Our scripture passage today is Luke chapter 1. Luke chapter 1 verse 46 to 56. And this is right at the beginning of Luke. You can find that on page 885 in your Bible. Right at the beginning of Luke we have the announcement of John the Baptist's birth to Elizabeth and Zachariah. And then we have the announcement of Jesus' birth by the angel Gabriel to Mary. And then Mary gets this announcement. And then she goes off and visits Elizabeth, her cousin. And Elizabeth, yeah, praises God for the mother of her Lord visiting her. And immediately after that, Mary breaks out into this song. You can find on page 885, verse 46. And Mary said, My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior, 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. 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. He has helped his servant Israel in remembrance of his mercy as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his seed forever. And Mary remained with her about three months and returned to her house. This past summer, my wife and my kids and I were in Florida and you guys supported us. And there we were able to live in a city. Well, the city was right on the coast, right on the Atlantic Ocean. And there's inlets, there's ocean everywhere, there's water everywhere. And being from Alberta, my wife, my kids and I, we tried to take advantage of being close to the ocean, so we went to the ocean often. And just the beauty of the ocean, the salt water, the sun, the sand, it's amazing. Well, we lived close to a member of the church, and he was a surfer. He said, to really enjoy the ocean, you have to learn how to surf. And I tried surfing a couple times, and I can say I enjoyed the ocean, and I really didn't know how to surf very much. But I still really enjoyed the ocean. There's something about being at the bottom of a swell of a wave and the wave lifting you up. And these waves from the Atlantic Ocean, they can get quite large. So you can get lifted quite high. And when you're lifted to the very peak of that wave, you can just get a perspective. You can look back. You can see the vastness of the ocean behind you. You can look forward. You can see the coastline stretch out in front of you. And it's a beautiful perspective to have when you're lifted up. up there on the top of the wave. And you could say that Mary has this kind of perspective as she's breaking out into this song here. She's lifted up. And she's looking back at what God has done in the past. She's looking forward at what God will do. And she's breaking forth the magnification of God. Because this is all God's working. God is the one that deserves all the praise. You could say this is sort of a grand narrative, this song. This grand narrative of looking back at what God has done in the past and looking forward at what He's going to do. And that's the way I want to kind of look at this song of Mary here, of what God has done and what God will do. And then, lastly, I want to kind of look at, basically, where we stand now. What do we do now as we look to the past and the future? So, first of all, what God has done. Verse 48 and 50, Mary tells us what God has done for her. You could say she gives sort of a personal testimony. Verse 48, Mary is overcome with joy because God saw her in her humble estate and came to her. Mary magnifies God because she was really a nobody from nowhere special. She was probably a 14-year-old girl in the whole land of Israel, the whole people of Israel, the whole Roman Empire. Mary realizes that she has nothing to offer God. She's a nobody. But God comes to her precisely because she has nothing to offer. And that's important to recognize, that Mary recognizes that God comes to her precisely because she has nothing to offer. God comes to those who have nothing to offer precisely because they have nothing to offer. And this is what's captured when Mary uses this phrase, humble estate. Mary is not very original when she writes this song. She's taken heavily from the song of Hannah. You can find that in 1 Samuel. If you know Hannah, the mother of Samuel, Hannah was one of two wives of a man, and she couldn't have children. And the other wife would mock her and jive her and make fun of her. And this brought her to the Lord, brought her to her God. And she prays to God in her humble estate. Hannah uses this word, humble estate. And she's acknowledging before God that she's barren, but God answered her. God answered Hannah in her humble estate and gave her a child. And Mary uses the same phrase, humble estate. But Mary's using it in a different way because, well, Hannah, for one thing, was barren, right? She couldn't have children. For many years, she couldn't have children. But Mary is different. She's a virgin. She's a very young girl. Probably 14 years old. And she uses this phrase, humble estate. Now, Mary is using this in a different sense. Mary is using this in a sense of not her being barren, but the people of Israel being barren. The people of Israel do not have a savior. They do not have the promised Messiah that the Lord had promised to give them. And Mary is using this phrase, humble estate, that God has answered her in her humble estate, that answered Israel in their humble estate, and bringing a Savior to Israel. And Mary comes before God humbled. Yes, she's bearing the Son of God, but she too needs this very child that she is bearing, that she is carrying. Verse 47, Mary acknowledges God is her Savior. She needs saving just as much as anyone else. Sometimes we have this view of Mary as a little bit above everybody else, maybe even a lot above everybody else. But God came to Mary because she had nothing, because she had nothing to offer. God comes to people who have nothing to offer. Well, Mary then reflects on how God worked in her life. Mary magnifies God because he came to her. He came to her, a commoner, Mary also magnifies God because God reveals His power, His holiness, and His mercy to her. In verse 49 and 50. And previously in this chapter, the Holy Spirit overshadows Mary and she conceives a child. So Mary's body is changing. She's experiencing morning sickness. She's extremely exhausted. Maybe she's... Her body's changing. But there's no earthly father. She's having a child grow within her. And there's no earthly father. It's a profound mystery. And she is overcome by God's power. She is overcome by what God is doing through her. In verse 49, He who is mighty has done great things for me, she says. She's experiencing first-hand God's miraculous power. God is bringing salvation to her and He does it with an astounding, with an unspeakable miracle. Something that we can't even fathom. But Mary also acknowledges God's holiness. In Gabriel's announcement, He said that the child would be holy. And holiness describes God's essence more than any other attribute of God. Holiness is God's otherness. God is not like you or I. He is perfect. He is pure. He is sinless. And Mary is experiencing this otherness of God. The God who came to her, a nobody. God uses her to bring the Savior of the world into the world. The God who brings a child into the world using no earthly father. This is a holy God. He doesn't do what we would expect. He doesn't use the powerful, the rich. He is not like the world. He is perfect. He is pure. He is holy. But Mary also experiences God's mercy as well. In verse 50, His mercy is for those who fear Him from generation to generation. God's holiness and His power are in light of His mercy as well. Why did God come to her? Why did God even come to Israel? Why did God even come to this world? Well, God is merciful. He saves those who do not deserve it. He saves people like humble Mary. At the end of verse 50, we see the extent of God's mercy. It's not just for Mary. His mercy is for those that fear Him. It's from generation to generation. Mary now expands her praise to more than just herself. And this takes us to the second thing Mary praises God for. You see, Mary carries the Messiah in her womb. the Savior of Israel. She has thought about what God has done for her, a nobody. Well, the second thing I want to look at is how Mary looks forward. Now, what do you do after you've looked to the past? Well, you oftentimes look to the future of what's going to be. You look back into the past week, you look into the future week. How is this week going to be different? Well, that is what Mary does here. She looks forward. She prophesies, though, about God's coming kingdom. What God has done, He will always do. And Mary's looking out at Israel. Israel who is suppressed, subjected, subdued by the Romans. And she sees this child within her womb bringing about a new covenant, a new kingdom. The end of oppression and subjugation. And what does she do? She prophesies. She prophesies what will be. What her child will do. Verse 51 to 53, she says, 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. He has shown strength. He has scattered the proud. He has brought down the mighty. He has filled the hungry. He has sent away the empty. All this language He has done this. It's in the past. It's what he has done. This doesn't reflect the world that Mary lives in. Mary lives in a world that is ruled by the Romans. The powerful and the rich, those are the ones that make the laws. Those are the ones that command everyone to go to their home town and be counted. That's why Mary and Joseph go to Bethlehem. Because they're following an order of a Roman authority. But this language doesn't even reflect the world of Jesus' time. Jesus himself was killed by an unjust ruler, Pontius Pilate. This world doesn't reflect the world that we live in now either. Who does our society idolize? Who rules this world right now? Politicians? Money? Hollywood, athletes, confidence, power, strength. That's who we look up to right now in this world to govern, to rule. See, this language is prophetic. It's looking to a future. The child in Mary's womb will bring about a kingdom that is beyond what we can even fathom. I don't think we can even imagine a world like this. It takes the world we know and it flips it right on its head. We couldn't even imagine how it could run with without the structures that we have right now, without the people and their character. You think of the characters, you think of the personalities that we think of good rulers. Confidence, power, strength. Well, God takes all those and flips them on his head and says, those aren't the ones that are going to rule. See, Mary's prophecy looks at a powerful, holy, merciful God, the God who was the same yesterday, today, and forever. How He has worked in the past is how He is going to work in the future. You see, our God takes people like Abraham, takes people like David, and He makes them patriarchs. He makes them mighty kings. He takes people like Gideon. He takes people like His twelve disciples who follow Him around for three years learning from Him. And at the culmination of His ministry, they have no idea what His ministry actually is, and they abandon Him. God takes people like these, and He uses them to rule. He uses them to build His kingdom. I said before that Mary uses the song of Hannah. In actual truth, every line of this song of Mary has an Old Testament reference. Mary is pulling from Isaiah, she's pulling from the Psalms, she's pulling from Exodus, she's pulling from all over the Old Testament. She's pulling from Well, she's really not a very original. She's using all Old Testament imagery and wording. Every line here has an Old Testament reference. Mary knows what God has done in the past. And she knows what God will do in the future. She sees how God takes humble, weak people and He saves them. How He takes nobodies like Abraham and He builds up a nation from them. A nation that really is a small little nation. But He builds up that nation for Himself. And now she looks at the child within her womb, which God has promised will be great, will reign over the house of Jacob forever. And she is ecstatic. She's excited. She's beaming. And she sees this child within her womb. This child is going to bring about a new kingdom for Israel. Her people are going to be great. This child is going to bring about a new kingdom, a new world. And what's astounding is what this world looks like. Maybe you've played the game chess before. As you set the board up, you set all your pieces out. Your pawns all go in the front, and your pieces all go specifically in certain spots. And as you're laying them out, you're planning your moves ahead. You're planning strategy for winning. I move this guy here, he'll move this guy here, and then I can move this. You're going to win. You're planning to win. And you're strategizing to win. Well, if you have kids like I do, young kids, one swing of an arm and all these pieces can scatter everywhere. And then the king that you're supposed to be protecting is just another piece on the floor. Well, verse 51 says, God has scattered, God has shown strength with his arm. He has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts, in the imagination of their hearts. With a proud plot, with a scheme to give them prestige, power, privilege, God turns it all upside down. He scatters their minds in confusion. They don't even know up from down, their chessboards are overturned, their pieces are scattered. Mary could be very well thinking of the book of Daniel. Think of the great king Nebuchadnezzar, arrayed in his royal robes, standing over his kingdom of high, looking out over the walls that he has built, the great city that he has built, And he says, look at my great power. Look at what I have built. Look at what I have accumulated. Look at my wealth. And what does God do with his prideful heart? Well, he takes him and he scatters his heart. He throws him into a field and this great king thinks he's a cow and he eats grass in a field for how long? Until he realizes that God is the one that's placed him there. Until he realizes that he is nothing. God scatters the pride in their hearts so they don't even know up from down, or they think they're cows eating grass. That is the God that we worship. You see, Mary's prophecy speaks of a God who promises a kingdom that will be not a place for the proud, not be a place for those that can do it on their own, not a place where People with great intellect, with great power and strength. It's not a place for those kind of people. Well, verse 52 then says, He has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate. This is sort of a revolution. It's where rulers are overturned. This kingdom that Mary sees will be prideless, but the rulers of the earth will be dethroned. And rulers here are those that are unjust, oppressive, and selfish. The new kingdom will see an end to these rulers. Mary alludes to Psalm 147. The Lord lifts up the humble, and he casts the wicked to the ground. God answers those who mourn, and he answers them by casting the wicked to the ground. The new kingdom is characterized by who rules, and those that rule now will not rule in the future. Those that are praised and exalted in the coming kingdom are not the powerful, the charismatic, the beautiful, the rich, the famous, if not the Hollywood stars, the billionaires, the athletes, whether it's those that rely on God, simply those, just like Hannah, like Mary, who look to God for their salvation. Verse 53 then says, He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich He has sent away empty. We have a reversal of material things, but also of spiritual things. Those that are full, they're going to be empty, and those that are empty will be satisfied. Now this isn't saying that the rich will be excluded from the kingdom, but it's saying that often the rich don't acknowledge their need, whereas the poor do realize their need. If you sit down at your supper table and there's all food laid out before you, you don't go in search for food. Where if you sit down at the table and there's nothing in front of you, you have to go in search for food. Mary alludes to many of these Psalms, 42, 23, My soul longs for, my spirit searches. Mary's alluding to God using the basic human needs of food and water. This picture of longing for Him, as we long for food and water, we long for God. Now if you've worked hard outside in the heat, Or if you've maybe fasted for a few days, you've done some athletic, some sports, you've exhausted yourself and you just long for a bottle of water, you just long for a pizza or a plate of food. You know what it's like just to long for something just as simple as food and water. Mary prophesied that those that are rich, they don't realize that longing, they don't realize that need. They'll be excluded because they don't realize that need. And at this time of the year, with presence and abundance of food on our tables, we're surrounded by things. Aisles are loaded with things. We go down the aisles and they're just packed with stuff. Where our culture tells us we should want, what our culture tells us we should need. It's an overflowing abundance of just stuff. Well, sometimes we need to be reoriented as to what we need. That's why fasting was a central part in the New Testament. If you look in Matthew or in Acts, go without water, without food for a day or two, and you'll realize what you truly want, what you truly need. Go without water for a day or two, go without food for a day or two. You'll just want a bottle of water. You'll just want a plate of food. That's what will make you happy. Mary uses this picture. Needing God the Savior is more basic to you than even needing food and water. And God says, long for me. Long for me as you long for a bottle of water when you've gone without water for a day. And I will satisfy you. Think of the woman at the well. She comes to get a jar of water. But she is satisfied. She leaves. She goes back to the village, leaves her jar there, goes back to the village, and she's been satisfied. That is what God gives. He gives living water. The New Kingdom is for those who acknowledge their need for saving. It's not for those that have enough on their own. Now, what do you... What do you long for? Do you long for the Word? What do you pray when you pray? You come to God like the tax collector, beating your chest. What do I have to offer? You come to God, I need you God. I cannot do this on my own. You come to God, my table is empty. I need living water. I need you. Well, this brings us, finally, where do we stand? You see, this song really doesn't focus on Jesus' earthly life. As we read of it in the Gospels, this is before Jesus' earthly life. Mary's really just reflecting on her past. She's a nobody from nowhere special. God has come to her, and she praises God. Then she looks to the future and sees what God will do. And what does she do? She praises God. She's thirsting for help. For herself, for her people. But this is for her people. Mary is an Israelite. Mary is in the land of Judah and she is thinking of these specific people, her people. She looks back at what God has done for her people. For her people, Israel. And she is ecstatic. She's really happy. She's pumped. God is bringing her people and she's going to make them great again. She's excited. All God's promises of old are coming true for Israel. But where do you and I stand as we read this? Mary is not thinking of you and I. Mary's thinking of Israelites. I don't believe any of us are Jews here, so Mary's not thinking of you. Well, the end of verse 50 mentions that God's mercy is from generation to generation for those that fear Him. God's mercy is for His covenant people. Verse 54 and 55 make that explicit. He has helped his servant Israel in remembrance of his mercy as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham, and to his offspring forever. Well, what are the promises to Abraham? God promised Abraham he would bless him. He promised Abraham that through Abraham he would be a blessing to all people. If we look back now at Luke chapter 1, the very first few verses there, we see that this gospel is written to a man named Theophilus. Now, Theophilus is a Greek name. It means lover of God. So, this gospel is written to a Gentile. It's written to a Greek. And if you think of Luke himself, he's probably a Gentile as well. Luke is writing this letter to assure a Gentile that Jesus is the Savior. This Song of Mary is for you and I then. This gospel is written to assure us that this song of Mary is made, is written for me and you. But it's not just for me and you either, it's for the world. It's for all those who accept Jesus Christ as their Savior. You see, Jesus is the answer to this promise to Abraham. Luke is saying, through Jesus salvation comes to the Jews and to the whole world. Jesus brings us into the covenant of God. You and I are children of the promise to Abraham through Jesus' poured out blood. His blood covers us, makes us children of God. Galatians 3.29, if you are Christ, then you are Abraham's offspring. Heirs according to promise. If you are Christ, then you are children of Abraham. And as Mary quotes this song, as she sings this song, these promises are for me and you. Mary is blessed because she believed the promises of God. But we are blessed as well when we believe these promises of God, because they are for me and you. Jesus says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. Come to me and you will have life. And Mary professes what coming to Jesus looks like. It's a reversal of the present world. And Jesus' life is exactly that. He was born of humble means to a nobody, born in a manger, subject to oppressive rulers, unjust rulers, to the point that he was killed unjustly. Mary here, with this child in her womb, with God's promises on her lips, prophesies what God has done, He will always do. He takes the humble, He takes the weak, He takes those kind of people and He makes them great. Philippians 2.9 says, therefore, God has highly exalted Him, Jesus, and bestowed on Him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus is Christ the Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Who is more weak? Who is more humble than Jesus? But God used Him to bring salvation to me and you. And it's only through Jesus that we have salvation. So this song of Mary is our song. And what do we do? We look back and we look forward. And let me ask you this, what gets in the way of you seeing what God did in the past? What gets in the way of seeing what God will do in the future? If you're like me, it's probably just yourself. You get caught up in your life. in the busyness of this week, in the busyness of what's going to happen this week, especially in the Christmas holidays and season, what you have to do, where you have to be, what you need, what you want. You think you can bring about your own salvation in however way you design it yourself. Or you think you can live in a world that you design. I don't know what this is for you, whether it's performance at work, You have to be the best, most successful, or whether it's kids, family, you have to have a perfect, perfect family. Maybe it's even in church attendance, or your status in the church, or status in the community, or whether it's just even comparing yourself to other people and using that as a standard. The point is Mary here doesn't look to anything that she has done. This song is nothing about Mary. It's her personal testimony, but She's speaking all of what God has done through her. And we have to get that out of our heads. It's not about anything we do. Verse 46 and verse 47, Mary says, My soul magnifies the Lord. My spirit rejoices in God my Savior. See, Mary's fully engaged because all she's singing is what God has done. It's not her. And she can be fully engaged because He is using her. He's working in her. And this way that she speaks of my soul, my spirit, she's fully engaged. It's a Hebrew way of saying her whole self is involved. She's using every aspect of her person to pour out into song. And she is singing. This is a song. You see, Mary is looking back at what God had done for her, looking forward to what God will do, and she is soaked in the glory of God and all that He will do. and what He has done, and she is breaking out into Psalm. And there's no mistake that Mary is looking to God and making His name great. In a way, you could say the present doesn't even really matter to Mary. She's just looking at the past, what God has done. She's looking at the future and saying, whatever happens now, that's all in light of what's going to happen in the future. Because what's going to happen in the future is astounding. It's amazing. The future is where it's at. The future is where Christ reigns with justice. And the best part of this is that as Mary sings, as she rises up to the crest of that wave, we rise right up with her. As she looks forward and looks backwards, we rise right up with her and we can view the exact same thing that she does, except we have even a better perspective. We have Jesus' life. We have Jesus' word. And it's because of Jesus that we can crest that way with Mary. And it's because of Jesus' life, because of His perfect obedience, because of His death, that we can even see even clearer of what God has done. And we can see that when He comes back again, the glory that He will come back again in. And we can shout forth with magnification of what God will do. And if you're like me, you can see this. You can sing with Mary, maybe, but sometimes you get down with the mundaneness of life. I don't know what it is. You can just be kind of overwhelmed with concerns. And often I turn inward, turn self-centered. But this song is a reminder. It's a call that we are nothing. But God is powerful. He is holy and He is merciful. And He has lifted us up. The very mother of our Lord looked to a Savior. And the grand story that she recites of what God has done and will do, that all includes me and you. All those promises that God has made are our promises as well. We peak that wave with Mary, and we look back, and the grand story of the Scriptures is our story. We are in that story. So we believe in Jesus. And if you don't believe in Jesus, believe in Jesus. believe that He is the Savior of the world, that what He has promised will be. That He will overcome all the pain, that He will overcome all the suffering, the injustice, the oppression, and He will bring about a new kingdom. Now maybe you experience actual deep pain, deep loss, But Jesus' suffering, Jesus' life and death, overcomes the deepest pain, the deepest loss of a loved one. Jesus' suffering overcomes all of that. His death has defeated death and brought eternal life, eternal satisfaction. So believe in Jesus. Believe in what He will do. Believe that what He will do is for you, if you believe in Him. and break out in song, break out in magnification for what He has done.