“My Soul Magnifies The Lord” • 12.17.12
• Calvary Christian Fellowship, Sunday Morning Service
Intro.
- Luke begins His gospel with the story of an
old woman, a Priest's wife, who had been barren, but was now pregnant.
- Her son was to fulfil the prophecy of
Malachi, spoken over 400 years prior, which referred to the one who would
prepare the way as a forerunner of the Messiah.
- Her son's birth meant that God's Savior was
soon to come into the World! Meanwhile, about a 100 miles away, God's Angel
visited with astounding news to another female.
• Luke 1:26-28 : "Now in the sixth month the angel
Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man
whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. And having come in, the angel said
to her, 'Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you
among women!'" : Elizabeth was likely in her
70's, Mary not even likely to be 17! Elizabeth was a married woman, Mary, a
betrothed virgin girl!
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"Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; Blessed are you among
women!"
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I wonder what she had been doing just before this? Here is a girl bondslave,
perhaps carrying some water or scrubbing a floor. How would you respond? Take a
look at verse 29:
•
Luke 1:29-34 : "But when she saw him, she was
troubled at his saying, and considered what manner of greeting this was. Then the angel said to her, 'Do not
be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in
your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name Jesus. He will be great, and will be
called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His
father David. And
He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be
no end.' Then Mary
said to the angel, 'How can this be, since I do not know a man?'" : There are some who would have us believe that the word
"Virgin" simply meant a young woman and not a virgin in our sense of
understanding.
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Apparently, Mary knew different! She had never known a man at this time of her
life.
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For all this blessing, there was an equal amount of difficulty involved! What
about her husband to be? What about the laws against out of wedlock pregnancy?
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Yes there will be a Savior, but first there will be a baby!? How am I going to
explain that? This was not Mary's heart at all. Notice her response:
•
Luke 1:38 : "Then Mary said, 'Behold the
maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.'" : Mary believed and the Angel gave her a confirming sign.
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Mary was to go and visit her cousin Elizabeth and see first hand that with God,
nothing was impossible! Can you imagine that trip?
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Three days and what would she find. The answer was almost immediate.
•
Luke 1:41-45 : "And it happened, when Elizabeth
heard the greeting of Mary, that the babe leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was
filled with the Holy Spirit. Then she spoke out with a loud voice and said, 'Blessed are you
among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! But why is this granted to me, that
the mother of my Lord should come to me? For indeed, as soon as the voice of
your greeting sounded in my ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy. Blessed is she who believed, for
there will be a fulfillment of those things which were told her from the Lord.'" : Before there were sonograms and debates about when life begins,
the 6 month old baby in Elizabeth's womb leapt at the appearance of the 3-5 day
old, in utero, Jesus!
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She had believed and now, there was a promise of fulfillment. Thus, we have the
first Christmas story and the insightful commentary that Mary gives us from
here regarding it's meaning.
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For Mary, the news of the Incarnation meant
I. "An occasion to Present Praise (v.46,47)
II. "A reflection of Personal Poverty (v.48-50)
III. "A display of Perfect Power (v.51-53)
IV. "A reminder of Perennial Promise (v.54,55)
Text
I. "An occasion to Present Praise (v.46,47)
•
Luke 1:46,47 : "And Mary said: 'My soul magnifies
the Lord. And my
spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior." : In
Mary's soul, the place of the seat of all that made her up, the Lord was
magnified.
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Her spirit is not different from her soul though they are different words in
the Greek and in English. They form a language convention used in Hebrew, known
as "synonymous parralelism."
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The Psalmist would express the same idea twice in order to strengthen the
meaning. Mary is saying that this is what is true in the center of her being,
at the very core of her existence.
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She spoke of her heart's theme when she listened to Elizabeth's words. Up until
that moment, she had traveled holding this news privately. Now, she can let it
out!
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Notice that she "said" these things. Her heart was full and it had to
come out. Jesus will say later in His earthly ministry that out of the
abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks!
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You will never find a person who claims to love Jesus who will not also feel
compelled to speak often of Him! Our mouths exist to proclaim our heart's focus!
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In the case of this young woman, her focus was on the Lord, God her Savior, who
she magnified and rejoiced in.
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Both of those words are written in a way that suggests repitition, the word
"magnified" speaks of a present or continuous activity.
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This was not an interruption in her otherwise praiseless week! This was a
continuation of what she had already been doing! This was her life!
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The word "magnifies" comes from a word that means to swell or to
cause to grow. The root word "mega" speaks of something that is very
large.
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We look at an object, and as we apply a magnifying source to it, we appreciate
it at a greater level. We are able to see it with greater clarity. It has grown
in our eyes.
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Nothing has changed with the object, but our perception of it has been altered.
She continues that her spirit has rejoiced in God, her Savior.
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This word speaks of a loud and undignified celebration, a great swelling of spontaneous
joy. It's not that her behavior was out of order. It's just that her behavior
was out of the ordinary!
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The closest example to my mind happened also to the King of Israel, David, who
danced into the city of Jerusalem when the people brought the Ark back from the
house of Obed Edom.
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He danced in front of everyone in only a linen tunic. He was not dressed in
royal attire. He was dressed like a Priest, but not a King.
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His wife looked down upon this praise and mentioned that this was beneath his
dignity.
•
I Samuel 6:21,22a : "So David said to Michal, 'It was before the Lord, who chose me instead of your
father and all his house, to appoint me ruler over the people of the Lord, over Israel. Therefore I will
play music
before the Lord. And
I will be even more undignified than this, and will be humble in my own sight."
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She had begun to spontaneously celebrate God her Savior, unaware and
unconcerned about how that made her look.
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In her mind, she had considered God and she exalted Him. He was magnified.
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Her spirit followed with a celebration of who He was. He was her Savior.
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A few things really stand out immediately about Mary. Though she was likely
illiterate, when she speaks, does she not sound like a Psalmist?
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When you need a language or a set of words to praise the Lord, look no further
than the Psalms! In that culture, the oral tradition had served Mary well and
her praise sounds like the Bible!
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What you put in will be what comes out in your response to the Lord!
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Notice also that Mary recognized that God was her Savior. For any church to
elevate her beyond the level of a sinful human being is to outright ignore her
very own words!
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Mary saw herself as one who needed a Savior and identified that Savior as God.
Every human being who has ever lived needs to come to that same conclusion.
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It is not that God is "A" Savior or even "THE" Savior. That
acknowledgement will not do you any good! It will never matter to you until He
is personally "YOUR" Savior!
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Jesus calls you to believe upon Him, trusting that He is a worthy Savior and
you prove that it's the case by repenting from all known sin immediately!
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God was not a remote deity that was uninvolved in Mary's life. He was her
Savior, actively working in her life to bring salvation to her.
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This statement corrects two other fallacies propogated by certain church
traditions. First, Mary was NOT Immaculately Conceived. Only sinners need
Saviors. The sinless need not apply!
-
Catholic Church tradition holds that Mary was also a sinless vehicle, which
they say, explains how Jesus could enter the world and be sinless Himself. The
scripture contradicts that tradition.
- Second, notice that
Mary carries no pretense regarding her role in the salvation of others. God is
her Savior. She is not partnering with Him. She is not a co-redemptrix!
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This is a woman filled with praise for her Redeemer! How much more should this
season present us with a great reason to praise God!
II. "A reflection of Personal Poverty (v.48-50)
•
Luke 1:48-50 : "For He has regarded the lowly state
of His maidservant; For
behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed. For He who is mighty has done great things for me, And holy is His name. And
His mercy is on those who fear Him from
generation to generation." : Mary
gives a few reasons for her response toward the Lord. First, He had regard for
her lowly state.
-
He had looked upon or turned His eyes upon Mary, the one who had nothing to
offer Him. She is simply a maidservant, the lowest of the low in that culture.
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She was the lowest of the low among the lowest of the low! Galilee as a region,
was not well thought of and Nazareth, the city, was regarded as the lowest part
of that region!
-
Nathanael's words in John's gospel succinctly sum up the social thought
regarding Nazareth, when he remarked incredulously, "Can anything good come from Nazareth!?" (John 1:46)
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Yet, here God has taken Mary and turned the tables, for now, He has given her
significance and that well beyond
her own life!
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God has spent every day since then creating this story anew. I was a simple
nothing and He has made me into something for His Kingdom! That is the
incarnation reality!
-
You were not worthy of His choice, yet, He chose you and made something of you
that you would never have considered possible!
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For those who fear letting His have His way, you fear needlessly! Your fear and
resistance only prevents you from knowing the truth of this verse!
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Mary proclaims that all generations, all people on earth that will live from
this point on, will regard this little lady from Nazareth and call her blessed!
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Her point isn't that we will sit here and bless or exalt her. Rather, looking
at what God has done for her, giving a girl bondslave the honor of bearing the
Son of God, would lead to blessing God!
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Here we stand today, 2,000 years removed, talking about a woman who lived on
the other side of the planet, considering the biblical data regarding her life,
blessing God for the wonder of it all!
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Mary had a unique role in history that will never be duplicated again. While
that is the case, we understand that because Jesus was incarnate through her,
He can also live through us!
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His Holy Spirit dwells in us and because of His presence, there is significance
well beyond the scope of our lives as well!
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We are nothing either, but through Christ, God can be anything through us! For
Mary, this was a work that only Mighty God could do on her behalf.
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You may not believe that you could be anything for God, but what could Almighty
God do through you? You're not mighty. You're not able! Step aside and watch
what He does!
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She says, "He has done great things for me!" What an incredible
understatement! He had chosen her to bring the Messiah, her own Savior into the
World.
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These are great things that only God could accomplish. What great things has He
done for you? Because Jesus came into the World, there is a possibility for you
to be saved!
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That is really all that you need to thank Him for eternity, but He has done even
more! He has given you His Spirit and lifted you from an empty life of sin.
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He has given you purpose on this Earth and wisdom for your life!
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He has given you peace in the midst of difficult circumstances, comfort when
there was no other source. For those who love Him, He has indeed done great
things!
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Holy is His name. This is not just a point that is tacked on to round out this
section. Mary rightly understands her condition. She is poverty stricken before
God.
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She is in awe of the one characteristic that makes all of it possible: His
Holiness! He can do what He does because He is untouched by humanity's curse!
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He can do what He does because He is completely unique, separated from any
other being.
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When Mary says, "Holy Is His name," she is recognizing a character
trait that is synonymous with God's person.
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She is not Holy. She would never dare utter such a word. She is saying that
only His Holiness could do for her what He had done!
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Mary knows that God's name and character are separate from all other beings and
that His mercy is on or given to, all who fear that name! What a momentous
promise!
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Mercy simply is not getting what you rightly deserve. Mary is saying that she
deserved quite another destiny. She had earned, as we all have, God's righteous
wrath!
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But in His Holiness, He showed instead His mercy, that would find expression
through her life and continue on for all generations!
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Again, this is a Hebraism for the word "forever!" God will always be
merciful to those who fear Him! Yes, He demands your respect. He demands that
you recognize His claim upon your life.
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He demands that you bow your knee in surrender and for those with that same
poverty of soul, there is a congratulations in order: You are now a free
recipient of His mercy!
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What does this say for the one who will not fear Him? We dread to consider the
thought, but what is left for a person who ignores the mercy of God?
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What possible good thing could await a person who shuns the opportunity to
receive the free mercy of Almighty God?
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The incarnation of Christ lets us know that while that is a reality, God would
have you understand that you will have to climb over His dead body to live in
it!
III. "A display of Perfect Power (v.51-53)
•
Luke 1:51-53 : "He has shown strength with His arm; He has scattered the proud in the
imagination of their hearts. He has put down
the mighty from their thrones, And exalted the
lowly. He has filled the hungry with good
things, And the rich He has sent away empty." : We noted earlier the use of synonymous parallelism. Now, we see
a great example of "climactic parallelism."
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Without taking a breath, Mary raps off several statements that illustrate one
significant point: God has the power to turn everything around! The incarnation
is a show of God's strength.
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The incarnation. A baby born in an insignificant town? A Savior that dies a
death with 12 so-so disciples and a handful of solid believers? Yes, perfect
power!
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The incarnation speaks of God's power to transcend earthly affairs and
institutions, to invade Satan's Kingdom that began with the spiritually
catastrophic fall of mankind.
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Since the events of Genesis 3, mankind
has been under the power of Satan and he has ruled with an domineering hand! Jesus
came to change all of that!
-
The Lord's coming is like a daring rescue, according to Colossians 1:13 and a crushing of Satan's head, according to Romans 16:20. Listen to John's
testimony of Christ's mission.
•
I John 3:8 : "He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the
beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might
destroy the works of the devil." : Look at the verbs. He has
shown strength. He has scattered. He has put down. He has filled. Each of them
speak of a might that is not conquered and will not conform.
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He has, in the choosing of Mary and specifically in the incarnation, shown
strength with His arm. Mary is pulling from various Old Testament sources when
it comes to the arm of the Lord.
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The "arm of the Lord" is the Hebrew symbol for the power of God to
deliver. As an example, listen to the words of Isaiah.
•
Isaiah 51:9 : "Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord! Awake as in
the ancient days, In the generations of old. Are You not the arm that cut Rahab
apart, and wounded the serpent?" : Isaiah goes on to talk of
God's deliverance of Israel from Egypt and His creation of the world.
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The incarnation then, in Mary's mind is related to His power that was
demonstrated in these other events, all of which culminate in this event that
she was about to experience!
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He has scattered the proud in their imagination. The word "scattered"
refers to the separation of the wheat from the chaff when wheat was harvested.
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The farmers made a point of throwing the valuable wheat up into the air in
order that the worthless, indedible chaff scales would be taken in the wind.
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God has scattered in that same way, the proud, those that see themselves above
others, in their imaginations of their hearts. What is it that they are imagining?
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Fallen man has always believed that they would be better off without God.
Today, every so-called conception of God is an escape from the reality of the
true and living God!
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This is why you hear people say, "My God would never." Usually, their
God is pretty much just like them, rubber stamping every decision and answer.
This is a passive aggressive denial.
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People often lack the courage to outright deny God His place, so they invent a
god instead!
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In the early chapters of the bible, the prevailing attitude was that man could
be his own God, which came to a climax in the story of the tower of Babel in Genesis 11.
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God had told them to fill the earth, to scatter in different directions. But
they refused and begun an ambitious building project to promote their
solidarity against God.
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The Bible tells us that God came down and saw their unitiy against Him. Their
pride had grown out of control and the end of their project would cause great
ruin.
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A life lived apart from God may seem otherwise, but God knows that it's headed
for the rocks!
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In an act of preventative mercy, God confused their languages and scattered
them over the earth! Man wishes to ignore God, but He will not be ignored!
Every Christmas, the issue is forced!
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He has laid waste the proud and put down the mighty from their thrones, lifting
up the lowly.
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Consider King David. Taken from the sheepfold, virtually forgotten or certainly
not considered by his own Father, God radically promoted him over King Saul.
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Pharoah's, Kings, Dictators like Nebuchadnezzar and Cyrus were humbled before
God, their thrones did not protect them from the reach of God's hand.
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The hungry, those who crave and are wanting, God has filled with food, while
the rich were sent away without anything!
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Mary herself was a poor woman, well acquainted with this type of want. In her
world, there were those who died of malnutrition on the streets while the rich
dined away without thought of them!
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The story of Luke 16, the story of
the unnamed Rich Man and the poor man Lazarus, was not a strange story to the
ears of the people. Poor men like Lazarus were everywhere!
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In popular thinking, it was the rich that God favored, while the poor were
discarded. In the Kingdom of her Son, this is the opposite. Salvation does not
come to those that we would send it to.
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In God's Kingdom, there isn't a soul that is left without being filled because
of His goodness!
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In fact, it's telling in that story that the rich man is not named, while
Lazarus sits in the comfort of paradise, full and satisfied.
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Look over this section again and notice: God did not come for the proud, the intellectual,
nor the powerful, the mighty ones of political fame, nor the privileged rich!
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Just look at His disciples! For that matter, take a second and look around the
room!
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All these He has set aside! Wait a minute? What do you mean "He has?"
Mary speaks about this as if it had already taken place.
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This is another facet of Hebrew poetry, which has been called "the
prophetic now" or "the anticipatory reach."
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God has set things in motion and no matter what things seem like now, they will
culminate in a display of His power to bring them to pass. Mary sees the end of
the Lord's actions.
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These reversals will be the case. God will turn everything right. All men will
be equal.
-
Salvation is not for the privileged alone. It's not for those who are the great
ones on this earth. The Incarnation is a show of strength, that overturns
Satan's Kingdom and gives itself to the least!
IV. "A reminder of Perennial Promise (v.54,55)
•
Luke 1:54,55 : "He has helped His servant Israel, In remembrance of His mercy, As He spoke to our fathers, To Abraham and to his seed forever." : The incarnation benefits all of humanity, but it is Israel
first that God has intended to help.
-
The word "has helped" indicates something more along the lines of taking
hold of something, securing it toward it's destination. That's what He has done
for Israel!
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No matter how hated they are in this world and no matter what entities
challenge their right to exist, God will have been their help!
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Jesus coming to the Earth is an answer, first, to His promise to Israel, the
one Mary calls "HIs servant." Why? Because He recalls His own mercy.
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When one looks at the history of the Jewish people throughout scripture, one
will easily find a story similar to our own. As a covenant people, they
performed sadly with regard to their faithfulness.
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At the turn of each Bible page, there is a downward moral and spiritual spiral
that exceeds previous transgression. There are exceptions and every time, there
is repentance, God responds.
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But on the whole, Israel's history is riddled with infidelity toward God. God's
action in the incarnation is not a remembrance of Israel's faithfulness.
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It's not a tribute to what their actions deserve. In fact, the incarnation is a
tribute to God's undying mercy toward His people! He spoke this to Abraham,
Isaac and Jacob.
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What does this speak of God's character? He spoke this to the forefathers, men
who were leaders of a large family tribe.
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They were individuals who without the Bible, we would know nothing about. But
He promised them. He spoke this to them: I will provide a Savior to mankind
through your line!
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Just as in creation, God's Word has held it as being done from the time He said
it, to the time that He accomplished it!
-
This promise was theirs and to His seed forever. Who is Abraham's seed? For
those of us who went through Romans,
we know the answer to this question.
-
Turn in your Bibles to Romans 4.
Paul is explaining the scope of God's promise to Abraham, especially
considering when it was that God gave it!
•
Romans 4:13-17 : "For the promise that he would be
the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law, but
through the righteousness of faith. For if those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made void
and the promise made of no effect, because the law brings about wrath; for where there is no law
there is no transgression. Therefore it is of faith that it might be according to
grace, so that the promise might be sure to all the seed, not only to those who
are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the
father of us all (as it is written, 'I have made you a father of many nations') in the presence of Him whom he believed—God, who gives
life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did;" : Paul's point is that God's promise made to Abraham, has always
been a promise made to more than an ethnic people.
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Because the promise was made before the formation of the Jewish race, the
giving of circumcision or the advent of the Mosaic law, God's promise was
always to a people of faith.
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That promise made to Abraham is even found in the name that God had given Him:
The Father of many nations. We were always a part of the equation in the mind
of God!
-
Essentially, while ethnic Jews have a promised fullfilled in their Jewish
Messiah, we have a promise fulfilled in our Savior, the person who brings both
Jew and Gentile together!
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In the end, the incarnation that so easily evades our view, is a promise
fulfilled to us!
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You may never have realized this, but when you trusted in Christ, you entered
into a series of promises that date back to the earliest chapters in history!
You are in that same company.
-
The forefathers and the believing righteous that looked forward in time,
waiting for God to fulfill His promise, join us as we look back upon a promise
fulfilled!
-
That is what Mary is talking about! She is right at the center! She is bringing
the past and the future together into one event: The birth of her Son, the Son
of God!
Conclusion
- Christmas time is time to reflect upon the character of God. Our minds have the opportunity to understand His greateness toward us and present Him with our praise!
- Christmas time is time to reflect upon the character of God. Our minds have the opportunity to understand His greateness toward us and present Him with our praise!
- It is a time to reflect upon our own
spiritual poverty, knowing that we have never had anything to offer HIm, our
hearts now have the opportunity to rejoice!
- It is a time to understand His power which
has defeated our enemy and left him defeated, our lives being free from the
power of Satan, sin and death.
- It is a time to reflect on His promise
fulfilled and our future secure!
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