Christmas is a Gift from God | Songs of Joy - Luke 1:46-55 (Dec 25) Myles Holmes

Hello and welcome to the Redemption Church Podcast.

We're a church in Newmarket, Ontario, Canada that exists to glorify God through the fulfillment of the Great Commission and the Spirit of the Great Commandment.

Thanks for joining us today.

Let's pray together, Church.

Father, we praise you for that night that Christ was born.

God, knowing that on that same night, our living hope was born.

God, our assurance was born.

Our hope, despite our sinfulness and unrighteousness, was born.

And so, God, we give you all the praise.

And we're here this morning because we believe, Lord, that you are worthy of praise.

God, you are worthy of all the exaltation.

You are worthy of all the honor that we can give to you.

And so, God, we pray that in every way you would be exalted this morning as our hearts humbly bow, just as so many did before your son as a baby, Lord, our hearts would humbly bow this morning before Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.

And so, God, be with us, bless us, we pray.

We pray this all in the name of your son.

Amen.

Amen.

Thank you guys.

It's such a treat to be with you here this morning celebrating Christmas together.

As you guys take your copies of God's Word, you can open them up to Luke chapter 1.

Luke 1 · chapter mention

We're going to be in verses 46 to 55 this morning.

And we've been looking at the songs that surround Christmas.

One of our favorite traditions in the home's household, and I'm sure in yours as well, as we celebrated it this morning already, is the singing of Christmas songs.

And what we find around the birth of Jesus is many songs.

And this song in particular is the song of Mary as she realizes that she would give birth to the Savior and Lord Jesus Christ.

Large part of many of our traditions is singing, a large part of many of our traditions is also gift giving.

And the kids this morning received a small little paper gift.

And I have an important question actually, and this question's for all the kids.

So if you're a kid in here, I'm going to need your attention, okay?

I've got an important question for you.

And it's a very important question today if you're going to be receiving any gifts.

And this is a time in church.

Most of the time in church, don't you have to sit still, you're not allowed to yell out anything.

But this morning, right now, for this moment, you're allowed to yell out as loud as you want, okay?

If you know the answer.

Okay, you ready?

If mom gets you a Christmas gift today, okay, if mom gets you a Christmas gift, who do you need to thank for that Christmas gift?

Mommy.

Good job.

Okay, here's another question, okay?

This is another skill testing question.

If dad gets you a Christmas gift, who do you need to thank for that Christmas gift?

Daddy.

Some of the dads are like, nah, it's still mom, still mom.

Well, you understand, kids.

If you get a gift, you recognize that it's right.

There's a right way to receive that gift, isn't there?

There's a wrong way, maybe if you're like super snobby to the person who gave it, maybe if you weren't appreciative and thankful to the person who gave it.

There's a right and wrong way to receive a gift.

What we celebrate in Christmas really centers around the most important, life-changing, really eternity-changing gift that we could ever be given.

It's a gift given by God Himself.

And it's a gift that we celebrate in the form of a baby, a baby named Jesus Christ who was given to us.

It's a gift that's too great to be wrapped under a tree.

It's a gift that's too large to be wrapped by paper, and it's a gift that's too important to be left unopened.

It's a gift of sending Jesus Christ to be with us.

This is what Christmas season is all about celebrating that gift that God has provided for all who will believe in Him.

But the important thing that I want you to see, I want all of you to see this morning, is that this gift, it requires a response.

Given to us on Christmas morning is the most important gift we will ever be given in our life.

All other gifts in comparison to this gift are just a shadow, just a reflection of this important gift.

But you need to know this morning that there is a response required of this gift.

And in Luke chapter 1, verses 46 to 55, Mary, the mother of Jesus, shows us what that response is to look like.

Luke 1:46–55

And so I want to read this together in reflection of understanding that Mary would give birth to the Savior and Lord Jesus Christ.

She sings this song.

My spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked on my humble estate.

For behold, from now on, all generations will call me blessed.

For he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name, and his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation.

He has shown strength with his arm, he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts, 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.

And Mary remained with her about three months and returned home.

This song teaches us two things about the response that we need to give to the gift that is given to us by God and Jesus.

The first thing I want you to know about the response that is required of us is that Christmas is a gift to be received.

Christmas is a gift to be received.

Now, the nature of gifts are that they are to be opened.

As we anticipate Christmas morning, I don't know what the traditions are in your household, but slowly gifts begin to appear underneath the tree, and excitement begins to grow and well up in each of the kids and in each of the adults as well, as we anticipate the day that these gifts will be opened.

If we give a gift, we expect it to be received and opened.

And if we get a gift, we know that it's right to receive that gift and open it ourselves.

My wife and I laughed yesterday when one of our kids opened up a gift from a relative and saw the Amazon box.

It's perfect packaging for so many of our Christmas gifts now.

And she said with such enthusiasm, it's a box.

Which I at that moment realized that I spent way too much money on Christmas this year.

The gift is what is inside the box.

That's the gift that's meant to be opened up and appreciated.

And so it is with Christmas.

God has given us a gift in Jesus Christ.

But the response is required that you open it.

And so notice what Mary does in the very first verse of her song.

She says these words my soul magnifies the Lord.

And what Mary is doing in that moment is accepting this gift by saying, This, my inner being, my soul, my very essence, who I am as a human being, magnifies the Lord for this gift that he has given me.

Kids, this is the equivalent of you receiving a gift today and going and throwing your arms around the person that gave it to you and thanking them for the gift.

It's the right response.

Mary says, My soul magnifies the Lord.

Mary receives this gift and gives glory to God and her inner being.

But what does it mean to magnify something?

Well, there's two ways to magnify something, aren't there?

Maybe there's more than that, but I can at least think of two.

One way to magnify something is with a microscope.

What do you do when you magnify something with a microscope?

Well, you take something that's really small, it cannot be perceived by the human eye, and you put it under a microscope and you make that really small thing way bigger than it actually is.

You blow it out of proportion.

Church, that's not the way that Mary's magnifying God.

The way that Mary's soul is magnifying God in this moment is much more like a telescope.

See, a telescope magnifies things by taking this thing that's really far away, too far away, too big for the human eye to even understand or comprehend, and making it visible to the human eye.

The telescope makes something that is large comprehendable.

And what Mary has recognized in this moment as God has given her this gift of Jesus Christ, is that he is worthy to be praised.

For a moment, Mary begins to comprehend the magnitude of this gift that has been given to her in Jesus Christ.

And the question for you this morning is have you done that?

Does your soul, just like Mary's soul did, magnify God for the gift that is in Jesus Christ?

Because you know what the reality is?

If we were to look into the telescope of your heart and see so often what your heart is magnifying, so often it's not focused on the blazing glory of Jesus Christ.

So often it's focused on the lesser glory of earthly things.

And yet, when you focus the telescope of your heart on the glory of what God has done in giving us Jesus Christ, it fills you with joy.

That's why Mary in verse 47 says, My spirit rejoices in God, my Savior.

Because to receive Jesus is to understand all that you've been given in him.

Understand that in Jesus we have salvation from sins.

Understand that in Jesus we have deliverance from death.

We have escape from our enity.

You receive this gift, and it strikes you just like it did Mary, how glorious God is for giving him, and it fills you with great joy.

So Mary's heart's like a telescope, taking in the glory of God, magnifying God, and declaring, My spirit rejoices in God, my Savior.

This is who Jesus is.

He's a gift to be received with rejoicing.

I love what we just sang this morning.

O holy night, the stars are brightly shining.

It's the night of our dear Savior's birth.

Long lay the world in sin and error pining till he appeared and the soul felt its worth.

A thrill of hope, a weary world rejoices, for yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.

Don't you love those words?

And yet, what I love that those words highlight is that you can't understand the greatness of Jesus if you don't know the darkness of the world and the wickedness of your own sinful heart.

That's why the song sings Long lay the world in sin and error pining.

A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices.

And Mary, she knows her weariness, she knows her wickedness, she knows the evil of this world, so that in verse 48 she says, For he has looked on the humble estate of his servant.

Again, in verse 50, she highlights that being given this gift is an act of mercy that she does not deserve.

We don't know the sweetness of Jesus unless we know the bitterness of our own sin.

Haven't you experienced this this week?

This past few days has been very cold, hasn't it?

Like the kind of cold where you go outside and it like stings your face.

Your nostrils immediately freeze.

And there's something incredibly sweet about it being cold outside, and you're looking out and the weather is blistery, and you're inside under a blanket, warm, cup of eggnog, hot chocolate.

There's something about that comparison.

It's cold outside, but it's warm in here.

Something about this time of year where the days are so short and the nights are so long.

There's something about being inside a nicely lit house when it's dark outside.

You appreciate the light so much more when the darkness surrounds.

And so it is with the gift that God has given.

If you don't know your humble estate, you'll never see Jesus as your necessary Savior.

But when you do receive Jesus, you receive a light that breaks into the darkness of this world.

You receive a sweetness that overcomes the bitterness of suffering.

And you receive Jesus who overcomes with warmth the cold reality of a world destroyed by sin.

See, Jesus is the answer to our greatest problem.

And to receive him is to have our greatest need fulfilled.

And so let me ask you this question this morning as we consider together the birth of Jesus Christ.

Have you received this gift?

This is a gift given to you to be received.

So have you received it like Mary, who magnified God and rejoiced because of all that she had been given.

Second thing I want you to see that's required of us as we respond to the gift that's given to us in Jesus is that Christmas is from a God to be revered.

Christmas is a gift to be received from a God to be revered.

Now, as we receive the gift of Jesus, it's a gift given to solve our greatest problem.

And what it does is it really highlights the worthiness of the giver.

Isn't that really the reason why we love to give gifts?

Each of us understand that it's better to give than to receive.

Each of us understand that there's more joy as we mature, we understand there's more joy in giving gifts than there is in receiving gifts.

Now, why is that?

Well, it's because in giving gifts, you get to express something that you might not otherwise be able to express.

You get to try your best to express your love for the person who is receiving this gift.

You get to try your best to express your appreciation by giving this gift to the person to say, I love you.

I want you to know this, that I love you.

And so it is, as God gives us this gift in Jesus Christ, he is showing us himself, and he's showing his love for those that he gives the gift to.

The gift it highlights his utter greatness.

And so we see in the second half of this song that Mary is seeing all the ways that God has put himself on display and giving this gift to her.

Look what it says in verse 51.

It says he has shown strength with his arm.

Mary sees in Jesus that her God is a strong God.

He says 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.

Mary sees the provision of Jesus Christ, and she sees the strength of God on display.

Even kings have been brought down.

This is the same.

Mary's people were Israel.

And her people were the same people that at one time stood at the Red Sea with their backs faced to the sea and the armies of Egypt coming upon them.

And at that moment they realized that their God is a God who's able to do the impossible.

Their God is a God who's able to split water, split the sea so that they could walk by on dry land and be delivered.

Mary's family were the people that stood in front of Goliath, this unconquerable giant, when God used the faith of this small little boy to kill the giant.

As Mary gave birth to Jesus, she would hold in her hands a powerful God.

God who had power over sickness, a God who had power over demons, a God who would tell wind and waves to stop, and the wind and waves would listen to the command of his voice.

What Mary understood was that the gift of Jesus was a display of the strength of God.

There was no denying that God was strong.

You ever met someone in your life who doesn't look strong, but then you get them in a different scenario?

Maybe you're playing a sport with them or you're doing some work with them.

You realize this person's actually stronger than you once imagined.

Maybe they look kind of small, they have some farmer strength.

Well, that same realization that you had with that person is the same realization that we have whenever we are close to God.

It's this growing, increasing realization day after day that God is stronger than we understood he was the day before.

However strong you think that God is right now, you haven't even begun to scratch the surface of understanding his strong arm.

And for all of eternity, you know what the reality is?

All of eternity, we will spend day after day, forever increasing in our appreciation and understanding of just how strong God is.

And Mary looks at Jesus and sees the strength in the arm of God.

And church, you need to take comfort and the deliverance that God has given us in Jesus Christ.

If God is able to show his strength by solving our greatest problem, by saving us from our greatest enemy, how much more is God's strength able to carry you today through your problems?

God saved you for eternity.

How much more is he able to take care of you in the problems of your lifetime?

God shows his strength in giving us the gift.

He also shows his mercy, and we already read this in verse 50, where Mary sings these words that his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation.

It's interesting for Mary because she notes that Jesus came to her humble estate.

Jesus came not to visit the rich, not to visit the worthy, not to visit the successful, not to visit the righteous.

Jesus came for the sick, for the suffering, for the poor, for the humble.

And Jesus didn't come just to visit them.

This wasn't like a walk through the slums for Jesus.

Jesus came to live among them.

Jesus was born among the lowest of lows.

He was born in a manger.

Consider this, the king of the universe.

As a church, we've been walking through Genesis chapters 1 to 11, and we just read of this king who, by the power of his word, spoke the world into existence.

Genesis 1 · chapter mention

This was Jesus in Genesis 1.

The powerful word bringing this world into existence.

And that powerful word now is born as a baby.

I've had three babies myself.

Consider myself a bit of an expert at this point, but really I'm not.

I still know nothing.

But here's one thing I do know about babies.

Babies are pretty helpless.

Babies can do nothing for themselves when they're first born.

And this is what Jesus did.

Jesus humbled himself, taking on the form of a baby, a helpless baby in a dirty manger.

Why?

Because he came for those who truly needed him.

He came for those who couldn't help themselves.

He came to those who couldn't do anything for themselves.

He came to those who couldn't win their own righteousness, not for the healthy, wealthy, and righteous.

He came for the sick, the poor, and the unrighteous.

The gift of Jesus shows us his mercy, it shows us his strength.

The last thing I want you to see is that it shows us God's support.

And so look at what Mary sings in verse 53.

He has filled the hungry with good things.

He's filled the hungry with good things.

So many of you are going to enjoy way too much good food today, if we're honest.

And over the next few days.

And you need to know that no dish, no treat, no drink that you have today or any day of your life will ever even begin to scratch the surface of the good things that God wants to fill you with when you place your faith in the Son.

And Mary's tasted this.

If that were the case, God would have stayed in heaven, wouldn't he?

This whole trip down to earth was a pretty inconvenient trip.

For the God of the universe, Jesus Christ, to be in the womb of Mary for a time, to be a mother, to be a child who would need to grow as a toddler and a kid.

Jesus came down, he came from heaven as fully God to take on flesh and to take on all the weakness of our human bodies.

The God of this universe being a human who now needs to sleep.

The God of this universe being a human who now has emotion.

These are the things that Jesus took on in order to humble himself and come and save us.

Why did he do it?

Because he came to help, he came to support.

Very much like you could imagine the scenario if a doctor were to find a cure for a sickness and then to take that cure, sort of as a jungle missionary, into the jungle to save whoever he could find from disease.

He would come with that medicine so eager to hand it out.

It wasn't a convenient trip to the jungle.

It wasn't easy to leave his family, and yet he did it for a greater cause.

And you need to know that Jesus is that missionary that came to this earth for you.

And he came that he might support you.

He came eager that you might receive this gift.

He's eager this morning that your heart would receive the medicine that he brings, the medicine of salvation in him, as he grows to a man that would die on the cross in order to pay the penalty for sin.

See, Christmas this morning is a reminder that Jesus wants to be found.

He came to seek and to save, and Jesus came to be the gift that God would give us, a gift that's to be received from a God who is to be revered.

Let's pray together, church.

Father, we thank you for this gift that you have given.

And God, it's my prayer that this gift would be received by every heart here this morning, Lord.

God, that even now and as this day continues and as our life continues, Lord, we would bow before you in reverence for all that you have done in Jesus Christ.

God, as we continue to praise your name, as we continue to sing your praise and join in the song that the angels sang, join in the song that Mary sang.

God, I pray that you would find here hearts that are bowed in humility.

Lord, recognizing the greatness and glory of the gift that has been given to us in Jesus Christ.

And so we sing this praise to bring exaltation to your name.

God, we pray this all in the name of your Son.

Amen.