Good to see all of you this morning and we're continuing in our study in Luke chapter 1. This is where we are kind of docked for the month of December at least leading up through next week through Christmas Eve and so far we've We've seen the story of Zachariah. Pastor Trey led us in that. Back in the first of the month, the story of how Zachariah didn't have faith like he should, and as a result of that, he was mute. And then we saw last week that Mary, a very young lady, Who had an angelic encounter with the same angel Gabriel one of the most powerful angels in heaven? Who had some important news for her didn't he that Mary who was a virgin? would supernaturally conceive a baby boy to be named Jesus which means salvation a baby boy who would be God's Son and the Jewish Messiah this was huge really really huge and Mary believed the message of the angel and Submitted herself to God's will for her and we talked last week about what an enormous privilege that this was for Mary this is something that mothers dating all the way back to Eve in the garden had wanted to bear the Messiah and Here Mary is picked and remember we talked about Mary that she was a nobody in a nothing town in the middle of nowhere and Yet she was chosen. That was Nazareth the place where she lived But as we saw in last week's text God always comes to save those who are needy those who are nobodies like you and me and And yet when we looked underneath the surface, we saw that Nazareth was the ideal location, right? Because the word Nazareth means, do you remember? Somebody. Nobody? Shoot, thank you! The name Nazareth means shoot, and so the shoot from the stump of Jesse was the ideal place for the Messiah to be born, right? So Mary's visit with the angel has come to an end, but not before Gabriel has given her some additional news. As Pastor Greg reminded us, her cousin Elizabeth, a much older woman who was never able to have children of her own, was also supernaturally pregnant. Of course, we know that story from the earlier part of Luke 1. And now she's six months along, the angel tells her. And that's where we pick up the story today. So the title of the message is, My Soul Magnifies the Lord, the opening line of Mary's song. And we're going to look at this passage in two big parts. The first is verses 39 to 45. I want you to see a leap of faith. And then from verses 46 to 56, we'll see a song of praise, a leap of faith and a song of praise. So let's take a look at this leap of faith. Notice, first of all, Mary's greeting here in verses 39 and 40. In those days, Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country to a town in Judah. And she entered, verse 40, she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. So Luke tells us what happens. Mary responds to the angel's announcement. She leaves Nazareth. She travels about 80 miles to the south, a three or four day trip in those days, to visit her cousin Elizabeth. But remember, Elizabeth is not a young woman. She's probably old enough to be Mary's great-grandmother. Now can you imagine a preteen being pregnant at the same time as her great-grandmother. And don't forget, although both of their pregnancies were supernatural, they were also very different, weren't they? Elizabeth was not a virgin like Mary was. And Zachariah was the biological father of Elizabeth's baby. But they did have something very much in common, as we will see shortly. Now, why did Mary travel so far so quickly after this announcement? Well, people speculate about different reasons, but I think that this passage really is all about confirmation for Mary. After all, the angel did give her this tip about Elizabeth's pregnancy. So if Elizabeth is really six months pregnant, and Mary can go see that for herself, it's certainly going to strengthen her faith, isn't it? And who wouldn't want to go visit a 70 or so year old cousin who's having her first child? So Mary shows up on Elizabeth's doorstep. I wonder, did Elizabeth have to get her mom and dad's permission to make that trip? It's a long trip for a young girl. So she shows up on Elizabeth's doorstep and gives her greeting, and now the fun begins. Look at Elizabeth's response to Mary's greeting, verses 41 to 45. And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. She exclaimed with a loud cry, Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy, and blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord." Now we know from verse 56 at the end of the section that Mary spent three months with Elizabeth. Now obviously they talked a great deal during that time. But Luke saw fit with the Spirit's guidance to preserve just two of these conversations for us in this letter, in this gospel. Well here it is, the big leap of faith. But the big leap of faith happens inside Elizabeth's womb, as you might have noticed. What is this leap? It's a word in the original language that means to vault. Might be similar to what we would think of as a backflip in gymnastics. Now, many of you mothers know this feeling firsthand, don't you? The bouncing of the baby in the womb. I have seen the effects of this bouncing from the outside, you know, putting your hand on the belly and feeling those kicks and those movements, and it's awesome. And some might pause here and say, well, this is nothing unusual. especially for the sixth month of pregnancy. This is just routine. But there is a difference, as the text will demonstrate to us very clearly. Moving on in the text, it's interesting here that Elizabeth knows Mary's secret before she even tells it to her. It's not like, you know, Mary couldn't have, you know, updated her status on Facebook, right? Found out today I'm pregnant with the Messiah, you know, and all the likes start coming in. No, no, no, what happened? Well, the Spirit of God happened. Look at verse 41 again. 41 tells us that Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. Now, what happened when people were filled with the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament? spoke prophecy and That's exactly what's happening here. They speak the Word of God and Elizabeth has this awesome privilege of being the first person to ever Sing a Christmas carol because that's kind of exactly what she's doing here is she's doing sort of a hymn of praise and blessing and So Elizabeth uses a loud voice. That's why I raised my voice a little when I was reading those words. Very common, by the way, when the Spirit filled a person, for them to speak with a loud voice. She blesses Mary and her unborn baby. And it's a true blessing because Mary is the most blessed woman ever to live. Right? Why? Because she's carrying the greatest child ever to be born. Right? In Jewish culture, it was very common for mothers to be valued based on the greatness of their children. You may remember a little later in Luke, in Luke 11, verse 27, Jesus is teaching, and while he's teaching, there's a woman in the crowd who raises her voice and says to him, Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breast at which you nursed. It was a common thing to bless the mothers of great people. But in this case, of course, it was divinely true, wasn't it? Elizabeth then, in effect, blesses herself. Look at verse 43. For the great privilege of being in Mary's presence, or even more, in the presence of the Messiah. And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? That's a pretty powerful sentence, isn't it? When Elizabeth says this, she's acknowledging two things at least, right? Under the filling of the Holy Spirit, no less. One, Mary's a mother. She's pregnant already. Her baby's probably only a few days old. And two, Mary's baby is the Lord, Elizabeth's Lord, the Messiah. And again, we see a tremendous humility here in Elizabeth, right? Don't forget this. Elizabeth is bearing a very special baby as well, right? The preparer for the Messiah, John the Baptist. The baby inside Elizabeth was not just a baby, he was a prophet. And not just a prophet, but the greatest prophet of all prophets. Now most of us in Elizabeth's sandals might have talked about our own supernatural experience. Mary, glad you're here. Let me tell you what happened to me. This is amazing. Not Elizabeth. It's all about Mary and her baby instead. And so it's not surprising later when John the Baptist, her sign would say things like this. Remember John 3.30? He must increase, and I must decrease. Talking about Jesus. We know exactly where John the Baptist would have learned something like that, don't we? From his mama. I love verse 44. For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. And now we know this was not just a prenatal movement in the womb. There are two reasons for John's great leap. First, he was a prophet, and this was his first prophecy. Have you ever wondered why the Bible said back in verse 15 that John would be filled with the Spirit even before he was born? This is why John recognizes the presence of the Messiah of Jesus through the leading of the Holy Spirit and he responds as an unborn baby. His one job in life is going to be to point to the Messiah and the Messiah has just entered the room. Maximus of Turin who was one of the early church fathers said this not yet born John already prophesies He's already pointing to the Savior The church fathers used to say that John is the only child who ever turned his mother's womb into a pulpit There's a second reason for this leap Related to the first notice that Elizabeth says the baby in my womb leaped for what? Joy. Now remember, this is not some sentimental mommy who is interpreting the movements of her baby on her own for the rest of us. This is the revelation of God through the Holy Spirit about the Son. This is the Trinity at work. God the Father, through the Holy Spirit, giving revelation about the Son of God. This has inspired Scripture when she says he leaped for joy. Just think about this. As a fetus of six months, John was an emotional being. He had the capacity to be filled with the Spirit. He was so overcome that he leaped for joy. By the way, this is a great argument about the personhood of unborn children and why they should never be aborted. John leaped with delight at the sound of Mary's voice. He danced in the darkness of the womb in the presence of the light of the world. He couldn't speak, but he could leap, and leap he did. Then look at Elizabeth's final word of blessing to us here. It's the first beatitude in Luke's Gospel, verse 45. Blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord. There might be a little bit of irony here. Remember, whose house is this? It's Zachariah's house, isn't it? And Zachariah had had an angel come to him too, just like Mary, telling him that his wife was going to have a baby, and Zachariah basically said, you've got to be kidding, she's old. And you remember what the angel said, okay, Zachariah, she's still gonna have a baby, but you're not gonna be able to tell anybody about it, because you're not gonna be able to speak until the baby's born. Do you see what Luke is doing here? He's drawing our attention to some comparison and some contrast. These visits from Gabriel are really similar. There's two moms. There's two babies. There's two names. There's two do not fears. But Luke is drawing a contrast here where Zachariah doubted what God had said, but Mary had accepted and believed God's promise. And here is Elizabeth saying, blessed are you, Mary, because you believed. Later, remember that episode that I mentioned earlier in Luke 11, when that woman shouts out to Jesus from the crowd, blessed is the womb that bore you. Do you remember Jesus' response in Luke 11, 28? Jesus said to her, blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it. emphasizing what's the most important thing here. So that is the leap of faith, and it's beautiful, and it's wonderful. Let's take a look at Mary's song of praise, verses 46 to 56. I want you to notice two kind of big categories here in this song. It's an amazing song, as you'll see. We're just going to kind of scratch the surface of it here this morning. But I want to give you all the little introductory pieces to the richness of this song so you can go explore it even further on your own. Let's put these categories into two the first one. Let's talk about mindful of me The Lord is mindful of me and then the second category will be that the Lord is mighty over us He's mighty over us. So first of all Notice that Mary speaks in terms which are personal look look what she says for he This is down in verse 48. For he has looked on the humble state of his servant. In other words, what that means, he has looked on, that's the word that I'm interpreting mindful of. God has been mindful, he has looked on me, Mary says. In other words, God could have found a rich, noble, powerful queen who lived in a palace, but he chose not to do so. He came to a lowly girl who has no apparent significance whatsoever. He's come to me, Mary says. He's looked on me. He's mindful of me. The dictionary defines mindful as taking thought or taking care or keeping remembrance of something. Mary is saying here's why my soul magnifies the Lord glorifies focuses on the greatness of the Lord and here's why my spirit rejoices in God my Savior Because he has taken thought of me. He is taking care of me. I am in his remembrance I may be very little in the eyes of the world, but I am valuable in the eyes of the one who made the world and But Mary doesn't sing simply in personal terms here. At the end of her song, she also sings in people terms. Look down there at... Look down at verse 54. He has helped his servant Israel That's a whole nation, right? In remembrance of his mercy, that remembrance word is the same word that's translated earlier, looked upon, being mindful of Mary. As he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his offspring forever. Now the significance of this is pretty big, it's pretty huge. God is mindful of Mary as an individual, because he's mindful of his people as a whole. Her significance lies in the fact that she is part of God's plan for his people. And this is where a little history helps. So around 2,000 years before Mary sang this song, the God about whom she sang had made great promises to a man named Abraham. Back in the very first book of the Bible, in Genesis chapter 12, he called Abraham to leave his people, leave his country, leave his household, and to go to a place that God would show him. Here's the promise of God to Abraham Genesis 12 2 & 3. I will make of you a great nation I will bless you and make your name great so that you will be a blessing I will bless those who bless you and him who dishonors you I will curse and in you all the families of the earth Shall be blessed All the way through the Old Testament, God says again and again to Abraham's descendants, who came to be known as Israel and later as the Jews, right? I am mindful of you. I am remembering you. I will keep the promises that I've made to you." Over and over throughout the Old Testament, he sends his prophets, his spokespeople, to reaffirm those promises to his people. For instance, Isaiah the prophet said six centuries before Mary was born, he said this, for to us a child is born. To us, to us, a Son is given, and the government shall be upon His shoulder, and His name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His government and of peace, there will be no end. On the throne of David and over His kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore." Isaiah 9, 6, and 7. And all the smart people of Mary's time would have sat around and said, well, this must be all part of God's fulfilling His promise to Abraham. A son will be given who will fulfill all of God's promises because God is still looking on us. He's still mindful of us. He still remembers us. And then this young woman, Mary says, God has indeed been mindful of her and being mindful of her he's been mindful of his people as a whole and The Sun has been given and the promises are about to be fulfilled This is what God is like brothers and sisters Whatever you may think about God know this God is mindful He is personally involved with humanity You know, I live in the United States of America. My president is President Joe Biden. I've never met Joe Biden. I've never had a handshake with him, a photo with him. And Joe and my relationship is very, very distant. He is isolated from me. That's how people in our culture Define greatness. How many layers do I have to get through to get to? him a lot God isn't that way God God does not God the greatness of God is not revealed in his isolation from us The greatness of God is revealed in his intimacy with us This is what God is like He has promised to make blessing, fulfillment, security available to all the families of the earth. He knows my name. And He knows yours. Joe Biden doesn't know my name. God knows my name. He knows yours. He knows about, He cares about the responsibilities that weigh heavy on you. The disappointments that gnaw at you. The concerns that keep you awake at night. He knows about your hopes. He knows about your aspirations. He knows about the moments that make your heart sing. The Creator is mindful of you. And that gives you value. Whatever the world sees when it looks at you. You are valuable. However, you are treated by those around you. You are precious because God is mindful of you. This is the God of Christmas. This is the God of history. A God who knows you, who cares about you, who makes promises to you, and who acts to help you. He's mindful of you, just as he was mindful of Mary. But notice another category in this song, and that is, he is mighty over us. God is mighty. Look at verse 49 of Luke 1. For he who is mighty has done great things for me. Look down at verse 51. He has shown strength with his arm. The picture of God here is of a warrior extending his arm, his sword arm, in strength to achieve his purposes. And what does this mighty warrior do? He turns human attitudes upside down. Look what He's done in His might. He's taken what society and culture and individual men and women tend to put great importance in, and He has demolished it. Look at v. 51. First, He has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. God does not often allow us to be proud for long. If we think it's our abilities or our hard work alone that gives us success, watch out. Pride goes before destruction. A haughty spirit before a fall, Solomon wrote. Some of the struggles that we've lived through in our lives, which we have tried to explain socially, or economically, or politically, or just called bad luck, should actually be explained in terms of God's mighty deeds. Sometimes He has humbled us when we needed humbling. Second, look at verse 52. He has brought down the mighty from their thrones. Go through the whole of history and you can see that happening again and again and again and again the proudest empires of the world eventually crumble to nothing That's because God raises up leaders and he takes down leaders Third notice that God sends away the rich and the poor Empty look in verse 53 53 the rich he has sent away Empty even as he fills up the hungry the first part of the verse with good things Who are the people who shouldn't be empty? Well rich people, of course, right? I mean if you're rich you can buy what you want eat where you want go where you choose but you're it's still possible to be rich and Empty, isn't it? Maybe not in your stomach, but in your soul. Because the more the rich have of the wealth that the rest of us so often want, the emptier and more hollow things often seem to be. You guys know this. When life is good and successful and comfortable, it's easy to think we no longer need God. That we can, in fact, buy all that we need. It's tragically easy to forget that our bodies cannot last forever. And that beyond our death, we will meet with the one who is eternal. When life is good, it's easy to kid ourselves that we are mightier than we truly are. And to forget the God who is truly mightier than we are. That's why the mighty God has scattered the proud now to help him deal with him in this life. Now. And perhaps you can see how he's done that in your own life. Or is doing that. How will you react? God is not a God who fits in with all of our preferences and priorities. And that's good news. He is much bigger, much mightier, more real than that. He scatters the proud so they can become humble. He brings down the mighty from their thrones. He makes the rich empty. And then he also lifts them up. He helps those who are humble enough to say, I don't actually have it all together. I don't have all my questions answered. I have struggles I need help with. God fills the hungry with good things. Once you realize you're hungry for something this world can't give you, then you're ready to find the fullness that God offers. I'm going to ask the praise team to come back to the platform. We'll get ready to sing our last song here in a few minutes. But I want to finish this section of verses with another visit to some Old Testament background for a minute. There's a really strong connection here between Mary's song and another very famous song. So hold your place here and turn back for just a moment to 1 Samuel 2. This is a song sung by Hannah, the mother of Samuel. Let me read that passage and as I read it, see if you notice some similarities to Mary's song. 1 Samuel 2, verse 1. And Hannah prayed and said, My heart exalts in the Lord, my horn is exalted in the Lord, my mouth derides my enemies, because I rejoice in your salvation. There is none holy like the Lord, for there is none besides you. There is no rock like our God. Talk no more so very proudly, Let not arrogance come from your mouth, for the Lord is a God of knowledge, and by Him actions are weighed. The bows of the mighty are broken, but the feeble bind on strength. Those who were full have hired themselves out for bread, but those who were hungry have ceased to hunger. The barren has born seven, but she who has many children is forlorn. The Lord kills and brings to life. He brings down to Sheol and raises up. The Lord makes poor and makes rich. He brings low and He exalts. He raises up the poor from the dust. He lifts the needy from the ash heap to make them sit with princes and inherit a seat of honor. For the pillars of the earth are the Lord's, and on them He has set the world. He will guard the feet of His faithful ones, but the wicked shall be cut off in darkness, for not by might shall a man prevail. The adversaries of the Lord shall be broken to pieces. Against them He will thunder in heaven. The Lord will judge the ends of the earth. He will give strength to His King and exalt the horn of His Anointed. By the way, that's the first time in the Old Testament that the word anointed is used. It's the word for Messiah. Did you notice some similarities? There's a bunch, aren't there? Mary, essentially, from her knowledge of Scripture, is reaffirming a lot of Hannah's prayer about this great reversal of fortunes of the proud and the mighty and the rich. But this will not happen Not through Hannah's son, Samuel, but through Mary's son, Jesus. Now, of course, the prophet Samuel played an important role, didn't he, in the establishment of the Davidic dynasty. Look over in 1 Samuel 16, turn there in your own time, read about how Samuel anoints the future king, David, and serves him for many, many, many years. But even King David, as great a king as he was, a man after God's own heart, would not be Israel's solution to defeating God's enemies and overcoming wickedness. That's reserved for one of David's descendants. And David knew that. You can read about the covenant God made with him in 2 Samuel 7. Hannah's prayer that she prayed all those years ago goes beyond David. It finds its ultimate fulfillment in the Holy One, Jesus, the son of David. And God reminds us how he will accomplish all this. There are many words and phrases in Mary's song that also point us back to a specific event in the Old Testament. Let me point them out to you. In verse 49, the word mighty. In v. 49, the word great things. In v. 49, holy is His name. V. 51, strength. V. 51, arm. V. 51, scattered. V. 52, thrones. V. 54, His servant Israel. All these words and phrases were used in the first Exodus. that God brought the people out of Egypt and rescued them and brought them into the promised land. That's a model, that's a motif, a theme in scripture that's used all through the Bible to predict the escape, the salvation that Jesus would one day bring, a greater Moses. But unlike the first Exodus, God is promising Mary her son is not going to redeem Israel primarily from political might we know that right? He's not going to overthrow the Romans in his first visit That's what all his people want him to do right even his disciples are thinking he's going to do that That's not why Jesus came it wasn't to redeem Israel from political might but from the powers of sin and the devil To make them free spiritually so this song sung by a young teenage girl in the first century, is packed with all kinds of scriptural references and echoes, and it points us to the amazing work of salvation that will only come through her special Son, our Lord Jesus. His salvation through his death on the cross and his resurrection from the tomb is certainly something to rejoice in today. Just as Mary rejoiced in his coming then, and as Elizabeth rejoiced then, and as Hannah did thousands of years before that. So let's take a moment this morning to rejoice ourselves in the coming of the Lord Jesus and what his coming means for all of us and for our future and for our destiny and for God's people. Let's remember what God accomplished because of Bethlehem. Let's stand together and let's sing our theme song here for the month before our benediction.