Please continue to give your attention as I read God's holy, inspired, and inerrant word from the Gospel according to Luke 1.39-45. Now Mary arose in those days and went into the hill country with haste to a city of Judah, and entered the house of Zacharias and greeted Elizabeth. 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. Thus far the reading of God's holy word. Does it seem like Advent just flew by? I mean, I feel like, my goodness, we just started doing this, and now we're at the end of Advent. We are here at the conclusion of Advent as we've been looking at these four themes of Advent, right? Hope, and peace, and joy. And this morning we're going to look at love, which is the theme of the fourth Sunday of Advent. And we're going to see this from this passage here from the Gospel of Luke, which tells of Luke's birth narrative, it's part of Luke's larger birth narrative that begins in chapter one with the foretelling of the birth of John the Baptist, the forerunner, and then the foretelling of the coming Messiah by the angel Gabriel to Mary, and then you have this scene here in this narrative in which Mary now goes to visit Elizabeth, her cousin, and you have in a sense not only the meeting of the women, but you have the meeting of the babies as well as we see here this image of John leaping in the womb of his mother Elizabeth at the sound of the greeting of Mary. So we're going to look at this passage here and we're going to consider then the theme of love in this fourth Sunday of Advent as we see here that the Lord shows his love for his people by sending his son. It is the simplest form of the gospel message that God so loved the world that he gave. That's what we do on Christmas, we give gifts. God gave us a gift in his son Jesus Christ, his indescribable gift, as Paul talks about that in 2 Corinthians 8. We're going to see this in three parts. John leaps in verses 39 to 41. Elizabeth speaks in verses 42 to 43. And Mary is blessed, verses 44 to 45. Now, as I said, we're bringing this passage, I should say this series of Advent to a close here on this fourth Sunday of Advent. And this is a very familiar passage. I may have even preached on this one once before. So this is a new sermon, right? I'm not just regurgitating something from a couple of years ago. These are themes that we often talk about as we bring Advent to a close. It was interesting how we looked at the passages from Luke's gospel. We first started with Jesus' triumphal entry as the coming of the great king enters the city of Jerusalem to praise and laud and hosannas from the people. And now we look at his coming into the world as a child. We'll see that on Wednesday morning, but here, Jesus is now in the womb and we see this meeting of the women here, the meeting between Mary and Elizabeth, the two cousins. Of course, at this point in time, Elizabeth is already six months pregnant with John, who is, as we see earlier in Luke's gospel, John is the herald. He is the messenger. He is the prophesied one from Malachi and from Isaiah, the one who is the voice crying out in the wilderness, the messenger of God to make straight the ways of the Lord. He is the herald of the great king, Jesus. And of course, Mary here is bearing that Messiah. She is bearing that great King, Jesus, in her womb, as the angel Gabriel had said to her. Now, we don't know all the details precisely as to why Mary visits Elizabeth, but we can kind of surmise. Mary is a betrothed virgin, right? She was betrothed to Joseph as a virgin, and a betrothal in those days was just as binding as a marriage, and the penalties for adultery were just as steep as if they were married. Mary, being a virgin who is now with child, of course, the accusations would arise that she perhaps had adultery. In fact, if you know from Matthew's Gospel, when Joseph finds out about it, he wants to divorce her, but he wants to divorce her quietly. So Mary, presumably to perhaps get away from prying eyes and nosy neighbors, goes to visit her cousin Elizabeth, who is also pregnant. Now, when Mary arrives and she greets Elizabeth, we see something amazing happen here. In fact, we see two amazing things happen here. The first thing we see is that the baby leaped in the womb of Elizabeth at the sound of the greeting of Mary. That word leaped is used three times in Luke's gospel We see this in the in Luke's version of the Sermon on the Mount where he says those who are blessed who are persecuted He says rejoice in that day and leap for joy for indeed your reward is great in heaven So that's the first amazing thing that happens. The second thing that amazing that happens is that Elizabeth here is filled with the Holy Spirit. So at the moment Mary comes and she greets Elizabeth, the one who is carrying the Christ child, the baby in Elizabeth's womb leaps for joy and Elizabeth herself is filled with the Holy Spirit. As we'll see in a moment, this idea of the filling of the Holy Spirit is reminiscent to what you see in the Old Testament oftentimes when the prophets of old were filled with the Holy Spirit to give utterance to the people of God. And she is about to speak in a moment. But here, why is all of this happening? Why are these things happening? Why is John leaping in the womb? Why is Elizabeth filled with the Holy Spirit? One simple answer. As Paul says in Galatians 4, the fullness of time is coming. In fact, the fullness of time is at hand. The fullness of time is at hand. I've mentioned this before, I used to say it's one of my favorite verses, now I think it's becoming my favorite verse is Galatians 4, verse 4. When the fullness of time had come. That phrase there is just pregnant with, no pun intended, sorry I didn't mean to make that pun. It's pregnant with anticipation. It is pregnant with expectation. All these centuries, all these millennia, the people of God have been waiting, and waiting, and waiting for their Messiah. The fullness of time had come. We see Paul says, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman. born under the law for the purpose of redeeming those who were under the law. So when Mary comes and greets Elizabeth, something big is about to happen. And we see that signified both in the leaping of John and Mary in Elizabeth's womb and in Elizabeth being filled with the Holy Spirit. The Apostle Paul in Romans 8 speaks about this expectation and this anticipation of something big happening in Romans 8 verses 19 and 23 when he says, for the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. That comes when Jesus comes. Jesus comes and then he adopts us into his family and we become sons of God through the spirit whom he will pour out on Pentecost 40 days after his resurrection. And then verse 23, not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves, grown within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our bodies. Jesus came in the fullness of time to bring redemption, and now we who are participants of that redemption are also eagerly waiting for the second coming of Christ at the end of the age. This idea of being filled with the Spirit also is significant in the sense that it shows that we are in, as the Bible talks about, the last days or the latter days. Peter, on Pentecost Sunday, is preaching to the people there, to the gathered crowd, and he begins to expound from the prophet Joel. And he says to the crowd there, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel. And it shall come to pass in the last days, so we are in the last days, that I will pour My Spirit on all flesh. Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy. Your young men shall see visions. Your old men shall dream dreams. And on My men servants, and on My maid servants, I will pour out My Spirit in those days, and they shall prophesy. I will show wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath. Blood and fire and vapor of smoke, the sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord. Now it shall come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. What the prophet Joel prophesied centuries earlier, Peter says, is now at hand because the Spirit has been poured forth. And we see in a sense a foretaste of that as the Spirit comes upon. Elizabeth here, as the Spirit is poured out on her and she will give utterance in just a few moments. The big thing that is about to happen is this plan of redemption. This plan of redemption which was promised way back in the garden when man fell and God said that I will send forth a seed of the woman who will come and will crush the head of the serpent. This is about to be fulfilled. He of whom is spoken in the Old Testament, the seed of the woman, the one who is the son of Abraham, the one who is the son of David, the one who is the branch of Jesse, the one who is the Messiah and the son of God is coming into the world. God promised a coming seed of the woman who will crush Satan's head and that seed is now here. It's a great spot for an amen. Let me back that up. Let me back that up. All right. That seed is now here. There you go. As I like to say, it's okay to be Baptist for like 10 seconds. that coming seed is now here. This is the last Sunday of Advent, beloved, and we've been looking at passages that speak of our hope in the coming of the King, our peace in the coming of our King, the joy in the coming of the King, and now the pre-born John, the Baptist, who can't wait to make straight the ways of Jesus. He is so excited to do the task that he's been called to do that he begins to leap in his mother's womb for joy. Times of fulfillment are about to dawn. So now let us look at verses 42 and 43. As the Holy Spirit fills Elizabeth, she now gives forth utterance. She speaks, as it says here, in a loud voice and says, blessed are you among women, she's speaking to Mary, 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? We'll finish what she says in verses 44 and 45. The Holy Spirit in the Old Testament often came upon the people and gave them utterance. He came upon Saul and he began to prophesy. He came upon the prophets of old and they gave forth utterance. The Holy Spirit would come and fill people and they would give forth utterance. We see this earlier in chapter one, or later, I should say, chapter one, verse 67. Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist, when John the Baptist is born in verse 67, it says, now his father was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied. And he gives forth this prophecy concerning his son and his ministry. This is an occasion here of, big word here, eschatological or end times significance. As God begins to work in history, he gives revelation to mark the occasion. Whenever God steps into this world, that's exactly what's happening here. with the birth of Jesus. The age to come is bursting onto the scene. The kingdom of God is breaking into history. When that happens, when God begins to work in history, he gives revelation to talk about it, to give utterance to it, to point forward to it, and then to explain what has happened. So as the Spirit comes upon Elizabeth, she is going to give the significance of what is happening here as Mary approaches her. And the words of Mary that Elizabeth utters here, of course, form the basis of the prayer of the Hail Mary, right? Blessed are you among women, blessed is the fruit of your womb. And Mary is indeed blessed. This is what the angel Gabriel said to her earlier. Look at verse 28 of chapter one. When Gabriel comes to Mary in Galilee, in Nazareth, and prophesies to her that she will have a child, he says there, and having come in, the angel said to her, rejoice, highly favored one. The Lord is with you. Blessed are you among women. Mary is blessed not because she's sinless. She's blessed not because she's better than everyone else. She's blessed because she is the chosen vehicle through whom the Messiah will come into the world. Again, the promise that the seed of the woman would come and crush the head of the serpent. Mary is that woman. And Mary is blessed to be that woman. She is blessed to partake in this momentous occasion. She is not sinless. She is not being revered by the angel here. She is being shown grace and mercy by the Lord to use her in this manner. Remember, as we've been saying throughout this message so far, Jesus had to be born of a woman, not only to fulfill prophecy, but also to take on our humanity. It was important that Jesus become human for a number of reasons. The first one is that it was humanity who sinned in Adam. We are guilty, human beings are guilty, and now humanity must not only keep the broken law of God, but also atone for the penalty that the broken law demands. And no person born in this world other than Jesus can do those two things. No person can keep the law perfectly, and no person can pay the penalty for that broken law. Our own Heidelberg Catechism in Lord's Day 6, question 16. When asked, why must this mediator be true God and true human? The answer is because the justice of God requires that the same human nature which has sinned should make satisfaction for sin, but one who is himself a sinner cannot satisfy for others. Jesus had to come into the world as a human being, born of a woman, in order to stand in our place, in order to be our substitute. If you want the gospel in four words, Jesus in my place, and the reason he can be our substitute is because he became human. Later on in the catechism, in Lord's Day 14, questions 35 and 36, it asks, what significance do we take by he was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary? And the catechism answers there that the eternal Son of God, who is and continues true and eternal God, took upon himself the very nature of man, of the flesh and blood of the Virgin Mary, born of a woman, by the operation of the Holy Spirit, so that he might also be the true seed of David, like unto his brethren in all things except for sin. And then what comfort do we take in this? Question 36, that He, Christ, is our mediator, our go-between, the one who stands in the gap between us and God. And with His innocence and perfect holiness covers, in the sight of God, my sin wherein I was conceived. Jesus had to be born of a woman in order to stand in our place, in order to atone for our sins, so that we can be forgiven, so that His blood can cover our sins. And Mary here is the woman who had the privilege, the great undeserved privilege of being the mother of our Lord. She is going to give birth to her Savior and to our Savior. And Elizabeth can't believe her privileged status. She says in verse 43, why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? She is flabbergasted that Mary would come to visit her. She feels herself privileged. If you remember last week, we looked at Luke chapter 7, when Jesus says of John that there was none born of women who were greater than John. There was not a greater prophet than John. And we looked at that and said, because all the Old Testament prophets, what did they prophesy to? They prophesied to the coming of the Messiah. John got the privilege of prophesying that the Messiah is here. And now Elizabeth gets this privilege of being blessed by the mother of her Lord coming to visit her in this time of great significance. Now it's something that, think about this, it's something that we probably kind of missed the significance of, because we have the benefit, as I like to call it, of gospel hindsight, right? We look at all this 2,000 years removed, we're on the other side of the cross now, and we look at all this and see, okay, well that's wonderful, and now what have you got for me today? Think of the great privilege of Elizabeth being there, seeing this unfold, not only being the woman who's going to bear the herald of the great king, but being in the presence of the woman who is bearing the great king. We often talk about the privilege of being on the ground floor of things, right? You want to be there at the beginning when things happen to see them happen. And that's kind of what Elizabeth is feeling here. She is seeing the coming salvation of her people. It kind of reminds me of what we see in just a chapter later, in chapter two, when Simeon, old blind Simeon, is there at the circumcision of Jesus when Jesus is presented in the temple eight days after his birth to be circumcised. And this old man there, Simeon, says here in verse 25 of chapter two, and behold, there was a man whose name was Simeon, and his name was, and this man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel. He's waiting. I don't know how you get that kind of job. Do you find that on some kind of monster.com or something? It's like, we need somebody who's gonna wait for the consolation of Israel. It's like, I've got the credentials for that. Here is this guy Simeon, he's just waiting, waiting, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ, or the Lord's Messiah. So he came by the Spirit into the temple. And when the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him according to the custom and law, he took him up in his arms and blessed God and said, Lord, Now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word. For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared before the face of all peoples. A light to bring revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of your people Israel. Think about what it would have been like to be Simeon, right? Waiting, who knows how long, waiting, and then you get to hold in your hands. The baby Jesus. And you realize this is the one who has come in to save his people from their sins. This is the consolation of Israel. My eyes have seen these things. We look back on that and we kind of say, that's wonderful. But imagine being there to hold the baby Jesus, if you will. We are indeed blessed because we are in the kingdom of God. But to live with that anticipation and expectation and to get to see its fulfillment is quite another thing. example I came up with for this to illustrate this is, many of you know this, I'm a long-suffering Cubs fan. Or maybe that's being redundant. I'm just a Cubs fan. I think the long-suffering kind of is part and parcel of being a Cubs fan. And imagine, particularly people who were born after 2016, when they get older, they'd be like, well, it would have been nice. We now live in a world in which the Cubs have already won the World Series. But I was there, right? I was there on my couch watching this on TV, watching that torturous Game 7 in which the Cubs had to come back from three games to one down. And this Game 7 in which it was going back and forth. and to watch 108 years of suffering vanish as the Cubs finally win the World Series. It's one thing to know about that in history. It's quite another to be there as it's happening. And I think Elizabeth here is there as it's happening. Simeon was there as it's happening. The consolation of Israel, the salvation for the people of God is coming forth into this world and they are there. And Elizabeth counts herself privileged to be there, if you will, at the ground floor. Finally, let's look at Mary is blessed in verses 44 to 45, as Elizabeth continues to speak as the Holy Spirit gives her utterance. 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 believe, for there will be fulfillment of those things which were told her from the Lord. So she tells of how the sound of Mary's greeting then prompted, if you will, John in her womb to leap in her womb, to turn, if you will, to move in the womb at the presence of the Messiah. Great acts of redemption in the history of redemption bring many wondrous things. And John here, who has the awesome privilege of being the herald of the king, he is given a privilege that no other person was given, which was to proclaim the coming of the kingdom into the world, to be the forerunner of Messiah, to make his way straight. It's like he can't even wait to do that as he's leaping in the womb for joy at the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus here brings life and faith even to this babe in the womb. John cannot wait to do his part for the kingdom. And our passage here closes by Elizabeth telling Mary that she is blessed. Why? because she believed, she believed the promises of those things that were told of her from the Lord. Blessed is she, Mary, who believed, for there will be a fulfillment of those things which were told her from the Lord. The author of Hebrews says that without faith it is impossible to please God. Hebrews 11, verse six, but without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. Mary is blessed because she rested in and trusted in the promises of the Lord. Look at chapter one, verse 38, the verse right before. the passage we're looking at. This is the close of that passage in which Gabriel announces the birth of Jesus and then it says, Mary says, behold, I am the maidservant, I am the servant of the Lord. Let it be to me according to your word. In other words, I believe and I trust that what you say to me is going to happen. And now Elizabeth calls Mary blessed because she has believed in the things that were promised to her. Mary exhibits the faith of one who hears the words of God and does them by resting in and trusting in and believing that the Lord will actually work and accomplish His promises, His salvation. Saving faith in the Old Testament was always forward-looking. It was always looking forward to what was coming. God makes a promise, and the faith of the Old Testament saint looks forward to that promise. Sometimes those promises come to fulfillment in the lifetime of the Old Testament saint. Many other times, like what we have here with the coming of Messiah, those promises come in the lifetimes of other people. If you remember during our time in 1 Peter, 1 Peter talks about how the Holy Spirit revealed to the prophets of old the things of Jesus Christ and how they even searched diligently in the scriptures to seek and to find out who it was they were writing of. They were like, I'm writing this prophecy of this coming one. It's like, who is this one? Who is this person who is coming? Old Testament faith always looked forward as the saints trust in God and walk accordingly. This is what Mary is doing. She is blessed because she is believed in the fulfillment of the Word of God delivered to her through Gabriel. Gabriel made a promise and she's resting and trusting in that promise. And we see similar things in the Gospels later on in Luke chapter 11. as Jesus is teaching and says, and it happened in verse 27 of chapter 11, and it happened as He spoke these things that a certain woman from the crowd raised her voice and said to Him, blessed is the womb that bore You and the breast which nursed You. And Jesus says, more than that, blessed are those who hear the Word of God and keep it. Blessed are those who hear the Word of God, trust in it, and walk obediently. John writes his gospel. At the end of his gospel, he gives you the purpose. And he speaks to Thomas, right? If you remember, this is why he's called Doubting Thomas, because the first time Jesus appeared after his resurrection, Thomas wasn't there. And when the disciples told of it, Thomas is like, unless I see the nail wounds in his hand and touching the spear wound in his side, I'm not going to believe. And then eight days later, Jesus appears again. And, you know, Jesus says, Touch the wounds, and what does Thomas do? He falls on his face and worships. He says, my Lord and my God. And then Jesus says to him, Thomas, because you have seen me, you have believed, blessed are those who have not seen and yet believed. That's us. We are blessed because we believe even though we have not seen with our eyes. And then he goes on and tells you the purpose of why he wrote his gospel. And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples which are not written in this book. But these are written that you What? May believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing, you may have life in his name. Mary is blessed because she believes. We are blessed because we believe, we trust, we rest in these promises, we await their fulfillment. Now, of course, we look back to this, right? Again, we're on the other side of this, of this first Advent, and we believe and trust these things that have happened are true. but we also look forward. to the second coming. Because again, God has made a promise to us. He made a promise that this Christ who has ascended into heaven will return in the same manner as he has ascended into heaven. He will return in glory, and that's what we look forward to. So Advent is not just a remembering of the first coming of Christ. It is a looking forward to the second coming of Christ, or the second Advent of Christ. God made a promise that Jesus would return. And blessed are we who believe in the fulfillment of these things. This fourth Sunday of Advent, as I said, we remember God's love in sending His one and only Son, Jesus, into the world. We see this as we're gonna look at the birth in three days on Wednesday. But here we see this kind of preview, if you will, of coming attractions as Mary, who is with child, comes and visits. And we see John already proclaiming that this Messiah is here by leaping in the womb of Elizabeth. God showed forth his love to us by sending his son, Jesus, into the world. And this is what we saw, again, if you remember, we read earlier in the service from Malachi. Behold, Bethlehem, though you are little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of you shall come forth to me the one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose goings forth are from of old, from everlasting. Therefore, he shall give them up until the time that she who is in labor has given birth. Then the remnant of his brethren shall return to the children of Israel, and he shall feed his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God, and they shall abide, for he shall be great to the ends of the earth, and this one shall be peace. Jesus comes in this world to show forth God's love for us by bringing peace by reconciling us to God by taking upon himself our sins and giving to us through faith his righteousness. God made a promise to send his son into the world and he kept it. Do you believe this? Do you believe this? Because blessed are you if you do. Again, the simplest presentation of the gospel is found in John chapter three, verse 16. For God, what? So loved the world. God's love gift to the world is Jesus Christ, his only begotten son. That whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Do you believe this? Blessed you are if you do. Let's pray. Father in heaven, as we close our Advent series, and as we close the season of Advent, Lord, we thank you for the sending of your Son, Jesus, into the world. You did love us so much that you sent your Son into the world to to save His people from their sins, to take upon Himself the sins of the world. And Lord, we thank You for that. May we show our love for You, Lord, by walking in faithful obedience, having been called out of darkness into light. May we then, Lord, show our love for You and our love for our neighbors. by walking according to your word, Lord, by the power of your Holy Spirit. We pray, Lord, that as we reflect and rest in the love that you've shown to us, Lord, that we would believe this to be true, and that we would receive the blessings for this truth. We pray all this in Jesus' name. Amen.