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Sermon Notes Slide Key:
- Sermons always start with “OPENING ILLUSTRATION:” and end with “CLOSING ILLUSTRATION:”
- All scriptures are NIV unless otherwise noted
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OPENING ILLUSTRATION:
Did everyone have a good Thanksgiving?
Up until now, as we’ve been tracking Jesus, we’ve been jumping all around, but now we are going to take a turn and go back to the beginning and start tracking Jesus through his life chronologically…
I was thinking about going to families‘ houses for thanksgiving – how many of you travel for Thanksgiving? If Kansas wasn’t so far away, we’d love to be near our family. It’s crazy to me to think our family is really just one LONG drive away, but we are about to jump into the story of Mary – right after she’s found out that she will be carrying the Savior and she is going to travel to her relatives’ house, Elizabeth.
Nazareth to the hills of Judea would have been 3 to 4 days by foot and when she goes she’s going to go for 3 months…
The reason I wanted to start here in Jesus’ life is knowing the kind of people someone was raised by, can tell you a lot about the person.
and for Jesus, it’s no different…
Let me Set the Stage…
Mary has been told by an angel, Gabriel, that she is going to be with child. He tells her that Elizabeth is in her 6 month of pregnancy – Mary stayed right up to the birth of John or left right before in order to let John and Elizabeth get ready…
But when Mary shows up on Elizabeth’s doorstep – before Mary can even share what has happened with her, John the Baptist, inside Elizabeth’s womb jumps for joy – He responds to the Holy Spirit. Elizabeth just knows that Mary is carrying the savior. We don’t know how she knows other than the Holy Spirit fills Betsy…
I love this interaction, Elizabeth, at the end of our life bearing the child that would ultimately announce the arrival of Jesus on the scene announces Mary & her child and pronounces how blessed Mary is.
Both women were in extraordinary circumstances
It is after Elizabeth makes this proclamation about Mary that Mary begins to speak…
Honestly
Luke 1:46-56
46 And Mary said:
“My soul glorifies the Lord
47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
48 for he has been mindful
of the humble state of his servant.
From now on all generations will call me blessed,
49 for the Mighty One has done great things for me—
holy is his name.
50 His mercy extends to those who fear him,
from generation to generation.
51 He has performed mighty deeds with his arm;
he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.
52 He has brought down rulers from their thrones
but has lifted up the humble.
53 He has filled the hungry with good things
but has sent the rich away empty.
54 He has helped his servant Israel,
remembering to be merciful
55 to Abraham and his descendants forever,
just as he promised our ancestors.”
56 Mary stayed with Elizabeth for about three months and then returned home.
Honestly, I don’t think I’ve ever heard a sermon on the song of Mary.
As I studied it, I found out lots of scholars think someone else wrote it and inserted it here. The reason? How could a young girl write and remember this song all those years later to tell Luke?
to me, I just wonder how she couldn’t…
I can picture Mary traveling for 3 days – we don’t know if she’s alone, I’m going to assume a young woman wouldn’t be traveling by herself. But here is Mary, sitting out at night under the stars reflecting back on the last few days of her life. She is literally sitting in the middle of a bible story – she is Abraham having the angel visit him. She is Moses at the burning bush. I picture her sitting there and writing down the first stanza of this song…
“My soul glorifies the Lord
47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
48 for he has been mindful
of the humble state of his servant.
From now on all generations will call me blessed,
49 for the Mighty One has done great things for me—
holy is his name.
The faith of Mary is striking to me
b
She is facing a terrifying proposal – a woman pregnant out of wedlock – the penalty could have been death
b
But she sees herself as blessed…
b
How does a young girl have such an amazing perspective on her potential problem?
As I studied this song, I realized it I needed to preach this after Thanksgiving because
Mary looks forward by looking backward
This is a common Jewish practice in poetry and song
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She sees the goodness of God in the here and now by looking at the goodness of God “then”
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This is a fitting mindset for us following Thanksgiving and moving into Christmas.
Let me show you… I want to take what Mary says and just hyperlink to some stories if I could…
50 His mercy extends to those who fear him,
from generation to generation.
51 He has performed mighty deeds with his arm;
he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.
How can you read that and not think Moses and the Pharaoh of Egypt.. God literally brought the Hebrew people out of slavery and as Moses spread his arm over the Red sea, the waters parted and God’s people walked over dry land. It was the pride of Pharaoh that sent his soldiers in following Moses and the people and the waters came crashing down on these men of war…
God scattered the proud, but the humble like Mary, He upholds
She knows she can trust Him no matter the circumstance.
52 He has brought down rulers from their thrones
but has lifted up the humble.
Do you know the story of Nebuchadnezzar?
Has a dream and no one can interpret it. He brings Daniel in (this is not the dream where he will kill you if you can’t get it right). His dream is about this ginormous tree that gets cut down to just a stump. Daniel interprets the dream for Neb and he tells him that the dream is about him. He is the tree and God is going to send a watcher (angel) to cut down the tree. That until Neb acknowledges God as the true King that he will eat grass like a cow…
And Neb is brought low and becomes one like a cow… he eats grass until he acknowledges God as King
Mary now trusts that same God to lift her up like Daniel, this exile away from home..
53 He has filled the hungry with good things
but has sent the rich away empty.
In Elisha’s day there was a widow who couldn’t pay off her loan, she was about to lose her children… And so God sent the prophet Elisha and told the woman to collect as many jars as she could. She starts pouring from her small jar of oil and keeps pouring till every jar is filled and finally, she runs out… What if she had collected more jars? She was spared and filled!
God was faithful in terrifying circumstances then
Mary knows he’ll be faithful now..
I could go on all day, and not just with stories from scripture, but stories from my own life and the lives of those around me.
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God is FAITHFUL!
CLOSING:
I know some of you might be struggling right now, can I encourage you to look forward by looking backward?
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God isn’t done – he sent His son not just for Mary, but for you as well!
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The great promise of Jesus is
“God with us” not “God someday”
If you’ve never turned your life over to Jesus, what are you waiting for? He says in the book of revelation, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock, whoever lets me in, I will come and dine with them…”
Jesus’ promise is to come and dine with you. He is literally just waiting for you to let him in.
Get over it, come up here, let’s talk about you inviting Jesus in TODAY!
