Joy and Mary’s Song

Luke’s Purpose and the Background to Mary’s Visit

We start in your Bibles to the book of Luke Going in the opposite direction today. We jumped ahead to remember the past of Anna and Simeon and Now we're going back into chapter 1. And I begin reading today in verse 39 Luke chapter 1 beginning at verse 39.

This is God's holy and infallible word. Now Mary arose in those days and went into the hill country with haste to a city of Judah and Entered the house of Zechariah's and greeted Elizabeth. And it happened when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary that the babe leaped in her wound.

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 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. Now Elizabeth's full time came for her to be delivered and she brought forth a son.

When her neighbors and relatives heard how the Lord had shown great mercy to her They rejoiced with her. And the Lord be pleased with our study of his Most excellent word. Let's pray together. Oh Lord, I pray that you would Overwhelm us with your joy.

Lord, we don't want the happiness that the world Chases we want the profound joy that you give to your people that You as the source and object of our joy only you can fulfill. Oh Lord. So I pray Oh Lord that you would give us yourself that we might have joy and I pray that we would grow in our Anticipation of greater communion and long for your second advent and we ask this all in Jesus name.

Amen.

Please be seated. Mm-hmm. The title of the message today is joy and Mary's song but the amount of time I'm going to spend on the first half will probably not allow me to Do the magnificat the way I'd like to so it may appear again on Christmas Eve.

Joy and Mary's song. Today if there would be a theme of the message that I'd like you to know if you're taking notes, it would be shared joy in the Lord Jesus Christ. Shared joy and that's gonna be pretty much the emphasis of our time together today a shared joy in the Lord Jesus Christ.

There are many Remarkable events that lead up to the arrival of our Lord Jesus in the incarnation. And we started today in the middle of Luke chapter 1 going over the visitation between Mary and Elizabeth.

I wanted to give you some background on what we have covered thus far. I should say what is written thus far and Luke's we're not just jumping in without any connection to What went before? Luke begins his gospel here by telling Theophilus that you may know the certainty of those things which you were instructed.

Luke has a very definitive purpose in writing and you may know it's been suggested that Luke's gospel and the book of Acts served as legal documents To be presented to Caesar and defense of Paul. He goes and sets everything in motion and explains all the events that have transpired up until that point.

He wants Theophilus to know With certainty those things which you were instructed. So Luke gives us a very disciplined precise Comprehensive accounting of Jesus Christ in his life and ministry. He begins here interestingly with the prophecy to the priest Zechariah and his wife Elizabeth Concerning the birth of their son two things that we should note John and Elizabeth according to verse 6 of chapter 1 Were both righteous before God walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless.

But in verse 7 it tells us that they had no child because Elizabeth was barren and They were both well advanced in years and children. This means that they were older than most people are when they have children.

What follows is the accounts of the angel delivering the prophecy foretelling John the Baptist in his ministry to turn the hearts of the Fathers to the children. As you know John the Baptist would have the spirit of Elijah and turn the hearts of the fathers to the children to proclaim and announce and make straight the way of the Lord.

To bring to the disobedient the wisdom of the just to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. You also remember that John was struck mute Unable to speak until these things came to pass and these events proceed of course the Annunciation of Mary which starts in verse 26 Who learns that she will conceive supernaturally of the Holy Spirit and Bring forth a son.

And that she should call his name Jesus. He also told her that he would reign forever and that his kingdom will have no end until I say Hallelujah. Amen. Christ has come. His kingdom has been ushered in never again To end.

And Mary's response if you'll remember she says let it be so according to your word. Now in context it gives us the reason that Mary goes and visits Elizabeth. Look down at verse 35 of chapter 1. It says the angel answered and said to her the Holy Spirit Will come upon you in the power of the highest will overshadow you.

Therefore also that Holy One is to be born will be called the Son of God. Here's the context. This is why Mary goes to visit Elizabeth now indeed Elizabeth your relative has also conceived a son in her old age.

And this is now the sixth month for her who was called barren for with God nothing will be impossible and Mary said behold the maidservant of the Lord and again Let it be to me according to your word and the angel Departed from her.

So here's the scene. The greatest of the Proclaimers of Christ is in the womb of Elizabeth somewhat miraculously. It's not a virgin birth. Nothing like that. She is well advanced in years. She's unable to have children and Mary now has.

This strange thing happened to her that the angel is saying the Holy Spirit is coming upon you and the power of the highest will overshadow you and to you the Holy One will be born and we know him to be the Savior of Israel the Son of God.

And so we turn to verse 39 for those of you who are in need of an outline first very basically Mary visits Elizabeth. Second and probably the most important in terms of emphasis today will be Elizabeth's reaction to Mary and What ultimately this produces in Mary?

Mary visits Elizabeth. Elizabeth reacts to Mary and then we have Mary's song. Okay, that's the third point. Mary's.

Song.

First again, Mary visits Elizabeth. Elizabeth reacts To Mary and then we have Mary's song. So why does Mary travel? Well, she is Experiencing something no one has ever experienced and her cousin is filled with the Spirit and she too has a Unique circumstance Surrounding her conception.

Let's look at again at verse 39. Let's begin. Now Mary arose in those days and went into the hill country with haste to a city of Judah. Now this is some distance from Nazareth and Galilee and This patch of land is about 40 miles long and about 10 miles wide.

I posted a video short video about the John the Baptist's home just outside of Jerusalem, but this area goes further south down to the area of Beersheba and this is an area where Patriarchs did a lot of things.

It's a very noteworthy region in in Israel. But Mary's traveled Many many miles at least 40 to 60 miles to go visit her cousin and she enters the house of Zacharias and if we were able to read in this we learned that Zacharias is a priest and He has received a prophecy that he's going to be able to have a son and like Mary and Elizabeth is Zacharias are shocked that this could happen at this stage of life because of their well-advanced in years.

It doesn't seem as though the Lord would provide a child for them. But here it is. Here's where it starts. And it happened when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary. That the babe leaped in her womb. Now all of the moms can attest to Babies and their movements and their kickings and all of these things.

I Believe the force of this language is probably a kicking a leaping like none of us have experienced. The baby Dramatically responds to the presence of the Living God in the womb of the Virgin Mary. It's really astounding.

And it's interesting that that both of these and God has done this throughout history that it seems that sometimes These women who go through barrenness are are in store for something remarkable that God would do in their lives.

As I said at the outside John, excuse me Zacharias and Elizabeth were righteous. They walked in the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless and you can imagine I've heard it at the fellowship tables when the moms start talking about Pregnancy and having babies and all those wonderful conversations that ladies have.

Can you imagine the conversation that would ensue between Mary and Elizabeth? Elizabeth saying I'm I've never been with a man. I'm I'm pure. I'm a virgin. How can I be? Carrying a baby and Elizabeth say how can I as an older woman now?

We have been barren. How can I now have a Son a child in my womb. God is at work doing something Very profound very big and he's gonna use children to do it. Children are a blessing from the Lord and we're gonna see something astounding here in a moment that Elizabeth says about this.

Child.

It's hard to to reckon and grapple with that like we learned in Micah that the ancient of days Is going to be born of the Virgin.

This is.

Mary is a teenage girl older teens probably there's a fixed point time in history and and the one who was in the beginning is going to enter into humanity and conceived by the Holy Spirit in the Ovum of Mary the probably very ordinary egg of Mary.

And come into the world she enters.

The house.

And greets Elizabeth boy. Do I have something to tell you 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.

Filled means the Holy Spirit and dwells believers individually corporately. But he's also pleased in accordance to his good pleasure to empower and fulfill his people with great faith great obedience and great service.

Now I want to point out something that could be lost in just a cursory reading of this. How does Elizabeth know about this conception? Doesn't sound like Mary's told her yet. So maybe that gives us some reason to think that she understands because of the Holy Spirit.

Communicates to her. She understands because of the reaction of her six-month in utero son John the Baptist. He leaps within her and listen to what she says. Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb.

Now part of what I want us to get today and to understand is Elizabeth has her own joy. She has her own Reason to be delighted that the Lord is providing a son for her and this is no ordinary son. This is the greatest of men born of women John the Baptist.

But she has a different kind of joy. She has a joy about the Savior who is Christ the Lord and what we must understand is that.

Elizabeth.

Sees that in Mary's womb is her salvation and the salvation of the world. This is even more exciting than her own pregnancy with John. She spoke with a loud voice. Blessed are you among women? Blessed is the fruit of your womb.

Now here it is question for verse 43 says. But why is this granted to me? That the mother of my Lord should come to me. Mary's much younger than Elizabeth. They they really understood elder honor eldership.

They understood to understand to give honor to people who are older than you and all those kinds of things. Elizabeth says that her salvation her Lord is in the womb of Mary. This righteous woman filled with the Holy Spirit acknowledges her need of a Savior and God's provision of the Savior.

What an incredible time and moment in history. The forerunner is three months from being born the Lord Jesus Christ the incarnate Son of God. He's in the earliest stages of conception and early development.

Listen to what Elizabeth says in verse 44. She says for indeed As soon as the voice of your greeting sounded in my ears the babe leaped in my womb. For joy since this is Sunday of joy, we should probably have a better Definition and understanding of what it is.

Because our joy is probably not as joyful as it ought to be. Maybe the Lord would grant us to have a greater sense of joy. This word means Exaltation not exaltation exaltation. Great joy Gladness wild joy.

Ecstatic delight Exhilaration. It reflects a deep profound overwhelming sense of gladness that transcends ordinary happiness. This joy is typically associated with the presence and work of God the fulfillment fulfillment of his promises or the anticipation of.

His.

Salvation. Do you have a deep and profound? exhilaration. About Jesus Christ and his salvation. Are you filled with? Ecstatic delight. Is it wild?

Now it's.

Reform. We got to keep it under wraps. We need more exuberance in our faith. We may have a shallow Understanding of what Christ has done and who he is if if we're not plunged into great joy ecstatic delight Exhilaration.

If this is all ho-hum to us We're missing out. I want the deep overwhelming sense of gladness that transcends ordinary happiness and most of us and the entirety of the world.

Chase.

Superficiality in this regard. I want to know Christ. How about you? I want to know the depths the fullness of that whatever that is. I want that I want more and more and more of Christ and it seems that You and I every day.

No matter what's happening. Circumstantially. Listen to the definition again. It's associated with the presence and work of God. I don't know if you can get any more sense of that than here. Surely God is in this place with us.

Surely God comes to his people who are gathered in his name. The table is here. His word is here. His Holy Spirit fills us individually and corporately. He enables us to to do great works of service for him.

He's doing it in our text with Elizabeth she's saying things. I mean, how could she know? She's filled with the Holy Spirit. Where's the joy? Are your circumstances hard? Are they stealing some of your joy?

It's life hard. Is it stealing your joy? The reality is. You know the presence and work of God you see and have experienced the fullness and fulfillment of his promises. You experience and know and Anticipate his salvation.

You should be filled with joy. Oh that we today would be filled with the joy. That seems to come from knowing the Lord Jesus Christ our joy. Shared joy and the Lord Jesus Christ is bet as best and I argue today that I believe that Elizabeth's joy about what's happening with Mary enables Mary to Experience a greater level of joy because Mary's learning and her cousin Elizabeth helps her.

That this isn't just some strange thing that's happening to her. What's happening to her is the the entrance of God in the flesh into the world. Salvation has come. The kingdom of God is at hand and now Elizabeth is helping Mary to see and I think Mary's song is a Reflection of her immediate contemplation of Elizabeth's joy.

You and I need to be agents ambassadors of joy. We need to speak the truth to ourselves and to our Circumstances and we should put a smile on our faces and there should be a psalm in our heart. Because we know Christ.

But oh how we get bogged down and all of our little things. All the little things that frustrate us. All the inconveniences that steal our joy. We are not like the world we have the source and object of joy has united himself to us and we have been united to him.

An unending never ceasing supply of joy in Christ. Elizabeth is Cognizant of this. She understands her baby is jumping inside her body. Because it's so true continuing on let's look at verse 45. The second element of this is Elizabeth tells Mary that she's blessed for believing.

We need to tell one another how blessed we are. Well, my wife has got a bunch of little kids running around. We need whatever friends. She needs her husband someone to say, you know, it's a blessing to have these problems all these kids.

It's a blessing to have all of these Dishes to do and all of this work to do because of all of these kids. It's a blessing. Elizabeth pronounces this truth on her. She says you believed. There's going to be a fulfillment of those things which were told you from the Lord and.

This.

Shared joy, I believe. Transforms Mary's thinking. Isn't that something? Mary the blessed one. Who's more highly favored of women than Mary? There's no one.

And.

She derives benefit from an encouragement from her sister in the faith. I think it says something to us. We need to be great encouragers of one another spurring each other on to love and good works. We need to be so filled with joy that we can be agents of joy to others.

I believe Elizabeth is profoundly used by God to make Mary very joyful about what's happening. Here Mary says this is a young lady. How profound are these words? My soul magnifies The Lord and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior.

For he has regarded the lowly estate lowly state of his maidservant. For behold henceforth all generations will call me blessed. See Mary's coming to terms with it. I Think it's not the angels that have convinced her.

I think Elizabeth has had a big part in it. This godly woman has convinced her. For he who is mighty has done great things for me and holy is his name. This is an incredible Song and we'll spend more time on it in a couple weeks.

Lord willing. 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.

I'm gonna pause on verse 52. The greatest empire of the ancient world occupies Israel and the King of Kings is born to a humble girl humble woman in Bethlehem. The mighty have been put down from their thrones the lowly have been Exalted the he's filled the hungry with good things and he sent the rich home away empty-handed.

He has helped his servant Israel in remembrance of his mercy as he spoke to our fathers to Abraham and to his seed forever. Now I want to pause here and I'm not gonna be able to give much time to this.

But I want to put this into your thinking. Elizabeth and Mary are coming to terms with because of the miraculous nature of this birth this impending birth. They're coming to terms with how The serpents head is going to be crushed.

It's gonna come through a baby. But it's gonna come through. Miraculous means come to come through this virgin birth. I wonder now if Mary's is beginning to understand the weightiness the gravity of this moment.

Elizabeth sees her salvation in her younger cousin's womb. The one who would crush the head of the serpent and turn back the curse. To bring salvation finally to the people of God. He's right there in Mary's womb.

This is all happening this is being accomplished. This one.

Will be.

The hope of the nations this one will be the Prince of Peace this one is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Let me continue the narrative and I'll have some words of application for you. And Mary remained with her about three months.

Now if she's six months pregnant she stays three months. I don't know. I'm guessing she may have stayed For the delivery or maybe leaves just short of it and she returned to her house.

Now.

Elizabeth's full time came for her to be delivered and she brought forth a Son. You know, I was thinking about this. Every time we have a baby that we should be thinking about this a little bit. Not everyone is Jesus or John the Baptist, but we need to think when we're having babies about the future and the promises of God being fulfilled and As we pray today that his knowledge Would spread over all of the earth.

Maybe the next great preacher will be born here the great Spurgeon or someone like that. Maybe a great evangelist will be raised up among us. Maybe one of our daughters will give birth to Sons who change the world with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And see why the enemy is so bent on destroying the babies. Why the demons want to turn them away? But but this one John the Baptist he brings in a period of time when the hearts of the fathers turn to the children the last promises of the book of Malachi before the new covenant there realize.

The hearts of the father I look around the room have turned to the children. We are trying to raise up generations of faithful Christians to serve the Lord. Oh If we can grab and catch a little bit of the joy of Elizabeth Who sees the pregnancy of her cousin as even greater than her own?

Salvation. The fullness of joy is found in Jesus Christ.

Alone.

May your joy inspire faith obedience and joy and others. A Couple words for you for application. First the Christian should be Filled with joy, so we're doing something wrong if we're grieving. The Lord has given us cause for great joy, this isn't a Pollyanna indifference to hard circumstances.

I.

I.

Often thought of joy before this as kind of a calm within the storm and It needs to maybe go further. It needs to be more exuberant. It needs to be more radical in its character. It needs to be wild. It needs to be an ecstatic delight.

It needs to be exhilarating for us to to contemplate these things and Again if we're not feeling this kind of joy, we're probably not seeing Christ clearly. Elizabeth sees him clearly being filled with the Holy Spirit.

Christians should be filled with joy because they're united to Christ.

That.

Everlasting reality should overcome the trials and circumstances That tend to steal our joy. My mother and my grandmother And my great-grandmother all have a saying they've said to me this too shall pass.

And I can tell you I've experienced some very hard days and very hard times dark days even and.

It passes and.

Here we stand in Christ. So when you're in the moment of despair and you're in the hard season and the hard trials and the hard circumstances remember where your joy resides. Resides in Christ and that joy is unshakable no matter what swirls around us temporally moment by moment.

Secondly. It seems that this joy in the Lord Jesus Christ is best. When shared. I Think Elizabeth's joy was absolutely used of God to transform a young lady's very hard reality. What do I do with this in?

Her response because of this joy no doubt inspired in some way by God is her song which is so profound and Amazing. And finally. And this one's a little bit hard for us. Because it requires greater faith.

The Lord seems to do dramatic things through clean vessels. And you say well, I'm not a very clean vessel. I would say if you're in Christ you are you've been washed. You've been cleaned. I believe Mary's virtue Elizabeth's virtue Zacharias's virtue is very much at the heart of why God chose them for these great works.

It would seem to me that you and I in our Striving to throw off sin our love of Christ and our love of holy things. That we too could become clean vessels that could be used as instruments in the hand of God available ready to be used of him for his great purposes.

So if your life is a little bit marred from sin. Take some heart our Lord Jesus is able to wash you and to make you a clean vessel. For his service. He took a prostitute. Now don't you think about this?

Who would you choose to be your grandmother? Jesus saw everything.

That.

His grandmother did Rahab. He says I'm gonna transform her life with all of that muck and filth. I'm gonna make her My great great great whatever grandmother. She's only a couple generations from the King David.

God can use us. God can clean us. He can make us vessels of honor and service. Are you joyful today? If you're not come get you some in the Lord Jesus Christ, and if you get it Don't keep it to yourself share it with others that they may be encouraged.

They might be incited to greater joy Themselves. Amen. Let's pray together. Oh Lord, I Pray that you would give us genuine joy. Our friends our neighbors are looking for temporal happiness. They want to have life experiences.

They want to go on trips and they want to have cool toys. Oh Lord, I Hunger and thirst for your people that we would have an experience the fullness of joy and you Lord Jesus Cause our hearts to to leap within us as Joseph leaped in the womb of John leaped in the womb of Elizabeth.

Cause us to be like Mary who's who's facing a hard road ahead. Something very shocking. Lord help us to turn that into a recognition of of grace of your work. Oh Lord, we need joy. And Lord Jesus you have Given us yourself.

You are both the source and object of all real joy, and we have you. You've united yourself to us you have grabbed hold of us and Embraced us never to let us go. Oh Lord, I pray that we would respond appropriately with joy.

And.

Forgive us for our stubbornness and our readiness to grumble and complain. Lord, it's true of all of us. Magnify your joy in us. We pray For the glory and honor of Jesus Christ alone.

Amen.