Luke 1:46–55 "Magnify the Lord!"

Hi, my name is George Sinclair. I'm the lead pastor of Church of the Messiah.

! It is wonderful that you would like to check out some of the sermons done by Church of the Messiah,

either by myself or some of the others. Listen, just a couple of things. First of all, would you pray for us

that we will open God's Word well to His glory and for the good of people like yourself?

The second thing is, if you aren't connected to a church and if you are a Christian,

we really, I would really like to encourage you to find a good local church where they believe the

Bible, they preach the gospel, and if you have some trouble finding that, send us an email. We will do

what we can to help connect you with a good local church wherever you are. And if you're a non-Christian,

checking us out, we're really, really, really glad you're doing that. Don't hesitate to send us

questions. It helps me actually to know, as I'm preaching, how to deal with the types of things

that you're really struggling with. So God bless.

What I'm about to say might be a bit of a trigger for some people, and I don't apologize for it,

because it's important to talk about. But I just want to let you know, because the text has actually

something very important to talk about in terms of sexual violence against women. And so I know that

there might be women here who have been victims, or maybe even being victims of sexual violence. And

so this could be a bit hard. Even me saying this could be a bit hard. All I could say is, if it is

hard, we would love to walk with you and pray with you. And if you need some help in pursuing justice,

we would love to walk with you as you pursue that. But I'm not just saying this just because it would be

a good thing to get your attention at the beginning, although I probably, most of you thought when you

were coming to church today, I wouldn't begin my sermon with something like that. But during this

season of Advent, we're going to do four songs of the Savior. And all of them are in the Gospel of Luke.

And the first one we're going to look at is what's called the Magnificat, or Mary's Song. And it's sung by

Mary after she, well, we'll get to it in the story, but it's before the birth of Jesus. Next Sunday, we're going to

look at Zedekiah's song after John the Baptist is born and before the birth of Jesus. And on the third Sunday,

we're going to look at the song that the angels sang to the shepherds to announce that Jesus was born. And then on the

Sunday before Christmas, we're going to look at the song that Simeon sang over the baby Jesus. And that's called the

Nunc Dimittis, for those of you who are familiar with that from maybe classical music or liturgy. And it's very

interesting. So if you turn your Bibles, it's, I'm going to, well, it was going to be in Luke chapter one. And here's the

thing about it. So what goes on before Mary's Song? If you don't know what goes on before Mary's Song, then Mary's Song doesn't

make any sense. And so what's happened just before this is that the angel Gabriel has appeared to a young woman by the name of

Mary. And Mary was probably 15 years old. In those days, engagements were about a year. So she probably would have been

married around 16. So she's probably 15 when he has this visit from the angel and she would be in her home. And she's Jewish. And

she's of lower working class background. And she lives in Nowheresville, even in terms of the Jewish world and in terms of

ultimately the colonizing power of Rome, the great Roman Empire. She's a very, very, very low status. And she, if, if, and they

would think Jerusalem was Nowheresville. So this is like Nowheresville squared where she is. And she's in, in her house, probably. And all of a sudden, an angel appears from

God and speaks to her. And when he speaks to her, he says that she's favored. Basically, he says that the Most High God would like to use her to be the vehicle or the means by which God, the Son of God, would enter into the human story.

That the great invasion, which has been promised in the scriptures for centuries, is about to take place.

And that the Son of God himself will be born through her. And after he says these things to her, Mary asks some clarifying questions. Because she's not dumb, she's smart. And she knows how babies are born.

One of the problems we have regularly reading the Bible is that we think because we have things like TikTok and Instagram, we're smarter than older people who didn't have those things.

Although, as increasing research shows, you might actually be smarter before TikTok and Instagram than after you've gotten immersed in it.

But she's smart. She knows how babies are born. And she says, well, how on earth is this going to be? I've never known a man sexually. I'm a virgin.

And then Gabriel, on behalf of God, says, well, the Holy Spirit's going to overshadow you.

And God is going to do a miracle within your womb. And you will become pregnant.

Now, it's very interesting, I think, that Luke is the only one of the gospel writers who tells this story.

And it's interesting for this reason. Luke was a pagan who became a Christian.

That means that the guy who wrote this was a man who would have worshipped the Roman and Greek gods and goddesses as part of his just normal habit.

He would have been involved in the worship and sacrifice into these deities from childhood.

From childhood, it would have been deeply ingrained in him.

And then somewhere along the line, we're not told how, he becomes a Christian.

He leaves behind the pagan deities and pledges himself to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

He pledges himself to the God revealed in Jesus and to Jesus himself.

And so Luke, after he becomes a Christian, by the way, if you go back and read it from the start,

what he did is he went and decided he would go and talk to as many eyewitnesses as he could find and put together the true story of Jesus,

write a biography of Jesus, and he did that while many eyewitnesses were still alive.

But he probably put this thing in here in a way that maybe the Jewish writers who wrote the other biographies of Jesus from a time of eyewitnesses might not have thought of.

Because he would have known that when it comes to this point in the time of the story,

that an angel, a representative of God, has come to speak to Mary,

to say that this is what the God of, the triune God would like to do,

he would know, and maybe this was how he experienced it the first time,

there would be a bit of a catch in his chest.

And that's because the gods of the ancient world raped women.

The gods of the ancient world were serial rapists.

And so he would have, when he heard this story for the first time,

he would have been going, maybe even expecting a certain particular thing to happen.

But what happens would have blown his mind and blown his entire religious categories.

Because the angel, the representative, the triune God, waits for Mary's consent.

Waits for Mary's consent.

In the ancient world, a Roman, I mean, not that all men would have been rapists,

but a Roman man, a Greek man, a well-educated man, a common man,

would have said the idea that a woman needs to give consent

is against all piety and against all reason.

Because surely all of our worship and our understanding of the gods

is that the strong and the powerful can do whatever they want

without the consent of other people.

The gods regularly send others out to die on their behalf and for their own glory.

And obviously that's the case.

And obviously that's just what reason tells you,

that the strong can do what they want with the weak.

And that's how society is organized.

It's part of our cultural norms,

that those things are completely and utterly valid.

And it would have not just been in the Roman world,

but throughout the entire ancient world,

where things like harems and all were in fact just a commonplace.

Because of course, once again with harems,

is that powerful men can accumulate as many women as they want,

usually without their will,

to satisfy their sexual desires.

And in the history of the entire world,

all of a sudden,

there is something which blows these categories

completely and utterly up.

You see, in the ancient world,

the gods can rape and the powerful can rape,

then why can't I?

If I'm a man and I'm strong enough.

But if the Most High Triune God needs consent,

every man needs consent,

with no exception.

And it's very interesting that this story isn't just sort of like one of those things

where it's a little tiny aside,

buried in a whole pile of other types of things

that you just sort of all of it,

you just skip over.

This is actually part of the central,

part of the,

if you were to take the whole story of Jesus,

and that's unbelievably foundational for all Christians,

and yet even within that,

if you were to take a couple of the high moments,

like if you were to tell some kids about the high moments of the story of Jesus,

the story of the birth of Jesus

would be one of those high moments in that particular story.

And so right at that high moment of the high story

is this idea of consent.

And the history of thinking begins to change at this moment.

I told several people this week,

some of my non-Christian friends,

I had two opportunities to talk to people

who are outside the Christian faith this week,

and they happened to ask me about my sermon.

And I said,

well, you actually might find this very interesting.

You know, I said,

the average Canadian thinks that a woman needing to give consent

for sexual knowing is just common sense and reasonable.

But that's not true.

It's actually a Christian idea.

I tell them what I just told you.

It's a Christian idea.

It came into the world through the Bible.

That's how the idea came to be.

And so for people now in the world

who think it's just reasonable,

it's in fact a memory of a memory of a memory of a memory of a memory

of this central story which has now formed you.

And in fact, I said,

if you think about it for a second,

one of the two or three governing stories

that govern how Canadians think

is the naturalistic understanding of evolutionary theory.

And at the heart of that theory is this,

the strong eat the weak,

so the strong survive and the weak die.

And there's no way you can go from the story

of the strong eating the weak

so that the strong survive

to therefore women need to give their consent.

That doesn't fit with that story.

So the only reason that that story

has an overwhelmed consciousness yet in the West

is because of the memory of the memory of the memory

of the memory of this Christian story,

which now seems to be mere common sense

that any thoughtful person would come to understand.

And the key to this, of course, whole story is that it's true.

Because if it's not true,

when I was in high school 100 million years ago,

a very common button that many people would wear,

sort of interesting they'd wear it to school,

would be question authority.

Another version was who says.

They'd wear it into class.

Who says?

Question authority.

Well, if this story is just a story amongst other stories,

then it actually, you can just say,

well, who says?

But Christians believe this is what actually happened.

It's a true story of what actually happened.

And so in the story,

if you just turn in your Bibles to verse 36,

sorry, verse 38, it says this.

And when the angel says to Mary about these things,

and he says, nothing will be impossible with God,

in verse 38 of chapter 1,

Mary said,

Behold, I am the servant of the Lord,

the doulos of the Lord.

That's what the word literally means, doulos.

Let it be to me according to your word.

And the angel departed from her.

And there's these two very, very powerful parts of her answer.

She first of all says to the Lord,

not to the angel, but to the Lord,

I will be your doulos.

That means it's a certain type of servant.

It's not like a slave,

but it's more than just like somebody

that you'd hire to clean your house.

It means I desire to belong to you.

And as belonging to you,

I trust that you will be the one who will care for me

and provide for me.

And whatever you say, I will do.

I will do.

That's her response to the angel.

And it's a very, very powerful prayer.

And we're going to return to it in a moment

in terms of all of its significance.

But that's her response to what is said.

And it's within this whole context

that you now have to understand the Magnificat,

which we're going to look at.

And here's how it goes.

Immediately after this,

Mary goes to see a relative named Elizabeth.

She's had a different type of miraculous.

Oh, I missed something.

The moment that Mary says her consent to God,

God does a miracle and implants a zygote

connected to the womb of Mary.

Mary says yes.

And God creates a zygote connected to the womb of Mary.

And Mary's pregnant.

It's a miracle.

She's now pregnant.

She goes to see Elizabeth.

Elizabeth and her.

Elizabeth ends up having a prophetic word

and pronouncing some prophetic words over Mary.

It's both a very charismatic and a very musical thing

that she sings over her.

And after she says,

after Elizabeth is filled with the Holy Spirit

and pronounces this prophetic word in song over Mary,

Mary then does what's called the Magnificat.

And so if you turn in your Bibles,

it's Luke chapter 1, verse 46 and following.

Luke 1:46

And just as you're turning that,

something here which is really, really cool,

which is this.

It's at least since the early 700s,

Christians who've decided to worship

and pray together at night

have included this

as part of their time of Bible reading and prayer,

the Magnificat.

Since the early 700s.

That means there's 1,300 years

that many Christians have thought

that if you want to spend time on a Sunday evening

or any evening reading the Bible and praying,

you should include this as one of the readings

to help form you

in terms of how to pray

and how to read the Bible.

Like, isn't that cool?

And in the Greek part of the world,

the part of the ancient world

that spoke Greek, not Latin,

that begins around the same time

when they'd put it in the morning,

not the evening.

And you get an echo of this

or a remnant of all of this

that if you go and get

the Book of Common Prayer,

you'll see that it is, in fact,

one of the regular canticles

of evening prayer, even song.

And anyway, here's the song

and here's what goes on in it.

So we have the context

of God approaching Mary.

She gives her this yes.

She's now pregnant with the Most High God,

the Son of God,

the Savior of the world,

and she bursts into song.

What we're going to do,

I'm going to read the whole song.

It's just very short.

Then we'll circle back

and we'll look at it,

three things in particular

that are very important to us.

And so in verse 46,

it goes,

Mary said,

my soul magnifies...

By the way,

one of the things is,

if you go to do even song,

there's an even song way

of singing it.

My soul doth magnify the Lord

and my spirit hath rejoiced

in God my Savior.

Anyway, that's if you do

the prayer book.

But it's also been the case

that people have

metrical versions of this.

And during our offertory,

we're going to sing

the Magnificat

with a metrical version

that goes back

to around the year 1600.

So pretty old.

And we're going to sing it

during the offertory

as I'm setting the table

for the Lord's Supper.

But here's how it goes right now.

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...

Here we are

in Ottawa

in 2025

reading this text

that she's blessed.

That's just

fulfilled prophecy.

You think of all

the different prophecies

that oracles would have made

in pagan temples

around this time.

Nobody knows anything

other than maybe

an ultra nerds,

nerds, nerds, nerd

doing a PhD dissertation

in classical studies

looking for some remote topic

of the ancient world

that nobody's written on

and they might find it.

Absolutely nobody

other than their PhDs,

even their PhD supervisors

probably bored with it,

but they have to do it

so the person got the PhD.

But this is true.

It happened.

Like here we are looking at it.

I'll read verse 40.

It's cool.

Like we don't realize.

That's true.

It happened, right?

Look at verse 48 again.

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

and the thoughts

of their hearts.

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.

That's Mary's song,

the Magnificat.

Now,

why do you think

that this might be something

that for 1300 years

many Christians have thought

would be a worthy part

if you're going to have

some Bible reading

and some prayer?

Let's also read this.

Why would they have thought that?

And they'd put in a creed

in the Lord's Prayer.

A couple of things like that

to help form you.

Well, let's look at the words.

I think you'll start to see

why they would want to do it.

So first of all,

look at that.

We'll go to verse 46 again.

My soul magnifies the Lord

and my spirit

has rejoiced in God my Savior.

And soul and spirit,

it's just creating

some poetic parallelism there.

But here's the first thing

to understand.

We moderns,

when we think of this,

we think of the soul

as being something

sort of wispy

and immaterial

somewhere in here.

But early Christians

would have said

they would have looked at us

puzzled if we thought that

because we tend to think

of things like soul

as something a bit emotional

and hence therefore

wispy and changeable.

The ancients would have

understand that

not that the soul

is hiding somewhere

in the body,

but that the body

is in the soul.

Now there's,

that's something

to blow your mind.

The body is in the soul.

In other words,

what a human being is,

is I am an enfleshed

or embodied

or material soul.

And so when she says

my soul magnifies the Lord

and my spirit rejoices

in God my Savior,

she's not saying

this little tiny bit

of emotional bit of me,

no, do you have soul,

is what's magnifying the Lord.

All of her is magnifying the Lord.

That's, that's,

and so here we can start

to see why it's something

that Christians would think

is good to read

because it's saying

my mind, my will,

my affections,

my imagination,

my creativity,

my desires,

my sexuality,

my use of money,

my relationship

with other people,

my relationship

with power,

my soul,

all of me magnifies

the Lord.

And what does

this word magnify?

It's very easy

to get that misunderstood

because it's not a word

that generally is used

in modern English.

And a lot of modern

translations avoid using it.

But it's, I think,

one of those cases

where I can understand

for devotional,

you don't,

you don't want to avoid words

that people don't understand.

But in a church,

it's part of a church's

obligation to help us

understand words.

And so the word magnify,

when we think of it,

we tend to think of it

as like I'm a really big

human being

with a really big mind

and I need to see

some little tiny bit

of bacteria.

So I get a,

you know,

I get a something

that I can magnify it

because I'm big

and that's small.

And, and,

but you get in there

within the idea.

That's not what it's saying.

You know,

the idea of magnify

is to,

to,

to make big,

to make much of,

to see as being

really important

as something that,

whether it's in your

inside voice,

speaking to yourself

or your outside voice

that you want to,

you want to think about

and say,

wow,

that's really big.

That's really awesome.

That's really glorious.

That's really beautiful.

That's really true.

Wow.

You want to have the wow

and,

and have things

that you say wow about

and that's what magnifying means.

So it says,

my soul magnifies the Lord

and my spirit rejoices

in God,

my savior.

And,

and,

and,

and some of us Christians

say,

okay,

I can start to see that

because surely

that would be one of those things

when you're reading the Bible,

you want to be hearing things

that,

that not,

not the woes,

but why,

why God is so great

and why we need to make sure

that he's part of our internal thoughts

and dialogue

and,

and,

and,

and,

and things that we say,

rather than having things

that we say all the time

of boy,

you're stupid,

boy,

you're ugly,

you know,

boy,

boy,

you're a failure,

you know,

boy,

you'll never announce anything,

you know,

gosh,

you're a failure.

Like,

rather than having that type

of an internal voice

going on in your mind,

wouldn't it be better

to talk about

how great the Lord is?

How great the Lord is?

To realize

that maybe part of the task

of being a Christian

is to change

how the talk

inside your head

goes

and the talk

of your outdoor lips

as well,

your outside lips

as well.

But there's even

something more than this

because,

you see,

a lot of people

would say,

and you can think

of here different people,

maybe you can think

of the type of person,

you know,

likes going to bars

and very secular,

or maybe you can think

of somebody

who's in a boardroom

or,

you know,

a university professor,

very secular,

and they hear something

like that and they do this.

Lean back and say,

well,

okay,

I mean,

if that turns your crank,

that's fine.

But I don't magnify

things like that.

I don't magnify

things like that.

If that turns your crank,

that's fine.

Now,

you know what's so funny

about that?

They just magnified

themselves.

They do magnify.

They just don't want

to magnify the Lord,

but they're quite happy

to magnify themselves.

Right?

I'm not that sort

of person.

Like,

you little people,

you do it,

but I'm not that type

of person.

So here's the thing.

The question is not,

will I magnify?

The question is,

what are you

currently magnifying?

That's the question.

And are you even

conscious

of what you magnify?

Or are you the victim

of your unconscious

magnifying?

And if you become

conscious of what

you magnify,

should you really

magnify that?

Like,

are you able

to change

what you magnify?

Let me tell you,

for the average

Canadian,

and probably the,

and when I say

average Canadian,

I conclude

average Christians,

the average Canadian

magnifies fear.

fear.

The average Canadian

magnifies fear.

Your algorithms

push it.

I know I'm

100 million years

old,

and,

but I'm guessing

that if in the

very dawn of things

you go back

and there was going

to be five or

ten centimeters

of snow,

and if you had

something that you

could look up,

or maybe you would

just call up the

weatherman or whatever,

it wouldn't be like

the apps now,

which have these

bold red things

to make you afraid

of all the snow

that's going to come.

Like,

if I had told my

parents,

oh,

mom and dad,

there's going to be

like seven or eight

centimeters of snow,

maybe I shouldn't

go to school.

They would have

cuffed me on the

side of the head

and said,

off you go to school.

Right?

But they want to

make you afraid

about the weather.

Not about the weather.

I mean,

Ottawa,

it snows in Ottawa.

Like,

if you're just

a brand new Canadian

and you've come

from,

like,

Hawaii,

and they didn't

tell you there snows

in Ottawa in January,

you need to ask

your money back,

right?

Because it snows,

right?

Like,

obviously there can

be lots of snow,

but I'm being very

trivial.

But the fact is,

we magnify our fears.

That's one thing

that Canadians do.

We magnify anxiety

and we magnify worry.

That's a common

type of thing.

It's why so many

people want to do

drugs and drink alcohol

and do a whole pile

of other types of things

because we magnify fear.

And that's separate

from the fact

or connected

to the fact,

actually,

that we magnify

ourselves,

we magnify sex,

we magnify money,

we magnify power,

we magnify

academic accomplishment,

we magnify

our creative accomplishment,

we magnify

our reputation,

we magnify,

we magnify,

we magnify,

we magnify,

and we come together

on a Sunday night

to say some prayers

as people who are

magnifying these things

and Mary teaches us

to magnify the Lord.

And my spirit

rejoices in God,

my Savior.

See,

the fact of the matter

is that many

of the things

that we magnify

actually only make

us more anxious.

If you magnify money,

you never have

enough money.

If you magnify

academic achievement,

you never have

enough academic achievement.

If you magnify

your looks,

bad news,

everybody ages.

Wrinkles

and dimples

where they're not cute

are the future

of every person.

But some people

might say,

here's the problem.

They'd say,

okay,

that all sounds good,

George,

but I mean,

the Savior bit?

I mean,

why on earth

do they want to say,

make you say,

my soul magnifies the Lord,

my spirit rejoices in God,

my Savior?

I mean,

George,

that's one of the things

which I've never

really understood.

about,

you know,

about Christianity.

So,

I mean,

there's two things here,

George,

that I don't really understand.

The first one is this,

that,

you know,

so you want to make God

really big.

You know,

that's what you're really

sort of saying,

right?

So you want to make God big.

You want to understand him

as really being big

and worthy of extolling

and understanding

just how big he is.

You want to have all of that

and then you want to make big

the fact that you're going

to be saved.

But,

George,

here's the problem,

George,

that don't you think

that it's better

if God just taught me

how to save myself.

Like,

it sounds a little bit

to me,

George,

like,

you know those old movies

from the 50s

and the 60s

where some man

had to rescue a woman

because women

couldn't rescue

or save themselves?

And haven't we evolved

to the point now

where we understand

that that's like

a really dumb thing

to teach people?

Like,

why teach women

that men have to come

and save them?

Like,

why don't we teach women

that they can save themselves,

that they can punch

the bad guy,

they can handle the guns,

they can do the kicks,

they can do the cleverness?

Like,

and if that,

if we've learned that

about men and women,

like,

why,

like,

George,

I don't understand

this whole thing

about why,

so not only do I not understand

how,

just talking about

how big God is,

like,

George,

don't you think

that this idea

of big God,

doesn't that just often

just crush people?

Like,

there's lots of religions,

like,

every religion really

other than maybe paganism

talks about the bigness of God,

like pantheism,

I mean,

everything is God,

that's bigger than you

and,

and Islam,

God is huge

and look at all the terrible

things that come from it

and,

and so I don't understand

why that just God

being really big

is something that would

be helpful to me

and,

and reduce my anxiety.

If it did,

like,

that would be interesting

and,

and why,

why this,

all this talk about

God needing to save me,

it just sounds so like

fifties

and,

and not in a,

not in a good way.

Well,

those are good observations.

Let's look at how Mary

deals with these types

of,

of problems

that we might have

with that,

whether we say it out loud

or just sort of in our soul

because it's part of

how our culture thinks.

Look at verse 46 again,

my soul magnifies the Lord

and my spirit rejoices

in God,

my Savior.

Verse 49,

48,

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.

generation.

Now,

we'll just pause here

for a second.

This is the first

of the two types

of reasons

about,

you know,

the types of problems

we might have

with this.

I think when I was young,

I would have thought

that my greatest need

was justice.

I needed more justice

from my teachers.

I needed more justice

from my parents.

I needed more justice

from my friends.

Now,

it probably is the case

that I did need

some justice

from people

like that.

But as I get older,

I realize that

my greatest need

isn't justice.

My greatest need

is mercy.

I mean,

one of the things

that we need

to learn in marriage,

I mean,

you know,

I probably would have

heard this,

that when you marry

somebody,

you're marrying a sinner.

You're a sinner

marrying a sinner

in marriage.

But one of the things

that really becomes

very obvious

as you get married,

and maybe it's not

obvious,

it takes a while

for it to penetrate

people like me

who had very thick skulls

and are clueless,

is a marriage won't survive

unless the other person

shows you mercy.

It just won't survive

without mercy being shown.

Because marriage reveals

not only that the other person

is a sinner,

but marriage reveals

how big a sinner

you actually are yourself.

I actually am myself.

And so what I really need

to have any type

of intimacy,

and that even in friendship,

what we often need

in friends primarily

is mercy.

Now,

what the Bible teaches

isn't cheap mercy,

but costly mercy

and true mercy.

Cheap mercy

is where the powerful

ignore justice

for pet causes

or favoritism.

We have a bit of a problem

with that right now

going on with the courts,

that there's a problem,

to talk once again

about the sexual matters,

that there seems to be

a problem right now

in the courts

of judges deciding

that they're going to dismiss

minimal sentences

or throw things out.

And that doesn't

cost them anything.

And a lot of Canadians

are thinking

that just makes no sense

from a justice point of view

that how they're treating

people who are pedophiles

and rapists

and sexual violence,

and they're getting passes,

or privileged groups

are getting passes,

and it's causing

a tiny bit of a start

of a scandal,

at least in some circles.

But they might say

they're showing mercy,

but they're not showing mercy.

They've just thrown

justice out the window.

True mercy

does not at all

ever contradict justice.

And only the gospel

and only the biblical faith

makes that very, very clear.

You know, it's not

that well-known,

but did you know

that in Islam,

I can't remember the surah,

in Islam,

everybody who dies

goes to hell.

And then before

those jihadis

who've killed people

get to go to the

Islamic heaven

and have the perpetual virgins

to their pleasure and delight,

they actually go to hell first,

and then Allah says

he'll go to hell

and he'll pick out

those lucky ones

whom he's going to send

up to his heaven.

But even then,

there's no type of justice.

He just picks the people.

But you see,

here's where the story

of Mary is so

and unbelievably powerful

and why it's so

emotionally rich.

The story of Mary's song

begins with this revelation

that God, the Son of God,

is about to enter

into the human condition

and enter into

the human world.

And he enters very lowly.

He enters the way

we all enter,

as a zygote,

attached to our mother's womb

and goes through

the entire process

of gestation and birth

and a helpless infant

and then works

as a lower working class man

and all of that.

And then this story

is the beginning of a story

that ends in Luke chapter 24

Luke 24 · chapter mention

and before we get to that,

we get to the point

of the whole story

that changes the story,

which is God,

the Son of God,

dying on the cross

despite the fact

that he's innocent.

And we even get

within that whole story

that it's only in Luke's gospel

we get the famous account

of the two thieves

who were crucified

on either side of him.

And if you read

the other gospels,

each of those two thieves

called Jesus' names

and insulted him

for a lot of the day,

but at some point in time,

close to the time

at the end when they die,

one of the thieves,

seeing Jesus

and how he is

and his silence

and his dignity

has a change of heart

and rebukes the other person

who's insulting Jesus

and then turns to Jesus

and in an act

of very profound faith

that none of us have.

He says,

Jesus,

can I be with you

when you enter

into your glory?

And Jesus turns to him

and says,

today you will be with me

in paradise.

See, in a sense,

the whole gospel

is pointing us

to this point in time

that because God is,

Jesus is God,

the Son of God,

he truly can stand

for every single human being.

And so the justice

that I need to have

that falls upon me,

Jesus says,

would you, George,

consider me

to be your master

and allow me,

would you come into my life

and allow me

to come into your life

so that the things

that should happen to you

that will completely

and utterly ruin you

forever,

for all eternity,

I am willing

to have them fall on me

because I want

to show you mercy

and the justice

that should fall on you

will fall on me.

so that you might

know my mercy.

And if you say yes

to that,

that you will be

my servant

and that you will

let everything

according to your word

be true of me,

then my word to you

is that on the day

of your death

you will enter

into my paradise,

my kingdom.

And so in the death

of Jesus,

you see God's justice

maintained

and you see mercy

offered to those

like you and me

who are far from God.

and it's in that context

then,

look at what it says

again in verse 50.

And his mercy

is for those

who fear him

from generation to generation.

Now,

you can go back

and listen to my

Ecclesiastes sermons

about what the fear

of God means.

It's ultimately

a term of intimacy

and self-recognition

and proper boundaries

that allow proper love

and you can go back

and listen to them.

But did you get this?

When you enter

into that relationship,

when in a sense

you accept

God's mercy,

he's for you.

He's for you.

Right now,

today,

every day,

until you die,

he is for you.

Why would you not

want to have that

fill your mind

and magnify him?

And what better thing

can you have

to magnify him

than the knowledge

that his mercy

is for you

in all of your problems

and all of your mess

and not for you

in a way

that there's not going to,

you shouldn't still

be concerned for justice,

you should stand

for justice,

you should stand

against injustice,

but his mercy

is for you.

That's how we're

to hear the Bible.

That's how we're

to pray.

We're to fill our minds

with the greatness

and beauty of God,

the Savior.

And why do we need

a Savior?

It's all here

in the text.

It's very interesting.

Look at verses 51

to the following.

And by the way,

just two things

before I read 51

to the following.

The first thing is,

you'll notice,

you might say,

well no,

God hasn't fed the hungry

and God hasn't done this

and God hasn't done all of that,

not in the way

it's described,

but there's an actual

tense

in the original language

which doesn't exist

in English

and the tense is

that there are certain

things in the future

that are so absolutely

guaranteed certain

that the only way

to translate it

into English

is use a past tense.

So you can't change

the past?

This is so certain

about the future

you can't change it.

That's what it is.

The other thing,

just as an aside,

just skip down

to verse 54.

He has helped

his servant Israel

in remembrance

of his mercy.

You can't spiritualize that.

This is a very important text.

It's not saying

that you have to agree

with every single thing

that modern day Israel does.

It's not saying that.

But what it is telling us

is that God's not finished

with the Jewish people.

The promises he has made

to the Jewish people

have not been

completely finished yet.

Just as an aside,

it's really important

because we live

in a culture

increasingly formed

by anti-Semitism

to understand

that this is part

of Christianity.

God is not finished

with Israel

and the Jewish people.

But go back to 51

and look.

He has shown strength

with his arm.

He has scattered the proud

and the thoughts

of their hearts.

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 empty away.

Now just sort of pause there.

This sounds like

a lot of Hollywood movies,

doesn't it?

Like the original

Mighty Ducks.

You get a whole pile

of the really skinny nerds

and the tiny nerds

and the way overweight nerds

and the nerds

who can hardly

brush their teeth.

They're so completely

incompetent.

And they come together

as a team

and they get the coach

and they defeat

the team of other

13-year-olds

who all really look

like they're 23-year-old

men on steroids

and the losers win.

And that's a common theme

in movies

and we all sort of like it.

And a lot of people

who are far more conservative

might be bothered

by texts like this

because it sounds

like the worst

class envy possible

and as if we're

completely and utterly

against rich people

or people who are

good at thinking

and we don't like it

on one level

but in part of it

we all like that.

We like the idea

that the proud

are going to be

scattered their thoughts

and we like the fact

that this text says

that those who are

high and mighty

on their high horses

and their thrones

are going to be toppled

and we like that.

But here's the problem.

Years ago

my wife and I

would have times

when we had to have

a difficult conversation

with somebody.

Not with ourselves

but with somebody.

And I started to learn

that there was something

I needed to say

because I'd say

okay yeah yeah

I agree

we need to have

a difficult conversation

with Bob.

But if by we

you mean

you're going to have

that difficult conversation

while I stand

on the

and you're

like looking at

you going

way to go Louise

you're doing great.

You go for it.

Then I think

that's a great plan.

But if

by we

you mean

I'm going to talk

to that person

while you look at me

and give me thumbs up

and smile

then I think we have to

find a different plan.

The same thing

is going on here.

Who is having

their thoughts scattered

because they're proud

and who are on

high horses?

What?

God's talking about me?

I'm the proud one

on my high horse

and he's going to

topple me

and scatter my thoughts?

We don't even think of that.

Why do we not

think of that?

That's why you need

a savior.

Because all

God does

is give you

more power

to be you?

You're going to think

that text applies

to everybody

other than you.

And let me tell you

you talk to maybe

if you're old enough

you have kids

and you say

by the way

do you ever think

I'm proud

or on my high horse?

I don't think

that's ever true of me.

Well they might not

say anything

but inwardly

they're thinking

yes it absolutely

does apply to you dude.

Dad.

Mom.

Or we might say

that about our kids

who don't think

it applies to them.

Everybody else

sees that it applies

to us.

We just don't see

it about ourselves.

That's why we need

a savior.

In fact

when Christianity

goes bad

it's when Christianity

just becomes

moral advice

about how to save

yourself

and then it's

no longer

Christianity

and all it is

is legalism

and judgmentalism

and high horse

righteousness

and it's just

a complete

and utter train wreck.

Even if it's

popular

it's a train wreck.

This text reveals

I need a savior.

I can't leave me

to save me.

I need God

who loves me

to be my savior.

So that's the text.

We read it

it forms us

to understand

that

when you understand

that how big

God is

and how big

is his love

and that he

relates to me

regularly for mercy

that he's always

for me

and even

he even knows

that I don't see

these things

about myself

and he gently

prods me

to understand myself

and the fact

of the matter

is

is that we like

humble people

who are self-aware

of the fact

that they have

some problems.

Maybe they're not

nobody's perfect

but we're drawn

to people like that.

Why wouldn't we

have that type of

why wouldn't we

want to have

that thought

be that

which is the big

thought that we

talk to about

ourselves

and to know

that Jesus

is forming us

into this

and forming us

into understanding

our need for mercy

and those who

receive mercy

are those who

give mercy

and we're drawn

to people

who give mercy.

Why wouldn't

we want

these big thoughts

to be the big

thoughts that

fill our mind

day by day

day by day

knowing it happens

in the context

that we can

come together

on a Sunday

and say honestly

like we will

in confession

God I've had

a really bad

week.

I've had a week

where I've magnified

everything other

than you

and I've been

on my high horse

and I'm really

proud

and I am so glad

I can come

and hear the Bible

and have the Lord's

Supper

and remember

that Jesus

died for me

as a sinner

and that your

mercy is for me

and you want me

to say I'm

this week

help me to do it

this week.

I invite you

to stand.

Let's bow our heads

in prayer.

Father,

first of all

we ask that

your Holy Spirit

would do a gentle

but powerful

work in our minds

and you know

the things

that we tend

to magnify.

You know

those of us

who magnify

resentment,

who magnify

woes,

who magnify

fears,

who magnify

ourselves,

who make

money as if

it's the most

important thing

in the world

or power.

You know,

Father,

the things

that we're

magnifying

that we're

not even

aware of

and we ask,

Father,

that your Holy Spirit

through your word

would gently

convict us

of these things

that we magnify

that are just

ruining us

and we ask,

Father,

that your Holy Spirit

would move

within us

so that we develop

the habits

of magnifying you

in the context

of joy,

knowing you are

our Savior

and that you

are for us,

that you and your

mercy are for us

every day

until we see you

face to face.

And we ask,

Father,

that day by day

as we do this

that we might be

like Mary

and say to you

again and again

and again,

Lord Jesus,

I desire to be

your doulos,

your servant,

and may it be to me

in all that makes me

your word

in my sexuality

and my dealings

with money

and power

and thinking about myself

and others,

may it be according to me

according to your word.

I am your servant

and help me

to magnify you.

And so,

Father,

we ask these things

in the name of Jesus,

your Son

and our Savior.

Amen.

Amen.