Pastor Marty Wednesday, July 15, 2015 at 12:45PM July 12, 2015--Luke 18:35-43
This sermon was preached by Pastor Nick Hauenstein. Please click the audio link in order to listen to it.
Email Article | Print Article | Share Article | tagged Blindness, Faith, Healing, Jesus, Mercy, Praise Pastor Marty Thursday, December 12, 2013 at 2:44PM Note: We apologize that an audio of today's message is not available.
We have been looking at the Christmas story in Luke 1 and 2. So today we pick it up in Luke 1:39-56. Mary has just received the news from the angel Gabriel that she is to become pregnant by the Creative power of the Holy Spirit. However, he had also revealed to her the miracle that her relative Elizabeth was now 6 months pregnant. This situation opens the door for Mary to leave her home town in Nazareth and go down to the Jerusalem area and stay with Elizabeth till she delivers. Elizabeth would need the help and Mary could use her company and understanding. Who else would truly understand her pregnancy?
When Mary comes into their house and greets them a strange thing occurs. It is not strange for babies to kick and move in the womb and by now Elizabeth would know that. However, there is a large movement of the baby and Elizabeth is filled with the Holy Spirit. She breaks out in a praise and prophetic declaration under the influence of the Holy Spirit. Verses 42-45 record this outburst. First of all Mary hasn’t said anything yet, but by the Holy Spirit, Elizabeth recognizes that Mary is pregnant with the Messiah, “my Lord.” Not only does she recognize that the Messiah has now come, but she also blesses Mary for her trust in the Lord and encourages her. How invaluable this moment, and many more encouraging ones afterwards, must have become to Mary. She who would be looked upon as a sinner without understanding, had one individual in Elizabeth who understood the miracle of what God was doing through Mary.
Mary’s response to this is referred to as a song because it is in a poetic style and has been used as a hymn by the Church from its beginning. It is also called the Magnificat (Latin) because of Mary’s opening line of Magnifying the Lord. However, this is more than a song. It too is a prophetic pronouncement and praise by Mary. This prophecy is given in the same style and Spirit as Hannah the mother of Samuel in 1 Samuel chapter 2.
In verse 46 Mary magnifies the Lord. To magnify the Lord is to cause His reputation to be greater. God is what He is and no one can make Him greater. But we can cause the greatness of who He is to be recognized more. In a world that has cynically rejected the greatness of God, we need people who will magnify the Lord with their words and their deeds. Our lives can increase or diminish the view that others hold of God. An interesting thing about this is that God loves to be magnified by the lowly. Mary is no great person in the political scene of Israel and, yet, she is able to magnify the Lord. In fact, God has made it abundantly clear that he prefers the praise of the lowly over the false words of the great.
How highly and how great do you see God as? Is He only a figment of the imagination of an ancient culture? Is He just a good idea that is inspiring to us today? Or, is He the Mighty One who loves to help the lowly? We can never think too highly of the Lord. May God increase our understanding and may we magnify Him in the eyes of others.
We can rejoice in the general things that God has done for us all. He has created a planet with all that we need to live and enjoy life. He has provided salvation for us. He has given us His Word in living and written form. He has made His Spirit available to all who believe in Jesus. But we should also rejoice in the things that He has specifically done for us. Mary gives praise specifically that the Lord has chosen her to bear the Messiah. Only one woman of all history would ever have this distinction, not even Eve herself. Yet, our praise of the specifics God does in our life should never be in comparison to others. Even though God has not done a thing of such magnitude through you, don’t diminish what He has done. Learn to take joy in those things which God does for you. In fact, as bearers of Jesus we find ourselves in a similar situation as Mary and able to rejoice that God has chosen us to bring Christ into the lives of others.
I would point out that in verse 47 Mary recognizes that she is a sinner in need of a Savior, “my savior.” She was not some salty sailor of extreme wickedness. But, neither was she a sinless, immaculately conceived being. She was a young girl who believed the promises of God and was living for Him. And yet, she also knew that she needed a savior. She too was tainted by sin. What a joy to know that the time had come that her sins and the sins of her people would be removed by the Messiah in one day!
In verses 48-50, Mary recognizes the mercy of God in choosing one who is lowly. Now Mary is a young girl who is part of an off-shoot of the Davidic line. She is not of a family that is in line for the throne nor involved in the politics of the day. They couldn’t be much more removed from power and influence than to live in Nazareth. Neither do they appear to be of any great economic stature. Mary sees herself as lowly in the estimation of the world around her. Yet, God took notice of her. O friend, what is it in a person that catches the eye of God? It can only be by keeping ourselves lowly of heart. Mary could not control her circumstances, but she could control her heart. Even when we are doing great in the estimation of the world, let us lower ourselves as Christ did. Dying to the life of ease so that we can tend to the burdens of others is the hallmark of our Lord. More than food, and health, people need the salvation of Christ that touches the burden of their sin. How horrible it would be to feed someone and clothe them and yet do nothing for their soul. God does not need great people. He simply needs someone who is humble enough to greatly trust Him. Humble yourself in the eyes of the Lord and He will lift you up in due time.
Next Mary exults that God not only notices and chooses the lowly, but He purposely rejects the proud and mighty of this world. Yes, He notices them. Yet, He refuses them. In fact, He has pledged Himself to judge them. 1 Peter 5:5 says, “Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for ‘God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.’ “ Also, in James 5 read verses 1-7. “
Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming upon you! 2 Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten. 3 Your gold and silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be a witness against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have heaped up treasure in the last days. 4 Indeed the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out; and the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. 5 You have lived on the earth in pleasure and luxury; you have fattened your hearts as in a day of slaughter. 6 You have condemned, you have murdered the just; he does not resist you. 7 Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord.”
We cannot count on justice in this age. But, God promises a day of judgment in which all will stand before Him and give account. All things will be rectified by God. Much evil is done in this life in the name of getting justice. Beware of the fact that the enemy loves to use good things as a cover for all manner of evil. Also recognize that God has made the rationale He will use on that day abundantly clear throughout the Scriptures.
Israel itself is a type of the lowly. When God needed a nation to bring forth Truth and the Messiah, He did not choose the proud and mighty nations of the world (Egypt, Chaldeans, Assyrians, etc…). Rather, he found a single, lowly man, and made a nation out of him. Among the nations of the time, Israel was the “slave nation” who would not even exist if it wasn’t for the help and grace of God. God had made promises to Abraham and his children. Now it was being remembered as the Messiah was conceived. God is a God who remembers and helps the lowly. Even to this day, the nations of the world look down on Israel as something that should not exist. To them the world would be better if she disappeared or were completely destroyed. Be careful when you are standing in line judging others that you are not loading the ammunition that will be used against you by the Lord.
May God help us to be faithful to the Lord in our generation. God help us to trust Him. God help us to believe that no matter how lowly we are in the world’s eyes and by the world’s measures, God will exalt us in due time and put down the proud.