12.14.25 - Our Merciful King - Luke 1:46-55

Amen. Amen. All right. So, we are uh in

our sermon series, The King has come.

And do you know this movie play? Um are

you a fan? Um I it was one of those

things where I got married, I was not a

fan of musical theater. I'm like, why

don't they just say the lines? Why I

have to stop and sing all the time?

But um my wife has cultured me and uh

this is now one of my favorites. If you

know the story, it's about a man

primarily Jean Jean and um he's a bit of

a mixed bag, right? Some stuff has

happened to him unjustly, but there's

also some stuff that he contributed that

he shouldn't have done. And uh he finds

himself on the run. He's in a small

French town. He ends up uh being taken

in by a local parish priest. Priest lets

him stay the night, feeds him, takes

care of him, and Valjon repays the

priest's kindness by stealing his

silverware. Um because that time it's

actually made of silver. It's actually

valuable. So, Valjon wakes up in the

middle of the night, grabs a sack, puts

a bunch of silverware and stuff in

there, and he takes off only to be

quickly apprehended by the local police

and brought back to uh the priest. When

the cops show up with Valjon and tow

little battered because they helped him

comply, um they say, "Hey, uh priest,

this guy we found with your silverware

and get this, he had the audacity to say

that you gave it to him."

And the priest says, "I did." And then

the priest says in the view of the

police officers, "And why did you forget

this piece and this piece?" and he goes

and gets a candlestick and some other

things and really loads him up. The cops

are kind of convinced but begrudgingly

head off and uh Valjon is left with the

priest face to face and the priest says

in this moment with this silver you're

going to be a new man because I am going

to buy your soul for God. Now, don't

like the theology so much of that,

but if you know the story, it ends up to

be the pivotal point because what that

does is it rattles Valjon because it's

the first time that he's ever really

experienced, really felt, had someone do

for him practically something of grace,

something of mercy. And so Valjon goes

and the next song that he sings um is

him wrestling this down and where he

lands at the end of the song is I'm

going to be a new man. And he is. And I

bring that story up because I love one

the picture of it

because it's a picture of mercy.

It's a poignant picture of what could

happen when someone receives mercy which

is fully and totally undeserved. And the

thing about mercy is it's something that

you and I rarely think about tangibly

except when we need it. What I mean is,

and and you've been there, you're

driving down 35, you see the police

officer, then you see your speed, then

you see the police officer pull out

behind you. What's your hope in that

moment? Mercy. I'm looking for some big

time mercy right now. Um or right, it's

the end of the quarter. the project that

you're leading hasn't gone the way your

boss wanted it to go and you're going to

have to do the report of like, "Hey

boss, you know, we're stuck here. What

are you hoping for from your boss?"

Mercy. Now, this doesn't happen to you,

but other couples get into disagreements

from time to time, and sometimes you

raise your voice, and you know you were

wrong, and so you got to go back and say

you're sorry. And what are you hoping

for? A moment for mercy.

You're a student.

And maybe you procrastinated just a

little bit towards the end of the

semester and you have to go to the

professor or the teacher and say, "Hey,

that paper's going to be a day or two

late. What are you hoping for?" Mercy.

Right? Here's the thing. You and I don't

get very far in life without needing a

good bit of mercy when we think about

it. Why? Well, just raise your hand if

you're perfect.

Yeah, me neither. My hand's not up,

right? But we don't get very far, right?

We need mercy on the regular like, "Oh

yeah, I got to ask for forgiveness there

and please, I'm sorry for that." Right?

We need mercy. Here's my deeper

question. If you and I need it from one

another pretty often,

is it possible that we actually need it

from God?

And if that's the case,

what do you hope God is?

merciful question. Is he

right? When you're sitting in your car

pulled off to the side on 35, you don't

know which police officer you're going

to get. The guy who's like, "Slow down.

Verbal warning." And you're like, "Oh,

yeah. No, it's only time I've ever

sped."

Or the police officer who is like,

"Forget your license and registration.

Here's your ticket."

You don't know which God do you have?

Do you know

what happens if you really mess up? What

god do you have?

Ah, we're in the series the king has

come because we're looking at this

advent season. The king who is going to

be born in a manger. What kind of king

is he? Is he benevolent king? Is a harsh

king? Somewhere in between? depends on

what day you catch him. Last week we

said he's a promised king and we looked

back at a promise to King David that

this king would sit on his throne. And

this promised king is going to be

gracious. We found out he's going to be

divine. He's going to be God himself.

He's also going to require something of

us. And we say he's going to require

humility. And today what I want us to

look at is our merciful king. Because

what Mary is going to do in the passage

that we'll look at uh look at is she's

going to say, "Oh, not once but twice

that we have a God who is a king who is

full of mercy." So if you have your

Bibles, we're going to be in Luke

Luke 1 · chapter mention

chapter 1. We're going to start uh in

verse 46.

So Luke 1 verse 46 at our merciful king.

Luke 1:46

How is he merciful? What does his mercy

look like? And this is what we're going

to see as we get going that our merciful

king, he brings us joy. Our merciful

king brings us joy.

So again, Luke 1 starting

in verse 46,

the word of God says,

"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.

If you look back at verse 46, Mary

starts off and she says, "My soul

magnifies."

Oftentimes we know this song of Mary by

its Latin name, Magnificat, which is

just Latin for magnify. And what she

says, and you know what it means to

magnify something, it's made big. It's

made large at the news that the king is

coming and that she's gonna pay play a

pretty particular role. In that coming,

God gets big. God gets really big. And

sort of like what we said just a minute

ago about mercy. And I I kind of think

about it sometimes, but not usually

until I need it. It's kind of the same

thing with magnifying things. What do I

mean? Well, I mean you and I always are

magnifying something.

something in your life and my life is

always big, right? So again, you're a

student and it may be the opinion of

your peers is really big to you or the

grades you need to get or the SAT score

is really big to you so that you can get

into the right school that you want to

get to because your parents went there

and they've indoctrinated you. Other

parents have done that, not you. I may

have done that, but it's big, right?

Right? You're a single. What's big to

singles a lot of times? H if I could get

a relationship and then when you're in a

relationship, what happens? That person

tends to become big, right? You're a

parent, man. How are my kids doing? Man,

that becomes big.

You're a grandparent. You know what

becomes big? Grandkids. That you get to

give back to your kids. That's what gets

to be big. you're in your career and the

next promotion, the next great

assignment

becomes big.

Now, notice

none of the list of what I just said,

none of that is bad.

All of those are good things. Here's the

challenge. They just can't be the

biggest thing.

Why? Because what happens with your

heart and my heart if we're not careful

is they're always going to drift, right?

You just let it go. It's like a toddler.

Just put them down. Watch because

they're going to move, right? It's like

your heart, right? It's always going to

gravitate. Something's always going to

get its attention. Something, it's

always wanting to magnify something.

And anything that is not first and full

stop God being magnified in your heart,

what tends to be a good thing becomes a

bad thing. Why? Well, here's the truth.

The question is never if we magnify.

The question for all of us is what you

magnify.

Now, here's what I want to point out

that I hadn't seen until this year. And

what it is is the catalyst to what was

actually

magnifying for Mary. So if you look back

at verse 29, notice something about how

Mary responded when the angel was there.

She was greatly troubled. She tried to

discern what sort of greeting this is.

The angel says in verse 30, "Mary, don't

be afraid." Why? Because she was.

And then it ends where in verse 38, this

is Mary's posture. She's like, she's

taking this all in. She doesn't know

what to think. She goes, "Okay, I

believe you. I'm I'm just a servant of

the Lord."

Notice, did Mary start singing in front

of the angel? No. Look what happened.

Look at verse 39.

In those days, Mary arose and went with

haste into the hill country to a town in

Judah. And she entered the house of

Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. That's

her cousin who's who's pregnant with

who's going to be John the Baptist. And

when Elizabeth heard the greeting of

Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. And

Elizabeth was filled with the Holy

Spirit, and she exclaimed with a loud

cry, "Blessed are you among women, and

blessed is the fruit of your womb. And

why is this granted to me that the

mother of my Lord should come to me? For

behold, when the sound of your greeting

came to my ears, the baby in my womb

leaped for joy, and blessed is she who

believed that there would be fulfillment

of what was spoken to her from the Lord.

Notice, and right, Mary shows up at

Elizabeth's house, and let me

paraphrase, this is what Elizabeth does.

Again,

paraphrase.

And Mary is going to do the same thing.

She's going to bust out in song.

Very interesting. Why didn't she do that

with the angel?

Why? I'll tell you why.

Because like Mary, like Elizabeth, for

you and I to fully

magnify

to fully. She's going to say in a

second. We're going to rejoice.

Do you know who you need

us?

You need other people.

You need your family, your church

family. You need to come around a bunch

of other people Sunday by Sunday and

Thursday by Thursday and whenever your

small group meets so that you can get

around other people who are trying

imperfectly like you to magnify what's

most important so all the other things

that you magnify stay in their proper

proportion.

You need each other more than you

realize.

And let me tell you, you've already

experienced this many times. How do I

know? Because you all like football,

right? So for me, so far on my list,

I've been at a home game for Baylor,

for&M, and UT. And all of them are fun.

All of them have their traditions. At

Baylor, you run the line. at&m you've

got the yells and the yell leaders and

that whole deal and the 12th man and at

UT I love going to DK Royal because when

you go to a UT game they say bad words

about Oklahoma

which was funny the first time I went

because they weren't even playing

Oklahoma and they still found time to

say bad words about Oklahoma. Amazing.

Something deep there. Um,

no shade to my Oklahoma brethren.

Here's what I noticed. At all three

stadiums,

touchdown would happen,

interception would happen, and everyone

would cheer.

Everyone would start high-fiving their

neighbor, even if they didn't know him.

They would start spilling beverages on

each other in their excitement

and no one had to tell them to do that.

Now contrast that with how you tend to

behave when you're at home by yourself

on your couch watching the same game.

Do you freak out in the same way? Well,

some of you do. Right? You know who you

are.

My office hours are um No, here's what

you do when you're by yourself, right?

You're still happy, but you'll do

nice job.

Why the difference?

Same touchdown,

same interception.

The degree to which you are with other

people who are trying to magnify notice

the things that you want to magnify

increases your magnification.

Do you want to increase your joy?

Do you want to increase what whatever's

at like like notice she says her soul

magnifies my spirit rejoices. This is

like the deepest parts of her.

How do you know what you really love?

How do you How do you really know what's

important to you? That's a thing you're

magnifying.

That's a thing you're cheering.

Mary says, "My soul magnifies the Lord."

And check this out, "And my spirit

rejoices in

God, my Savior.

Again, it's implicit and it's easy to

miss if you don't catch it. But when

someone says, "God, my savior," you are

implicitly admitting something

very profound.

If you're saying, "God is your savior,"

it means you need one.

Which every human this is their root

struggle. And you see it all over our

culture, right? Our culture says what

are people basically good? You're

basically good. Yeah, you have some

foibless. Yeah, you make mistakes, but

you're basically good. And what we need

to do with our basically good

population, if we just if we just

removed all the societal problems and

ills and if we could just get the

society right, then all of our

collective goodness would just emerge.

What's the one problem with that?

It's dead wrong.

Why?

Because none of us are good.

All of us, man, like go back to our our

very imperfect poll earlier. Who's

perfect? Nobody.

Now, notice something.

Tie it together.

Why is Mary able to magnify the Lord and

rejoice in God my savior?

Because what kind of God does she have?

A merciful one.

A merciful one. You don't magnify God.

You don't rejoice in God your savior if

he doesn't when you come to him with

your mistakes, with your sin, with your

struggles. And he's the bad cop. I told

you not to do that.

What kind of God do you have?

He's merciful. He's merciful

and praise God he is.

Our merciful king not only brings us

joy, he displays his might. And we're

going to see now in this next section

the word that we've been anchoring on

show up. Look at verse 49.

Mary goes on in her song and she says,

"For he who is what? mighty

has done great things for me and holy is

his name. And look at verse 40. And his

what? His mercy.

His mercy is for those who fear him from

generation to generation. He has shown

his strength. Synonym for what? Might.

He has shown his strength with his arm.

He has scattered the proud in 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.

What's amazing about our God is he's not

like 50% might and 50% mercy. He is 100%

might and 100% mercy. And when you

clearly see his might, it only amplifies

his mercy. And when you clearly see his

mercy, it only amplifies his might. Look

back at the text. Verse

50 says, "And his mercy is for a

specific group of people." Who is that?

Those who fear him. Not terror fear,

reverential awe fear. Those who go when

they see God. You're God. I'm not.

You're creator. I'm creation. I know my

place when I come before you, God.

And I just love this. It's so easy to

miss. Why is it important that your

Bible says from generation to

generation?

Because it means that God is merciful in

the first century and the 21st century.

That there is not a generation that

doesn't receive

because we also need his. You got it.

And then she goes on, he has shown his

strength with his arm. how how has he

shown his strength? And she's just going

to start listing them. One, he has

scattered the proud in the thoughts of

their hearts. Proud people don't have

God as their savior because they don't

need God as their savior. They don't

need them to look at their humble estate

like Mary says. Why? Because I got it

figured out. I got life licked. I don't

thanks but no thanks God.

What's going to happen to those people?

Scattered, literally broken apart.

And then it says verse 52, "Then he has

brought down the mighty from their

thrones." You know, for you and I, we

look at people on their thrones, whether

it be political prime ministers and

presidents and ambassadors and all the

rest, like, "Oh, those guys have some

might. Those ladies have some might.

They have some power." You know what God

does?

You think you're mighty?

Proverbs tells you that every person in

power,

their heart is like a stream in his hand

and he just moves it wherever he will.

And the other side of the coin, what

does he do? He exalts those back to

verse 52 of humble estate.

There's basically two kinds of ways to

go through life. You can go through your

life in humility where you continue to

push yourself down and God in his grace

will lift you up.

Or you can choose to go through life and

lift yourself up. And guess what God

will do? He will push you down.

That is if he's gracious to you.

The worst thing that God can do to

anybody is give them what their wicked

hearts want. The worst thing that God

could do to a proud person is leave them

in their pride.

Verse 53, he's also filled the hungry

with good things.

Challenge there is you have to admit

you're hungry. You have to admit you're

needy. You have to admit you need what

this merciful, mighty God only can

deliver. In contrast, the rich, they get

sent away empty.

There's coming a day at judgment where

those who went through life just like

Lord I need your help. Those will find

every desire, every need, like all of it

fulfilled.

And those who went through life, I don't

need you. I don't want you. And God will

say, have it your way.

And God is both at the same time because

you see it. You see it on the page

woven. It's like, why would you do that?

Why not just be humble and ask for

mercy?

And again, here's what I want you to

see. That at the same time, his might

and his mercy are in view. Why? Because

his might actually amplifies his mercy.

Have you ever seen this guy,

Shaquille O'Neal, for our non basketball

fans?

Uh Shaquille is uh 7 feet 1 inch tall

and north of 300 pound. I actually have

met two guys that have met Shaquille and

they said this was their experience

something like that.

He's also a really kind guy.

Excuse

me. Are you Michael Jordan?

>> No, I'm better than Michael Jordan. My

name is Shaq O'Neal.

His

size

amplifies his mercy.

You know what you and I get to see at

Christmas?

A mighty God who amplifies his mercy.

How do I mean?

Well, again, just imagine if you will,

you and I were at the heavenly staff

meeting

where God's calling us together and he's

like, "Okay guys, we need to figure out

how we are going to send the Messiah.

I raise my hand because I've got good

ideas

and I'm like, "God, here's what we do.

Jesus, like full like shack size,

heavenly armor. I mean, huge majestic

horse, sword." I'm like, he's at the

front of rank after rank of these angel

armies and they're all clad in heavenly

armor and they all just got done working

out. It's like amazing. And God listens.

He's like, "Okay, Eric,

we're sending a baby."

And I'm like, I'm there because I'm

taking notes at the meeting. I'm like,

"What? What' God say?"

You say, "Baby,

think about it. Think about it. How

mighty do you have to be where you can

literally defeat sin, death, and the

devil, save humanity through a baby?

And how merciful do you have to be

that that's how you would choose to do

it?

You know why you get stressed out?

You know why you get anxious?

Because in the moment you have amnesia.

I have amnesia. And I forget

that I have a mighty God who's also

merciful.

That every problem you have, he has

enough might to meet it.

And he's also not like I can't believe I

got to fix this for you again.

I was like happy to.

Every time you come to him, he wraps you

up like shack and that little boy.

Every time.

and everything you tell him. He's like,

I can handle that.

And I can hand How do you know? He

reminds you every Christmas.

He reminds you every Christmas.

Paul Trip says this. There aren't two

things in all of life more important

than these. that God's

mercy has purchased for you a place in

his family and that God's power

or his might

controls all things for your good until

your eternal inheritance is received.

Man, I love that we have a merciful God

who is really mighty.

Last point, our merciful king honors his

word.

He honors his word. Verse 54,

Mary concludes her song and she says,

"He has helped his servant Israel in

remembrance of his mercy

as he spoke to our fathers and to

Abraham and to his offspring forever." A

couple things just to note. Every time

you see the word like here in verse 54

remembrance or remember um you have the

Bible is using that word almost every

single time old testament new testament

in a particular way. Remembrance is not

cognitive it's active. What I mean by

that is it's never like in this case

like God's there and he's like oh yeah I

remember I'm merciful good on me.

No, it's always active. Meaning that

what the person oftenimes in the Psalms,

right? God, remember me. What are they

asking for? A God that's like, oh, I

remember you.

No, what are they asking? God, I need

you to remember me and act

in concert with who you've said you are

and what you've said to me. So verse,

look at verse 54.

He has helped his servant Israel. Why?

Because the contents of the remembrance

is his mercy. And then Mary pulls out,

last week we pulled out the promise to

David. She pulls out the promise to

Abraham. Why? Because in chapter 12 when

God shows up in Abraham's life, he says,

"Look, um, I know you have no kids. Your

wife is barren. Don't worry about that.

I'm going to change that. So much so

that I want you to look up at the stars

in the sky. That's how big your family's

going to be. And oh, by the way, even

better, through your family, I'm going

to bless every family on the planet.

Why? Because he's a merciful God. And

now you know why. Verse 55 says, as he

spoke to our fathers, because he doesn't

just say it to Abraham, he repeats it to

Isaac. He repeats it to Jacob. And he

repeats it all the way through the

prophets. Remember, I'm going to be

merciful. Remember, I got a plan for

you. Remember,

and God in this moment is acting by

sending his son

as the fulfillment to what he said to

Abraham.

Now, why do you and I 2,000 years later

need to remember

that God remembers?

Because he's made promises to you.

Jesus promised you that if he goes away,

he's going to prepare a place for you.

And he also promised that when he's done

preparing that place, what's he going to

do?

He's going to come get you.

Jesus also promised. He said, he goes,

"Look, the father's going to give me a

lot of people. It's kind of like they're

in my hand. How many is he going to

lose?

Zero.

promise you.

God says through the Apostle Paul in

Romans 8, he says, "Nothing ever, ever,

ever, ever, ever, ever will separate you

from my love. Nothing.

I promise."

And for you and I, 2,000 years after

Mary's song, the other thing we're

supposed to remember is his mercy. and

it's been in the Bible the whole time.

This is a a picture of what the ark of

the covenant looked like.

You notice on the top two angels, their

cherubim.

And the ark in in the Jewish uh culture

and worship uh stayed in one particular

place in the tabernacle or the temple

and it was in the holy of holies. uh you

couldn't go there. Only the high priest

once a year could go in there. You'll

never guess what the top portion was

called. Um there where the angels have

their wings tied. Do you know what

that's called?

It's the mercy seat.

Hebrews unpacks it a little for us. Let

us then with confidence draw near to the

throne. The mercy seat was actually the

throne that God sat on figuratively in

the world on the planet. That was his

throne. What kind of throne? It's a

throne of grace.

Why is it a throne of so that we may

receive

mercy

and find grace to help in time of need.

What's interesting about the language

there in Hebrews is essentially the way

the writer writes it. It's like this. um

come to the throne that always and

forever and can only produce grace.

It's the throne that every time you

come, you know what you're going to get?

Grace. You know what happens when you

blow it for the thousandth time and you

go to that throne? You know what you

get? Grace.

Why?

Because he's merciful.

And he wants you to remember.

He wants you to remember that he is a

merciful God.

And it's also very similar to what Jesus

said to do.

So if you have your elements, please

grab them. If you don't have them, go

ahead and raise your hand. We got a few

of the ushers around that will get them

to you

because not only is remembering in Luke

1

What Jesus says when he institutes the

Lord's supper,

he says, "Remember."

Remember

why we tend to forget.

I tend to forget.

I need to be reminded.

Remember that he came as a baby.

Why? Because our God is both merciful

and mighty.

But also remember that he didn't stay a

baby.

He grew up.

And he did something that was

pretty remarkable,

particularly for a king.

All the kings that you know in history,

they're all pretty similar.

And they all say this to their um

people.

I'm the king. Need you to do something

for me. You're my subjects.

Some of you guys, I need you in my army.

And some of you guys, you're going to

need to lay your life down for me and my

kingdom.

Not your king.

See, your king is the only king who

says, "No, I actually will lay my life

down for you."

And that's why he gets to be king of

kings and lord of lords.

He's the only king that did that.

And so what does he say?

Friends, remember

So on the night that he was betrayed, he

took some bread

and when he had given thanks, he broke

it

because it was going to be his body

broken for you.

He's going to take the thorns. He's

going to take the whip. He's going to

take the nails

so they'll never touch you.

And so we remember and we

And after supper, he took a cup.

He said, "There's a new covenant.

There's a new way we're going to do

things. There's a new way that humanity

is going to relate to God. It's going to

be through me.

It's not going to be your blood shed.

It's going to be mine.

all the sacrifices are over in my

sacrifice

so that all your sins can be forgiven.

He said, "Do this as often as you drink

of it in remembrance of me."

So, Father, we thank you again

as we remember your goodness, your

kindness, your mercy to us

and for each of us where we are this

Sunday morning. I pray that in your

grace you would meet us here.

If it's really some mercy we need, I

pray that you give it. If it's some

might we need, I pray you'd give it

and that we'd walk away joyful.

Jesus, we declare that you are the one

and only king.

And it's in his name we pray.