Episode Transcript
[00:00:05] Speaker A: Good morning, Village Church.
You're like, what is he doing up front?
You're supposed to play music to cue us. You guys can have a seat. How flexible 9:45 are you with our Sunday morning? Very.
We got very. Thank you, John. And we have.
All right, so I'm very excited today. We have a whole bunch of baptisms in this service and the next service, which is very thrilling. So we're gonna actually this message this morning up a little bit.
I know.
Is this even Christian? We're gonna find out. Okay, I'm gonna preach now. So there's people out there in the foyer, and they're like, what is happening right now? Oh, no. They're gonna start running in.
So I'm gonna open up God's word now, and then we are going to baptize a handful of people, and then we are gonna respond in worship. Does that sound good? Awesome. All right, good. Now we're gonna doubly test your flexibility. So before we get into the message, I have a br.
[00:01:04] Speaker A: So right now it's snowy and people are, you know, this isn't normal. But on a normal Sunday, this service is utter insanity.
And it's packed, it's full. And so we sent an email to our members last week right before another big snowstorm, saying, hey, if you guys are willing, nine 45ers, go to the 8 or to the 11.
And so I want to give you one more update. We're going to be making another shift to our worship services, but not until January of next year.
We're gonna move all of our services back 15 minutes. And so the services will be starting January 4th. It's gonna be 8:00am, 9:30, and 11. And so we'll keep reminding you, lest you forget, and if you show up late, we'll be here still worshiping. Sound good? So 8 o', clock, 9:30, 11 o', clock, starting January 4th. Sound good?
Yeah. You weren't as excited about that one as flipping the whole service, but you can wake up 9, 30, 15 minutes earlier. I believe in you. All right, let's take a moment. Let's pray together.
[00:02:12] Speaker A: Father, you have called us out of darkness into light, into truth. And one day you are gonna call us into your glorious presence. And we're just being honest. We cannot wait for that day. And I'm confident there will be no snow.
[00:02:28] Speaker A: As we pause in the month of December to remember Jesus becoming flesh, would you.
Would you awaken wonder and awe and gratitude in each one of us?
I just want to take this moment and say thank you that you have loved us with a love that is beyond anything we can actually imagine or have experienced on this planet. And you have not just shown us your love in the incarnation and the crucifixion and the Resurrection, but right now you stand at the right hand of the Father, fully aware of us. Never disinterested, always engage. Truly, this is not a cliche, working out all things for the good of those who love you. And we love you. Even right now. You are fully present.
You're going to receive our worship. Your Holy Spirit is working through the Word and through even right now. Lord, the book of Hebrews says you send angels to minister to your people.
[00:03:24] Speaker A: Would you even take our sometimes bored, entitled, ungrateful and forgetful hearts? And would you, even this morning, would you fill them with worship and gratitude and wonder? We love you and we pray all of this in Jesus name. Amen.
Amen. If you have a Bible, would you guys open it to the book of Luke? We're gonna be in chapter one. And this morning we're starting a four message series called the Songs of Christmas. And if you look at your Bible and you look at Luke chapters one and chapters two, you're gonna notice that there are four separate songs or poems in those chapters. They kind of just stick out because they are structured a little bit differently than the paragraphs. And what's really beautiful about each of these is that they all surround the birth of Jesus. And each one of these are responses from someone who loves the Lord to God's miraculous intervention and in their life. And so for the next few weeks, we're going to be looking at each of these.
All right, so there comes a moment in every Christian's life where God will ask you to do something really big.
He's going to ask you to do something really risky. He's going to ask you to do something challenging. It might be financially, relationally, socially. It might be with your life, it might be with your family.
And this is just, this is normal. If God has never, ever called you to do something challenging, I just want to encourage you in this moment, go before him and ask him and tell him, lord, I'm willing to do something for your name. What is it you want me to do next? Now, how do you know if this is something the Lord is really calling you to do next? And I'm just going to give you a little insight into this.
He's probably not going to do something that grows your financial portfolio or your social portfolio. He's probably not going to ask you to do something that's going to build your glory, honor, and majesty.
The Lord is probably going to ask you to do something that builds the kingdom of Jesus and makes his name look great.
In Luke 1, we are introduced to a young woman, most likely a teenager. Could range from 13 years old to 18 or 19.
You know her as Mary. But here's the deal.
Most of us, not all of us, but most of us, you're familiar, sort of or vary with kind of the stories surrounding the birth of Jesus. And the challenge is not on me. The challenge is on you. You can zone out. Yeah, been there, done that, heard that. But I think one of the challenges and responsibilities that we have when we hear the word of God, or to read the word of God, especially the familial, familiar word of God, is to not zone out, but to actually begin to empathize with each of these characters. Sometimes we just have to kind of immerse our imagination into these stories and ask yourself, if I was in this person's situation, what would I do?
[00:06:32] Speaker A: How would I respond? And so here you have this teenage girl whose life has just been utterly turned upside down.
Mary has been asked by God to carry and raise the single most significant human being in all of history.
She's also being asked to carry and raise a baby that will mark her as immoral and rebellious, not just for a little while, but for the rest of her life.
The result of what God is asking her to do is to be branded as immoral and then set as a sort of social, spiritual outcast, likely until the day she is dead. And here's the challenge. Like, she could defend herself, but who is going to believe her, actually?
Oh, yeah, the Holy Spirit came upon me and conceived. And how do you explain this to Joseph, by the way? Who? They're engaged and be like, there was no other man. I promise. And honestly, the majority of you, unless God had visited you in a dream, would not believe a single thing that this woman says. Our text starts in Luke, chapter one, verse 39. And here's what it says in those days. This is how it begins and which days you can read a few verses back. But the angel had just come to Mary and told her you. And it's important, future tense.
You will conceive, you will. This is gonna happen to you, and you're gonna take God. God's gonna. You're gonna give birth to God. You're gonna be pregnant. This is gonna happen. But here's what's important. Future tense, okay? And so in those Days, as soon as she hears this message, in those days, Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country to a town in Judah. And she entered the house of Zechariah and she greeted Elizabeth. And this is important.
The text seems to communicate that Mary, when she left with haste to go see Elizabeth, she did not know that she was pregnant and she did not understand that the pregnancy was happening yet. So when she shows up to Elizabeth's house, this is about a four to five day journey. Okay, she is expecting in the future. She is going to conceive and be pregnant, but she does not know that she is.
And then she arrives and then she learns some pretty unbelievable news. Verse 41, when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and she exclaimed with a loud cry. In other words, I think when we kind of replay these words, we get soft and we whisper.
That's actually not what the text says. The text says that she's filled with the Holy Spirit. She's actually going to begin prophesying and she is going to get very loud and direct. That's kind of what the words mean. And so her voice raises and here's what she says. Verse 41.
Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. Could I just tell you a quick story?
I grew up Catholic. My mom's name is Mary.
And so growing up, you guys remember the Hail Mary in Catholics, But Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you. Blessed art thou among women. Blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus, et cetera. So I would go to my mom and I would say, hail Mary.
[00:10:13] Speaker A: Full of grace, the Lord is with thee, and blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. Michael.
She never laughed. I thought it was hilarious. So I did this over Thanksgiving. I was like, hail Mary, full of grace. She's like, stop it.
I think it's funny. So thank you. And mom, it's actually funny. Okay, verse 43, Elizabeth goes on, and I want you to listen to what she says about who the baby is.
She says in verse 43, and why is this granted to me that the mother of. And here's the words, my Lord should come to me. I want you to remember she is saying these things as a prophetic word by the power of the Holy Spirit. She did not necessarily know this information before she is saying it. And what she is declaring by prophecy is that the baby inside of Mary's tummy is nothing less than God in the Flesh. Look at verse 44. For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. And what you find is that the soul of this baby, by the way, his name is John, also called John the Baptist, who is the called by God, prophesied in the Old Testament that there would be one that would come and prepare the way of the Lord. He had to go before the nation of Israel and call them to repentance, so that when Jesus came, the nation was ready in a spirit of repentance to receive the Savior of their sins. And so this baby, the soul of John the Baptist and Jesus, these cousins, were bound together from the time they were in the womb. Verse 45, Elizabeth says, and blessed is she, Mary, who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.
I don't want you to miss this, because here's what the text seems to be communicating.
As Elizabeth prophesies, she is communicating to Mary.
You're pregnant.
And Mary seems to be learning for the very first time that the thing that was promised to her is now actually real and happened inside of her womb. And what comes out of Mary's mouth in response is nothing short of a theological masterpiece.
What comes out of Mary's mouth in response is a poem, very likely a song, and it's been called the Magnificat. That's a Latin word, and it comes from one of the first words in this poem.
What comes out of Mary's heart reveals to us, or what comes out of her mouth reveals to us actually the real state and the character of. Of this woman. In fact, what you learn as you read through this, you learn very quickly why God chose this young woman to bear God in the flesh and to bear the greatest human being the world has or will ever know, God in the flesh. So what I want to do is I want to read the Magnificat in its entirety. It's very short. It's very to the point. And then what I want to do is take some time and show you what this really reveals about Mary and then apply it to our lives. Verse 46.
Mary. Upon hearing that she is pregnant, Mary said, my soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant. Behold. From now on, 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 for those who fear him. From generation to generation, he has shown strength with his arm, and he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. He has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate. He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty. He has helped his servant Israel in remembrance of his mercy as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham, and to his offspring forever.
We could spend literally a month or two teaching on the Magnificat and all the different angles, practically, theologically, biblically, but we have limited time. And this morning what I want to do is I want to answer one simple question.
Of all the women in the world, of all the women in the nation of Israel, why did God choose Mary?
Before I answer the question, I want to remind you of again a scripture that has come up over and over and over again in the pulpit. It is from the book of 2 Chronicles, chapter 16, verse 9.
It says this. For the eyes of the Lord they run.
They run to and fro throughout the whole earth to why are the eyes of the Lord running to and fro throughout the whole earth? To find those to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless toward him. And the Scriptures are teaching that God is looking for men and women and students and children who are willing to do significant things for the name and the kingdom of Jesus Christ. And the eyes of the Lord ran to and fro the nation of Israel and they stopped on this young woman. And this poem tells us so clearly why God chose Mary. Three reasons why she had the privilege of burying and raising the most significant human being in all of history. Number one, Mary was sincerely humble and saw herself accurately.
I think before I get too deep into this, it would probably be wise to bring some biblical and theological clarity to what I am positive for some in the room, room is a little bit confusing. You may or may not know this, but well over half of those who attend village church are ex Catholics.
And it actually has become unbelievably clear to me why God allotted my life in such a way that I went to Catholic School from 1st grade to 12th grade and all boys Catholic high school. And why my mom came to Christ when I was about 4 years old out of Roman Catholicism. And and so like all of this kind of began to make sense as I saw the kind of like the people and the background and the history. And so I want to share some things with you that I hope are going to help us understand Mary's Magnificat with clarity.
And so here's the deal. If you grew up Catholic, and I don't think any Catholic is going to be like, that's not true, or offended by this. I think this is just kind of a fair statement. If you grew up Roman Catholic. Typically in most Roman Catholic churches, their approach to the word of God is different than the approach of an evangelical Protestant church to the word of God. For example, if you grew up in a Roman Catholic church, probably two to three times a month, you heard a seven to ten minute homily read to you. But if you grew up in a evangelical Protestant church, you probably heard a 40 to 6 minute sermon rooted in God's word, slowly expositing it, sometimes to the point where you were so bored. And then you would go to Awana as a kid and you would memorize hundreds or thousands of verses if you got your Timothy award. And then you would go to youth group. And if you're a man, you go to men's studies and women's Bible studies and small groups and you go deeper into the sermon. And so here's what would happen by the time you're an adult if you grew up in Roman Catholicism or Evangelical Protestantism. I can't say, okay, good. You know what I'm saying?
What would happen is that the Protestants would wipe the floor biblically with Roman Catholics.
And this is not a moral thing or immoral thing, like you know what you know and you don't know what you don't know. But when it came to Bible discussions, typically Protestants knew a whole lot more. And so what would happen is that people would hear a Protestant's view on things like praying to saints or to Mary or to different things in sacraments. And then what they would find is that the Protestants would say, those things aren't in the Bible.
They are part of what's called, in Roman Catholicism, tradition.
They are extra biblical things. And what happens with tradition and Roman Catholicism is that some of the traditions actually accept, explicitly contradict what the Bible teaches. So I'm gonna share with you a few things about Mary and this might be new for you. And here's our challenge. Always we take everything back to the word of God. Everything. And so this is how we root ourselves. So Mary is, was not sinless nor immaculately conceived. Many Protestants don't know this, but the Immaculate Conception for Roman Catholics is not the conception of Jesus. It is actually the conception of, of Mary.
Mary was not, is not. The scriptures do not teach that she was a perpetual virgin, that she was taken or assumed into heaven, only Jesus was.
The Bible does not teach that Mary is or was the. They call it the co redemptrix with Jesus and our salvation. And also the Bible is very clear that Mary is not somebody we pray to. And the reason is simple because all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God with the exception of Jesus, who is God. He cannot fall short of the glory of himself. And so Mary is put into this bucket. And the reason we don't pray to Mary or any saints is because the Bible forbids always praying to anybody or speaking to the dead. We are forbidden to do this, which is why we don't do that. And so we pull back and I want to just bring some clarity to who Mary is or was.
Mary was a godly young woman.
Mary was profoundly well versed in Scripture.
Mary was the mother to other children, Jesus, half brothers and sisters. In fact, two of them wrote books in the New Testament, both James and Jude. And Mary, the Scriptures are clear that she was a sinner in need of a Savior. How do we even know this? I mean, there's a couple clues in this text alone. She calls herself lowly and a servant. But most Importantly, in Luke 1:47, she says this.
My spirit rejoices in God. My. What's that word? Savior.
Mary was profoundly aware of her sinful nature because she's a human, of her need of a Savior.
And she had the privilege to bear and raise the Savior of her sins in her own body.
The Scriptures are clear.
God loves to give grace and support to those who are humble and to those who rightly see themselves, God loves to give grace and help and support.
If your posture toward God is like, it would be your honor and privilege, Jesus, to use me to build your kingdom. I'm here. The eyes of the Lord will pass you.
The eyes of the Lord go to and fro throughout the whole earth looking for those whose heart is blameless towards him, to those that he can strongly support. And what we see with Mary is that the eyes of the Lord stopped on her. Not because she was arrogant, but because she had a right and accurate view of herself.
She was a sinner in need of a Savior and the servant of Jesus Christ.
Number two. God chose Mary because Mary didn't just know God's word, but loved it and lived it. You might be tempted to read the Magnificat and think she's quoting like all of Psalms something and it's actually not the case.
[00:22:00] Speaker A: Here's essentially what happened.
Mary hears that she is actually pregnant, that there is a baby inside of her. And. And what you read in the Magnificat is a spontaneous response of praise that came straight from Mary's heart, hearing that she was actually pregnant. What's striking about this poem, this song, is that it has at least 15 quotes or allusions from the Old Testament. For example, First Samuel, chapter 2. Sometime in the next week, if you can read Hannah's Prayer and Hannah's Story, Hannah and Mary. The stories have a lot of similarity in Hannah's Prayer. Actually, there's quite a bit of similarities in structure. But this quotes or alludes to Psalm 34, Psalm 103, Psalm 107, Psalm 138, Genesis 17, Genesis 22, Micah 7, Habakkuk 3, the book of Job and his language of humility. And here's what's striking.
When I am under difficulty, when something surprising comes upon me, it is not always my immediate swift instinct to respond with poetry, confidence and excitement that my God has all of this under control and to praise him and magnify him and say, wherever you take me, I'm in. And then to somehow take all of these disparate Old Testament scriptures and to weave them together into a poem. Anyone else?
The girl is an inspiration.
The girl knew God's Word, and here's the deal. She didn't know God's Word. Like, you know how you can quote John 3:16 or a whole bunch of other verses, and you can kind of regurgitate them on the spot.
The ability, in the moment of trial or difficulty to respond with immediacy and weave together all of these various parts of the Old Testament. This requires somebody who didn't just go to a sermon and take notes or listen or say, all right, Pastor, what's the takeaway? This is somebody who sat in God's Word and meditated, who prayed God's Word, who thought about it, who really spent the time in her mind, her heart, and her soul, letting this word take root in her.
This is a girl who was ready in the moment of the most significant news I think anybody probably could hear. She was ready to respond with this.
I praise you, I magnify you. I'm your servant. I'm lowly, you're king, you're God, I'm not your Savior. Let's go.
This girl's response is an inspiration.
God chose Mary number three, because Mary's reactions reveal her unshakable confidence in God.
In one day, Mary's life just became, we'll just say, dangerous, socially complicated, relationally. Can we agree with that? With Joseph?
Physically overwhelming. I'VE never been pregnant. I don't know if you knew that, but apparently it's challenging. Okay, Practically speaking, unpredictable. Who is going to ditch her? Who was going to stick with her? Who was going to believe her? Who wasn't?
She had every reason to panic. And I want to show you this. What was Mary's reaction to having a baby out of wedlock and burying the Messiah?
Verse 38.
Mary said, Behold, I am the servant of the Lord.
Let it be to me according to your word. What was Mary's reaction to hearing the news? That it wasn't a hallucination, but she's actually pregnant. Verse 46. Mary said, My soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior. I don't know about y'. All. That's just not a normal response to hearing that you're pregnant out of wedlock with God in the flesh.
I love Elizabeth's final prophetic word to mary in verse 45.
And blessed is she, Mary. Blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.
[00:26:04] Speaker A: I'm just going to beat a dead horse. I just don't want you to miss this.
Mary had so internalized the word of God that it naturally came out of her in a moment of crisis.
[00:26:16] Speaker A: I just. I read the story of this young woman and she. Obviously, the main point of the Gospels is Jesus, but we can't just not stop and say, the eyes of the Lord went to and fro throughout the whole earth. And they stomped on this girl who knew God loved him, was willing to do whatever he asked. And even upon telling her this unbelievably weighty news, responds with, my soul magnifies the Lord.
I want to share with you two. So what's this Christmas season?
Resolve to magnify the Lord Jesus.
The word magnify in the Greek. It's actually a really rich word. And it can mean one of three things.
It can mean, number one, to make something great or larger. And by the way, good luck in trying to make God greater than he is or bigger than he is. He's as big as he's ever going to be and great as he is. So good luck. That's not what she means here, but number two and number three, I think these are concepts we can apply to declare something or someone as great.
[00:27:24] Speaker A: Number three, to make something or someone's greatness more visible or obvious. When Mary says, my soul magnifies the Lord, she's not thinking like a microscope where you take Something infinitely small and make it bigger. She's thinking more like a telescope where you take something bigger than we could possibly imagine and you make it visible and accessible to other people.
What I wanna do is I wanna just take actually a moment and I want to bottom shelf this and make this as perfect, practical as humanly possible.
How do I magnify the Lord? Like, realistically, anyone else feel like Christmas is fairly overwhelming and you guys are busy and there's a ton to do, and you're thinking to myself, like, okay, I gotta keep Jesus the main thing, but family and presence and this and that and church are gonna be here and there and everywhere, right? So let me just make this as simple as possible. How do I magnify the Lord? Number one.
Every time you sing in church, declare loudly, praise the greatness and goodness of our God. I have good news for you. We don't sing because we feel like it. We sing because whether we feel like it or not, God is worthy of our praise and adoration. And what's interesting is that sometimes we go and we start singing to God and we don't feel a thing. And sometimes, not always, but sometimes the emotions and the positive things actually don't come until after we choose to worship him despite our emotions.
I am convinced of this, that God is up to work in every single one of your lives.
I'm convinced that he is not done with any of you until you're dead.
And so when God does something in your life, when God encourages you, or moves or challenges you, or provides for you, or comes through for you, one of the greatest privileges I think that we have is to thank him personally and say you are great. Thank you. And then take that opportunity. Tell people the good, great, awesome ways that God has met you, encouraged you, provided for you, that he is working in your life.
God loves when we tell stories about Him. Do you guys like when other people tell how awesome you are to their friends?
God likes it even more.
And so this is a way. It's so simple. Talk about the good things that God has done in you and for you.
[00:29:31] Speaker A: Declare. I mean, this is silly, but declare it in your Christmas decorations. Redeem your family traditions. And I have awesome news for you. Let's say you're looking at your life and you're like, I don't really declare God a lot. I don't sing in church, and when I do come, I don't do anything. And I don't talk about God. And my family traditions are all just generally secular with the little salt and pepper of Jesus, you can start magnifying God any day. Amen. So at number two this Christmas season, ask Jesus to use you to build his kingdom.
I am confident that God wants to use every woman, student, child to build the kingdom of Jesus.
I think as an American, what most of us think is that God, I want to do big things. I want to change the world. Very few people change the world.
But if God is going to use you, maybe if it's his will to do something big, I can tell you this. It's probably not going to happen until you are faithful in the small things.
And so here's where every one of us, we can say, you know God. Not only do I want to talk about you and declare your goodness and magnify your name, but like Mary, I want to do something for your kingdom. I want to be available. I want the eyes of the Lord as they're going to and fro. I want them to stop on me and I want them to use me. And I'm not even gonna script for the Lord. Whether it's a big thing or a small thing or a medium thing, it doesn't matter. He's God. I am not. I am the servant. Whatever you want, whatever your kingdom needs and I can do in this moment, I'm here. And I found that the eyes of the Lord tend to stop on those who are faithful in the small things.
[00:31:02] Speaker A: If you're here and it's Christmas, maybe somebody dragged you to church. So glad you're here.
[00:31:09] Speaker A: I have great news for you.
[00:31:12] Speaker A: God wants you to magnify him and to live your life to build his kingdom.
But if you have never trusted in Christ, that's not possible yet.
And the first step in order to apply any of this or to even begin to look at this inspirational young woman like Mary and live a life that remotely even looks like hers in her faithfulness and her love and application of God's word. It requires every person believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. It requires before you're able to magnify him and build his kingdom. It is gonna require you coming to grips with your personal sin, like Mary identifying that you are someone in need of a Savior.
It is gonna require not just you acknowledging your Savior, even Satan acknowledges that he's a sinner.
It is going to require a transfer of allegiance from yourself and your kingdom to the kingdom of Jesus. It is going to require you saying, I believe that Jesus is my God and that he died for my sins and was raised from the dead. Guys, I have awesome news if you are ready or want to make Jesus your God and your king. The hand of God is always 247 extended to you, offering you salvation, forgiveness, the power of the Holy Spirit. And then with that comes this incredible privilege to magnify the only one who deserves to be magnified and to build the only kingdom that is ever going to last forever. Amen. Village church Amen. Let's pray together. Father, I wanna thank you for Mary.
I wanna thank you for her faith, for her example.
Jesus, you came the first time in the incarnation. And we have been waiting for, for 2000 years for you to come again.
While we wait, your eyes, they move to and fro throughout the earth, looking for those whom you can strongly support.
And it's just our desire that you stop on us. We want to be able to be used in big or small ways. Lord, we want to magnify you and speak of your greatness. We want to build your kingdom. So this Christmas, us, may we magnify you.
May we declare you as great and may we bring you glory. We love you and we pray all of this in Jesus name. Amen.
Amen.
