If you have a Bible, let me invite you to turn with me the Luke chapter 1 as we consider our short series as we continue it in the first and part of the second chapter of Luke. This morning we're at Luke chapter 1 verses 39-356 And for the last couple of weeks we've learned of the miraculous conception of John in the womb of Elizabetha Previously barren woman and in her old age and then we learned of the miraculous conception of Jesus in the womb of the Virgin Mary And now this morning we see these two mothers meet together And we eavesdrop on their state of mind and we can hear their songs of joy We invite you to consider God's word from Luke chapter 1 beginning at verse 39 In those days Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country to account in Judah And she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth 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 voice, 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 and my womb womb leaped for joy and Blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord 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 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 to her home This is God's word when he write it on our hearts.
Let's pray together Father speak to us Show us the glory of your son Help us to understand the work of your spirit help us live together as brothers and sisters in your household in Jesus name We pray amen What about you to think about three things here the fellowship of Christians in verses 39 and 41 is we see Mary rush to Elizabeth And they share life together and then I want you to see the fruits of the Holy Spirit in verses 41 45 The fruit that the spirit in filling Elizabeth and John produces and then I want you to think about that spirits work in our lives And then I want you to see the faithfulness of God that Mary extols in her song in verses 46 through 56 in the first place I want to let's consider the fellowship of Christians in verses 39 to 41 in those days It says 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 now last week We noted that Gabriel had well last couple weeks Gabriel had appeared to both of these Families and told them a child was coming John on the one hand Jesus on the other when Gabriel explained to Mary how it was that a young woman Who had never been intimate with a man could possibly get pregnant He told her that the Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the most high will overshadow you Therefore the child would be born what we call holy the son of God and then he told her that this was possible because nothing is impossible With God and to prove his point he told her your relative Elizabeth in her old age She was barren has conceived a son and this is the sixth month and so Mary took the hit Mary paid attention to Gabriel heard that her distant relative Elizabeth was also with child in a miraculous way and And when the angel departed what does she do? Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country to a town in Judah She rushes off to see her relative and to share their experience in life together She don't let the grass grow under her feet says Luke she went straight to Elizabeth's to what town? We don't know just that Elizabeth and her husband Zechariah live in the hill country in Judah And so what we know is that Mary went from a little town in Nazareth in the region of Galilee in the north to a region Somewhere south of Jerusalem in the hills we can imagine her covering something like 75 to 100 miles over the course of four or five days At least and we want to ask questions like what did her parents think of that we have no idea Did anybody travel with her we don't know but ladies what she's out the door and gone and verse 40 She entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. What sort of greeting again?
We aren't given the details. We don't know what she said immediately But but we of course can surmise that she acknowledged what the angel had told her that Elizabeth was with child and Mary knew it And at six months along it would be obvious now of course anyway So she probably said something like congratulations And of course we can imagine that she shared news of her own conversation with the angel Gabriel But what we don't know is if she is yet aware that she herself is now with child by the Holy Spirit the spirit promised You will be overshadowed, but we don't know what that experience would have been like whether Mary would have even known it was happening Or not but whether she is aware or not She is in fact with child John and Elizabeth each now filled with the Holy Spirit make it clear that it's so So she may have already known or just began to know but Elizabeth blesses her calling her the mother of my Lord and John leaps in Elizabeth's womb for joy being in the presence of Jesus, but why did Mary go to Elizabeth? It's not explicitly said Undoubtedly Mary felt like I can count on Elizabeth to understand the shall we say awkwardness of my situation We've both been visited by angels We've both been promised sons and fulfillment of God's redemptive plan in sending them a sigh of Jesus and the forerunner of the Messiah John And and so Mary seeks out Elizabeth and shares the good news together with her They they share life together for at least three months life centered on Jesus last week We said Mary's a model of faith she believed Gabriel trusted God and welcomed the good news May it be done to me as you have said and now she's here a model of Christian fellowship for us obviously of course her experience and Elizabeth's experience would be different than ours a unique kind of experience but I mean before They alone were chosen to bear the children of promise and they were the first to know that God had actually now come to redeem his people But ultimately what did they share they shared what all Christians share in common what you and I share in common They they share in common Christ and this is what we call Christian fellowship not living your Christian life in Isolation and alone in your thoughts but engaged in relationships with others who share the good news with you about Jesus I mean this is much more we have to see it as much more than a young Mary Looking for a distant relative where she can flee and spend time, you know away This is Mary looking for someone to share faith with or looking for someone who shares her faith in the Messiah the Messiah who's come and Remember that Mary is in her teens as is Undoubtedly the case and Elizabeth is too old to have children of our own except by a miracle So she's likely four times Mary's age. She may be old enough to be her great grandmother But they enjoy sweet fellowship together a senior citizen and a young Unwed teenager and that is because ages no barrier to two believers rejoicing together and sharing the life God has for them we need to be careful of presuming that the best fellowship the best Christian friendships are between people of the same age Some of you dear believers are old enough to be the grandparents even the great grandparents of some of the youngest in this room Do not make the mistake of thinking for a moment that they have no interest in you or you have nothing to learn from them Or nothing to for them to teach you or to teach them that there's no way you could encourage them or they could encourage you know I mean are there differences of course Differences demographically, you know, yeah, there's differences I suppose Stereotypically, but our culture defines people by stereotype and pigeonholes people by age and so I don't care if you're the silent generation Or a boomer or an exor or a millennial or generation z or gen alpha or whatever is going on these days sure Yeah age makes some difference, but you have more in common than you have in distinction Because if you have Christ you have the most important thing in common you share the spirit of Christ you share the Holy Spirit You share the life of faith together and that is a much bigger deal than any differences you have So how can we like you know Mary and Elizabeth share in the Christian life gathered up around Jesus together?
Well talk talk to one another talk with one another we can we can share like they did we could share like the Oh that man that Jesus healed of demonic oppression in mark five when I mean he was a prickly porcupine and no one would get near him for For the threat he was to them They tried to chain him up and they changed couldn't hold him He was deranged and out of his mind and then Jesus healed him and it's fascinating the man wanted to get in the boat with Jesus and be his disciple and be one of the disciples and Jesus said no here's what I want you to do I want you to go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you and how he has had mercy on you And isn't that exactly what Mary and Elizabeth shared Mary says verse 49 he who is mighty has done great things for me and Verse 50 his mercy is from generation to generation You know one of the great privileges of being an elder at redeemer And I think one of the most enjoyable things that we get to do and I think all of the elders agree with this Is that from time to time we get to hear the stories of those who are joining the church to hear how God has had mercy on them And to share together the great things the Lord has done for us in Jesus That's part of the work of being elders when we receive new members, but there is no reason Why you couldn't grab a cup of coffee with somebody or have a have a sit-down over a meal even in the fellowship hall later today With with I mean not all at once but dozens and dozens of people in this room and simply say what great things has God done for you How has he had mercy on you? Let me tell you how he had mercy on me and so what an encouragement that would be to you and Encouragement it would be to them because why because we need each other Because Mary needed Elizabeth and Elizabeth needed Mary and Elizabeth was blessed by Mary and Elizabeth blessed Mary So too in the fellowship of Christians. That's the first thing the second the fruit of the Spirit We see in verses 41 to 45 verse 41 Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and she explained with a loud cry Bless are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb? So Elizabeth conceived a child in her old age after being barren and hoored with the word of the angel Gabriel and and what is she focused on when Mary shows up?
She's focused on Mary and her child Verse 42 she speaks of Mary as being blessed by God among women notice that language She doesn't say Mary is blessed above women She doesn't put Mary above them and sort of side by side with Jesus But but she does say she is she doesn't minimize Mary's place in God's plan No, she is she is blessed among women and for generation to generation we will call Mary blessed But not only this she says and blessed is the fruit of your womb Her thoughts have turned to the child Now Elizabeth here knows quite a bit about Mary of these verses. How did she come by this knowledge? Well? Zechariah couldn't speak Elizabeth's husband remember the angel disciplined him for not believing Gabriel But he could certainly write and surely in the last five months as the baby grew in the womb of his wife He jotted down for her a sketch of what the angel had promised to him how the angel said that the child would be John The forerunner of the Messiah which would also mean that the Messiah himself is coming So she I'm sure knows in generality that but of course verse 41 explicitly says Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit And by the Spirit she understood Mary was the mother of the Messiah and the baby was her Lord And so it is what is what is one of the fruits of the Spirit?
What is one of the activities of the Spirit? It is to point people to Christ He spotlights the Savior Whenever people then have eyes to see the Son of God It's because of the ministry of the Spirit of God as Jesus said in John 15 26 But when the helper comes whom I will send to you from the Father the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father He will bear witness about me Elizabeth's filled with the Spirit as she's thinking of Jesus because that's the fruit of the Spirit's work to point us to Christ Jesus said in John 16 14 he will glorify me for he will take what his mind and declare it to you So this is the ministry of the Spirit It's in fact the ministry of the Spirit that Paul prays for an Ephesians one when he prays that the Father of glory May give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Christ Having the eyes of your hearts enlightened that you may know what is the hope you've been called to This is what we can pray for one another Would we know would we have our eyes enlightened in the knowledge of Christ when we have our vision fixed upon him and the hope that we haven't Him that's a ministry of the Spirit is a fruit of the work of the Spirit to have eyes to see But notice another fruit here. It's her trust Verse 45 and blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment that was spoken to her from the Lord She was blessed and so she believed and she trusted God in his word now Can you imagine this conversation happening in the kitchen while Zachariah who's mute is I don't know on the barkal Louser around the corner and you wonder is there not just a subtle contrast here that that Elizabeth is making between Zachariah and Mary He's still mute because he didn't believe blessed are you who believed right away? And so what's emphasized then is is Mary's trust and that is a Holy Spirit she was blessed by God she believed and noticed the exuberance here Why is this granted to me?
Her 43 Elizabeth says why has it been granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? You get what she's saying The baby we can't see is The Lord he's my Lord and she's full of wonder that he would be in her home And and why would she not be joyful right? This is the age of redemption Thousands of years of longing on the part of the people of God are being fulfilled in this moment that Decisive forgiveness has come in the Messiah that he's he's going to bring pardon and reconciliation and deliverance from death and hell And take us to glory forever and so she's glorying in this we have to ask do we share the thrill Over the redeemer and the redemption he brings if it doesn't stir us a bit Then there's something spiritually wrong with us. Well, I I am the first to acknowledge there are days I'm zealous and there are days I wake up with a cold sheet of ice on my heart and Exuberance and joy has to be stirred up by the strength of the Spirit But if we feel nothing at all if we think nothing at all about the miraculous coming of the long promise redeemer well Then maybe we need the Linus story read to us again from Charlie Brown with the angel said to them fear not behold I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people for unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior who is Christ the Lord and even John gets in on the rejoicing did you notice that verse 44?
I mean Elizabeth is exuberant, but John well verse 44 behold with the sound of your greeting came to my ears the baby and my wound late for joy a baby about six months along filled with the Holy Spirit heard the good news of the Virgin Mary's conception of Jesus and in the presence of his Savior left in her womb So not yet born already John prophesies says Maximus of Turin northern Italy in the 400s Not yet born already John prophesies and while still in the enclosure of his mother's womb confesses the coming of Christ with movements of joy He leaped for joy. That's not a gloss. That's not a guess verse 41 Elizabeth is filled with the Holy Spirit and this is through Luke the inspired revelation and Inspired evaluation of God of why it is that John leaked He was after all we read previously earlier and John filled with the Holy Spirit from his mother's womb and Elizabeth tells us He left for joy Jesus not yet. Oh what we call viable only a few days maybe a week old possibly in the presence of his mother's womb Yet John was overjoyed in the presence of the Messiah later when Jesus began his public ministry John would testify in John chapter 3 29 that his joy was complete But his joy began while Jesus was still in the womb joy came to Mary and Elizabeth and John because of the coming of Christ And by the fruit of the spirits work in them they had joy, but notice also humility.
What's the fruit of the Spirit here? faith trust Joy and humility verse 43. Why Elizabeth says why is this granted to me? That the mother of my Lord should come to me.
Did you hear the wonder in her voice? Why should I receive such a gift? Who am I? That the mother of my Lord should be standing in my home and my Lord Be in my home.
I don't deserve this Here's the fruit then of the spirit in her life. I used to see Jesus for who he is as the Lord Trust in God in his word joy that the Messiah Is alive in this world in answer to the promise of God and humility that Jesus would come to her What about for you? Has the spirit born in your life the fruit of faith and trust and joy And have God's generous and undeserved gifts the fruit of the spirit humbled you That's the second thing and the last one is the faithfulness of God because it's the song of Mary in verses 46 to 56 It's a campicle of praise verse 46 and Mary said my soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices and God my Savior It's Mary's magnificat as some of you know It's called church history the magnificat so called because of the Latin version of verse 46 is magnificat Anamah maya dominum my soul magnifies the Lord magnifies now. Where did she get all this?
Where did Mary get the prayer that we're about to Look through briefly Well, some scholars have suggested that a young teenager like Mary could not possibly have composed a political and theological Masterpiece like the magnificah they say someone more sophisticated like Luke must have sort of put the words in her mouth But these objectives are just sexist and ageist She's a young girl. So what she's filled with the Holy Spirit That's the doctrine of inspiration. She's carried along by the Holy Spirit and she's obviously an excellent student of scripture The Holy Spirit of course helped her learn the scripture and then recall the scripture She had previously it's not even learned But the spirit doesn't always work with what is creatively knew but works with the word that he's previously inspired and Mary's Price here is filled with the words of the spirit of God and the scriptures of God that had previously been inspired It's of note and I can't we don't have time point of all out that that that Mary's price here is almost completely made up of Old Testament quotations Much of it follows the pattern of Hannah's song of praise to God after she received a long Desired and delayed we might say child in first Samuel chapter 2 But Mary also quotes here nine separate Psalms first and second Samuel Genesis to your enemy Joe by Zechil Micah and Zephaniah Quite evidently then this teenager had heard or read and marked an inwardly digested God's word and then out of the abundance of her mouth her heart her mouth spoke and now in her song of praise she takes us to school Notice in her song of praise her focus is not on herself, but on the Lord She uses the phrase he has eight times What God has done? It's it's like the best of our humanity.
I've had this discussion with some of you of late It's not self-centered, but God's centered not focused on our own faith But the object of our faith not on how we feel about God But on who God is and Mary's praise here is not on how she feels about God But but on God and what God has done for her and I what she has done for him Of course, she begins with her own soul my soul Magnifies the Lord my spirit rejoices and God my Savior to magnify means to enlarge She seeks to enlarge our view of God and and for her it is the Lord God her Savior who is captured her attention That's what she calls him and she focuses on well Let me summarize it in three ways the privileges of God the pattern God follows and the promises God gives notice the privileges God gives 40 47 my spirit rejoices and God my Savior And then and then she notices the contrast between herself and him verse 8 48 for he has looked on the humble estate of the 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 She is lowly in her own eyes She knows she's a poor young peasant girl from Nazareth Nobody from nowhere and she knew it and she knows she's even lower in the eyes of the Lord ultimately I'm worthy to bear the son of God needing this son to be her Savior She sees that he is holy holy is he she doesn't boast in some sort of personal Holiness or in so-called immaculate conception now that's not on her mind her mind is on him In that God graced her and blessed her that she's got the privilege of bearing the Messiah because he's the God he does great things For the lowly for the poor for the obscure for people who need to be rescued for sinners And so like Mary let us be lowly in our own eyes and think little of ourselves and much of God with him Nothing is impossible. He is willing to do great things for you Not that you're going to make the Savior in the world, but are you poor and needy? You're just the kind of person God the lights to lift up And so James the apostle will say humble yourselves before the Lord and he will exalt you Well, that's a bit of the privilege of that God gives notice the pattern God follows It's a pattern of mercy verse 50 and his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation She knows that the gift of Jesus is the manifestation of God's mercy and mercy is available in Jesus and from generation her generation to our generation That mercy continues to be offered today is a day of salvation and mercy She knows the pattern of God's mercy from one generation to another and the power of God's mercy the pattern of God's power He humbles the proud verse 51. He shows strength with his arms scared of the proud and the thoughts of their hearts He's brought down the mighty from their throats exalted those of humble estate Fill the hodie with good things and the rich he has sent away She knows that the Lord God of the universe is the God who reverses expectations That it's not the proud or the mighty or the rich who have the last world word in God's world All right, he brings down the proud you remember like Pharaoh and Nebuchadnezzar and Herod he raises up the lowly like Joseph and Daniel and Esther and Mary he humbles the proud but gives grace to the humble that's his pattern and then you see that is the promise God keeps Verse 54 he's helped his servant Israel in remembrance of his mercy as he spoke to our fathers to Abraham to his offspring forever Here's where we're close right what God is doing through Elizabeth and Mary Mary recognizes is in in faithful Covenant keeping with his promise to Abraham.
He remembers his promise to Abraham. What was that? Well, do you remember after Abraham had been prepared to offer his his only son his beloved son Isaac to the Lord on Mount Mariah? God said to him in Genesis 22 this because you have done this and have not withheld your son your only son I will surely bless you and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that's on the Seashore and your offspring shall possess the gate of its enemy and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed Because you have obeyed my voice Through your offspring Abraham All the nations will be blessed and God has kept his promise the offspring of Abraham has come and Through the atoning death of this offspring on Calvary God offered his own son in Sacrifice to bear the justice of God due to us for our sins so that we might enjoy the mercy of God For all to call upon him from one generation to another God Mary says is faithful to his promises to his patterns To the gift of his privileges.
How do we now? Mary says just like it Jesus won't you? Let's pray Father grant us eyes to see him the hearts to rest In his work of redemption for us and so then by your spirit lives that would seek To honor you in Jesus name amen. Let's stay in the entrance