2021.12.19
The Proper Response to Emmanuel
Luke 1:46-55

Christmas

• There are two responses to it

1. Care of the world cease. Families express love for each other / God is worshipped and thought about.
2. Starts Black-Friday / fight over gifts / Have to get around family one does not care for.

We will see in Mary’s hymn what the proper worship is to God.

• We have to choices in response to the Lord:
• Magnify Him

Pray

• God’s call often = uncomfortable consequence
• BUT, Mary ➡️ Jesus (very God of very God)
• but things would be different in her village for her.
• Undoubtedly, the shame of those who doubted her testimony held no authority for her.
  • God was about to do something that had never been done.
  • And He had set the stage: no prophet for 400 years / birth to The Prophet.
  • There had been no sovereign king for 400 years, she would give birth to The Eternal King.
  • Our Hero JESUS

46 And Mary said,
“My soul magnifies the Lord,
47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,

• Magnify: to declare greatly, to highly esteem and praise and celebrate the Lord.
• Clear verb tense: Mary had been in a state of magnify the Lord.
  • Better “does magnify”
    • “Indicative mood”: Is a simple statement of fact. If an action really occurs or has occurred or will occur
    • She was in a state of praising and celebrating God!
• And really, how could Mary think any different ➡️ mind magnify
• ------------------------------ respond differently ➡️ mouth magnify
  • Speaking to an angel was one thing,
    • What if an angel came and spoke to you?
  • But it was not the thing at all.
  • Israel had waited on a The Messiah, The Christ, The Anointed One for 1500 years.
  • She, yes, would deliver Messiah into the world!
    • She would give birth to the Deliverer.
    • ------------------------ to the One who would sit on the thrown of David forever.
    • Constant emotion would have been looking for expression in her mind and heart.
• O how quickly do we forget to magnify the Lord. We say, another Christmas, yes yes, instead of YES, YES.
• Spurgeon wrote, “The root of false theology is belittling God; and the essence of true divinity is greatening God, magnifying him, and enlarging our conceptions of his majesty and his glory to the utmost degree.”
• Life, death and resurrection.

APPL:
Another time for us to remember that God loved us so much that we would come to this place and demonstrate this love in the clearest, most unquestionable way possible through his birth (Emmanuel: God!.., with us!),

• To rightly think of Jesus always leads one to magnify Him.
  • We need to constantly contemplate the heaviness of God.
  • We need to articulate His grandness in words, song, and thought-life
  • This bring true enlightenment to a soul, renewed energy to the mind, and love in the heart.
  • His magnification in our lives shall root out anxieties, worries, the distractions, depression, the cares of the world. All other things in life become so very small when the Lord become large—yes magnified—in our thoughts and therefore our words.
• WE ARE REMINDED THAT JESUS HAVE OVERCOME THE KINGS OF THE EARTH

TRANSITION:
We looked at what Mary thought about God. Let’s look at how she considered herself.

48 for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant.
For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed;

• Mary, what a blessing God gave her.

• Man has turned her into an object of worship.

• BUT “Who was Mary?,” she must have thought.

• A humble teenage girl from honest means.

• Another one, going about her daily life only to experience God coming into her life in a powerful way.

  • In a way that would rival anyone in the Bible.

• The proud in spirit are given much attention in this world.

• But God gives grace to the humble.

  • J > S > G
  • Himself / Counselor
  • Wisdom, insight, understanding.

APPL:

• Peter and James said, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”
• John the Baptist, ‘He must increase, but I must decrease.’

49 for he who is mighty has done great things for me,
and holy is his name.

• FOR = REASON
• Magnification from "Count your blessings!"
• Who would withhold “Holy is your name!”

CONTRAST SECTION
50 And his mercy is for those who fear him
from generation to generation.

• Mary’s hymn quickly moved from what God was doing in her life to God rich offer of mercy to every person.
• Generation after generation after generation after generation mercy is given.
• God’s merciful heart was and has always been bent toward those that fear Him.
• FEAR
  • Fear reverence
  • One’s comparative place
  • God’s judgmental power
  • The fear of the Lord is still the beginning of wisdom.

51 He has shown strength with his arm;
he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts;

Parallelism

• Say one thing; say it again in another way
• Say one thing and contrast it with an opposite thing

Arm power
ILL: Uncle

The proud get the arm power of God
- Scattered thoughts
- The proud are not getting away with anything: nothing pleases or satisfies their longings, purposes, missions.

APPL:

• Remember: God is going to settle all accounts at the end.
• We are reminded with the verb tenses that is is already accomplished.

52 he has brought down the mighty from their thrones
and exalted those of humble estate;

• The verb tenses are telling of Mary’s understand of Jesus’ significance:
  • God had already brought down the mighty from their thrones - PAST TENSE
  • Their thrones of haughtiness, influence, and political power being no match for Jesus.
• A child that would soon be in the world – Creator;
  • He is The King of their thrones they were disposed of.
  • With Jesus’ plan of coming to the world; he continued to flip the world upside-down.

APPL

• God had already exalted those in humble estates.
• 1 Corinthians 6:2, “Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world?”
• 1 Corinthians 6:3, “Do you not know that we are to judge angels?”
• Luke 19, Take charge over 10 cities, take charge over 5 cities.

53 he has filled the hungry with good things,
and the rich he has sent away empty.

• Generally, Christ did not choose the rich, the kings, the nobles, and princesses to build His kingdom? Instead he takes the poor and gives them the insight into His eternal love. He takes the foolish and teaches them them of his kingdom and of its workings.
• The rich were sent away empty.
  • Accepting their possessions as success, they had embraced the counterfeit of true riches.
• God filled the truly needy with food and good things from His possessions.
  • METAPHOR: Jesus has filled His children with His Bread, with Himself.
    -Listen
  • Luke 12:32, “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”
  • 1 Corinthians 6:9, Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?
  • 1 Peter 1:3-5, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
  • We have need of nothing.
    • You and I are filled with good things.
    • We have been filled with God in Christ and are blessings only started there.
    • Good things will continue to flood our lives for eternity.
• God has won the battle for what Yancy called the “underdog.”
  • The odds were stacked against us.
  • Jesus has won our battles.

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.”

• Ironically, Mary looked back 2000 years or so when she pointed to Abraham.
• Help because of God’s mercy is what Mary said the Father Abraham and his offspring received.
• But is if one were to examine for a earthly perspective:
  • Around 1800 BC started Israel’s 400 years of slavery.
  • Divided Israel.
  • Northern tribes defeated at Assyria
  • The Babylonians defeated the southern tribes of Judea & Benjamin.
  • Meads and Persia
  • Greek Rule under Alexander the Great, et al.
  • Roman Rule

Mary knew that the front facing events of her world did not accurately define what God was doing in the lives of His people.

• Mary was ruled by the Romans, but that did factor well into her worldview.
• culture within a culture, spiritually independent from from the world.
• The events we see in our world are no match to GOD WITH US.
• The world will have its day here, but this is all it get’s.
• The victory is won: God sent His son in the remembrance of his mercy GOD WITH US has helped his servant Israel, and He has helped His Church.
• Through Emanuel His mercy endures forever.

Bibliography

Spurgeon, Charles. “A Harp of Ten Strings.” Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Volume 37, August 30, 1891, https://www.spurgeon.org/resource-library/sermons/a-harp-of-ten-strings/#flipbook/.

Yancy, Philip. The Jesus I Never Knew. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1995 38, 39.