Confirmation of Christs Coming - Luke 1:39-56

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Good morning, and welcome to Faith Bible Church. Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas.

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Can't delay too long to say that. And Venera wanted to say hello to everybody. Far away welcome from Venera.

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And today is a celebration with an exclamation on the end. It's good that we can gather as able, worship the

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Lord. This is a service to Him, really. We're not serving ourselves. We're not here to be entertained.

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We're here to worship and honor our Lord. That's who we serve. We have the blessing of being able to serve one another in ministry in different ways and encouragement, but as we gather corporately, it has special meaning.

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This week I was struck by the word, and you hear it, Immanuel, translated,

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He is with us, and God is with us. There's not many faiths, or any faiths, that can say,

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He is here now with us because of our Lord Jesus Christ.

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Oftentimes their gods with the little g are somewhere else. They're on some distant hill or some, you know, wherever.

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But our God is with us, in us, through the Holy Spirit, and that is a gift, and we can seize that, we can hold on to that, and worship

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Him in that manner. So let's open in a word, in prayer.

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God, we ask that you would bless our morning, Father. Lord, this is a celebration of the birth of your

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Son, Jesus Christ. We thank you for that gift, Father, that we can hold on to that gift, that we can accept that gift of love and salvation,

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Father, so that we might be with you in eternity forever. God, we ask that you would bless folks that aren't here today, that are out of town, that are with family, maybe some that are home alone, some that are ill, that aren't able to travel or to get out,

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Father. We just pray that you would have your hand upon them and allow them to reflect on your goodness and your mercy and your grace, and Father, we thank you that we have the opportunity to interact with them in our own lives as a church body.

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So God, we thank you for these folks. God, we ask that you would bless our service now, that the songs that are sung, the music that is played, that the sermon that is preached,

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Father, that it would all be to your glory. So God, we thank you for gathering us this morning, and we just commit our time to your care now, in Jesus' name, amen.

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Could everybody please stand with me? Hark the herald angels sing, glory to the new -born

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King! Peace on earth and mercy mild,

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God and sinners reconciled. Hark the herald angels sing, glory to the new -born

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King! Peace on earth and mercy mild,

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God and sinners reconciled.

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The scripture we read this morning is from the book of Matthew, Matthew chapter 2.

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Verses 1 -12, Matthew 2, 1 -12.

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Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, saying,

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Where is he who has been born King of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the east, and have come to worship him.

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When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.

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And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he inquired of them where the

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Christ was to be born. So they said to him, In Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it is written by the prophet,

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But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judea, are not the least among the rulers of Judea.

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For out of you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel. Then Herod, when he had secretly called the wise men, determined from them what time the star appeared.

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And he sent them to Bethlehem and said, Go and search carefully for the young child.

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And when you have found him, bring back word to me that I may come and worship him also.

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When they heard the king, they departed. And behold, the star which they had seen in the east went before them, till it came and stood over where the young child was.

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When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceedingly great joy. And when they had come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down and worshipped him.

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And when they had opened their treasures, they presented gifts to him, gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

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Then, being divinely warned in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed for their own country another way.

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May the Lord add his blessing to the reading and hearing of this holy word. Amen. It is a privilege to worship with you all this morning on Christmas Sunday.

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This does not happen too often where Christmas lands on Sunday.

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And then it's double rejoicing to commemorate the birth of Christ and also to worship the

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Lord on the Lord's Day. So I am excited to worship with you this morning.

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And please turn with me to the gospel according to Luke chapter 1, verse 39 through 56.

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Luke 1, 39 through 56.

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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

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Elizabeth. And it happened when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary that the babe leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the

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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.

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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.

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Blessed is she who believed, for there will be a fulfillment of those things which were told her from the

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Lord. And Mary said, My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God my

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Savior. For he has regarded the lowly state of his maidservant. For behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed.

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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.

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He has shown strength with his arm. He has scattered the proud in the imagination of the hearts.

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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.

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He has helped his servant Israel in remembrance of his mercy, as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his seed forever.

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And Mary remained with her about three months and returned to her house. This is the word of the

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Lord. Let us pray. Father, we are thankful that Jesus came to save on earth.

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And this is a historical fact. And as we read this ancient document this morning, we are grateful that you provided signs of confirmation that Jesus indeed has come.

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That your King has come and rules now. And his fulfilled ruling will happen, not just spiritually, but physically as well.

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And we long for that day as we remember what he has done for us to save us from our sin.

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And soon he will save us from any effect of sin. In Jesus' name, amen.

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So today's text is the confirmation of God's promised fulfillment.

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That he will send Jesus, the King, according to the line of David, who will rule forever.

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But not only forever, but rule everything. And this text is about the confirmation that the

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Virgin Mary indeed has been visited with the baby

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Jesus inside her womb. And we celebrate this morning, especially on Christmas, because that is the climactic point in human history.

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When Jesus came, that was the beginning of the end of Satan's rule.

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When Jesus came, that was the beginning of the end of sin's rule.

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Jesus came to save us from sin, but not only that, from the effects of sin.

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Right? It starts with sinfulness in us, but eventually when he comes back the second time, that sinfulness and also the effects of sin, pain in the back, loss of hair, grumpiness, sleepless nights, all of those things will be done away with.

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That's what we're celebrating this morning. Unfortunately, the media and also some

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Christians are spreading this rumor that Christmas was just a pagan holiday that the

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Christendom took over and then just put a sticker over it, a Christian sticker over it.

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But that is not historically true at all. Christmas was celebrated on December 25th, as early as the 200s

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AD. And that's recorded in a church theologian named

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Tertullian, who also coined the term Trinity. And the reason is he believed that Mary conceived

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Christ on March the 25th. So you add nine months to that, that's December 25th.

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This was also echoed by Augustine, Saint Augustine that we're all familiar with.

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He's the one who wrote the City of God. He's the one who really pushed for God's grace, right?

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He's the one who wrote the Confessions, right? He's a famous church theologian.

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And 200 years later, so in 400 AD, he confirmed that that Christmas is

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December 25th. Now, I'm not saying these men are dead on right.

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And then the December 25th indeed was the day in which Jesus was born. But all

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I'm saying is, historically, the birth of Jesus was considered

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December 25th, way before the pagan holiday started.

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The pagan holiday, when they started considering that around December 25th, was in the 12th century.

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They were a thousand years behind. So what we have this morning is really important.

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We're actually commemorating the birth of Christ. And what we see here in today's text is the confirmation of Christ's coming.

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And I think the confirmation, and the confirmation is really important.

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Because when there is some great news in which we wait, in which we have to wait for, we would like the confirmation.

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When we order something that is precious and valuable to us, we wait for the confirmation email.

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We wait for the confirmation code in hopes to track it down maybe. And this morning, we have a story in which

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God graciously confirms to Mary, nine months in advance, that the

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Savior is coming. The Savior even indeed has come. Because He is inside Mary's womb in the text.

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He is present. In today's text, we see unpredicted audiences who get to celebrate

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Jesus coming. An unborn baby in the womb. And a once barren old woman.

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They get to celebrate and praise God for the coming of Christ.

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So today's main point is, how do we respond now that God confirmed the coming of Christ?

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How do we respond now that God confirmed the coming of Christ? First, we trust the fulfillment of the coming of Christ that God clearly confirmed through the

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Holy Spirit. We trust the fulfillment of the coming of Christ that God clearly confirmed through the

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Holy Spirit. This is important because even at the beginning of Jesus' earthly life, even when

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He was conceived inside Mary's womb, the

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Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, was involved in revealing that indeed this is the

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Son of God. It was a Trinitarian event. The birth of Christ, the conception of Christ was a

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Trinitarian event. God sent the Son and the Holy Spirit confirmed the

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Son. This is indeed the Son. And we have the privilege of reading the record of that.

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So after hearing the angelic announcement of the coming of Jesus the King, Mary rushes to check the divine sign.

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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

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Elizabeth. Now Nazareth where Mary was coming from and to the hill country of Judah, there were about 80 to 100 miles in between.

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And it would have taken three or four days even with Mary rushing to get there.

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Now why was Mary in such a hurry to visit

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Elizabeth? Well previously the angel announced that the

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King of Israel, God's very Son, will come through Mary who's a virgin.

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And according to the angel Gabriel, Elizabeth bearing a child at an old age will be the sign of confirmation that indeed the child that Mary will give birth to is the

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King of Israel, King Jesus. And the rush to visit the once -bearing

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Elizabeth comes from the urgency to confirm God's promise of the coming of Christ.

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At the core of this journey is Mary's faith in God's promise of deliverance of his people.

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Mary's not doing this for her own agenda. Mary's not doing this out of a family obligation to visit, oh

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I haven't seen Elizabeth in a while. It was an act of faith.

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Maybe if God indeed has given a child to my relative

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Elizabeth who's been bearing all her life, then maybe the coming of Christ is a reality and I better confirm that.

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And now why was the coming of Christ important? Well for most of history, Israel has been oppressed by one empire to the next.

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It's been flanked by Egypt in the south, and Egypt has been very powerful for a long time, and some other giant empire in the north in the

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Mesopotamian region. And it had a cycle of getting conquered over and over again.

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Syria, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece, and now

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Rome. A brutal military force unbending like iron.

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And hence a message that the king is coming to Israel who will deliver his people from all oppression, will be born to marry an unmarried virgin from an unknown family, was almost too good to be true.

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And the moment Mary enters Elizabeth's house, God confirms clearly.

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And it happened when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, that the babe leaped in her womb and Elizabeth was filled with the

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Holy Spirit. At the sound of Mary, John the Baptist, who is about six months old, inside the womb of Elizabeth, joyfully leaps in his mother's womb.

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And this is the work of the Holy Spirit to confirm the climax of God's redemptive history.

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When the Lord himself came down as a baby inside Mary's womb, and another unborn baby, who's a few months older, could not stay still.

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He was too excited. And the word leaping is used in Malachi 4, 2, to describe the eschatological joy, the joy of the last days that God's people will experience.

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But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings.

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You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall. And in the end days, in the end days, when

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God makes all things right, the coming of the Messiah will cause

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God's people to joyfully leap like calves, like farm animals that have no care in the world.

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They don't care what they think other people think of them. They'll be leaping with joy.

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And the coming of Jesus is the start of God's redemption of the world.

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And the one who recognizes the crucial moment in redemptive history is not a priest, but an unborn baby in the womb who is filled with the

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Holy Spirit. Then the baby's mother, filled with the Holy Spirit, responds to the presence of the unborn

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Messiah. Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.

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In this context, blessed means favored. And what's the reason for her blessedness?

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It is not because she's earned it with her good works. It is not because she was born without sin that some sects might believe.

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At the core of the blessing is the son inside Mary, the fruit of her womb.

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Mary is blessed because God has graciously chosen her to be the mother of Jesus, the

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Son of God. It's not the other way around.

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It's not that God chose Mary because she was blessed. It's that God chose

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Mary, and now she is blessed. And this is followed by a rhetorical question, but why is this granted to me, that the mother of my

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Lord should come to me? It was truly an unspeakable privilege to stand before the mother of Christ.

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The mother of the Savior of the world would enter my house. What an honor.

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Then Elizabeth recounts what she has witnessed her baby do. For indeed, as soon as the voice of your greeting sounded in my ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy.

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This was not a hyped experience that new parents go through when her baby does anything, right?

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I went through that when Micah was in the belly, and I would put my hand on Lauren's belly, and I would say, oh, was that him?

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And she's like, no, right? No, John the

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Baptist leaping with joy in his mom's womb was an observable spirit -led event.

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It was not an accidental random kick from the baby, but a purposeful leap of joy at the presence of his

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Lord, Jesus Christ. And this would be the foretaste of John's prophetic ministry to prepare the way for the

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Lord. Even inside the womb, the prophet John is excited by the coming of his

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Lord. And verse 45 clearly confirms what Mary desired to know.

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Blessed is she who believed, for there will be a fulfillment of those things which were told her from the

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Lord. Blessedness in this sense can be seen as fortunate or happy, right?

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It was a powerful emotional experience. And in the

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Hebrew culture, blessedness was more than just a fleeting emotional state over a cup of caramel macchiato.

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But it was centered around having the right relationship with the Lord. So Mary is experiencing a

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God -centric fortunate event because God's special plan for salvation will be accomplished through her son,

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Jesus. And upon her visitation, God has confirmed it through the revelation by the

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Holy Spirit. The third person of the Trinity, God himself confirms the coming of God.

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The witness to the coming of the Lord is confirmed by none other than God himself.

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You couldn't get a more robust testimony than that.

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God didn't just send an angel to confirm, although he did. God himself confirmed with joy.

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And today's text shows us that the coming of Christ is historically documented and divinely confirmed.

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Even before Jesus was born, Jesus' identity as the Son of God and the promised

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Davidic king was publicly confirmed by the Holy Spirit working through two unforeseen participants, an unborn baby and a once barren old woman.

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And Mary obediently sought out and believed God's confirmation. And Mary here is a prototype for the faithful people of God, whom

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God is gathering for himself. And thankfully, Luke writes down this divine confirmation for us in the first century

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A .D. so that others may be assured of the coming of Christ, that this was a confirmed event.

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This was not a random birth. It was not like any other pregnancy.

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It was a divinely ordained and confirmed event. And the signs are not specifically only for Mary, but for all believers who will hear of this, that we may be assured of the divine confirmation for the coming of Jesus.

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When Jesus was born, it was not like a birth of another prophet. When Jesus was born, it was not like the birth of another king.

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When Jesus was born, it was the birth of the Son of God, God himself becoming flesh.

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Emmanuel, God is with us. It was divinely confirmed for that purpose.

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And this morning, the crucial question for all of us is, do we trust

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God's confirmation of the coming of Christ as Mary did? And oftentimes we run into people who refuse to believe until God meets their demand for a sign.

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Well, Jesus has to show up right in front of me right now, then I will believe. However, today's text shows us that God has confirmed the coming of Christ through the

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Holy Spirit. When an unborn baby and an aged woman joyfully received

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Jesus Christ still in Mary's womb, I don't know how much more clear you can get.

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Before he performed any miracles, before he even spoke a word, an unborn baby and an old barren woman both confirmed through the

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Holy Spirit that this indeed is the promised Messiah who will rule all.

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It was sufficient for Mary and it was sufficient for the early church.

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Perhaps a rather direct question to those who doubt would be, what makes you so special that God has to cater to your demands?

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That is a sense of entitlement that God has to listen to your demands and God will not do so.

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Now, what is the appropriate response to God's clear confirmation of the coming of Christ?

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We rejoice at God's fulfillment of his complete restoration of his people through divine reversals in Christ.

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We rejoice at God's fulfillment of his complete restoration of his people through the divine reversals in Christ.

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When we take a look at this song of praise that Mary breaks out into, you'll see that it's written in the past tense, even though these reversals have not completely been fulfilled.

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And that's because in the prophetic writings, when the author, so the prophets, when the authors are seeing a vision or when they're told what will happen, it is so certain that they portray it as a whole event as if it's been happened, it's happened already.

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So that's why a text like this is in the past tense. That's why the text in Romans 8, those who are called, those who are predestined, those who are saved, those who are justified, those who are sanctified, those who are glorified, those are all past tenses because it is so fully assured that it's not written in the future tense.

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Now, upon the confirmation of the coming of Christ, Mary bursts out into a song of praise.

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A song of praise celebrates what God has done and who God is.

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My soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit has rejoiced in God, my savior.

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This is often called a magnificat because of the Latin translation of the word to magnify.

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The praise of God flows from Mary's deepest core, her very soul, and the praise is further described as a joyful worship of God, her personal savior.

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God is not some distant deity who visits once in a while, but God is a

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God who has relationship with Mary. It's God, my savior.

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And the beginning of her song sets the tone for the rest of the song. Here, the focus of this song is not

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Mary, but God, who he is and what he has done.

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It is rather unfortunate that the modern Christmas songs depicting

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Mary are mainly about Mary and her experiences, her hardships, her social ostracization, her long journey to this hill country of Judah.

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That's what we often hear when there are songs about Mary. But Luke does not give a song of hardship, not to discount

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Mary's hardship of social pressure of having a baby while not married.

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And not to discount Mary's hardship when she walked all by herself three to four days to the hill country of Judah.

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No, I'm sure it was hard, but that's not the song that comes out of Mary's mouth.

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The song that comes out of Mary's mouth is the praise song to the Lord who has come to deliver his people.

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And verses 48 to 50 give us three reasons for Mary's praise. First, Mary praises

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God for his personal attention toward the humble self, her humble self. For he has regarded the lowly state of his maidservant.

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For behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed. Mary, remember, is not a princess living in Herod's palace.

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Mary is not even like Elizabeth, a daughter of a priest. However, this

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God personally is involved in the humble Mary's life.

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And to Mary, praise befits God who considers the lowly.

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Second, Mary praises God for his ability to accomplish his promises according to his holiness.

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For he who is mighty has done great things for me and holy is his name. It is not only that God has good intentions, as we've seen in the previous verse, right?

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He's considered the humble. That's really great intention. But he is able to carry out his intentions.

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God is not just passively involved in Mary's life as someone scrolling through her social media page, liking it and sending positive vibes.

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No, God acts mightily. There is no obstacle too high for God.

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And furthermore, his power is paired with his holiness. And this is really important because just because someone's really powerful doesn't mean that they are going to always use that power for good.

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Right? Lord Acton said, power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

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And for God who is absolutely powerful, this would be a scary thing if we're not shown his character of holiness.

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The fact that his name is holy, the fact that he is holy, means that God is not a tyrant drunk with power.

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His strength is always used in accordance to his purity, to his goodness, to his holiness.

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He never uses power for evil. All of his actions are holy.

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He never cuts any corners. There is no idea. There's no concept of for the greater good that I'm going to have to sacrifice these things.

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His characters are never compromised. Third, Mary praises

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God for his merciful character. And his mercy is on those who fear him from generation to generation.

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And regarding God's merciful character, Mary opens it up to the multitude.

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It is no longer about what God has done to personally to Mary, but God's mercy for many.

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Specifically, everyone who fears God from every generation.

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God's mercy is his loyal love that he has toward his people.

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His unending faithful love that goes above and beyond the call of duty.

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He always has regard and does things for his people when it's not even required to.

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That's who he is. And Mary praises God because his mercy is not restricted just for her.

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But God's mercy overflows to many who fear him.

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Not for one generation, but for all generations. And praise befits

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God who is merciful to many. And after the reasons for praise,

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Mary sings about God's deliverance and what that will accomplish in verses 51 through 54.

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And they are the complete reversals of the current states. At this point, it is important to mention that many people misuse these verses to justify socialist movements, social justice movements.

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The fact that we need to overturn systems or governments, overthrow the rich and the powerful in order to reverse the order, right?

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The new world order, you might have heard of that. However, the text provides no justification for such a notion.

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Because after all, when we consider the subject of these four verses, he has shown strength.

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He has scattered the proud. He has put them put down the mighty. He has filled the hungry.

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He has sent away. He has helped. And for all these actions, the subject is he.

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It is God. It's not us. If it is he has shown strength, it's not we have shown strength to overthrow.

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If it is he has scattered the proud, it is not we have driven away the proud.

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If it is he has put down the mighty, it is not we have put down the mighty.

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This is not a call for revolution. This means the one who redeems the whole world by reversing the current order is

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God and not us. And thanks be to God, because if it were up to us, we would not have the slightest wisdom nor sense of justice to do it correctly.

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Anytime revolutions happened where it became bloody, like the

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French Revolution, without God in mind, it was hell on earth.

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They intended to make paradise, bring back paradise on earth, equality for all men. Who doesn't want that?

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But the French Revolution was a glimpse, a foretaste of hell on earth.

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And that's because they try to do it themselves. And any reversal, any revolution that has

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God that leaves out God is that of the devil. And that is because that's the reversals and redemption are

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God's prerogative, not ours. This text has nothing to do with overthrowing the powerful with the power and political activism.

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That is not it at all. It is a praise of what God will do to make things right.

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Now, what do these reversals mean? First, we must consider the singer of the song,

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Mary. In Mary's time, God's people were under the oppression of Roman rule.

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And for and ever since the Babylonian captivity in 586

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BC, Israel was under one empire to the next, except for a brief glimpse of freedom.

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But they got conquered again by Rome. God's people have been subjugated.

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They've been paying taxes to one emperor to the next. And hence, for Mary, God redeeming his people meant a conquering king who will free his people from the bondage of Rome.

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And here, the lowly, the hungry, the poor in these verses are not for every poor, every lowly person and every hungry person, but rather they specifically refer to those who fear

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God from verse 50. And also Israel, specifically

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God's people in verse 54. This song is not a socialist manifesto on ending poverty or oppression, but the reality of God's deliverance of his lowly and oppressed people when

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King Jesus rules once and for all and those who are defenseless will no longer be oppressed by the powerful.

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There will no longer be human tyrants because Jesus will be the only king. That's the reality of this song, because this king will free his people from all oppression and this king would rightly judge the enemies of God.

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Now, what will these reversals look like? The first reversal, according to verse 51, is that God has shown strength with his arm and scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.

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The figurative language of God's arm is actually seen in Exodus. It's a welcome reminder.

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God's arm is a figurative language that illustrates that God has stretched out his arm, reached down to personally save his people from the bondage of slavery, and God's arm paints his purposeful power to save his own people.

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And to Mary, this is an intensified repeat of the Exodus. Well, God's doing it again through his own king.

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And when, and with that same arm, God will scatter the proud.

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The proud in the imagination of the hearts suggests that pride, their pride saturates their minds and their core.

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In their minds, they're focused on themselves. In their minds, they're focused on their own agendas.

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In their minds, it is their desires at the cost of others.

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And here, the proud are naturally the enemies of God because they have no fear of God.

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They don't believe in God because they have deified themselves. If they're focused on themselves, they're not focused on God.

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If they're focused on their agenda, they're not focused on God's will. And to those people,

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God will scatter them. They will no longer have any footing. They will be made unstable.

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They will be scattered like chaff in the wind. Second, God reverses the mighty and the lowly.

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Now, this is because God listens to the lowly, which we have established earlier.

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Now, when kings rule unjustly, the ones who are hurt the most are the lowly.

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When presidents rule unjustly, the ones who are affected the most are the poor.

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The ones that the world does not notice are the lowly. However, Mary tells us

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God recognizes the lowly. Not only that, one day,

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God will exalt them. Their lowly positions are not permanent.

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And this is not to say all the rulers are evil, right? That's a very simplistic reading of this text.

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This is not to say all the rulers are against God. They're all secularist pagans, right?

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Now, but rather, pride from the previous verse is more consequential when it is found in the mighty.

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Pride from the previous verse is more consequential when it's found in the mighty.

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If a poor person is prideful, the consequences are minimal to the rest of the world.

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Most will not even be affected by that. However, if rulers are prideful, many lives are ruined.

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Wars get started. Unfair policies get enacted.

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And here, the lowly are those who would be affected by this, and they have to depend on God because there is no one else to depend on.

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If the government is unjust, who are they going to call out to for justice other than God?

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And this is a continued development of those who fear God. From verse 50, the lowly are humble enough to call upon God for help because they know that they are inadequate.

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They're powerless to do anything. The lowly are those who rely on God for justice because they're incapable of bringing justice on their own, bringing about justice on their own.

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However, the mighty, they're the ones who depend on themselves and their own ability rather than God.

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They trust themselves instead of God. And because of that, there will be a reversal.

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Third, God reverses the poor and the rich. He has filled the hungry with the good things and the rich he has sent away empty.

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Now, this is, again, not to say that the poor will suddenly become rich at the expense of the wealthy.

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Right? The one who is filling the poor is not by taxing the rich.

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It's God. God is giving them all their needs. And that's nowhere in the text to say that this text calls for taxing the rich to give to the poor, a form of wealth redistribution.

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However, God here will graciously satisfy the hungry with the good things under Christ.

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It is the expense, it is at the expense of God's, not by anyone else.

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God will do the filling. He does not need anyone's help. Thank you very much. And this song is about God's tender care to those who are frequently passed over in society.

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Those who are neglected, those who are rejected. Now, however, for those who find their identity in their wealth, the rich, right?

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This is not to say God is against the wealthy people, because God has made a lot of wealthy people in the

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Bible. Right? Abraham was wealthy. Isaac was wealthy. Jacob was wealthy. Faithful men.

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David was wealthy. Solomon was wealthier than even David. Who made him rich?

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God did. Now, the Bible is not against the rich. The Bible is against those who find their identity in their wealth.

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And which means those people who trust their wealth will be turned away.

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Because God can't give them anything that they would want. Because they won't want

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God. What more can God give if they don't want him? The rich can't go back satisfied.

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They can't be filled because they reject God. Because they love their money more than God.

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Fourth, God reverses the state of Israel. He has helped his servant Israel in remembrance of his mercy.

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Remember, Israel at this point is weak. At this point, Israel has no legitimate king.

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Sure, King Herod, but he has to answer to Rome. Right? He's a puppet. And what

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Mary is doing is he is reminiscing about the glory days of David.

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And according to Mary, the coming of Christ marks the day in which

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God mercifully helps Israel. It's now guaranteed. Israel, your days of hardship is over.

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And why does God perform these reversals? Is it because Israel has earned it?

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No, Israel has repeatedly proven her unfaithfulness to God all throughout the

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Old Testament. And according to verse 55, it is because of God's faithfulness that these reversals will become a reality in Christ as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his seed forever.

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God is keeping his word from Genesis. His promise that he made to Abraham that all the nations will be blessed through his offspring is being kept in Christ that night.

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Now, how does God intend to keep the promise that all the nations will be blessed through the offspring of Abraham, Jesus Christ?

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God keeps his word to Abraham by sending his son, the offspring of Abraham to purchase the global blessing for all.

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Remember, in most of human history, the only people who worship the one true

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God were the Israelites. And which means either you had to be born into the right family.

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That's beyond your control. Or you immigrate to that foreign land.

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You might have control over that. And those were the only two ways in which people in the

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Old Testament who did not belong to Israel initially had relationship with the one true God. And to this day, one's relationship with God is the biggest blessing that anyone could hope for.

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Because that's what you all were made for. Now, how does

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Christ bless all the nations? Now, in order to bring about this global blessing to all,

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Christ had to experience the biggest reversal himself. The exalted son of God humbled himself to become a man.

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A man, he became mortal. He became vulnerable.

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He experienced pain. He experienced weariness. He experienced betrayals.

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He experienced mockeries. He experienced death.

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He was mocked and scorned, although there was nothing to shame him about.

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He was flogged as a criminal, although he committed no crime. And he was crucified in humiliation, although he was the exalted one.

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And the greatest reversal in human history is that Christ, the son of God, was crucified and died a humiliating death.

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And when he was crucified, he was highly lifted up for all the world to see.

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And what the rulers meant in humiliation, God lifted him up in glory.

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When Christ was crucified, he inaugurated the biggest reversal of all. He took our place of judgment for our sin and faced the wrath of God that we earned to live, so that we could take his place of honor when we trust in him.

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This reversal in position at Christ's expense was not limited to just Israel, but freely offered to anyone from any nation who believes one did not have to be born into the right family to have a saving relationship with God.

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In Christ, anyone from any nation could approach

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God by believing that he died for your sin and rose again, and you could have a relationship with him.

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And that was the joyful praise song that came out of Mary's mouth.

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She may not have known how this great reversal would take place, that it would actually lead her special son to the cross.

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She may not have known that, but she knew that the reversals would happen.

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Through this son and this morning, when we do get the full picture of what

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Christ came to do, to do, to accomplish this great reversal, to free his people from the bondage of sin, which is greater than the

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Roman bondage. We have a reason to rejoice. We have a reason to sing this song with Mary, but at an even greater intensity, because we know more than what

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Mary knew. It was even a greater reversal than this song depicted when we consider what the cross accomplished.

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Let us pray. Father, we are thankful for King Jesus.

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We commemorate his coming today because through his work on the cross, our state, our sinful state, our rejected state, our fallen state is reversed.

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We're put in the position of righteousness, his righteousness, earned by him, not us, freely given by faith.

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We pray that we would rejoice this today, all day, remembering that it's

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Christmas, and that's what Christmas is all about, the coming of Christ. In Jesus' name, amen.

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Mighty, and we thank pastor for pulling out his fiddle there in the beginning. Many of you knew he played the violin quite well back in the day, and he still does a good job.

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But would you all join with me? Stand. Before we leave and say goodbye for the day,

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I'd like pastor and Lauren to come up here for just a moment. Well, as a thank you, the church kind of gathered together and got a gift for you.

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This guy, he's way too cute. If you haven't seen it yet, you gotta, you gotta. Look at him. But it's just an expression of our thank you to you both, and the commitment, and the dedication, and the sacrifice that you made, make for this church, for Faith Bible Church, for God's church.

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And we thank you, and, and Merry Christmas to you both. I'll let you, get it, get it, oh, he's a natural.