Luke 2026

So we're in Luke chapter one, and there's gonna be two readings.

The first one is from, verse one to four. Many have undertaken to draw up an account of things that have been fulfilled among us, just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word. With this in mind, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, I too decided to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught. And we're going to now go to verse 26 to 56. 'In the sixth month of Elizabeth's pregnancy God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David.

The virgin's name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, 'Greetings, you who are highly favoured. The Lord is with you.' Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favour with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus.

He will be great, and we will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob's descendants forever His kingdom will never end. How will this be? Mary asked the angel, since I am a virgin. The angel answered, the Holy Spirit will come on you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.

So the Holy One to be born will be called the Son of God. Even Elizabeth, your relative, is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month, for no word from God will ever fail. I am the Lord's servant, Mary answered, may your word to me be fulfilled. Then the angel left her. At that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea, where she entered Zechariah's home and greeted Elizabeth.

When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the baby leapt in her womb and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. In a loud voice she exclaimed, 'Blessed are you among women and blessed is the child you will bear, but why am I so favoured that the mother of my Lord should come to me?' As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the babe in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfil his promises to her. And Mary said: My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour, for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant. From now on all generations will call me blessed, for the Mighty One has done great things for me holy is his name.

His mercy extends to those who fear him from generation to generation. He has performed mighty deeds with his arm. He has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts. He has brought down rulers from their thrones, but has lifted up the humble. He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty.

He has helped his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful to Abraham and his descendants forever, just as he promised our ancestors. Mary stayed with Elizabeth for about three months and then returned home. Thanks Hannah. My name is Pete Woodcock, I'm one of the pastors of the church. We started this series a couple of weeks ago but let us pray before we look at that word.

Father help us now please. We don't want to be like the person that James describes looking in the mirror and then forgetting what our face looks like. We want to look into the word of God and it to touch us and to cause us to be different, to cause us to be a praising people. We pray this in Jesus name. Amen.

Now a couple of weeks ago we started this series in Luke's gospel. We looked at those first four verses of Luke chapter one. And I was trying to show you what an amazing historian Luke is. And you can go back and have a listen to that. But also I was trying to show you how Luke works his material.

And I gave you this equation. It should come up. Let's have a quick look at it. There it is. It means a lot, doesn't it?

You probably won't remember it, but it's p plus e times f equals c. And now you've got it. Yeah? We'll finish the sermon there and let's pray. What it means is P stands for prophecies and promises and predictions.

E stands for eyewitnesses, and f stands for fulfillment of those promises, predictions, and prophecies. And when you put them all together, it equals certainty. That's what Luke is doing. It equals certainty. So in the Old Testament part of the Bible, before Jesus was born into this world, the Bible gives us many, many, many, many, many prophecies, promises, predictions that God is going to send a special person, a king, a messiah, God's anointed one, the son of the living God, the son of David, the greater son of David.

And he's gonna come into this world as a rescuer and a restorer. He's gonna deal with justice and injustice. He's going to deal with the sin problem and the separation that we have from God, the Father. And Luke is saying, I am investigating, the eyewitnesses to this Jesus of Nazareth. I wanna know whether the claims of this Jesus of Nazareth that people are making are actually a fulfillment of those prophecies, promises, and, predictions.

And that's what he does. He investigates. He, thoroughly investigates the eyewitnesses. You are saying that Jesus of Nazareth fulfilled this prophecy. And he looks into it, and he says, I I carefully investigated.

I did my work, and it's certainly true. You can be certain. You can be certain of the truth. It fits. Jesus fits the promises.

Jesus fits the whole storyline that's been going on before his birth. It's a bit like, if you want to imagine something like, the prince in the Cinderella story. He's danced with the beautiful girl, and then she's cleared off. I mean, why? I don't know.

But anyway, she's gone. He can't obviously remember her face. He can only remember her foot. But nevertheless, you know the story. And he searches his kingdom for that girl to see who it is.

And there are a lot of big ugly feet and a lot of contenders, but none of them fit the silver slipper or the glass slipper but Cinderella herself. She fits the story. She fits the event. That's what Luke is doing. Back in 1983, the Hitler diaries were discovered.

Hitler's diaries. 60 volumes of them were discovered, written by Adolf Hitler himself. They were sold for £2,300,000. That's 9,300,000 Deutschmarks. And on the day they were going to be published, they were going to be published in lots of newspapers, including the Sunday Times in The UK, they were discovered to be a fraud.

They were completely fraudulent. And the reason they were discovered to be fraudulent at first, although there were other reasons later, was it didn't fit the story. It didn't fit the history that was already written of where Hitler was. This week, last week, we've seen Earl Spencer, Lord Spencer, publish his biography of his sister Diana. Lady Diana, some of you will remember her, you know, princess of Wales and that sort of stuff.

And on the very day it's called Swan Song. On the very day it was published, he had to come out and admit that he'd got facts wrong. It didn't fit the story. It's amazing, isn't it? Luke was not gonna have any of that.

He was testing the facts. He was looking at the eyewitnesses. He was examining them, and he wanted to make sure that this Jesus of Nazareth was actually fitting in the fulfillment of the promises, predictions, and prophecies of the old testament. Now this morning, I do really wanna get to Mary's song because it's beautiful. It's wonderful.

And I want us to leave us on that song. It's such a wonderful thing. But before we get there, there's some important truths in the story leading up to Mary's song. And the same equation is used. P plus e times f equals c.

You'll see the same equation, except at the end of the song, you can add this, an s. So the prophecies, predictions, promises, plus the eyewitnesses to and the fulfillment of those promises equals certainty. You can be certain this is true, but you're never meant to end there. You're meant to end with an s, a song. And that's where Mary goes.

But first of all, let's look at the story. The story before the song. You know the story. I'm not really going to go over it in detail. It's told every Christmas.

If you don't know it, come to our Christmas services. They're not far away. Sorry to mention Christmas, but there we are. We're nearly there. And it's in the shops already.

It was in Lidl anyway the other day. But you know the story. A young unmarried virgin betrothed to be married to Joseph, visited by the angel Gabriel in an obscure town called Nazareth. She's told that she's going to be with child. She's told that the child will be the son of God, the one that's going to fulfill all the prophecies, promises, and predictions.

Actually, in those verses of the the annunciation, which is often called announcing this message to to Mary, in verses 36 to 38, there's at least 10 prophecies fulfilled and quotations from the old testament. Do you see what's going on there? They're they're being fulfilled. Now, although this was frightening and a shocking experience for Mary, she's seeing already. It's not a brand new story.

It's part of the bigger story. And Luke will go and emphasize that actually in chapter three when Luke actually says that her husband to be is part of this whole story as well, his storyline. He goes over all the genealogy of Joseph that goes right right the way back through to David and so forth. And Mary's response to this annunciation, to all of these prophecies coming true, is quite interesting. In verse 29 of Luke 29 of Luke one, it says, Mary was greatly troubled and wondered what kinds of greetings this might be.

In other gospels, she's pondering these things in her heart. They're they're rather troubling. And then you go down to verse 34. It says, how will this be? Mary asked the angel, and the the angel answers her.

So what you've got here is an announcement of a culmination of a story that's been going on for years. This is the fulfillment of prophecies, promises, and predictions. She's scared. She's confused, but nothing she's heard contradicts God's story. Nothing she's heard contradicts it.

Her being sent to stage in this story is a what? Me? Moment. She can't work that one out. It's rather troubling.

Her being pregnant in this story is a how moment. How? How is this possible? There's a what me moment, and there's a how moment. Absolutely.

But it doesn't contradict anything of the story. It's not a contradiction. Mary said, may your word be fulfilled. Now I don't wanna take away and we could do a sermon on this, and we probably have in the past. I don't wanna take away the amazing beauty and power announcement to Mary.

I don't want to take away the shock and the surprise of that moment to a young girl, Mary, and how it was going to change her life for the rest of her life. And although will be a blessing, the blessing brings sadness and brokenness, the seeing of our own child killed in a violent way, the mocking that she would receive of being a pregnant woman before marriage. The blessing is going to carry with it pain as blessings often often do. But even though this is shocking, even though this is a surprising moment, if you lay this all out, you find that it fits the story. It's a culmination of all the prophecies.

So what does she do? Verse 39. At that time, Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea. She hurried to go to see Elizabeth. She hurried to see Elizabeth.

We were looking at her and her story and Zechariah's story, The Husband of Elizabeth last week. And you can pick that up on the website if if you haven't heard that. So she hurries. And what she's doing is absolutely the right thing. She's going to get assurance.

She's going to get confirmation about this event of the angel and the story told. She knows that it fits the story, but she wants confirmation. And this is where you beautifully see Mary's faith growing, growing in certainty of the story and the message that leads to song because that's what certainty does. And that's what you're meant to do. See, you've got you've got a a sort of seed of the church here straight away.

In order for us to really understand sometimes the word of god, in order for us just to to understand the blessings of it, even when we're slightly confused, even though we say I'm resigned to do your will, god, as she was, and we don't quite understand the blessings of it, you need to go to someone to get an affirmation, to get a correction, to get an understanding, and that's what she does. But notice what happens here in verse forty one and forty five. Let me read them. Just notice what happens. When Elizabeth heard Mary's greetings, the baby in her womb, that's John the Baptist, the baby in her womb in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.

Sorry. Let me read that again. When Elizabeth Elizabeth heard Mary's greetings, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. In a loud voice, she exclaimed, blessed are you among women, and blessed is your child that you will bear. But why am I so favored that the mother of my lord should come to me?

As soon as the sound of the greeting reached her my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed is she who has believed the lord who would fulfill his promises. Now there's a number of things you see there that confirm the message that she's heard. She goes for confirmation. Elizabeth is pregnant.

That's exactly what the angel said. Tick number one. The baby in Elizabeth leaped in her womb. And then in verse 44, we're told, leaped for joy. That is a prophecy fulfilled.

We're told that when the sun, s u n, when the sun of righteousness appears with healing in his wings, people will go free and leap for joy. So there's another prophecy fulfilled there. She's ticking all these things. Then we're told that Elizabeth says, Mary is blessed. It's usually the other way around.

Elizabeth is the older woman, but she's saying the younger woman is blessed, and blessed is the child that you will bear. So again, she knows that Elizabeth has had this announcement to her about having a child even though she's a virgin. Then we're told Elizabeth was filled with the holy spirit and says, verse 43, the mother of my lord, the child that Mary is gonna have in her is going to bear is the lord of Elizabeth. Yeah? Then she says in verse 45, blessed is she who believed that the Lord will fulfill her promises to her.

So you've got this fulfilling of promises again going on there. All this is the equation that Luke has been telling us. And so what you've got here is an amazing thing by the way, which shows us the truth of the holy trinity. You got the holy spirit, yeah? You've got the baby who is my lord, and then you've got the lord who promises.

You've got the triune god there, all wrapped up. Now it's this is a really important part of the Christian message. It's an important part that sometimes we miss, and we need to get get it right. All of this fits with the god of the old testament, with the story of the old testament, with all of the promises. That's what's going on here.

Jesus of Nazareth is the promised one. There might be things that are hard to comprehend. There might be things that are personally hard to sort of live in the light of, but there's nothing out of kilter. Nothing that doesn't fit. Even though strange things happen, they fit very clearly.

And when all this happens, Mary's trust and certainty rose. It wasn't that she was an unbeliever beforehand, but her belief was slightly sort of, oh, well, I'll be resigned to it. May the lord, you know, fulfill in me. Let let it be. Let it be.

But now she's got a deeper understanding through fellowship with Elizabeth, through seeing the truths, and now the certainty has turned to song. It's song. I think what we get in Mary is a model Christian. This is a model. This is how to live the Christian life.

Mary doesn't just have a supernatural experience on her own and doesn't test it. She makes sure it fits with the story. It is not unbelief if someone comes to you and said, I've had this experience of an angel. It is not unbelief to say, does it fit? Does it fit?

Mary does it. It's not unbelief. Does what she's experienced fit with the story that's gone beforehand with the prophecies, predictions? And when she realizes it does, it's a it's a foot in the slipper moment. She's sent off to the ball.

Everything is now a song. You never get Mary, by the way. You never get Mary turning up anywhere in the New Testament saying, because I'm the mother of I'm the mother of the Messiah. You need to listen to me. You don't get that.

You don't get that. You you never get Mary saying, well, because I had an experience with an angel. No. Sorry. I had an experience with the angel Gabriel.

Yeah? Only other time he's mentioned was when the great prophet Daniel tore him? Me. You need to listen to me, and you need to give me all your money. You never hear her doing that.

Never listen to someone that makes you submit to them because of the experience of God that they're claiming. Never do that. She never she never does that. There are many, many people out there. And on the Internet, there are thousands of weirdos, And they claim all kinds of things.

Much of it is utterly bizarre and mockable. But there are many people that claim. Paul writes in the New Testament part of the Bible, Galatians chapter one, even if we, listen, or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel, another story, should preach a gospel other than the one we preach to you, let them be under God's curse. And then he says in two Corinthians, Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. Never let someone who says they've seen an angel or had some spiritual experience or the trend today amongst Bethel and can't feel the other one.

Hillsong leaders is that Jesus now comes to them as leaders and asks them to forgive Jesus. It doesn't fit. It's wrong. They're liars or or deceived. Do you see that?

Even if an angel comes, if anyone preaches another story that doesn't fit with the storyline, doesn't matter what they say they've had experience they've had. It's very, very important. And that's why church is so important. We don't have self anointed, self accredited people. We have to have people recognize gifts.

We have to have the church understand and ask questions. Does it fit? Does the message he, she, they are saying, does it fit the storyline? Is it the gospel storyline that goes right the way back to the Old Testament? That's why church is so important.

According to Islamic tradition, the Islamic prophet Muhammad had a vision of the angel Gabriel in the cave Hura. That's what they say. It's a deeply disturbing vision if you read it. It doesn't fit with other visions of the angel Gabriel. He crushes Muhammad three times and forces the word of God into him.

So much so it was such an experience that Muhammad thought it was either a devil or he was going insane. He comes out and he asks his wife, and his wife says, no. This is God. But it wasn't because it didn't fit. The story that he later on tells doesn't fit.

The message doesn't fit. It doesn't fit the storyline, whatever his experience was in the cave. Mary never thought she was demon possessed and never thought she was going mad because she could see it fitted the storyline. And the storyline is always good news. It's about Jesus.

It's not about Mary. It's not about a prophet. It's always them, as we'll see in her song, pointing away, pointing to Jesus. Your child will be called Jesus cause he will save people from their sins. He's of the line of David.

He goes all the way back to Abraham. You can you'll see her story in a minute. Test, brothers and sisters. Like Mary, test, even test your own thinking against the storyline. Test your own heart and emotions against the storyline.

Don't just go with your emotions and the story, oh, my heart feels this. Don't do that. Mary didn't. She's a model Christian. Test what you were brought up to believe by the story.

Test what your experiences are, whatever they may be. By the story, whatever you encounter or whoever you encounter with a different storyline, test them against the good news that Jesus is the one who's come to save the world. Not religion, not giving my money to whoever the prophet what is saying they are. So that's my first point. It's very important, but let's get to the song.

Yeah? Let's I hope that hasn't depressed you, but test it. Very, important. Because you go wrong if you don't. Because there's liars in the world.

Because there's Satan. Where's where's where is it? There's Satan around, and he lies, and he comes as an angel of light. Satan has another story. Satan has a Muhammad story.

That's what he does, to draw thousands of people away from the Lord Jesus Christ. Don't go down that route. Test, see, and see the good news in the Lord Jesus Christ. Okay. Here's the second point then.

The song. We have the story of the song. According to Islamic tradition, Muhammad didn't sing. He never sung. In fact, according to Islamic tradition, he tolerated people that sang.

Yeah. Not so the bible. You see see the story, the real story will give you certainty and will make you sing. Not chant, sing. Now it's true.

It doesn't say that this is a song of Mary, but when you look at the structure of the song, it's very clearly like the Psalms, the songbook of the Old Testament. In fact, she uses much of it. Shows that she knows the bible very well, by the way, which is a very good help for any experience you're ever gonna have. So let's have a look at the song. It's in two parts.

The first part is my soul, my savior. Look at verses, 46 to 49. And Mary said, so once she's got this certainty, the song comes. Once she understands the story with the help of Elizabeth and fellowship, the song comes. And Mary said, my soul glorifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God, my savior, for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant.

From now on, all generations will be will call me blessed, for the mighty one has done great things for me, holy as his name. This is a personal start of the song. She's bowled over that the storyline has included her. My goodness. And she says, not just the savior has come, my savior.

Notice that? My soul glorifies glorifies the lord and my spirit rejoices in god, my savior. Her praise is joyful. It's genuinely joyful. In fact, the word that is used is almost giddyingly joyful.

It means leaping and dancing and praising God. It's a springing up. It's exactly what was happening with John the Baptist in Elizabeth's womb. As soon as that baby even knew about Jesus, there was jumping in the womb. This is this is the springtime.

This is the sun, s u n, of righteousness coming, you see, warming the cold winter ground. It's springtime. And when the ground warms up comes the crocuses. Up comes the daffodils. They can't help it.

It's warm. There's something in them that says, I've gotta get out. I've gotta get out. I've gotta display my yellowness. I've gotta display my colors.

I've gotta let the bees smell me. It's bursting out. That's what she's doing. There's a kind of religion, isn't there, that thinks that solemnity is is proof of sincerity. Heavy footsteps, you know, long faces, comfortable misery.

Yeah. It's not Mary's faith. Now, of course, there's a place for grief and there's obviously a place for repentance, but that does not drown out shouts of glory, unguarded shouts of glory. My soul magnifies the lord. Glorifies the lord.

See that? My soul, my whole life, the center of my being. This isn't a bit of religion added on to me. This isn't just me following a load of rituals and laws and, you know, having to having to dress like this for the whole generation that I'm in. Everybody's gotta dress like a first century girl.

This isn't adding god to your life. This is shaken to the depths until the song comes out. This is understanding god. God is my savior, she says. My savior.

The difference between admiring Christ, standing back and admiring him like a painting than living in the light of him. He's personally reshaping our wants and he's steadying our foots and taking away our fears and calming our hearts and putting ground upon us so that we can sing a song loudly and praise. Look at verse 48. For he's been mindful of the humble state of his servant. From now on, all generations will you call me blessed.

See, even her humble state, even her low position in society, and it was low, didn't mute her song. It actually deepened the volume of her song. She's a nobody, and yet he's my savior. Yeah? And you go through Luke and you see this.

The leper, full of leprosy, meant to be excluded, pushing his way through the crowd to see Jesus. No one could stop him. The woman who was bleeding for twelve years, we see all this in Luke. Bleeding for twelve years, shouldn't have been around the crowd, pushes her way through. No one would stop her.

Blind Bart, Emmaus and his mate shouting out, Jesus, son of David, and the disciples saying, up. They couldn't stop the shouts. You can't do that. Even how lowly they were. The woman who's called a sinful woman pushing through the the the the house of a Pharisee and everybody's saying, oh, she's a dirty woman and her pouring out her love and perfume on Jesus' feet couldn't stop her.

The very fact that they were nobodies, that they were dismissed people, They were the dirty people. They were the sinners. The very fact that they knew that made them come to Jesus and praise. And that's what's going on with Mary. She's no princess.

She wasn't wealthy. She wasn't educated. She had no influence. She's a poor girl from a town that's never mentioned again, Nazareth. She's only put on the map because of this.

And God looked to her. God God isn't looking at algorithms, how many likes you've got, how well you've got, how many YouTube clips you've got, how many times you've done your lips online, how nice your legs are. God isn't ticking off all of that sort of stuff. God isn't doing that. He looks for those who aren't even on the Internet, for those who are nobodies, for those who are despised and rejected.

That's the god of the bible. They know they need a savior. That's the only qualification. Look at verse 48 again. For he had been mindful of the humble state of his servant.

This is amazing. Me. I haven't got a like in the in or I haven't got a like in the world other than Joseph, and even he's now gonna doubt me in a minute. But God is mindful of me. Then look.

From now on, all generations will call me blessed. She sees something amazing about her future. She is going to become the most famous woman in the world ever. No one is going no woman is more famous than her. No one.

No woman is more famous than Mary. No one. Not Taylor Swift with her legs. Mary. Taylor Swift songs got a few billion hits.

Many billion hits, her songs. Amazing. My savior. Mary is a picture of the Christian and why we should sing. It's not her saving herself.

She's brought into the family of God, and it's the song that you can sing. You will be blessed among all the generations. One day, the whole world will see that if you're in Christ, you're a child of Christ. You're as blessed as Mary. Look at verse 49.

For the mighty one has done great things for me. Holy is his name. Even the fact that God is mighty and he is holy doesn't put off her praise. She has such confidence now that she is saved. And now she knows that she's saved.

She's so certain of this salvation to someone like her that she realizes that even a holy god, she's acceptable in because it's the lord Jesus Christ who makes you holy. He makes you holy. And what he will do on the cross will cover your sin and make you acceptable before the almighty. She's blessed. And if you follow that savior, if you know that savior in your heart, you are blessed.

You could not be more blessed. Oh, yes. But I failed my a levels. Great. You're blessed in God.

Oh, yes. But whatever. That's part one. She's confident. She praises all because of my savior.

But look at part two. Part two is the savior and his deeds and the savior and his plan. You notice a change, actually. You get it from verse 50 onwards. So Mary's gone from her experience of God's grace and the joy of that to now looking back across history through David, through the wilderness, right the way back to the promises, all the way back to Abraham actually, and probably before.

So she's now putting herself in the context of this great story yet again. And she's not just praising God that she's saved. She's praising God that what he's always done, he's always been like this, and he's always going to be like this. Notice now that every sentence begins with his or he. Notice that.

Let me just read it. Verse 50. His mercy extends to those who fear him from generation to generation. He has performed mighty deeds with his arm. He has scattered those who are proud in the innermost thoughts.

He has brought down rulers from their thrones and has lifted up the humble. He has filled the hungry with good things but sent the rich away empty. He has helped his servant Israel remembering to be merciful to Abraham and his descendants forever just as he promised our ancestors. It's all about he. It's my savior, but he is the savior.

That's the big thing. Big thing is that God has come to Earth to do something. That's the big thing. It's wonderful, isn't it? And it's all about mercy.

And mercy is extended to those who just be humble enough to receive it. It's not about you being good or better than other people. That's not a gospel. That's a works. That's down to you.

It's all about he, and all we do is accept what he's done for us. He's my savior. He's been merciful. He's the one that has this plan. He brings me into God's family.

He's the merciful one from generation to generation. This is a message for all generations, for us today. She was thinking of us when she poured out this from her heart. The generations after generation, people of different nationalities and different people groups. See, religion.

What religion is? It will make you be like the culture that the prophet was at the time. That's what Islam is. You have to dress like a medieval person in Arabia. You have to have your beard cut in the same way as the prophet.

It's all it's all just stuck in a culture. That's what religion does. It makes you and conforms you and pressurizes you and pushes you into some kind of mold. This is a message. It's the message, the same message for every generation, for all different cultures of mercy and grace and the beauty that that someone from that nation, from that time can come to know the lord Jesus Christ and someone from that nation with that culture and that background can come to know the lord Jesus Christ.

It's the message, not the dress, not the laws, not the rules, not the culture. It's beautiful, and she sees that. Look at verse 51. He has performed mighty deeds with my with his arm. He has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.

He has brought down rulers from their thrones. He has lifted up the humble. He has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away. It's amazing. What Mary is describing is the gospel of the lord Jesus Christ, the gospel of god, and it's always the reversal of what the world thinks.

Parents, you need to get this. We teach our children what is important, don't we? We teach our children that it's important to be rich, to be proud of yourself, to be a ruler in some way, to be filled. It's the exact opposite message. You teach your children that, no wonder they won't sing.

No wonder we're in a country that's got all that and is not singing. No wonder we got young people that are not singing, that are depressed and broken and down because they heard the wrong message. They've got a message that is totally reversed from God's authentic message. The proud are scattered. Don't be proud.

The powerful are dethroned. Don't go for fame. The lowly are lifted. The hungry are fed. The rich are sent away with nothing.

What are you banging on about your kids getting a good job to get good money? It's completely the opposite to what God is saying. You see how authentic this message is? It's so authentic. It shows up the lies that the devil pumps into us and we somehow pump into our children.

It's not about connection and money and power. We saw this in James. We're looking at James in the evening. Listen to what James says, the brother of Jesus. Listen to what he says.

Believers in humble circumstances ought to take pride in their high position, but the rich should take pride in their humiliation. It's humiliating to be rich since they will pass away like a wildflower. For the sun rises with scorching heat and withers the plant, its blossoms fall and its beauty is destroyed in the same way the rich will fade away even while they're about their business. Look at the rich. We're fading.

We live in the rich fifth of the world. We are mighty rich people, and we have a generation of young people lost in a lost world. Lost in a lost world. The soul needs Jesus. That's the message to teach our children.

The soul needs this Jesus. The soul needs the one that feeds the hungry. Jesus is the bread of life. Come to me, you who are thirsty. That's the message.

Stop working for bread that doesn't fill. Stop hurting your children. You want your children to sing? Then look at this message. More than anything, look at this message.

And then god keeps his word. Look at verse 54 to 55. He has helped his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful to Abraham and his descendants forever, just as he promised. There it is again, our ancestors. Mary ends by tying her moment, her experience to the promise of centuries earlier right the way back to Abraham.

For two thousand years, there was a promise that someone from Abraham would come. Now it's happened in Jesus. And Jesus has gone back to heaven, and for two thousand years, he promised to return. And we'll see all of him in his beauty. So let me just apply this.

You're right. What's the time? It's probably only ten past eleven in there. Yeah. What are you gonna do with this redemption song, brothers and sisters?

There are so many ways to miss the truth here. Let me pick on some. Many will stubbornly not sing Mary's song for themselves for these reasons. Here's one. If you go to the commentaries on the bible, the academic ones, there is a bunch of academic theologians that when they read Mary's song, they say, well, it is beautiful, but there's no way that someone, a teenage illiterate girl could write that song.

It couldn't happen. That's what they say in their academic theological ivory towers. How utterly utterly arrogant is that? How arrogant? They're two thousand years away from the event.

Luke has investigated, but they know better in their theological ivory towers. An illiterate girl from a town called Nazareth could not have written now she may not have written it down, but the great thing about Mary is she knows her scriptures, and she draws from the scriptures in this song. You can go through it if you wanted to. All the promises and the things from Psalms and and and Hannah's song and all of that sort of stuff. She draws from it.

The arrogance of the academic world to say that someone who's illiterate can't sing a praise song like this. The arrogance. But you see, the main thing of what that arrogance does, it makes them not listen to the song that says that the arrogant and the proud will be brought down. They're sitting on their ivory towers thinking, we're so clever. We can say that Mary couldn't have written the song because ignorant people like that can't write songs.

By the way, John Bunyan wrote Pilgrim's Progress in prison. He only had an education up to 12 years of age, and he wrote one of the most magnificent books ever written. Yeah? I mean, I'm worried whether to say it or not. But I became a Christian.

I couldn't hardly read. I'm I'm not trying to boast here genuinely. I've spoken at 30 universities around the world, and I'm an uneducated ignorant pig. God, what are you talking about, you arrogant academic theologian? Get on your knees.

Start being humble. Listen to the song and repent of your arrogance. So that's one way of reading it. Mary clearly knew the scriptures and puts together this song. She may not have written it down.

Luke did in Greek, but she sang this song. Here's another here's another thing where we can miss this story. There are some people that turn Mary into a goddess. Mariology. You can go to many church buildings, and you'll see Mary center stage.

I I really genuinely don't know what she would do if she went in. And she'd say, what's that goddess thing there? Is it Artemis? And you say, no. That's Mary.

That's you. She would rip her first century clothes. It's unbelievable that you would do that. In fact, it was even happening in Luke's gospel. We get to it eventually.

In Luke chapter 11, some woman comes out of the crowd with this sentimental nonsense about Mary and says to Jesus, blessed is the mother that gave you birth and nursed you. You know? Blessed is blessed are our breasts. You know? Beautiful.

Blessed is met and Jesus turns around and says, blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it like Mary did. They're the blessed ones. You can be blessed if you listen to her. To turn her into a goddess is is a disaster. It's just ridiculous.

As I say, Mary is the most famous woman that's ever lived. And what is her song about? My savior. About it's not about her. It's about what he's done to her, but my savior.

She's blessed. You can be blessed. And so this is a song for an invitation to you. God noticed the poor girl, dethrones the proud and the arrogant, kept a two thousand year promise. That's the same god who's here today using someone like me to speak to you.

It's the same God. He's speaking to you. And he wants to draw you. He wants to draw you out of your idolatry. Whether you're worshiping Mary or worshiping money or worshiping education, He wants to draw you from that hollow food and bring you to the word of life, the bread of life, the Lord Jesus Christ that you may know my savior and your heart will sing.

You wanna sing? Do we in a grumpy old whatever? You wanna sing? The manger that this song points towards isn't some sentimental Christmas prop. It's the doorway that leads to the cross that the lowly hungry get filled in.

It's God himself coming to us. That's the message. And when you know that, you can sing. You can sing. Father, we thank you so much for what a glorious gospel.

Lord, we want our song to be about our savior. We want, to burst out shouts of joy and praise to him and how we live our lives in response to what you have done. Thank you. Thank you for drawing us in, for drawing us from the world and giving us life in Christ. Father, we pray that our proud and and stubborn wills would be put to fight as we encounter your gospel.

We pray that we would, tell our souls to glory in who you are, in your might, in your power, and in your strength. We pray that you'd help us to do that in Jesus name. Amen.