Second Wednesday in Advent Service

Kongsvinger Lutheran Church

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This one. This is what happens when you have a

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Southern Californian reading a Minnesota. Your California came off the first one.

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We surveyed it for every election. I would like to welcome you to the

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Congregator Lutheran Church for our second of three midweek Advent services.

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Tonight we'll be following the Order of Vespers. The opening hymn is going to be 344, and if you would like to mark your hymnal, the psalm we will sing together is

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Psalm 98. Psalm 98, okay? Congregation please rise.

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O Lord open my lips, make haste

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O God to deliver me, make haste to help me

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O Lord. Psalm 98,

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Psalm 98. O sing to the

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Lord a new song, for he has done marvelous things. His right hand and his holy arm have worked salvation for him.

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The Lord has made known his salvation. He has revealed his righteousness in the sight of the nations.

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He has remembered his steadfast love and faithfulness to the house of Israel.

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All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our

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God. Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth, break forth into joyous song and sing praises.

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Sing praises to the Lord with the lyre, with the lyre and the sound of melody.

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With the trumpets and the sound of the horn, make a joyful noise before the

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King the Lord. Let the sea roar and all that fills it, the world and those who dwell in it.

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Let the rivers clap their hands, let the hills sing for joy together before the

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Lord. For he comes to judge the earth.

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He will judge the world with righteousness and the peoples with equity.

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Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the

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Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now and will be forever.

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Hymn 344. You may be seated. Please remain standing.

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Hear the word of the Lord recorded for us in the Gospel of Luke chapter 1, starting at verse 39.

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In those days Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country to a town in Judah.

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And she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb.

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And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and she exclaimed with a loud cry, Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb.

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And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me?

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For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy.

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And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.

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O Lord, have mercy on us. We'll sing the response.

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Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous branch.

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This is the name by which he will be called. The Lord is our righteousness.

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In his day Judah will be saved and Israel will dwell securely.

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This is the name by which he will be called. The Lord is our righteousness.

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Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the

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Holy Spirit. This is the name by which he will be called.

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The Lord is our righteousness. You may be seated.

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In the name of Jesus. Amen. So last week we heard the song of Zechariah.

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Tonight we hear the song of Elizabeth. Hers is a short song, but it's an important song.

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And as we pointed out last week, it's a little bit odd that at his son's circumcision, after Zechariah was unable to speak for nine whole months, the first person that he talks about is not his son.

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First person he talks about is his Savior, Jesus. If you think all the way back in the early part of the chapter, then you'll remember that the angel

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Gabriel, the exact same angel that appeared to Daniel and gave him the prophecy of the 70 weeks, that same

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Gabriel appeared to Zechariah while he was serving in the temple.

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And just by way of remembering, let's hear again what it is that Gabriel said to Zechariah.

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Do not be afraid. Your prayer has been heard. Your wife will bear you a son. You shall call his name

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John, which means you don't even get to name your own son. God does. Isn't that funny?

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He doesn't get to name him Zechariah Jr. He gets to name him John, which kind of stands out. And listen to what he says.

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You will have joy and gladness. Many will rejoice at his birth, for he will be great before the

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Lord, and he must not drink wine or strong drink, and he will be filled with the mother's womb.

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That's right. John the Baptist will be filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother's womb, and he will turn many of the children of Israel to the

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Lord their God. So far so good, but then it says this, and he will go before him, before the

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Christ, the Messiah, and the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the

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Lord the people prepared. In other words, John the Baptist, he has a very important ministry of preaching repentance, and it's in preparation for the

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Messiah, which means that John the Baptist, from before he was even conceived, was known by God to be the one who would play second fiddle to Jesus.

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And it's important for us to recognize that. But something similar is happening. Between that event, and remember,

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Zechariah didn't quite believe the words of Gabriel. He's kind of sitting there going, you know, listen, my wife, she went through menopause decades ago.

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This isn't going to happen. What are you talking about? This is kind of his attitude, and he's made to be silent for nine months.

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And in between that time, the angel Gabriel then appears to Mary, tells her she will conceive, and that she will bear the

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Messiah. And of course, she asks the important question, how will this be since I'm a virgin? And the angel said to her, the

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Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore, the child to be born will be called

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Holy, the Son of God. And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who is called barren, for nothing will be impossible with God.

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Note here, Mary is unique in all of human history. She's the only woman who got pregnant through her ears, through the words of an angel preached to her, the

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Holy Spirit coming upon her. But here, Gabriel reveals to her that, well, her cousin

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Elizabeth, the one who's way up in age, who's never had a single child in her entire life, who's been barren, she's now pregnant in six months along.

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Very interesting stuff. But here's what happens next. No sooner does

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Mary find this information out, and of course, we'll hear her song next week, that immediately after that, it says, in those days,

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Mary arose and went with haste to the hill country to a town in Judah. How pregnant is the

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Virgin Mary at this point? Well, she's pregnant,

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I mean, for sure. But if you were to look for Jesus, you'd need a microscope. Jesus is about the size of the tip of a needle.

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You know, he's a zygote at this point. That's how developmentally far along he is. And so it's very fascinating what's happening here.

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She runs, basically, to head over to cousin Elizabeth's house, and then she entered the house of Zacharias, she greeted

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Elizabeth, and when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb.

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And we'll kind of pause here for a second. Let me kind of work this out. Have you all ever been to a baby shower?

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Now, in my lifetime, I cannot say that I've had a perfect record of never attending a baby shower.

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I have fumbled the ball on one instance and found myself attending one, okay?

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Boy, was I grieved at this experience. Because you'll note the baby showers, well, let's just say there's not a lot for guys to do.

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And the women seem to have like a certain energy in these baby showers that just, just, a guy can't quite understand, okay?

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Let me explain. Like, when everybody comes in, oh, it's so good to see you.

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And they talk like this. Their voices are way high and all this kind of stuff. I kind of picture here that vibe.

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And I'll explain why. Elizabeth is really well advanced in years, and the fact that she's going to be able to have the joy of having a child six months along, and she's showing, right?

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And so, Mary shows up. And I can only imagine, it says here that Mary greeted her.

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And what that must have sounded like, oh my goodness, it would have been high pitch.

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You know, you know what I'm talking about, right? And of course, the fact that she's has the joy of being able to have a child this late in life.

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It's like the entire pregnancy, regardless of whether or not she's throwing up and having morning sickness or anything like that.

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The whole thing is just one big thing of rejoicing and joy and all of that being said.

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And here's the thing, the one baby shower, I was not able to to go to.

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Okay. I can legitimately say that the focus of everybody is on the baby, right?

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Everybody is buying clothes for the baby, making blankets for the baby, maybe pitching in and having a few people buy a very expensive stroller for the baby.

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I'm not sure how they got along without those back in the day. Those are very handy by the way. But all of that being said, you're going to note something, well, odd is going to take place here.

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It's as odd as when Zechariah opens his mouth for the first time in nine months.

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And the first person he talks about is Jesus. It's that same thing.

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So Elizabeth hearing the greeting of Mary, the baby in her womb leaped.

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That wasn't just a bump. It was a Jesus is here kind of thing.

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And you'll note that John the Baptist begins his job of pointing to the

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Messiah. And he does so while he is still in the womb of his mother, Elizabeth.

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And if you remember what Gabriel said, that John the Baptist would be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from the womb, which kind of begs the question.

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Okay. If you've ever heard people talk like this, a little bit of an aside bunny trail, if you would.

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Okay. Have you ever heard anyone say, well, you know, listen, you know, you can't become a

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Christian until you reach the age of accountability. And then, and only then are you capable of making a free will decision to ask

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Jesus into your heart. This is how people talk, right? Here's the issue.

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There isn't a single biblical text that talks about this nonsense. And then when you sit there and say, hey, when

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Peter is preaching his Pentecost sermon, and he says to the crowd, repent, be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.

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And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit for the promises for you and for your children.

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Sit there and go look at baptism is for children too. They will say, ah, can't do that because a child cannot make a free will decision for Jesus.

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And so my question then is this, is it possible for an infant to be filled with the

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Holy Spirit if they're not a Christian? Well, no, you can't be filled with the Holy Spirit unless you're a

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Christian. Right. How'd John the Baptist pull it off? Right.

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You'll note he's filled with the Holy Spirit, just like the angel Gabriel said. In fact, a couple of verses, just to kind of make the point.

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We'll start with the Psalms. Psalm 22, verse nine. It says this, yet you are he who took me from the womb.

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You made me trust you at my mother's breasts. On you was I cast from my birth and from my mother's womb, you have been my

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God. Is the Psalmist saying that one can have faith in God, even from his mother's womb?

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Yeah, that's exactly what the text is saying. Because here's the reason why, if you kind of think about it this way, remember what

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Paul says in Ephesians two, y 'all were dead in trespasses and sins in which you once walked.

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Y 'all were dead. You know how dead, dead is? I mean, it's really dead. Okay. Just came back from doing a prayer service for Phyllis McGregor.

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And she was there. And she was, well, the best way I can say it, she looked like she was sleeping, but she was dead.

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And you know what she did tonight? Nothing. The dead don't do anything.

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And so we come into this world because of Adam's sin, dead in trespasses and sins. But God is the one who makes us alive in Christ.

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And you'll note that Ephesians two, eight, nine, and 10 says this, you are saved by grace through faith.

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This is not your own doing. It's the gift of God so that no one may boast. For we are

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God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God has prepared in advance for us to do.

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So you'll note then that anybody who believes in Jesus, who trusts in him, it is

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God who has worked that miracle, given them faith and regenerated them. And can

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God regenerate an old person? Yes. Can God regenerate an infant in the womb?

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You betcha. Right? And who are you to say that he cannot?

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So Psalm 22, you are he who took me from the womb. You made me to trust you at my mother's breasts.

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On you was I cast from my birth and from my mother's womb you have been my God. Similar text in Psalm 71 says this, for you,

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O Lord, are my hope, my trust, O Lord, from my youth. Upon you

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I have leaned before my birth. You are he who took me from my mother's womb.

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My praise is continually of you. And if that's not enough, you sit there and go, yeah, well, what do you got in the

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New Testament? Well, I got a good one for you. Are you ready? Jesus himself. I want you to consider what was happening here in Matthew chapter 21.

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Jesus is in Jerusalem. He's in the temple. And you know what people are doing?

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They're bringing to Jesus people who are blind, who are lame, who are sick.

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And you know what Jesus is doing with all of these people that they bring to him? He is healing them.

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And the sight got the attention of the local children of Jerusalem.

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And with each and every healing, the children were crying out, Hosanna to the son of David.

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Yay for Jesus. Right? And this really annoyed the scribes and the chief priests.

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The text says in Matthew 21, the blind and the lame came to him in the temple and Jesus healed them.

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But when the chief priests and the scribes and the law saw the wonderful things that Jesus did and the children crying out in the temple,

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Hosanna to the son of David, they were indignant. And so they said to Jesus, do you hear what these children are saying?

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Kind of reminds me of like a bad like children's play or movie, right? So Jesus said to them, well, yes.

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Have you never read out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise?

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Jesus quotes Psalm 8. It's a pretty good text. Jesus makes it very clear.

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Oh, yes. Children, even the small ones, even the ones in the womb can praise him.

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And that's what's happening in our text. There is John the Baptist. He's beginning to do his work.

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He sees, he somehow knows he's in contact with Jesus. He can't see him. Of course, nobody can.

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Jesus is microscopic at this point. He leaps in the womb, Elizabeth, because John the

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Baptist, her son, is filled with the Holy Spirit. She's also filled with the Holy Spirit. It's like the Holy Spirit just spilled out all over the place.

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And she exclaims then with a loud cry, prophetically, blessed are you among women.

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Indeed, what a blessing it had to be to carry your Savior in your womb, to be the one chosen by God, to bear the

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Son of God. Indeed, blessed she is. But I would note that blessing probably had to feel like a curse while she watched

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Jesus die on the cross. We know that she was there. We know that she was there because while Jesus was suffering for your sins, for my sins, and for Mary's sins,

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Jesus made sure that his own mother was taken care of and assigned the task of looking after her for the

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Apostle John, which means she was there when her son died.

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Didn't feel like a blessing at that time for sure. Most likely a curse. But even with Christ's death, it was the greatest blessing of all because then and only then could she know and you and I know that our sins are forgiven because of what

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Christ accomplished. Blessed are you among women. Blessed is the fruit of your womb.

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And then why, why is it granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me?

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What a great question. Note the theology. Holy Spirit inspired. Mother of my

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Lord, are you saying that Jesus is the Son of God? Right, that's kind of the point, right?

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So Mary is the mother of our Lord. And then she says, for behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy.

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Now hold on a second here. The first things we hear from Elizabeth are not about her own son for real.

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So who's she extolling the praises of? Who is she glorifying? Who is she invoking? None other than the

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Messiah, the baby she can't even see because Mary hasn't even got a bump yet, right?

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Exactly. Blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the

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Lord. And I would note then here, this blessing that is spoken by Elizabeth in the song of hers, that she invokes the blessing that Mary has.

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This is a blessing that we all can have. Now you and I don't get to bear the Messiah the way she did.

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Not at all. Blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.

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And here's the deal. We are saved by grace through faith. And each of us, having heard the good news, the glad tidings delivered to us through Christ's holy apostles in the

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Word of God, having heard that Christ has bled and died for our sins, and that he has promised us full pardon, grace, mercy, forgiveness, and inheritance in the world to come, that he will establish when he returns in glory to judge the living and the dead.

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And in that world there will be no sin, there will be no death, and there will be no end of that world.

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We will enjoy it forever and ever. Blessed are you who believe that there will be a fulfillment of what was spoken to you from the

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Lord through his prophets and through his apostles, through the Word of God. This blessing spoken over Mary is also yours as well.

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Because she was told and she believed that she would bear the one who would cover the sins of the world by his blood.

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You and I believe that he has covered our sins by his blood. This blessing is for you and for me.

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As far as baby showers go, it's probably not really a baby shower, but it has the baby shower vibe.

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This is the most interesting baby shower I've ever seen. We're the one that's going to be born just three months away from popping into this world and beginning his course.

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It's barely spoken of, but the baby you can't even see is the one being praised.

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Think about it. Isn't that how it should be? This Christmas, as we get close to Christmas, we again remember the great gift that God has given us in the

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Son of God. It is good, right, salutary, and befitting that we should invoke his praises, his name, glorify him, and take a back seat to his glorious grace, which we remember at this season.

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In the name of Jesus, amen. We rise for the canticle.

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Let my prayer rise before you as incense. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.

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Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.

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And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever.

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Amen. The Lord be with you.

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Let us pray. Stir up our hearts,

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O Lord, to make ready the way of your only begotten Son, that by his coming we may be enabled to serve you with pure minds.

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To the same Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you in the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

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Amen. O God, from whom come all holy desires, all good counsels, all just works.

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Give to us, your servants, that peace which the world cannot give. That our hearts may be set to obey your commandments, and also that we, being defended from the fear of our enemies, may live in peace and quietness through Jesus Christ, your

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Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you in the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

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Let us bless the Lord. Thanks be to God. The grace of our

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Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the

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Holy Spirit be with you all. Hymn number 342.