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Don Filcek; Luke 1:49-55 Mary DID Know
Of Recast Church in Matawan, Michigan. This week, Pastor Don Filsack preaches from his series, King Over All, from the Gospel of Luke. Let's listen in.
And I'm Don Filsack, I'm the lead pastor here, and I am really glad to be together with you guys in church this morning. I always look forward to Sunday mornings. I look forward to it with anticipation, I hope you do too.
God brings us together to worship him in spirit and in truth. And I acknowledge that I'm not self-sufficient, I don't possess within myself everything that I need in a given week. God has saved us, church, into community.
We need each other, we need encouragement, we need correction, we need fellowship, and we need a pathway to use our gifts. And God has seen fit to give us a church gathering in which to do that. God has been gracious to draw us together as a people who are growing in faith, growing in community, and growing in service.
And we talk about that a lot here because those are the areas that we believe that a mature and maturing Christian is one who is growing in those three areas, those expanding, more faith, more community, more service.
A very big part of what we do here is taking in his word together. That's a fundamental and foundational part of our gathering and we've been going through the Gospel of Luke, kind of started that a little bit before Halloween in October, and that's partly because, no, I don't, I'm not that kind of person.
Is anybody already listening to Christmas music? Oh wow, there's a lot, there's more in this service than there was in the first service that are listening to Christmas music already. Wow, that's not me.
Linda can say that that's not me. I'm not that person who is looking for a chance to get Christmas early this year. It's just that I like the Gospel of Luke and it's got a long runway. There's a lot of content in the Gospel of Luke.
I'm gonna preach it paragraph by paragraph and verse by verse like I like to do, then it's gonna require us, it required us to start in October just to get to the birth. The birth of Jesus lined up with Christmas week and so that's what we're kind of trying to do here.
But this morning, we're in a familiar passage and it's not only familiar, I think, to most of us, but we're in a passage that I've actually, I just, by confession, I've preached it a couple of times in the past 15 years.
It's a common Christmas passage and that's why. I've studied the passage fresh this week, but I hope that you will understand if some of it sounds familiar to you, especially if you were here back in 2021 or 2014.
Those are the last two times that I preached this very passage.
But I wanna point out something.
I think I use this as an opportunity to say something about God's word. Applications, that is the way that we, what God calls us to do differently in our lives as a result of encountering a text of scripture, changes depending on what we're going on, what's going on in our lives.
You could read the story of David and Goliath at one stage of your life and go like, okay, I apply it in this way. And then at another stage in your life, it applies in a different way. And that's pretty common.
But the meaning, the meaning of scripture does not change from reading to reading, from year to year. It has one meaning. It isn't as if the story of David and Goliath wants to communicate to us God's salvation one year when we read it, and then the next year what it means is, boy, the Philistines are really strong.
It doesn't change in its meaning. Scripture means what it means, and a student of God's word is gonna get down to,.
What does this mean?
Why did he record this? But then the application to our lives will be in different ways. And so this morning, we're gonna turn our attention to the Song of Mary. And the goal of this passage is that we would be moved to be drawn along with Mary, the mother of Jesus, in worshiping and praise to God in it.
Praise to him for the epic and glorious and jaw-dropping things that God has done for us in the sending forth of his son in that first advent of Jesus that we've been talking about through the gospel of Luke chapter one.
So I'd encourage you all to open your Bibles or your scripture journals or your devices to Luke chapter one, verses 46 through 45, 55, 46 through 55, and recast this is God's holy word. I'd love to remind us that this is when, when I read this, it's my voice, but it's God's words.
So this is the most fundamental thing that we can do. You tell me you wanna hear from God, you want him to speak into your life, you gotta read this. Like, this is where it is. So Luke chapter one, verses 46 through 55, recast, let's give God's word our respect and attention, really, our respect by our attention right now.
Luke one, starting in 46. And Mary said, my soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my savior. For he has looked on the humble estate of his servant. For behold, from now on, 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 for those who fear him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with his arm. He has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.
And he has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate. 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 offspring forever.
Let's pray as the band comes to lead us in worship this morning. Father, what a great passage to key us into worship this morning. A passage where we see Mary declare all kinds of glorious truths about you in song, and she records this as poetry for us.
And then we have an opportunity to follow her lead, to follow her example in magnifying you and rejoicing in you. You indeed are our savior. And just as we think about the things that you have done in our history, in our lives, and in ancient history past to bring forth salvation for us here, lowly and small and insignificant us, and you have broken into our histories, into our personal lives.
While we were running a race against you, you broke in and rescued and saved. And so, Father, I pray that from that place of recognizing the great turn that you have wrought in history and in our lives, that that would be the very fuel of our worship, that we would be enthusiastic and glad, and our voices would mingle together like fuel and fire with glad hearts, joyful hearts, exuberant hearts, a skip in our step, and joy and laughter and smiles on our face as we contemplate and consider the great turn, our destiny, eternal punishment, the change, the cross of Christ, now a destiny change to eternal glory with you.
Father, I pray that we'd never get old of hearing that old, old story. It would never be lost on us. We wouldn't get bored with the gospel, but the gospel would fuel our very lives, even now as we have an opportunity to sing in worship and praise, that we would be glad and joyful in you.
We ask this in Jesus' name, amen. Well, big thanks to Trent for leading us. Dave is obviously out of town, and so Trent, our provisional executive pastor, was willing to fill in, and I'm just really grateful for him jumping in on that.
Encourage you to just be comfortable during the remainder of our time together, but reopen your device or your Bible to Luke chapter one, verses 46 through 55, so that you have that available on your lap so you can follow along whatever you use to get there, and then if at any time during the message you wanna get more coffee or juice or donut holes, while supplies last back there, and then the restrooms are out the barn doors down the hallway on the left-hand side if you need those.
I've always joked that the song Mary, Did You Know is a song that asks a question that's directly answered in the text description. Now, how many of you have heard the song Mary, Did You Know, Christmas tune?
Most of us have heard it. I've always thought it was a bit of a funny, bit of a funny song. You know, it asks, Mary, did you know that your baby boy would be savior of the world? And I wanna say to that, thanks for asking, Christian music artist.
Yes, she did know. The gospel of Luke makes that much clear, and so I usually press skip or change the station, and I chuckle with a snarky Dwight Schrute kind of grin. So, ha, ha, ha, got him.
Like, false.
What happens in the life of Mary in the first chapter of the gospel of Luke that we're kind of going through right now is very radical, but not confusing. It's radical, but it's not confusing. She may have been completely shocked, and seems to have been completely shocked by being chosen by God for this task, but she knew what she was chosen for, and this part of chapter one tells us as much.
It tells us what Mary understood. It tells us what she knew. The angel was super specific. She was not confused about who the child that she was gonna give birth to was being born to be. Why was he, why this amazing and miraculous way of bringing him into the world?
And that's why we find her praising God in our first two verses. The structure of our text this morning is two things that Mary does because of eight things that Mary knows. Let me say that again. Two things that Mary does because of eight things that Mary knows, and we must not be merely satisfied with Mary magnifying and Mary rejoicing and leaving it at that.
That is what she's actively doing in this text, but we are brought into what led her to praise through the words of her poetry, and in that sense, I would say, we are kind of looking at a theology of Mary.
What did she understand God to be like? And she is telling us by the revelation of the Holy Spirit what God is like in our text, and we ought to pay attention because our worship, our ability to give God glory and honor in our day in and day out lives, whether it's working or the way we drive our car or the way that we interact with our kids or our parents or our families or our siblings or whatever it is, all of that ties in very closely with what we believe is true about God, and she highlights some things here in the text that we're gonna be seeing that really, really help fuel and are intended to fuel our worship along with her.
The context of this praise, of course, we know is the meeting of two pregnant cousins. Well, I say of course, and I don't mean that to be snarky because maybe you didn't know that, but the meeting of two pregnant cousins, Elizabeth and Mary, both are aware that supernatural things are afoot, and they are smack dab caught smack dab in the middle of God's planning to bring forth the king of all kings, the Messiah, and so then we encounter kind of what seems to be an interruption in the text, and that is an eruption of joy-filled praise that comes out of Mary in this context.
It's a model of faith in the God that is dependable and remains at work in completing what he said he would do centuries and centuries before these events that are recorded for us here. Without faith, this praise is not possible.
Without faith, this text is not possible. Without faith, any form of genuine, true worship is impossible. We can sing all day. We can do all of the tasks that I mentioned earlier. You can work for your employer.
You can drive your car. You could even sing songs in the shower or run the car on the way in to work, and you can do all of those activities without it being praise. True praise flows from what we believe.
True praise flows from what we believe about God. So starting in verses 46 and 47, we see two parallel things that Mary does. Her soul magnifies the Lord, and her spirit rejoices in God her Savior. She magnifies and rejoices from the core of her being.
The two words that are used, their spirit and soul, are about who she is on the inside, and all of her interior life is focused on magnifying God and rejoicing in him as her Savior. So first we see that Mary magnifies, and that's the first thing that we need to kind of tackle here in our understanding of this text.
Magnification makes large and obvious what seems to be small and hidden. Anybody ever look through a microscope before? Maybe science class in middle school or high school or something like that. There were only two or three of us.
Has anybody looked through a microscope? So more than that, right? Some of us are still asleep, but I get it, or some of you just don't like to raise your hand. But it makes large and obvious what seems to be small and hidden, and in this we find a good definition of praise as well.
You see, I wanna just highlight something that we might not think of very often, and that's that every single one of us walked in here today with a hiddenness regarding the work of God in our lives.
Did you realize that?
You walked in here with a hiddenness and a subtlety to the work of God in your lives, and what I mean by that is that I only know a couple of generalized things that are true about God's blessings on your life today.
What do I know? He kept you alive last night. You're breathing his air today. Grace, is that a grace? That's a grace, like amen, like I know that to be true of you. But beyond that, do I know what he's brought you through this week?
I don't know. I've got some guesses in some of your lives because I know some of the things that you're going through and I know that some of you are in turmoil because of certain circumstances and different things.
I know some of you are elevated and glad today because of certain circumstances in your life, but without you declaring and openly speaking the things that God is doing in your life, the rest of us are left in kind of like,.
We just don't know.
We're left in the dark regarding God's blessings. Here, Mary is exposing them. That's what it means to magnify them.
And I need to clarify that when you talk.
About magnification, there might be a problem for us because we might wanna think of ourselves as looking through a telescope. When you look through a telescope, you're looking at massive, huge things out in the universe that you're drawing closer and being able to observe,.
But they're massive.
Why in the world use the word magnification, like as if what we're doing here is taking something small and making it bigger? Of course it's not that. God is not something small that needs to be, quote unquote, magnified.
God is expansive, infinite, and omnipresent, right? Amen? And yet he has seen fit, and here's what I think is really beautiful in the use of the word magnification. He has seen fit to work in subtlety.
That's our God.
Our God loves to work in subtlety, in everyday lives, in everyday circumstances. Like I've liked to say this. There was a time I went to Bible College in South Carolina. One weekend, I got kind of a response from one of the guys on my floor.
He was like, hey, come play basketball with us. So I went and I played basketball. There at that basketball, just pick up basketball, I met another guy from Michigan. He was actually from the Lansing area, from DeWitt.
And fast forward a couple of summers, and he says, you gotta come and check out this camp. It's called Camp Barrichel in Northern Michigan.
I had never heard of it.
I'm from Michigan, he's from Michigan. I had never heard of Camp Barrichel in my life. Summer of 1993, he says, you should come up here.
The summer before I had worked third shift in a factory,.
I was like, anything but that. So I was just making cardboard boxes and I didn't really want to go do that again. So I was like, oh yeah, let's try this camp ministry thing. That first week there, I met this girl named Linda.
And I think you guys know where the story goes from there. So three kids later and an awesome life. And I just look at that and I see God works. Responding to a friend's request to go shoot some hoops with some dudes, I get a wife.
Like how many of you can look at your life.
And you can see the subtlety of God's hand in the things that he chooses to do? It's always better, of course, in the rear view mirror. God's sovereignty is really hard to see through the windshield, right?
Like what's he doing in my life right now? I don't know what he's gonna do tomorrow. I don't know what he's gonna do in the next hour. But man, oh man, can I praise him in that rear view mirror.
I can see the things that he did.
No, he works in the small things. He is most directly working, of course, in our text. A miracle in the wombs of two women. Subtle, hidden in the secret places. They're meeting in a backwater town in this context.
And the poetry is declared by Mary at the beginning, at this meeting with her cousin Elizabeth and the mother of John the Baptist, who is the mother of John the Baptist. And Mary, in this song that she's basically writing and is recorded for us, is drawing attention to the big things that God is doing in a subtle way so that all of history will benefit from the knowledge of the great things that God did through her.
She makes, by the way, she makes such a big deal of the subtle things happening in her life and the small, secretive, kind of private things that God has, that meeting with the angel, we got that from her.
Like she had to tell somebody that the angel had met with her like that. But that was private, that was quiet. She was there alone. And then how do we know about that? 2 ,000 years later. We're still reading it 2 ,000 years later because she succeeded in magnifying the quiet works of God in her life.
Do you get it? God does amazing things in local, quiet towns and in local, quiet places. And then he gives us the privilege of being his heralds who go forth and tell what he has done. And in this sense, we ought to consider this is a call on our lives to magnify the works of God to the world around us.
Now for many of us, the word evangelism sounds scary. It sounds like I'm the pastor who's about to pull out a two by four, club us all upside the head that we're not sharing our faith enough, we're not bold enough, we're not, how many of you know what I'm talking about?
The minute that the pastor starts talking about evangelism,.
It's like, oh, here we go again, guilt trip.
But think of it this way. Evangelism might sound like a scary, intimidating word, but how about just telling others about the good things that God has done for you?
Could you do that?
Like that sounds a little more appealing. Evangelism sounds like a big, highfalutin, scary word, but how about just telling him how he's blessed you, the good things, giving him credit for the good things and the blessings in your life.
By the way, you're not gonna tell others about the good blessings that God is doing in your life unless you're rehearsing those yourself. You know what I'm saying? Unless you're reminding yourself because the circumstances of the world will crowd you out and it's gray outside right now and we're in the middle of that weird section of fall where it's not quite Christmas yet so you don't quite have the joy and the celebration, we ought to, but it's the circumstances and it's just kind of like gray and drab and it's like, is it cold?
Is it not cold, drizzly? I'd rather have snow than like 40 degrees and rainy. Do you know what I'm talking about? So it's kind of like that weird time of the year and we need to be rehearsing to ourselves the glories of what God has done for us in his son, Jesus Christ, amen?
And just counting our blessings, considering how much he has given. I mean, certainly give him thanks for the material blessings. If he's blessed you with kids, if he's blessed you with finances, if he's blessed you with a job, you know, those kinds of things, but certainly the big picture.
If all else is failing in our lives, we have one thing we can thank him for, can't we? Salvation in Jesus' name. Mary magnified the Lord and his works and so should we. But further, we also see that Mary rejoiced.
She didn't just magnify, but she rejoiced in a little subtle difference there. Hebrew poetry and song often uses parallelism to make a point. We, in English poetry, we like to rhyme. In Jewish and Hebrew poetry, they liked repetition back in the day.
So to rejoice here in the text is made parallel with magnifying the Lord, showing that her expressions of joy, that expression of rejoicing, is the way that she magnified the works of God in her life.
By being joyful and declaring things joyfully, she was actually magnifying the works of God. So when we're excited and glad for what God is doing, we are communicating to the world around us that God is good and doing good things.
And how many of you think that's a message that our culture needs? Our culture needs to hear that God is both good.
And doing good things,.
And they need to hear it through us, church. They need to hear that God is good because there's all kinds of counter-messaging to that today, is there not? God is a killjoy. God is just this divine and huge, like just law-giver, and all he desires is rule-following.
No, he's a giver of good gifts to his children, and he himself is good. In this sense, our joy is one of the most powerful draws that we have at our disposal to those who do not yet know the great things that God has done for them.
But let me clarify that Mary is not manufacturing joy here. I think we can misunderstand this. God has produced joy in her through his revelation and calling and works in her life. And I say this, lest anyone leave here thinking that the goal of this message is to just be more joyful.
Pull yourself up by the bootstraps and be glad. No, the goal is to draw near to God as he has revealed himself to rehearse and to understand his promises to us and his kindness and his goodness and his grace toward us and his love expressed in his son.
And to rehearse these great things that God has done for us so that rejoicing and magnifying become a holy byproduct of a life that is saturated in his word, knowing the truth. How are we gonna thank him for promises that we don't know are in there?
We have to be students of his word in order to glean those jewels that we find in scripture, those promises that we hold onto, his very great, awesome, and precious promises to us. And in verse 47, Mary slips in a side comment about why she is rejoicing.
Look at the end of verse 47. Her spirit rejoices in God, her Savior. She titles him Rescuer, Deliverer, Savior. All those are synonyms for that word that's used there, Savior. Why is she rejoicing? Because God has shown himself to be the Deliverer of his people generally, but her Rescuer specifically.
She has a testimony of what God has done. And so here are eight things that Mary knew about God. This is kind of like I said, a theology of Mary. These things led her to magnify God and to rejoice because she knew these things to be true of him.
And he did not merely do these things for her, but in these things we can see who God is and how he rolls. It should not take us much work to connect the dots between the things that Mary is thankful for and the way we should also be thankful with her.
So the first thing that Mary knows, and we'll just kind of roll through these. Mary knew that God sees the humble. This is in verse 48. This testimony begins very personal for Mary and it will broaden out to more general thanks later.
But Mary is specifically magnifying God and rejoicing because he looked on her in her humble position as a young lady in an obscure town and chose her for the awesome and glorious task of being the mother to the Messiah, the mother of the King over all.
He took this woman in a small town and has elevated her to epic historical status. Now, do you believe, when you think about God and your theology and your understanding of who he is, do you believe that God looks upon the lowly?
Does he see you in the corners of your week, in the difficulties and challenges relating to people who rub you the wrong way and the difficulties of kind of keeping all the plates spinning and the monotony of a daily life?
Mary actually here knows that he does. She knows he sees you. The very work God started in Mary as a model for his saving work and activity in our lives, it's an activity that's repeated time and time again when God reaches down into lowly lives like ours, calling us and saving us while we were yet sinners, while we were his enemies.
And all generations since, I fulfilled the prophecy that you see at the end of verse 48, you can see it there. The end of verse 48, that all, that generations will rise up and bless her. All Christians have blessed Mary as the faithful one who trusted her God in this crazy news, that she would be the one to bear a son without any natural conception.
Like, that's not the way things work. And she was the one chosen for this. And if anything, down through the generations, as a matter of fact, we would say, yeah, all generations, in every generation there's been a church that has blessed Mary and identified her blessed status as the one who was chosen.
But we also know that the error goes a little bit further because many generations and many in each generation have elevated her just a little too much, right? We've seen that too. But Mary knew that God works in the hearts of the lowliest, most overlooked people because she had experienced that and she's sharing that with us.
The second thing that Mary knew is that the mighty and holy God acts on behalf of his people. Now, that seems like a generic statement, acts on behalf of his people, but that's what she says here. Mary calls him mighty and holy, emphasizing his power and his peerlessness.
There is nobody like the mighty God, and yet he is the one who has done great things for her. Notice that she expects to be remembered, this is really key, she expects to be remembered for what God has done for her.
She doesn't expect to be remembered for the great things she has done for him. The great things that God has done for her is the emphasis of the text in verse 49. As generic as that statement that God acts on behalf of his people might be, it's a good place to pause and consider for a moment, church.
The almighty God is active on behalf of his people. He's active on our behalf today. The idea of deism is put down and put to death by Mary's praise here, by what she records for us. Deism is a thought that many of the early church, some of the early church fathers had, I mean, early national fathers of America had.
The idea of deism was just that God has started it all, wound it up, and walked away, kind of like a clock, and it's just running on its own, and eventually time will be up, and then he'll come back and fix it in the end.
But here's what Mary is saying to counter that. God is not distant. He is not removed. He is not disinterested in human history and the realms of humanity. He does great things in our midst, and Mary serves as an example of praising him and magnifying him when he does great things in our lives.
And where verses 48 and 49 show more personal things, that he looked on her lowly position and did great things for her, verse 50 on is where Mary begins to open up to talking more about the generalized praise of God for the way that he works.
And so, in verse 50, we see that Mary knew that God extends his mercy to those who fear him, now more general. In the sending forth of his son, God is demonstrating his mercy to those who fear him. And this needs a little bit of explanation because when we start talking about fearing God, you're kind of like, am I supposed to be scared of him?
Am I supposed to be glad in him? Am I supposed to rejoice when I finally see him? Are my knees gonna be knocking? Am I gonna give him a hug? How many of you know what I'm talking about? Like, there's a little bit of confusion over what is the fear of God supposed to mean?
Like, it can be confusing to us. But those who fear him are many of us in this room. It's those who recognize their brokenness and run to him for mercy, knowing he is the one we've offended. He's the one who holds the cards.
You have to reconcile with the one you've offended, and in our case, all of our sins has heaped up against this one, the holy one,.
The creator, our God.
And so, it is those who fear him that run to him for mercy. They revere him in a holy fear, and therefore, they have received mercy in him. And I believe that's many of us in this room. Hopefully, all of us in this room.
But those who sin without a concern for what God thinks, and there are people in this category. There are those who sin without a concern, even a thought of, who cares what God thinks? Or is there, they would term it this way, I don't really care what, I don't really believe God exists, and I don't care what he thinks, which is irony.
But they are those who are under his divine wrath. To be clear, all have a knowledge of right or wrong written in their hearts. I believe enough, according to the book of Romans, all have enough of a guide within them for their own hearts to condemn them.
They don't meet their own standards. No one does. And this mercy has been a standard for generations. That Mary's talking about here, the fear of the Lord leading to his mercy has been a steadfast, faithful plan of God from even before the birth of Jesus, as seen in Mary's praise here.
The phrase, from generation to generation, church is written for specifically our benefit as a church. Mary knew that God has mercy available to those who respect him and are concerned for what he thinks.
From generation to generation to generation, all the way to us. All the way to us. His mercy is available to anyone who would ask him for it. Would recognize that they've offended him and run to him for mercy.
The fourth thing that Mary knew is that God judges the proud. Ah, convicting. God shows his strength. Look at verse 51 with me. He has shown strength with his arm. He has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.
What we're looking at here is God flexing in the mirror of human history, and he is more than just a little swole, okay? He is, he's very strong. Anybody think I'm maybe underselling it a bit? Like he is mighty, he is all powerful.
And she says he's flexed in the mirror. He has shown his strength with his arm to scatter those who oppose him. And Mary is impressed with his strength to deal with his proud and arrogant enemies. Who he scatters in this text is important.
He doesn't scatter the poor in spirit, the ones who know that they're broken and run to him. He doesn't scatter those who are desperate for healing and wholeness. He doesn't scatter and smash in judgment the drunks who hunger and strive and desire sobriety.
He shatters and scatters those who are proud and would even seek to taunt God to come a little closer so maybe they could take a swipe and see if they could land a right hook. The proud and arrogant want God out so that they can legislate their own utopian dreams.
They want God out of the way so they can practice sin without guilt. We see it in our culture. They want God out of the way so they can live their lives without any fear of judgment and without his prying eyes.
In a word, the ones who will be judged and will be scattered and shattered are those who want, in a word, autonomy. They desire autonomy from the creator and judge of all. Why are they called in this text proud in the thoughts of their hearts?
Because they make themselves out to be better at judgment than God himself. They think they could run it better and they think they know better than him. Mary doesn't just take comfort. This is a little quirky and strange to our ears, but Mary does not only take comfort in the mercy and grace of God, but she also takes comfort in the justice and wrath of God.
You think of it that way?
Do you take comfort on both? That he's gonna get it right in the end, that takes trust. That takes belief that he is righteous and holy and will indeed judge correctly on that final day. But Mary knew that God judges the proud.
He who came to bear sins the first time will return a second time to judge those who hate him. And I know that it's hard for our minds to wrap around this, but there are people, well, maybe some of you have been online, I don't know, but there are people who hate him.
Did you know that? There are people who despise God, and many of them, I say tongue in cheek, but it's true, they don't believe he exists and they really hate him. Well, I've encountered people like this.
There are many who hate him enough to even make, and this is about the harshest and worst that can be said of them, they make a mockery of his sacrifice. Have you encountered that? Where they would make fun of Christ hanging on the cross?
God judges the proud. The fifth thing that Mary knew is that God humbles the proud and exalts the humble. So there's this kind of switcheroo thing that she does here in verse 52. The picture of a, you see all different kinds of things, the very nature, the picture of his nature, the way that God works is being magnified here in this text.
God works through the humble, obscure, and not through the proud, mighty. Now, in the parallelism of this text, it's important to delineate that being, we could start to think wonky and off-kilter thoughts about this that would come from this text if we don't really analyze it and think through what's being said.
We have to delineate that being poor is not an automatic qualification for blessing. It's not like, oh, if we could just be more poor, if we could get rid of all of our money, then we would be blessed by God.
Nor is being wealthier in a high position, think like King David in the Old Testament or Solomon. Those are not automatic qualifications for being torn down. Rather, Mary has already highlighted, and it's important for us to put it all in context, in verse 50 and 51, she's highlighted that his mercy is for those who fear and revere him and that it is the proud in heart who will be scattered in the end.
So what is Mary saying here in this verse that actually highlights her worship or causes her to worship in verse 52? Our God, here's what I believe can summarize what she's getting at in this verse. Our God is not a God of the famous, merely the famous, merely the wealthy, the polished, the put-together, the powerful.
He is the God who will respond to any and all who will humble themselves. Even a king who will truly humble themselves before Jesus, even a rich man who will truly humble themselves before Jesus will receive mercy, amen?
But on this note about God bringing low the proud mighty, I would like to call out a thread that I see being woven into evangelical churches in America, and I just would even caution us to think it through.
Our church could find this thread sewn into the fabric of our fellowship, and it's simply this. It's a thread of might and popularity and fame as the definition of success, likes and followers and all of that.
This definition of success has practically taken over the evangelical world to where we value the wrong things. Pastors seek a broader audience, and it's once you get your podcast over a certain number and you get your YouTube channel watched, and all of a sudden you get invited to a conference and you get to speak there, and bigger hitters, and then you write your book, and then you get a following, and megachurches platform their pastors, and success is measured in social capital and the scope and reach of the authority, power of the church, and the giving, and all of that stuff that seeped into the church from the world's way of looking at power.
And let's read verse 52 again. Go ahead and put your eyes on it. He has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate. Oh man, when I look at the landscape of really kind of like gospel preaching, Bible believing, evangelical Christianity in America, has God been faithful to bring down the proud mighty from their thrones or from their pulpits?
I say yikes to that. Good warning. Maybe judgment really does begin with the household of God. Mary knew that God exalts the poor because to be quite honest, they often get the fear of the Lord. They understand it naturally with humility.
Not all, but often. The sixth thing that Mary knew is that God is a God of provision, verse 53. Again, in context, I have no problem giving this verse a contextual caveat. To have an empty stomach is not more spiritual than having a full stomach.
It's not as though if we could just skip breakfast, lunch, and dinner, then we'd be more spiritual. It's about our hearts. And further, Mary was not ignorant of the fact that the rich can buy their own food.
But I believe that verse 53 is meant to be a metaphor for dependence upon him. This isn't about buying power in verse 53, but more about where we place our trust. Jesus said it is a miraculous act of God when a wealthy person enters the kingdom of God and is saved.
He said, nothing's impossible with God, and it takes kind of like that, him moving past what is impossible to save, a rich person. Why does he say that? Well, there's a simple and straightforward answer to that question, because the wealthy trust in their,.
Can you say it?
Their money. The wealthy trust in their money. They already have a God. They're not even taking applications. They already have that which they serve, that which pleases them, that which gives them joy.
The poor, a little closer to taking applications for something to worship. And God, Jesus says, hey, how about this? How about the Almighty? Mary knew that God doesn't check titles, though. He doesn't check bank accounts.
He doesn't check social statuses. Before he blesses, she knew this, because God had blessed small, young, poor, and seemingly insignificant her. The seventh and eighth thing tie really closely together, but it's probably the most shocking and startling things that Mary knew.
Mary knew that God is making his move to rescue, in verse 54, that this is a big deal. In verse 54, we see that Mary knew more than the author of the song Mary Did You Know is giving her credit for. Her mention of God helping his servant Israel in remembrance of his mercy shows that she sees this as more than merely personal blessing, more than that God was just paying attention to her individually.
Mary knew that God was awakening his merciful promises to his entire people and setting forth to rescue them from their sins. He is awakening to his ancient promises. Well, was he asleep? He remembers.
Well, did he forget?
Well, that language, when used of God, is another way of saying finally acting on what he had promised to do for his people, awakening to the fulfillment of the promises that he, he wasn't asleep, he hasn't forgotten, but he's, man, we ought to pray, I mean, we are told to pray, your kingdom come, your will be done, and even in the end of Revelation, pray, come, Lord Jesus.
Well, he's promised that. Well, keep praying, keep praying and asking, because one day he will wake up to that promise, one day he will remember it, and that means he will say to his right hand, Jesus, go get him.
How are you looking forward to that day? Go get him, go fix it, time to go. Whoo, that day's coming. But Mary knew that God was on the move in their generation to complete the help that he had been promising to his people for centuries.
She did not doubt that what God is doing in her is a huge movement to rescue his people, and that comes into even more focus in our last verse, the eighth thing that Mary knew. Mary knew that God was completing, quite specifically, the covenant he made to Abraham through her.
This is verse 55. He spoke that promise of mercy to the fathers of Israel, to Abraham, and to his offspring forever. This mention of Abraham and his offspring shows such a radical understanding on Mary's part that what's happening in this song, really, the song, Mary, Did You Know, should be changed.
We should change the title.
Mary, You Did Know.
Try singing that.
All of these things, all of these glorious truths here recorded for us. By evoking Abraham here, Mary demonstrates the faith to literally tie, and man, she had to be confident about this. I mean, who says God is saving the world through me?
Can you imagine that?
How do you go, like, either you've got an ego trip,.
Or it better be true, right?
Like, that's crazy, and she sees it, and she knows it, and she's literally tying what is happening in her life to the fulfillment of centuries-old prophecy, a prophecy that stated one offspring would be born from Abraham's descendants who would be a unique blessing to all the nations, and she says, I'm about to give birth to that one, and then even on to the promise to David that one would sit on his throne.
One from his royal line would sit on his throne forever, and she says, that's my boy. What? Mary knew that God was sending the Messiah King through her. How could she know this? Is she just that presumptuous?
Of course not. All she had to do was believe what she was told by the angel who visited her. That's all she needed to do was just believe it. Angel showed up, said some really awesome things. As a matter of fact, here's what the angel said.
Little Mary, in a small corner of the world, is confident that God is fulfilling his covenant promise through her because the angel said this in Luke 1, 32 through 33. You can probably just glance. If you've got a paper copy, you're probably just glancing right there, but 32 through 33 says this.
The words of the angel, speaking of her son that's not yet born, he will be great and will be called the son of the most high, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.
She just believed it. She said, oh, I'll just believe.
That that's what's happening here. She knew this was the promised one. The Old Testament was all about the child she was going to deliver into the world. Mary magnified and rejoiced because of her theology, because what she knew to be true of God, all because of what she knew, because what God told her, and that is the pathway to a life of faith in our everyday life, church, believing what God has told you,.
Believing it's true.
Putting this passage into practice is to allow what we know to fuel our praise. Mary magnified the Lord. She made much of the quiet things he was doing in her and through her. So it would be wise for our first application to be, join with Mary and magnify the works of God in your life.
Magnify the works of God in your life. He has done things for you, he has done things in you, and he has done things through you that only you can testify of. Nobody else is gonna praise him for the way he lifted you up out of addiction.
Nobody else is going to tell the story of the way you were running your hellbound race when he led you to a friend who invited you to church, or whatever your particular circumstances are, you're the one to share it.
It's your story.
You're the only one who can testify and give thanks and glory to God in the midst of others based on his story and what he's done for you. Do you know what I'm talking about? You have a unique office.
You have a unique calling, because he has given you unique circumstances. Both the good and the bad in your life that all come together in this thing called life where he has been working and navigating.
And again, this is part of that rear view mirror look that I'm encouraging you to this week. To look back in that rear view mirror and see the subtlety of the way that God's hand has worked in your life to bring you to where you are today, amen?
Glories upon glories that only you can testify to. To magnify the Lord is to tell the story of God's unique work in your life. You have a unique story to tell, and therefore you have that unique calling to speak out about the very things that God has done for you.
And I just want to point out what's kind of funny. Mary did it through song. Maybe not all of us ought to write a song about it. You wouldn't like me to sing the song of my testimony, but maybe I could just declare it to you, right?
Like, it might be best for many of us if we don't sing it like Mary did. But I can tell you, just in a nutshell, like, I mean, I was a young boy. My dad was diagnosed with cancer when I was five, and when I was eight years old, he passed away, and I was attending an Iwana, anybody ever heard of Iwana, Iwana program?
I was attending an Iwana program at the First Baptist Church in Middleville, Michigan, and a little boy, confused. I can tell you, I just remember being confused about life in general. Kind of like, where's dad?
Like, that was a thought in my head, an eight-year-old boy. And I stayed after, and somebody actually, his name was Jim Foot, I've looked him up. Jim Foot stayed after, prayed with me, and I accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior.
There in that little room in the First Baptist Church in Middleville, Michigan, in the basement, you'd go down the stairs, first room on the left. Anybody, can you share your story? Can you say what I just said?
Can you say that he rescued you from confusion and from difficulty and from your sin and from brokenness, and who knows what my destiny was without that change? I can't tell you, but I can assure you it wasn't good.
I can assure you it wasn't the hopefulness that I feel today. I can assure you it's not the navigation of life. Yeah, certainly not perfect, but man, trying to follow hard after Jesus. And it wasn't instant, it wasn't, I had a little bit of a rough middle school.
Anybody, you know this?
Is that just like, it stuck and I became a pastor that day? Not exactly, so it's been a journey. But I think you guys know what I'm saying. I think most all of you have experienced that. And can you share it?
Can you tell others about it? And any of that's in my notes. So, a second pathway of application comes from the nature of God that is revealed in this text. There's all different, by the way, when I give you these applications, these are not sanctioned, these are my thoughts.
And this is where it starts to get into like, the spirit might be pointing something else out to you that I don't say up here, and that doesn't mean you shouldn't follow him. Because if there's something from this text that God has drawn out into your life, you need to follow it.
I just threw out some potential applications here. But God says he scatters the proud and brings down those who are self-exalted, and he wants to deal with our pride. He exalts those of humble estate, filling the hungry with good things.
And so our second application is take up your rightful place with the humble. Take up your rightful place with the humble. Our goal is, by the way, not to become poor, not to become starving and homeless, and all of us living at the park in Matawan or something like that, that wouldn't be super comfortable.
The trains come through there, it'd be really loud at night. But instead, I'm not even sure if they would let us, but yeah, we should set our sights, rather, on a humble acknowledgement of our neediness.
That's a good place to start, to begin with an identification of our neediness before God. We live in a culture that values strength over weakness, wealth over poverty, fame over a quiet and simple life.
And unfortunately, those values, as I said earlier, have crept into the church. Many pastors strive for clout. Many volunteers serve for recognition. Many churches are all about money and donations. But we are told in Scripture to shoot for a quiet and peaceful life.
Those who set their sights on riches and wealth and fame and strength and power will find that they have set their sights too small. You set your sights too small if those are your goals. We can gain the whole world, said Jesus, while losing our soul.
And that is the most tragic of outcomes. I wish that for none. The call to humility is not a call to merely think terrible thoughts about yourself. Now, I fear that some might think that. When I'm up here preaching, I will often talk about our brokenness, about how we are not what we're meant to be.
So you could walk away from many of my messages thinking as long as I think I'm terrible and I'm rotten and I'm no good, I'm doing what Don wants. But no, we need to apply both sides of this equation and recognize, to apply this text regarding humility is to acknowledge what is true about God like Mary did.
And then also identify what's true about us from our lives. He is holy, he is almighty, he is the only righteous one. And I am broken, and I am unworthy, and I am weak. But he loves me and sent his son to die for me.
And the only good within me is his spirit that he has sent to dwell within me after saving me. And that ties in closely with my last application today, trust in the God who gives mercy to those who fear him.
Fear comes, I think, into the Christian life in a very natural channel. When you realize what your sin deserves, that's our right place of fear. That's the kind of fear that we're looking for. Eternal punishment was our destiny, but God has rescued us, and I like to kind of say in the nick of time.
Just at the right moment, he rescued us. Knowing what my sin deserves gives me a reverent fear and a reverent awe of the one who had the right to condemn me. That was my destiny. That was the direction my life was heading.
Now, I might go into a courtroom with a judge to put it in human terms, with a judge who holds my life in the balance. If he declares me not guilty, he is no less worthy of my reasonable fear, especially when we realize that the judge over our lives, that the sentence could have been eternal condemnation.
A reverent and holy and awesome fear of the one who held our lives in the balance. Yes, he was gracious, and I'm glad for that. But we take communion every Sunday as a reminder of what God has done for us.
And let me encourage all of us who take communion to be sure that we rehearse what you know to be true about God and what he has done for you before you come to those tables. Not just a hurry and get in line first kind of thing here for communion, but a moment to think about it.
A moment to consider, what has he done for me? And if you know that he died for your sins and you've asked him to rescue you and you're at peace with others here in this fellowship, then I encourage you to come to one of the tables during this next song to remember his body broken for us.
We take the cracker to remember that. And we take the cup of juice to remember his blood shed for us. And let me encourage you to leave this place magnifying and rejoicing in the mighty acts of God. Subtle, but mighty acts of God.
He has flexed his strength and his mercy and his love and his grace and his faithfulness in saving lowly sinners like us who will get up in the line. And when we stand in these lines to take communion together, we are testifying that we are broken and busted, but he has loved us beyond measure.
So let's magnify him and rejoice in his works for us.
Let's pray.
Father, I do rejoice. And along with Mary, I just thank you for the model, the example of she who knew so much about you and in the knowing declares those things to be true, that resulted in her magnifying and rejoicing.
And I pray that that would define our lives. Even as we get into these lines and remember the great sacrifice for us and in some semblance of fear and trembling, recognizing what judgment and what condemnation was over our heads and taking the cracker and the juice to remember that's no longer our destiny because of your kindness, your just sheer grace, nothing that we deserved, nothing that we earned.
Oh, we were so close to the fires of hell when you rescued us. So Father, I pray that that turn would result in lives given to you in worship, that it would impact much more than just our vocal chords and singing once in a while, maybe once a week on Sundays here, but it would affect the way we live in gratitude, that you would help us to even be bold with testifying to the glory of what you have done for us.
Mary here, recorded 2 ,000 years ago for us, and still we get to hear the testimony of this one who glorified and magnified you. I pray that you would use us in that way to declare your glory, your goodness, your kindness, and the good things that you have done to others, even this week and over this holiday season.
And I ask this in Jesus' precious name, amen.