory given. Word of the Father, now in flesh appearing!” And Joseph Mohr wrote, “Son of God, love’s pure light, with the angels let us sing, Alleluia to our King.” To me, these are true Christmas worship songs.

Our Scripture from Luke’s gospel today is in the form of a song. In fact, Luke, the physician/historian, recorded three worship songs in his narratives of the births of John the Baptist and the Lord Jesus Christ. He recorded one from Elizabeth, John’s mother, another, from Zacharias, John’s father, and this one from Mary, the mother of Jesus. They were filled with the Holy Spirit and wrote their songs from hearts overflowing with worship to the Lord. I have no doubt that these songs were written down soon after they were spoken and preserved and later shown to Luke who recorded them in the Bible for all time by the Spirit’s design.

Mary’s song is called the “Magnificat,” a title that comes from the first word in the Latin translation of these verses of Luke’s gospel. The word in the original text is megaluno and has the meaning “to praise” or “to worship.” As you remember, Gabriel, God’s messenger angel, had just recently visited Mary in Nazareth with the news that she had become the chosen vessel to bring the Messiah, Jesus Christ, into the world. Gabriel had also informed her that her relative Elizabeth was also miraculously pregnant. It appears that almost as soon as the angel left her, Mary made the journey to Elizabeth’s home in the hill country of Judah. Upon hearing Mary’s greeting, Elizabeth spoke a God-inspired song of praise to the Lord for His provision of the Messiah-Savior who was the fulfillment of God’s promises.

Mary’s song followed in answer to Elizabeth and it is remarkable because it reveals Mary’s depth of knowledge of the Old Testament and her awareness of God’s promises. We must remember that while a young teenager, Mary had a profound understanding of God’s truth. Her knowledge is a tribute to her parents, who apparently taught the Bible to their children and evidently quoted Scripture verses as the family went through their daily routine. Mary must have devoted herself to understanding the Bible which she learned from her parents and from her weekly attendance at the local synagogue. She knew the Bible and she knew how to properly apply what she had read in the Bible.

Unlike most of us, Mary did not own a personal copy of the Bible. She probably saw a copy of the Bible only at her synagogue and only then, when opened and read by the rabbi. Yet, she had memorized large quantities of the Bible and quoted several Old Testament verses in her song. Mary quoted or alluded to Genesis 30, First Samuel 2, Second Samuel 22, Psalms 34, 99, 111, 126, Isaiah 43, 45, 60, and Hosea 13; all found in Mary’s Christmas song of worship.

Above all, we must remember that this is Mary’s praise song. Her focus is not on herself but on the Lord. Her desire is to worship the living God who has so graciously blessed her. Today we will see Mary’s worship for God’s favor, His power and sovereignty, and for His faithfulness to keep His promises to His people.

WORSHIP FOR GOD’S FAVOR. Luke 1:46-50

God’s Great Care for His People. Mary had no intention of magnifying herself in her song, but instead chose to magnify the Lord. Her song reveals God as moving to fulfill His covenant promises to the people of Israel, including granting them deliverance from their enemies and salvation from their sins, and for all of this He is to be exalted. She addressed God as “Lord” showing her faith in Him as the Sovereign, Master, and Ruler of the world.

The ideas of “soul” and “spirit” follow the typical Jewish modes of thinking–in Mary’s mind, these words do not show two different aspects of her mind or heart, but points to the inner person. True worship begins in the innermost parts of our being.

In preparation for this message, I read an article by Battalion Chaplain Justin Daniel of the First through Fourth Cavalry at Fort Riley. He wrote, “Mary rightly begins this hymn ascribing to God His divine majesty and glory. It bears pointing out that Mary’s attitude in recognizing the great gift she has been given, including the honor of bearing the Son of God and as being “blessed among women,” does not invoke pride or a change in her privileged status.”

It is no accident that Mary calls God her Savior. Salvation includes deliverance from enemies; however, it also includes salvation from sin. In Psalm 51, David asked to be cleansed and forgiven from his sins. This reveals that Mary was aware of her sinful nature and had trusted in the Lord to forgive her sins. The Lord was indeed her Savior. No one else can save people from their sins.

True worship is also marked by genuine humility. Mary understood her humble state–she had nothing to boast about. She had not developed pride and arrogance in her life. She lived in humble means and had found contentment. She called herself a bond-slave. This word has the idea of the lowest type of slavery and shows she had willingly given herself in submission to God’s will. She had yielded her life choices to the Lord and had decided to live in obedience to Him.

Righteous people will not call Mary blessed because of anything she has done. They call her blessed because the Mighty One has done great things for her. Mary is telling us that it is all about God; not about her. There is not a hint of Mary worship in this passage. Mary worshiped her Lord and calls us to do the same. Mary recognized God’s action in her life and displayed the proper human response to His miraculous intervention.

God’s Great Holiness. True worship praises God for His holiness. God possesses holiness as one of His infinite perfections. In this He transcends the world of sinful men and women. Mary was distinctly aware of her own sin and imperfections and just as aware of God’s great holiness. In His holiness, God is perfectly pure and sinless. Psalm 99:3 calls us to “Praise [the Lord’s] great and awesome name; Holy is He.” God calls every believer into living a holy and sanctified life: He commands; “Be holy for I am holy.” For each of us, as it was for Mary, holiness should be our goal in life.

God’s Great Mercy. True worship of the Lord requires an understanding of God’s mercy, especially in our salvation. Titus 3:5 tells us, “He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done, but according to His mercy…” Mary here quoted from Psalm 103:17, showing that she had committed portions of God’s word to her memory. She knew God was merciful because she knew the Bible told her the truth. God’s mercy stretches from generation to generation. God desired to show His mercy to Mary’s generation and He desires to show mercy to ours. His mercy offers to all the forgiveness of sins and eternal life in Christ.

WORSHIP FOR GOD’S POWER AND SOVEREIGNTY. Luke 1:51-53

God’s Mighty Power. Mary understood that the Lord was infinitely powerful and had displayed His power throughout history. There are many who refuse to see that God is continuously at work causing His plan of salvation to unfold in our everyday experiences, yet He is. She knew God knew the proud and the humble and while the proud and arrogant seem to succeed for a time, ultimately God scattered or dispersed them. It is likely that Mary had come to understand God as the Mighty One through Isaiah 9:6, where “Mighty God” refers to the coming Messiah–the very One she now carried.

God’s Ultimate and Universal Sovereignty. God brought down rulers from their thrones, yet exalted those who were humble. She may have been thinking of God who removed Saul from his throne and replaced him with David the humble shepherd. We must remember James 4:6-7a, “But He gives a greater grace. Therefore it says, “God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” Submit therefore to God.” Mary said “He has filled the hungry with good things”–here she quoted Psalm 107:9.

God in His sovereignty has always provided for His own. It was popular theology in Mary’s time that being wealthy was a sign of God’s favor. Certainly that was true in some cases. Abraham and Jacob were wealthy because of God’s blessings. But there were many poorer people who were also blessed. And many rich people were sent away empty because of their unbelief.

WORSHIP FOR GOD’S FAITHFULNESS. Luke 1:54-55

God’s Great Faithfulness. At the end of Mary’s song, she focused on God’s covenant He had made to her ancestors. She mentioned Abraham and therefore the covenant God had made with him. Centuries had passed since God had made those promises to Abraham. Hundreds of thousands of Jews had lived and died and those promises had not been fulfilled. Yet Mary understood God’s faithfulness, that despite the number of years, God would still keep His promises. The people of Israel would eventually and inevitably live in the land God’s promised to them.

Part of God’s covenant to Abraham was the promise, “In you all the nations will be blessed.” The child Mary bore would be the One who would bless all nations and all peoples. The Lord Jesus Christ would give His life as a ransom from many and people from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. And those who believe He will make to be a kingdom and priests to God and they will reign on the earth. God’s covenant to Abraham still has not been completely fulfilled. Yet Mary knew this unconditional covenant was an eternal covenant and that God would surely keep His promises. The Lord Jesus will soon return and when He does, He will establish His kingdom and rule from a throne in Jerusalem. Then His promises to Abraham and his descendants will be completely fulfilled.

Mary’s Insight into God’s Design of Israel’s History. Mary’s overview of Israel’s history reveals that God repeatedly overturned the normal order of historic events, illustrating the truth He expressed in Isaiah 55:8-9, “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.” Throughout Israel’s history, He gave help to Israel His servant because of His mercy.

Mary viewed all of Israel’s redemptive history as accomplishing the covenant which God spoke to the fathers, to Abraham and his descendants forever. The salvation promised in that covenant would be clarified in the new covenant and would be ratified through the sacrificial death of the Lord Jesus Christ that all the sins of the redeemed–past, present and future–are atoned for. That covenant reality forms a fitting ending to Mary’s hymn of worship.

Mary’s Christmas song does not consist in its particular language or figures of speech, but in its revolutionary blueprint of divine favor. It is a hymn, not of the proud, but of the powerless; not about what is deserved or earned, but of unexpected grace; not of a world fully controlled and determined by human power, but overturned by divine providence. God is the subject of nearly every verb and it declares what God has done, is doing, and will do as the deliverer from sin and evil. Instead of the lowly and needy ascending to God on high, this hymn completely reverses this expectation: it is God who descends and becomes low in order to save. The sovereign and transcendent God interceded on behalf of an ordinary and unknown young woman and calls her blessed. Mary’s Christmas hymn tells us how God rewrote reality. She sings about what God does as the One who is the powerful Deliverer of sin, guilt, and judgment.

Mary’s song is remarkable in showing her grasp of the Old Testament. We should strive to become better acquainted with God’s Word. We are commanded, “Let the Word of Christ in all its richness fill your lives.” (Colossians 3:16) As part of this application, we should take home the wonderful part Mary’s parents had in helping her learn and understand the Bible. They made sure Mary could read and write. She undoubtedly heard the Bible being read at her synagogue and at home. While we can credit Mary for her Bible knowledge, her parents must also share some of this credit. We should do the same–see to it that our children hear the Word of God at church and at home.

Jesus Christ was born the One and Only Savior. He came to save you from your sins. Like Mary, you can receive Christ as your Savior. Mary gave us this song of worship and the very first act of true worship is to repent from our sins and call upon Christ to save us. If you have never received Christ, will you do so today?