Joy and Mary’s Song

Ascension Presbyterian Church Longwood

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December 17, 2024

Ascension Presbyterian Church - Longwood, Florida Rev. Christopher Brenyo "Joy and Mary’s Song" Luke 1:39-58 December 15th, 2024

00:05: We start in your Bibles to the book of Luke Going in the opposite direction today
00:14: We jumped ahead to remember the past of Anna and Simeon and Now we're going back into chapter 1
00:26: And I begin reading today in verse 39 Luke chapter 1
00:34: Beginning at verse 39, this is
00:40: 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 Zacharias and greeted
00:59: Elizabeth and And it happened when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary that the babe leaped in her womb and Elizabeth was filled with the
01:12: 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
01:23: But why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me?
01:30: For indeed as soon as the voice of your greeting sounded in my ears
01:36: 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
01:50: Lord and Mary said My soul magnifies the
01:59: Lord and My spirit has rejoiced in God my
02:06: Savior For he has regarded the lowly state of his maidservant
02:13: 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
02:32: He has shown strength with his arm. He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts
02:39: He has put down the mighty from their thrones and exalted the lowly
02:47: He has filled the hungry with good things and the rich he has sent away empty
02:53: He has helped his servant Israel in remembrance of his mercy as He spoke to our fathers to Abraham and to his seed forever
03:06: 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
03:18: When her neighbors and relatives heard how the Lord had shown great mercy to her
03:24: They rejoiced with her May the Lord be pleased with our study of his
03:31: Most excellent word. Let's pray together. Oh Lord, I pray that you would
03:42: Overwhelm us with your joy Lord, we don't want the happiness that the world
03:50: Chases we want the profound joy that you give to your people that you as the
03:58: 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
04:12: Anticipation of greater communion and long for your second advent.
04:17: We ask this all in Jesus name Amen Please be seated
04:31: The title of the message today is joy and Mary's song but the amount of time
04:38: I'm going to spend on the first half will probably not allow me to Do the Magnificat the way
04:44: I'd like to so it may appear again on Christmas Eve joy and Mary's song
04:53: 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
05:03: Lord Jesus Christ Shared joy and that's gonna be pretty much the emphasis of our time together today a shared joy in the
05:13: Lord Jesus Christ There are many
05:20: Remarkable events that lead up to the arrival of our Lord Jesus in the
05:26: 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
05:42: I should say what is written thus far in Luke's. We're not just jumping in without any connection to What went before?
05:51: Luke begins his gospel here by telling Theophilus that you may know the certainty of those things which you were instructed
06:04: 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
06:16: 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
06:29: He wants Theophilus to know With certainty those things which you were instructed so Luke gives us a very disciplined precise
06:42: Comprehensive accounting of Jesus Christ in his life and ministry He begins here interestingly with the prophecy to the priest
06:53: Zechariah and his wife Elizabeth Concerning the birth of their son two things that we should note
07:06: John and Elizabeth according to verse 6 of chapter 1 Were both righteous before God walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the
07:18: 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
07:35: This means that they were older than most people are when they have children
07:42: What follows is the accounts of the angel delivering the prophecy foretelling
07:49: John the Baptist in his ministry to turn the hearts of the Fathers to the children as you know
07:57: 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
08:11: Lord To bring to the disobedient the wisdom of the just to make ready a people prepared for the
08:22: Lord You also remember that John was struck mute
08:30: Unable to speak until these things came to pass and these events proceed of course the
08:37: Annunciation of Mary which starts in verse 26 Who learns that she will conceive?
08:45: Supernaturally of the Holy Spirit and bring forth a son And that she should call his name
08:52: Jesus He also told her that he would reign forever and that his kingdom will have no end until I say
09:02: 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
09:21: Now in context it gives us the reason that Mary goes and visits
09:28: Elizabeth Look down at verse 35 of chapter 1
09:34: 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
09:46: Therefore also that Holy One is to be born will be called the Son of God Here's the context.
09:55: This is why Mary goes to visit Elizabeth now indeed
10:00: Elizabeth your relative has also conceived a son in her old age
10:06: 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
10:24: Lord and again Let it be to me according to your word and the angel
10:32: Departed from her So here's the scene The greatest of the
10:42: Proclaimers of Christ is in the womb of Elizabeth somewhat miraculously
10:48: It's not a virgin birth. Nothing like that. She is well advanced in years.
10:53: She's unable to have children and Mary now has this strange thing happen to her that the angel is saying the
11:03: Holy Spirit is coming upon you and the power of the highest will overshadow you and to you the
11:10: Holy One will be born and we know him to be the Savior of Israel the
11:17: Son of God And so we could turn to verse 39 for those of you who are in need of an outline first very basically
11:28: Mary visits Elizabeth Second and probably the most important in terms of emphasis today will be
11:39: Elizabeth's reaction to Mary and What ultimately this produces in Mary?
11:46: Mary visits Elizabeth Elizabeth reacts to Mary and then we have Mary's song.
11:53: Okay, that's the third point Mary's song
12:02: First again Mary visits Elizabeth Elizabeth reacts to Mary And then we have
12:09: Mary's song So why does Mary travel?
12:15: Well she is Experiencing something no one has ever experienced and her cousin is filled with the
12:24: Spirit and she too has a Unique circumstance Surrounding her conception.
12:31: 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
12:57: 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.
13:14: It's a very noteworthy region in in Israel But Mary's traveled
13:23: 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 Elizabeth Zacharias are shocked that this could happen
13:51: At this stage of life because of their well advanced in years It doesn't seem as though the
13:57: Lord would provide a child for them But here it is
14:03: Here's where it starts And it happened when
14:11: Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary That the babe leaped in her womb
14:22: Now all of the moms can attest to Babies and their movements and their kickings and all of these things.
14:32: I believe the force of this language is probably a Kicking a leaping like none of us have experienced
14:42: The baby Dramatically responds to the presence of the
14:48: Living God in the womb of the Virgin Mary It's really astounding
14:55: And it's interesting that that both of these and God has done this throughout history that it seems that sometimes
15:03: These women who go through barrenness are are in store for something remarkable that God would do in their lives
15:12: As I said at the outside John, excuse me Zacharias and Elizabeth were righteous
15:19: They walked in the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless and you can imagine
15:27: 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
15:38: Can you imagine the conversation that would ensue between Mary and Elizabeth?
15:43: Elizabeth saying I've never been with a man.
15:49: I'm I'm pure. I'm a virgin. How can I be Carrying a baby and Elizabeth say how can
15:56: I as an older woman now? We have been barren. How can I now have a Son a child in my womb
16:09: God is at work doing something Very profound very big and he's gonna use children to do it
16:20: Children are a blessing from the Lord and we're gonna see something astounding here in a moment that Elizabeth says about this child
16:29: It's hard to to reckon and grapple with that like we learned in Micah that the ancient of days
16:37: Is going to be born of the Virgin This is
16:44: Mary's 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
17:02: Holy Spirit in the Ovum of Mary the probably very ordinary egg of Mary And come into the world she enters the house
17:21: And greets Elizabeth boy. Do I have something to tell you Elizabeth and it happened when?
17:28: Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary That the babe leaped in her womb and Elizabeth was filled with the
17:38: Holy Spirit filled means the Holy Spirit indwells believers
17:46: 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
18:02: I want to point out something that could be lost in just a cursory reading of this. How does
18:08: Elizabeth know about this conception It doesn't sound like Mary's told her yet So maybe that gives us some reason to think that she understands because of the
18:21: Holy Spirit Communicates to her she understands because of the reaction of her six -month in utero son
18:30: John the Baptist He leaps within her Listen to what she says
18:38: Blessed are you among women and Blessed is the fruit of your womb
18:48: Now part of what I want us to get today and to understand is Elizabeth has her own joy
18:56: She has her own Reason to be delighted that the Lord is providing a son for her and this is no ordinary son
19:05: This is the greatest of men born of women John the Baptist But she has a different kind of joy
19:17: She has a joy about the Savior who is Christ the
19:23: Lord and what we must understand is that Elizabeth Sees that in Mary's womb is her salvation and the salvation of the world
19:38: This is even more exciting than her own Pregnancy with John She spoke with a loud voice
19:48: Blessed are you among women? Blessed is the fruit of your womb
19:55: Now here it is question for verse 43 says
20:02: But why is this granted to me? That the mother of my
20:09: Lord should come to me Mary's much younger than Elizabeth.
20:21: 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
20:35: Elizabeth says that her salvation Her Lord is in the womb of Mary This righteous woman filled with the
20:51: Holy Spirit acknowledges her need of a Savior and God's provision of the
20:59: Savior. What an incredible time and moment in history The forerunner is three months from being born the
21:09: Lord Jesus Christ the incarnate Son of God he's in the earliest stages of Conception and early development
21:23: 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
21:43: Sunday of joy, we should probably have a better definition and understanding of what it is
21:51: Because our joy is probably not as joyful as it ought to be
21:56: Maybe the Lord would grant us to have a greater sense of joy
22:03: This word means Exaltation not exaltation exaltation
22:13: Great joy gladness wild joy
22:20: Ecstatic delight Exhilaration It reflects a deep profound overwhelming sense of gladness that transcends ordinary happiness
22:39: This joy is typically associated with the presence and work of God The fulfillment fulfillment of his promises or the anticipation of his
22:55: Salvation do you have a deep and profound?
23:02: Exhilaration about Jesus Christ and his salvation
23:09: Are you filled with? ecstatic delight Is it wild?
23:17: It's We need more exuberance in our faith
23:30: 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
23:44: Exhilaration if this is all ho -hum to us We're missing out
23:50: I want the deep overwhelming sense of gladness that transcends ordinary happiness and most of us and the entirety of the world chase
24:04: Superficiality in this regard. I want to know
24:10: Christ. How about you? I want to know the depths the fullness of that whatever that is.
24:15: 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
24:33: Circumstantially Listen to the definition again It's associated with the presence and work of God.
24:41: I don't know if you can get any more sense of that than here Surely God is in this place with us
24:50: Surely God comes to his people who are gathered in his name The table is here
24:57: His word is here. His Holy Spirit fills us individually and corporately
25:04: 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.
25:13: I mean, how could she know? She's filled with the Holy Spirit Where's the joy?
25:23: Are your circumstances hard? Are they stealing some of your joy? Is life hard is it stealing your joy?
25:32: 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
25:48: You should be filled with joy. Oh That we today would be filled with the joy
25:59: That seems to come Knowing the Lord Jesus Christ our joy
26:12: Shared joy in 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
26:26: Mary to experience a greater level of joy because Mary's learning and her cousin
26:33: Elizabeth helps her That this isn't just some strange thing that's happening to her
26:39: What's happening to her is the the entrance of God in the flesh into the world
26:45: Salvation has come The kingdom of God is at hand and now
26:51: Elizabeth is helping Mary to see and I think Mary's song is a reflection of her immediate contemplation of Elizabeth's joy
27:05: You and I need to be agents ambassadors of joy
27:12: 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
27:21: Because we know Christ But oh how we get bogged down and all of our little things
27:29: All the little things that frustrate us All the inconveniences that steal our joy
27:37: 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
27:58: Cognizant of this she understands her baby is jumping inside her body
28:05: Because it's so true Continuing on let's look at verse 45
28:13: The second element of this is
28:21: Elizabeth tells Mary that she's blessed for believing We need to tell one another how blessed we are
28:34: My wife has got a bunch of little kids running around. We need whatever friends
28:39: She's her husband someone to say, you know, it's a blessing to have these problems all these kids
28:47: 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.
28:55: It's a blessing Elizabeth pronounces this truth on her.
29:03: She says you believed there's going to be a fulfillment of those things which were told you from the
29:10: Lord and This Shared joy,
29:16: I believe Transforms Mary's thinking isn't that something? Mary the
29:23: Blessed One Who's more highly favored of women than Mary? There's no one
29:29: And she derives benefit from an encouragement from her sister in the faith
29:38: Think it says something to us. We need to be great encouragers of one another spurring each other on to love and good works
29:45: We need to be so filled with joy that we can be agents of joy to others
29:51: I believe Elizabeth is profoundly used by God to make Mary very joyful about what's happening here
30:02: Mary says this is a young lady
30:14: How profound are these words? My soul magnifies
30:21: The Lord and my spirit has rejoiced in God my
30:31: Savior For he has regarded the lowly estate lowly state of his maidservant
30:42: For behold henceforth all generations will call me blessed
30:48: See Mary's coming to terms with it. I Think it's not the angels that have convinced her.
30:55: I think Elizabeth has had a big part in it This godly woman has convinced her
31:02: For he who is mighty has done great things for me and holy is his name.
31:08: This is an incredible Song and we'll spend more time on it in a couple weeks
31:14: Lord willing And his mercy is on those who fear him from generation to generation
31:21: He has shown strength with his arm. He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts
31:28: He has put down the mighty from their thrones and exalted the lowly
31:34: I'm gonna pause on verse 52 The greatest empire of the ancient world occupies
31:44: Israel and the
31:49: King of Kings is born to a humble girl humble woman in Bethlehem The mighty have been
32:02: Put down from their thrones the lowly have been exalted That he's filled the hungry with good things and he sent the rich home away empty -handed
32:17: He has helped his servant Israel in remembrance of his mercy as he spoke to our fathers to Abraham and to his seed forever
32:31: 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
32:40: Elizabeth and Mary are coming to terms with because of the miraculous nature of this birth this impending birth
32:50: They're coming to terms with how? The serpents head is going to be crushed
32:57: It's gonna come through a baby But it's gonna come through Miraculous means to come through this virgin birth
33:06: I wonder now if Mary's is beginning to understand the weightiness the gravity of this moment
33:15: Elizabeth sees her salvation in her younger cousins womb
33:21: The one who would crush the head of the serpent and turn back the curse
33:28: To bring salvation finally to the people of God. He's right there in Mary's womb
33:36: This is all happening. This is being accomplished this one
33:44: Will be the hope of the nation's this one will be the
33:49: 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
34:15: If she's six months pregnant, she stays three months. I don't know. I'm guessing she may have stayed
34:22: For the delivery or maybe leaves just short of it and she returned to her house now
34:33: Elizabeth's full -time came for her to be delivered And she brought forth the
34:42: 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
34:58: 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
35:18: 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
35:29: 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
35:45: And why the demons want to turn them away, but but this one John the
35:51: 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
35:59: New Covenant. They're realized The hearts of the father I look around the room have turned to the children
36:06: We are trying to raise up generations of faithful Christians to serve the
36:12: 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
36:31: The fullness of joy is found in Jesus Christ alone
36:38: May your joy inspire faith obedience and joy and others
36:47: Couple words for you for application First the
36:55: Christian should be Filled with joy, so we're doing something wrong if we're grieving
37:06: The Lord has given us cause for great joy, this isn't a
37:13: Pollyanna indifference to hard circumstances 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
37:30: It needs to be more radical in its character. It needs to be wild It needs to be an ecstatic delight.
37:39: It needs to be exhilarating for us to contemplate these things and Again, if we're not feeling this kind of joy, we're probably not seeing
37:49: Christ clearly Elizabeth sees him clearly Being filled with the
37:55: Holy Spirit Christians should be filled with joy because they're united to Christ That everlasting reality should overcome the trials and circumstances
38:09: That tend to steal our joy my mother and my grandmother and my great -grandmother
38:16: All have a saying they've said to me this too shall pass
38:22: 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
38:47: Resides in Christ and that joy is unshakable no matter what swirls around us temporarily moment by moment secondly
39:02: It seems that this joy in the Lord Jesus Christ is best When shared
39:08: I Think Elizabeth's joy was absolutely used of God to transform a young lady's very hard reality
39:20: 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
39:37: And this one's a little bit hard for us Because it requires greater faith
39:43: The Lord seems to do dramatic things through clean vessels
39:50: 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
40:01: You've been cleaned. I believe Mary's virtue
40:08: Elizabeth's virtue Zacharias's virtue is very much at the heart of why
40:13: God chose them for these great works It would seem to me that you and I in our
40:22: Striving to throw off sin our love of Christ and our love of holy things
40:28: 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
40:43: So if your life is a little bit marred from sin Take some heart our
40:51: Lord Jesus is able to wash you and to make you a clean vessel For his service.
40:58: He took a prostitute Now don't you think about this?
41:04: Who would you choose to be your grandmother? Jesus saw everything that his grandmother did
41:15: Rahab He says I'm gonna transform her life with all of that muck and filth.
41:22: I'm gonna make her My great great great whatever grandmother She's only a couple generations from the
41:31: King David God can use us God can clean us
41:37: He can make us vessels of honor and service Are you joyful today?
41:45: If you're not Come get you some in the Lord Jesus Christ And if you get it
41:53: Don't keep it to yourself share it with others that they may be encouraged. They might be incited to greater joy themselves
42:01: Amen Let's pray together Oh Lord, I Pray that you would give us genuine joy
42:15: Our friends our neighbors are looking for temporal happiness. They want to have life experiences
42:20: 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
42:35: 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
42:55: Something very shocking Lord help us to turn that into a recognition of of grace of your work.
43:04: Oh Lord, we need joy And Lord Jesus you have
43:10: Given us yourself. You are both the source and object of all real joy and we have you
43:20: You've united yourself to us you have grabbed hold of us and Embraced us never to let us go.
43:28: Oh Lord, I pray that we would respond appropriately with joy And Forgive us for our stubbornness in our readiness to grumble and complain
43:41: Lord, it's true of all of us Magnify your joy in us we pray