The Magnificat

We'll be in Luke chapter one. We'll pick up the same verse that we finished off last Sunday. And I have this question for you before we dig in today. Do you know, just a little bit of trivia here. Do you know who wrote the very, very, very first Christmas carol?

Who wrote the very first Christmas carol? Was it Jingle Bells? No. Was it Joy to the World?

That's a pretty good one. No. Silent Night? No. Actually, it was Mary. Mary wrote the very first Christmas carol.

She wrote it even before Jesus was born. And we refer to it as the Magnificat. The Magnificat. And we'll be reading that very first Christmas carol today. What's the word magnificat mean?

Well, it comes from Latin originally. We find it in the Latin Vulgate translation. It was translated from Greek into Latin in about 382 AD and it reads like this in the Latin Vulgate in Luke 1:46, “Magníficat ánima mea Dóminum.” In other words, “My soul magnifies the Lord.”

So magnificat means to magnify, to exalt, to call great, to lift up and to consider greater than oneself. And so that's what it means to magnify the Lord. Now, as we think about this message of Christmas and of Christ coming, does it cause you to make much of the Lord? Does it cause you to reflect anew on what he has done for us in his coming? Or do you sometimes struggle in this season?

A lot of people struggle in the Christmas season, especially those like myself, as I used to be. I worked retail for 12 years, and so at Christmas, we never got a day off. I mean, like, from the day after Thanksgiving, you know, Black Friday all the way through the day after Christmas, which is one of the biggest days of the year where everybody's hoping to get a good deal on December 26th. I never got a day off for 12 years. I worked every day those days.

And so Christmas would feel like I was going to have to work really hard. And I got so sick and tired of those Santa songs and all those jingle bells that would play in every store. And so maybe that's you. And maybe you've gotten kind of a “bah humbug” kind of spirit. Or maybe you're just, you know, kind of overwhelmed by the busyness of the season.

Maybe you're the one, the designated one in the family that has to buy all the gifts. And you're like, oh, I hope they like what I got. You're concerned about these kinds of things. Or it could be that Christmas just reminds you that there's a certain stocking you won't be hanging this year on the mantel, that there's a seat at the table on Christmas Eve that that person won't be sitting in. And Christmas is just kind of a reminder of that.

There's a lot of different emotions that go into this season that cause us to feel, well, not so much like magnifying the Lord, but in feeling kind of down or maybe distracted or overwhelmed. What would be a better way to respond? What would be a faithful way to respond to this message, this good news that Jesus has come and that Jesus is coming again? Well, I think as we look at our story today, we'll see the faithful response of two women and even an unborn child, and how they respond faithfully to the news that Jesus is coming and that he is coming again, that the Christ has come. And as we look at the text today,

I think we'll see three faithful ways, three faithful responses that we can make. So let's dig in. We're picking up at verse 39 of chapter one. This is the next verse after our sermon from last week. Luke 1:39-56 (ESV) 39 In those days Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country, to a town in Judah,

40 and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. 41 And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, 42 and she exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! 43 And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? 44 For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy.

45 And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.” 46 And Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord, 47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, 48 for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant. For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed; 49 for he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name.

50 And his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. 51 He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts; 52 he has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate; 53 he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich

he has sent away empty. 54 He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, 55 as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his offspring forever.” 56 And Mary remained with her about three months and returned to her home. This is God's word. Amen.

We're looking for three ways, three faithful responses to the good news of Christ's coming. Here's the first way we can faithfully respond:

Let's note some details about this story. Notice this that the baby, the unborn child who we come to know later, is named John the Baptist. Born to Zechariah and Elizabeth, he leapt for joy in his mother's womb at the greeting. At the sound of the voice of Mary, we see him leaping for joy. We see Mary moving in haste to get there quickly to find out what the angel Gabriel had told him would be the sign of her own miraculous birth. And then we see Elizabeth, her relative, exclaiming with joy when she sees Mary arrive. We see the faithful response of all three of these with this great spirit filled joy.

As we look at the text, it says in verse 39, “In those days Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country, to a town in Judah,” In those days, Mary arose. It didn't take her long, and she moved with haste. Soon as that angel left, she got up and she packed her bags and she started heading out with haste to go and meet with her relative Elizabeth. It says that she went to the hill country, to the house of Zechariah and Elizabeth. And if you look at a map, I haven't put a map up in so long.

Aren't you happy? I got a map for you. They live up there in Nazareth, close to the Sea of Galilee. This is where Mary and Joseph live. And so she hears that her relative Elizabeth is with child 6 months along in her pregnancy.

And so she heads down to the hill country just southwest of Jerusalem in a town we believe was Ein Karem. And so this is the area that we believe she went to. Now, here's what you should take note of is the distance they would always in those days, go around Samaria. Samaria was an area that the Jews didn't agree with about a lot of things. They had intermarried with other people groups, and so they looked down their nose at the Samaritans and they could get in trouble a bit.

If they went through that territory, they might not be accepted. And so she would have avoided Samaria and taken a longer route. But in a way, it was a better route because it's along the Jordan Valley, the River Jordan, and it's an easier route to walk. But then she would get to Jericho.

And I've made this trip in a bus up from Jericho to Jerusalem. Your ears pop about three times going straight uphill. It's about 1700ft, climbing. It's quite a journey. And then she would go past Jerusalem, southwest.

to her relatives Zechariah and Elizabeth. It's about 100 miles on foot. It would have taken her five days walking. Quite a journey. It's easy just to read the text and not think about it.

This is why we take time sometimes to just kind of put ourselves in the story, look at a map, think about it. Do you do that when you read a story? It makes it come to life so that you really get what's going on. Now, who is this house of Zechariah, this house that she goes to to meet with her relative Elizabeth?

Well, Zechariah, he's a priest. And if you'll remember, he's the one who had a sign from Gabriel that his wife, who was elderly, they were both elderly, and she had been barren her whole life, was going to have a child. And so he had heard this word when he was in the temple doing his temple service, and he'd heard this word. So this is that Zechariah. So he's from the tribe of Levi.

And we also read in the scripture that his wife Elizabeth was also from the tribe of Levi. Now, the thing we know about Mary and Joseph, they're both from the tribe of Judah, and that they were more specifically from the house of David, the line of David, which is important. Now, how would Elizabeth be a relative of theirs? Well, some suppose that perhaps. And this is a perhaps, by the way, just trying to get inside the story that perhaps Elizabeth was

Mary's mother's sister, and maybe Mary's mother was from the tribe of Levi and married a man from the tribe of Judah. Just a way of thinking about it kind of works out that would make her relative her aunt because she's so much older. If she is a cousin, as some would translate this, she was a lot older cousin than Mary, who's probably 14, 15 years old somewhere in there. And this woman is a much older woman, past the age of childbearing. Now, why do I want to get myself inside the story so much?

Because I'm trying to picture this. Mary shows up at the door, okay? She knocks on the door she couldn't phone ahead. There were no phones. She couldn't email ahead.

There was no email. She just shows up at the door. That's how some of us older people still remember when people would just show up at your door. She just showed up at the door. And here's, here's Elizabeth, who I think had been thinking about Mary because the Holy Spirit seems to have prepared her.

And so here's Mary. She opens the door. There's her sweet relative, young Mary. And can you see this? Have you ever gone to visit one of your elderly aunts and surprised her at the door?

I see her now. Don't you see her? Whoo hoo. It's Mary. And she grabs her on both sides of the face and just plants all these kisses on her face.

And she gets loud. It says in the scripture, when she heard the greeting, she felt the baby move within her womb. Moms, you know what she's talking about, right? You felt the life of a newborn within, the life of an infant in your womb. You know what that feels like.

She felt him leap.. And then it says that she exclaimed with a loud cry, I won't even have to translate this Greek word for you. I bet you'll get it. Megaphone.

Great cry. A loud voice. Woo hoo. Oh. And then immediately we see a triple blessing come out of her mouth.

Three blessings from the Holy Spirit. It's as if she had a visitation herself. The Holy Spirit is like, she prophesies over Mary right there, as if she knows the whole story, which is so encouraging. You know, it had to be to Mary because after all, she just made this five day trek to be there, 100 miles on foot to be there and then to hear God speak to her through her relative Elizabeth. Oh, my goodness, such joy.

They were both jumping up and down. You know they were. And so she exclaims with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women…” That's the first blessing.

Because you know, every little Jewish girl from the tribe of Judah dreamed that she might be the mother of the Messiah. Blessed are you. He chose you. And then the second blessing. “...and blessed is the fruit of your womb!”

Blessed is he. “And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” She already knows it's the Lord that Mary's going to bear a child. And this child is no ordinary child, but he is God incarnate. God in the flesh.

He's the Lord. Elizabeth already knows this and she declares it. And then the third blessing, first she's got to tell her. Hey, guess what? Put your hand right here.

44 “For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy.” That says something to me about the sanctity of human life, doesn't it you? Something about the unborn, that they can experience joy. They have feelings and emotions. And even recognizing the voice of one as she approached and recognizing the joy of his mother.

And here's John the Baptist, before he's even born, already touched by the Holy Spirit. Oh, what a miraculous child he grows up to be. This one who makes way for the Lord and pronounces and declares him to the Jews. Oh, my goodness. This story is so filled with the miraculous.

A triple blessing, the third one in verse 45, “And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.” This is where our joy comes from. It's not from all the things that bring us happiness and temporary happiness, all the glitter and the gold and the lights and the presence and the food, but that Christ has come. It says in Romans, chapter 14, verse 17,

“For the Kingdom of God is not a matter of what we eat or drink, but of living a life of goodness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” It's not about all the Christmas candies and all the foods and all the cookies and all the great stuff, the Christmas ham and the turkey or whatever your preference is. All those things are good. They're not bad things. They're good, good things.

But the best thing that brings you joy that's not based on circumstances is Christ. He is the source of our joy. Have you seen these videos where a soldier returns from being somewhere in the Middle east or somewhere on assignment, and he surprises his family by his arrival? If you've seen some of these reels, I can't resist them when I see one of them. I've seen enough of them.

I don't need to watch the next one. Then I hit Go. You know, I have to watch it again. And so maybe it's a little middle school girl and she's playing on her volleyball team and she's out on the court and it's a timeout section because the school's been notified, the coach has been notified about what's about to happen. They've got a microphone ready and everything.

And then the little girl, she's like in a huddle with her, with the other little girls at the timeout and all the other little girls, they're kind of in on it, and they start pointing. She says, what? You know, she turns and here comes her daddy, and he's in a full uniform and he's carrying a bouquet of flowers. And she looks at him and the different emotions that cross her face. First of all, confusion.

That looks like my daddy and he's not supposed to be here. And then, surprise. It really is my daddy. I haven't seen him in a year. Then she takes off and just blasts into the air.

She leaps for joy and puts her arms around him. No one has to write a script for that. No one has to tell her what joy looks like. She feels it because she sees the one she loves and she runs to him. You see, that's the kind of joy that the announcement to us, the good news that Christ has come and he is coming again and that he is fully present by his spirit to those who love him and those who call upon his name.

He is God with us. We can run to him. And the joy is not manufactured. The joy is not based on changing circumstances. It's based on Christ.

This true joy is not from the season. It's from the Savior. It's not from the presents under the tree, but it's from the presence of the Lord Jesus in our lives. And so this joy, do you know this joy, this joy that can't be taken away, that's Mary, that's Elizabeth, that's even the unborn child, John the Baptist. No one had to coach them into this joy.

They didn't have to manufacture it. It came to them because the Spirit gave them this joy. Would you turn your attention away from the things of this world during this season? And would you choose to look afresh at that well known story, the well known story, Christ has come and be reminded that the cradle points to the cross. Not only has he come as a child, but he came as a Savior to save us.

Let this season remind us of this joy that's available through him and through the Spirit. That's the first way that we can faithfully respond to the good news of Christ's coming. Here's the second:

Well, we've gotten ourselves down to that third blessing, verse 45, and I want to touch on that in a few verses following. 45 “And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.” Now you remember when, back in verse 38, which we read last week, how did Mary respond once the angel explained to her what God was going to do once she got over the p's and q's of how it was going to happen? How can this be, since I'm a virgin. He explained it to her. The Holy Spirit will overshadow you and God Most High will cause you to be with child.

And he's going to be the Son of God. And so she'd gotten this. And how does she respond back in verse 38? Well, let's. Let's remind ourselves.

It says this. She says, Luke 1:38 (ESV) And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” It's a servant-like submission. The Greek word for servant there is in the feminine ending duly.

The masculine ending is doulos. Doulos. Maybe you've heard that. It's usually translated as slave. The King James, I think, translates it here and captures the feminine ending.

It says, “Behold, I'm the Lord's maidservant or handmaiden. I'm the Lord's handmaid. And so this is how she approaches when she hears God's word. She doesn't say, well, I've got an opinion too. I think it should go like this or I believe most of God's word.

I believe a lot of this. I don't know if I believe all that back there because some of that really bothers me. But this over here. And no, that's not how she came at God's word. When she heard God's word, she said, I'm just a servant.

I submit to his word. May it be to me just as you have said, according to your word. I want all that you have for me, God, even though I don't know fully what's getting ready to happen, I say, yes. My yes is on the table. That's what servant-like submission looks like.

This is what Elizabeth, I don't think it's an accident that she points this out. 45 “And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.” In other words, what God said is going to happen, it's going to be just as he said. Now, sitting over in the corner, this is me trying to get inside.

The story is old Zachariah. He's not saying much. You know why? He hadn't been able to talk for six months. It's been a blessed time for Elizabeth. It’s been quiet in the house.

He's a priest, he's a man of many words, usually. But, he hadn't said a word since he left the temple because Gabriel struck him dumb, struck him mute. And so why? Because he asked a question too, and it doesn't seem fair.

When Mary asked a question, she got an explanation. But if you notice the wording, carefully how they word them. She asks, how can this be since I am a virgin? That was her question. He asks, how can I know that this is going to happen?

And that's a different word. That's more like, how can I believe it? And he goes, I'll tell you what, I'm going to give you a sign. You're not going to be able to talk again until he's born.

That was the sign. So here's Mary. She's settled into the house now, and she's starting to sing her song that she's written, you know, the first Christmas carol ever written. It's about to come out of her mouth, but Elizabeth says, you're probably wondering why the old man over here is not talking much. It's because he didn't believe at first.

Oh, he believes. Now that I'm six months pregnant, he believes. You know, they haven't been able to talk. But blessed are you because you believed. That's just me putting myself inside the story.

I don't know if all that happened exactly that way, but it doesn't seem accidental that she points this out in her third blessing. You believed it before you saw it. You were willing to pack your bags and walk five days, 100 miles to come see me, because that's how much you believed it. You believed it and you acted on it. That's biblical faith right there.

And then she breaks forth in a song. It's quite a song, “The Magnificat.: And she starts off these first verses, 46 through 49. It's kind of about her and God. “50 And his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. 51 He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts; 52 he has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate; 53 he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty. 54 He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, 55 as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his offspring forever.” From the deepest place in my life, I say, you're great, God.

She's going to transfer to a different level at verse 50. But the first few verses, it's about her and God. And she starts. 46 And Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord, 47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,

And she celebrates who he is. And you're great. And she talks about my spirit, rejoices in God, my Savior. She's calling on him as savior.

48 “for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant.”There's that word again. Servant. The servant-like submission.

“...For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed; 49 for he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name.” Now, look, this is her just very, very clearly putting herself in contrast to God. He's holy.

I'm not. He's mighty. I'm little. He's wonderful. He's great.

He's my Savior. And I need one. I need a savior. She puts herself in the right perspective and she sings this song to the Lord. She makes herself as a handmaiden to the Lord, a servant to the Lord.

It reminds me of how Jesus talked to those that were calling him Lord, Lord, but they weren't living like it. You find this in Luke 6:46 (ESV) "Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you?" Why do we do that? Why do we say, lord, help me?

And then we go out and we don't do what he tells us. This is what it really means to call Christ Lord is to not only say it with our mouths, but to say it with our hands and with our feet. Say it with our conduct and our character. You know, if you look at a sailboat, and by the way, I love boats. I love being out on the water.

And sailboats are particularly beautiful. They're often fashioned from wood, and there's kind of an artistic flair to a lot of them. And they can be well crafted, beautifully painted, sitting on sparkling blue water. But unless you put the sails up, they don't move. They just sit there.

It won't go anywhere unless you put the sails up. But if you put the sail up, it can catch the wind. And as the wind blows, the sail catches this. And that boat that was sitting dead in the water is suddenly lifted. And as it surrenders itself to the wind, it can move at a great rate.

It can move quickly. And Mary positioned her life so she could catch the wind of the spirit. Spirit, how did that happen? She said, yes, all that you have and all that you want from me, I want it all. Let it be unto me, according to your word, I am your servant.

You just do whatever you want to do with me and through me. And that just made it possible for her to lift up her spiritual sails and to sail with the Lord. Now, a lot of us want to do that, but we'd like for him to tell us exactly where we're going first. Especially us planner types, now, Lord, I'm willing to take the next step, but could you tell me how this is going to work out here? And he says, no, I want you to just trust me to take the next step.

And I'll tell you the next step after you take that step. But Lord. And what does that reveal? That reveals fear. Fear on your part, but also a wrong kind of fear of his best for you.

That his best for you is better than your idea of your best for you. And so I'm wondering today where you've said no. In a small place to the Lord, going into this Christmas, where have you failed to hoist your sails to the Spirit and say whatever you want from me, whatever you want. My answer is yes. So that you might be carried along by the Spirit of the Lord according to his word.

I pray that this Christmas season would draw you back to that place, perhaps that place that you've said wait or no, and the Lord is waiting for your yes, before his power begins to blow through your life and move you forward. Would you consider that today as you think about your right and faithful response to the good news that Christ has come and is available to us? That leads us to our third response, our third faithful response to the good news of Christ's coming:

We're at verse 50 now and to the end, to the following end. And you might be saying, well, that's a strange point. Scripture- based praise. Well, here's what I want you to notice. This song, this Magnificat, is completely soaked in Old Testament scripture from the Psalms, but particularly from a very specific place.

Now, the young women of that day in Jewish culture were not highly educated. They were taught to read, I believe, and they could read scripture. But they, I think, were especially favored to memorize the psalms because they would sing them. And you know this, if you sing something, it's easier to memorize it. “Kool Aid,

Kool Aid, tastes great. Wish we had some. Can't wait.” You have to be my age group to remember that commercial.

Why is that taking up space in my brain? There's so many wonderful things that that space could be used for. I've got a Kool Aid commercial to “To all beef patty special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun.” Yeah, it's all up in there.

My goodness, let's make room for something better. And so here's Mary singing what we think is a hymn. We know it's a Holy Spirit inspired song. But is it a brand new song or is it based on material that she had learned as a little girl that now is written in a fresh new way? I think it's the whole ladder.

I think she had sung the Psalms. We see them here leaking into this song, but a particular song. And that was a song, a prayer written and sung by Hannah, the mother of Samuel, who is a foreshadowing of Mary and of Jesus. And if you look at how Hannah's song starts in 1 Samuel 2:1 (ESV) And Hannah prayed and said, “My heart exults in the Lord.”

And then Mary starts off, Luke 1:46 (ESV) And Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord.” And I don't have time to do it this morning, but maybe you'll take time to compare this chapter with First Samuel chapter two and see. You know what? I think Mary had been singing Hannah's song.

Maybe the little Jewish girls recognize this as a Messianic promise song, that Hannah was a type of mother that would give birth to the Messiah and that Samuel, who was the last of all the prophets, of all the judges, who held all three titles of prophet, priest and king until Jesus. He's a foreshadowing. Perhaps little Jewish girls have been singing this song. And so whenever she sings the Magnificat, it's informed by her scripture background.

I think it changes the way we sing and the way we pray. When our thought life, our memories are saturated with scripture. And then when the Holy Spirit hits play, Scripture comes out in a fresh way because it's saturated our souls. This is me just trying to think through this. Because she switches from the self referential part from 46 to 49 of what God has done for her to just God himself and all of his attributes.

And she in verse 50 says, “And his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation.” His mercy is so great, especially to those who fear Him. His forgiveness, his grace, his mercy and his strength. Verse 51, “He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts;

Verse 52 “He has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate;” Verse 53, “He has filled the hungry with good things,” He's a provider, he's the God of provision. He's God Almighty. He's El Shaddai, He's Elohim. She's just going through them and her soul just lifts up past her personal reflection on the Lord to just this great magnificat of praising Him.

It's scripture informed and scripture empowered. And even in this, as it concludes in verse 55, it refers to a Messianic promise. It was the one given to Abraham as he spoke to our fathers, specifically to Abraham and to his offspring forever. So right here she concludes with a Messianic promise. I wish the ESV would have left it in more of the original idea “and to his seed forever,” because that's the way it reads in the Greek offspring is accurate.

Seed is even more accurate because Paul comments on it like this in Galatians 3:16 (NKJV) Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made. He does not say, “And to seeds,” as of many, but as of one, “And to your Seed,” who is Christ.And so Paul takes note. It wasn't plural seeds.

It wasn't all of Abraham's sons. There's one coming. He's the Seed, capital S. He's the Christ, the Messiah. And she concludes her song with that. Very similar to the way Hannah sang her song.

We find in 1 Samuel 2:10 (ESV) “… he will give strength to his king and exalt the horn of his anointed.” Anointed in the Hebrew is Messiah, or in the Greek Christos, which is where we get the word Christ. Both of these songs both point to the Messiah. We see this wonder, this scripture base. I love it when songs have a scripture base.

You know, sometimes I'll hear a modern worship song and it'll be more sentimental and a lot about feelings and stuff. And it might touch me the first time, but by the third time, I'm tired of that song. But if it's got Jesus in there and some scripture in it, man, I can sing that song forever. And that's probably why the old hymns pop up in my head whenever I'm thinking about what I'm going to sing. It might also be because I'm old and I grew up singing the old hymns, but it's because I think we need to let scripture inform our singing and our praying and let scripture elevate.

So we move past just the laundry list praying, but we move into a place where we really begin to lift up the Lord in our prayers. We see this in Mary, this Mary, she might only be 13, 14, 15 years old. We think she's a young teenager based on that society and that time, but boy, she's a grown up when it comes to the Lord. And may I speak to these young people in the room right now, the young teenager? You can be more grown spiritually than the adults around you if you get on fire for Jesus.

And I see this in Mary. And then what do we see here in the book of Colossians? We see an instruction to us about putting scripture in our singing and in our praying. It says, Colossians 3:16 (ESV) “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.”

And so we need, we need this, we need to sing, we need to pray the scripture back to God. I think God loves it when we pray his word back to him. When we sing his Word back to him. I think he loves that. Have you ever heard a musician improvise, a great musician, really know how to take a song and then do an improvisation.

Man, we have some great musicians in our church. Don't you agree? We have some great music. They've done a great job already today, especially with the Christmas music that they only play once a year. And many of these songs are brand new to them.

They've worked really hard this week, and some of what they're doing is improvisation. But do you realize that people who improvise, first of all, have spent thousands of hours practicing. You can't improvise unless you've rehearsed. And especially you don't want someone who hasn't done that improvising, like, please stick to the music on the page, but someone who has learned to play it a certain way, then they begin to feel inspired, to add some improvisation. They can do that. And I think when we saturate our souls with the Scripture, it allows us to apply it, to improvise it into our prayers, into our conversations, into the way that will change the way we faithfully reply and respond to God.

During this season called Christmas, how will Scripture shape your worship this Christmas? Instead of letting your feelings dictate your praise or lack thereof, let the Word impact your feelings. Why not say, this Christmas, this season, I'm going to make scripture reading a regular part of my diet. And especially maybe dig into the book of Luke, since we're preaching through it, and really meditate and put yourself in the story, the way I'm trying to lead us to do.

Put yourself in the story. Because after all, God is writing a story. The central character is Jesus, but you're part of what he's writing. He's writing the story, and Jesus is the star. And I think if we read a portion of Luke and maybe prayed through the Psalms, it would really help us this Christmas.

And when you gather with your family, when you sing Christmas carols on Christmas Eve, make sure you gather the kids around and maybe pick the one who just learned how to read to read Luke 2 and read those at least the first 14 verses of Luke 2 and begin to let your praise be rooted in Scripture. We have one more place here, verse 56 before we close. It says, “And Mary remained with her about three months and returned to her home.” Let's see, she was six months along when Mary got there. Three months have passed.

She's been staying there with her relative, Elizabeth, maybe her aunt Elizabeth, maybe her cousin. We don't know for sure, but she's older. She stayed there now six plus three. Check my math ladies, that's nine months. Do you think she left before John was born?

I don't think there's any way now. It doesn't record it. So here's Gary again. He's perhaps saying that that's not an accident that she was there until the ninth month, she stayed until the end of ninth month. I think she was there.

I think she was there. In my mind I can see her holding little John the Baptist when he was first born. He's already touched by the Holy Spirit before he was even born. And I think she was there when they said, what's his name going to be? And Elizabeth said he's going to be named John.

And they all went, John's not a family name. You should call him Zechariah junior and then over there in the corner, Zechariah, who hasn't talked for nine months, he can write though. He writes his name is John with an exclamation mark and the minute he hits the exclamation mark his tongue is returned to him and he starts shouting and talking about what God has done. He writes his own song right there. I think Mary saw all that.

But then what?

She returned to her home. She has a five day walk. She has experienced the joy of Elizabeth's greeting and her spirit inspired blessings. And she has seen the miracle of John the Baptist being born and heard the story of him leaping in the womb. She saw Zechariah begin to get his tongue back and prophesy..

She's experienced three months of joy. Now she's got to go back home. She's three months pregnant now. She's got to go back home. Back to the ordinary, back to the simple, ordinary routines, ordinary home, ordinary responsibilities.

What do you do then? Christmas season's over, church is over, it's time to go home. What are you going to take home with you today? Well, you can take home with you the same response that Mary took home with her. She was going to respond to God's word with servant-like submission.

She's going to respond with this spirit-filled joy, not in the season, but in the Savior. She's going to respond with this scripture based praise and prayer. We can do that, we can take that home.

Let's pray.

Lord, may it be so unto us according to your word, we are your servants.

Have you ever prayed that I am your servant, Lord? Right in your seat right now, would you pray? Lord, I'm a sinner. I need a savior. I believe you died on the cross for my sin, that you were raised from the grave and that you live today.

Come live in me. Forgive me of my sin. Adopt me into your family. I want to be a child of God. I want to follow you as my Lord.

I give you my life. I surrender my all to you. I trust you as my Lord and Savior. If you're praying that prayer of faith, believing, he'll save you, he'll make you his own. Others are here today and you've done that.

You're a follower of Jesus, but there's a stuck place in your life. You're not experiencing the joy that is promised as a fruit of the spirit. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control. These are the fruit of the spirit. Are you experiencing that? Lord,

show me where I'm basing my life on feelings or circumstances rather than on Christ Jesus today. Would you restore to me the joy of the Lord? I recommit my life to you and the centrality of you, Lord Jesus in my life. Be present in me, Lord. I pray all this now in Jesus' name, Amen.

Audio

1. By responding with Spirit-filled joy.

2. By responding with Servant-like submission.

3. By responding with Scripture-based praise.

Audio

What to watch next...

The Incarnation

The Prophecy

A Vision for Your Life

A Vision for Your Family

Ready to Dig Deeper?