-I want you to think about your favorite story. My guess is it has something to do with the little guy totally winning against the big guy. 

-I think of all my favorite stories: growing up was the Hardy Boys, as Joe and Frank (as high schoolers) would solve mysteries none of the adults could figure out

-Harry Potter, the chosen child who is able to defeat Voldemort and his whole army

-Katniss Everdeen who stood up to the Capital in defiance and sparked a revolution

-And on and on the list could go! But what if all those stories were viewed as abnormal? What if that wasn’t the reality? What if every story or movie that you saw told you that whoever’s biggest always wins. So the Capital crushes Katniss, Harry is overwhelmed by Voldemort, and the Hardy Boys spend their days focusing on their studies because the adults are in fact smarter. 

-Until we got the Jesus story that was the norm. The gods ruled everything (think of the stories of Zeus or Hercules) If you wanted to be something special you had to rise to the top! The reason those other stories become so beloved is because they point us to the bigger truth of the greatest story of all time, where God came as a baby, took on flesh and moved into the neighborhood (MSG)

-There are 4 songs recorded in Luke’s Gospel that summarize Jesus’ birth. We begin this week looking at Mary’s.

READ/PRAY (pg. 499)

1. Elizabeth Confirms (39-45)

-Some background needed:

-Luke begins this book with a dedication. He has sought to put together the story of what had happened with this Jesus guy

-The story begins with a priest named Zechariah and his wife Elizabeth who were “advanced in years” and childless. In the course of Zechariah’s priestly duties, an angel appears to him and promises that after all these years they’ll have a child! His wife (obviously) gets pregnant, and then remains in isolation for 5 months. 

-In the 6^th month, another angel is sent to a young girl named Mary in Nazareth, aka the sticks! Just as a child was promised to Zechariah, a child is promised to her, but this child won’t be conceived through normal means. As a witness to this, the angel tells Mary that her relative Elizabeth is pregnant!

-Mary goes to visit her “with haste”

-Why haste? Scholars aren’t sure. Some say to hide from her community, some think it is a mistranslation, other say it’s in response to God leading. I think it’s a lot more basic than that.

-If an angel came to you and told you something was going to happen in the future, then gave you a nugget of something that had already happened, wouldn’t you want to go test out what he said?

-Mary wants confirmation about what’s going to happen, if Elizabeth is REALLY pregnant, than maybe she really is going to have an immaculate conception. Now, typically that doctrine is used to refer to Mary being immaculately conceived, but that’s not what I’m talking about here! There is 1 immaculate conception, and it only happened to Jesus.

-She gets to the house and…

41 -John LEAPS in Elizabeth’s womb.

         -Shortly after Mary conceives (80-100 miles away, 3-4 day journey)

-A fetus is responding to the arrival of a zygote. What does that tell you about when a person becomes a person? 

-One of the most fascinating aspects of the biblical storyline is how it’s full of barren wombs (or wombs that should have been barren in Mary’s case!)

-Think back to the father of the nation of Israel: Abraham. Everything that I just shared about Zechariah and Elizabeth is also true of them!

-Abraham to Isaac to Jacob who had 2 wives, one of those wives was childless. 

-In Egypt, after the Israelites are enslaved what does Pharoah command the midwives to do? Kill the babies, destroy the wombs.

-Think of the story of the birth of the prophet Samuel, when his mother Hannah begged God for a baby

-Ruth, whose frail husband died, and then moved to a foreign land with her MIL with no hope of survival or prospective husbands on the horizon.

-Now, with all that in mind, think about the curse in Gen. 3. Notice the fight that begins between the serpent and the woman, and then continues between their 2 offspring. Do you think that maybe Satan knows about this curse, and then views it as his mission to attack the womb of anyone in the line of Jesus? Or do you think it’s any wonder today that Satanic attacks are demeaning and belittling to people? 

-Think of how carelessly life is tossed aside today (abortion and physician assisted suicide). We live in a culture of death, but it’s sterilized and hidden from us. Just a few years ago, after the death of Ulrich Klopfer, 2,411 fetuses were found in boxes in his garage. And he’s not the only one! How a country treats it’s most vulnerable citizens is a good marker of the health of that country (both in the womb and end of life). 

-But I also think it’s a marker of the serpent’s work anytime the womb is attacked. The technological advances we’ve had over the past 50 years are astounding! Babies can feel pain at least by 15 weeks of gestation. Women are barely showing at that point! Think of the pictures we can see of children in utero today. Unfortunately this conversation has just become a political talking point instead of a legitimate moral conversation. We must be pro-life in every aspect and implication, from conception to natural death.

-This isn’t the only time a baby in the womb is described as jumping, is way back in Gen. 25:22 “The children struggled together within her, and she said, “If it is thus, why is this happening to me?” So she went to inquire of the Lord. ²³ And the Lord said to her, “Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you shall be divided; the one shall be stronger than the other, the older shall serve the younger.””

-All the way back in the founding of the Israelite people there was tension, division, brother against brother

-Now, here for the first time someone is leaping, struggling in the womb because he can’t contain his excitement that the Messiah has finally come!

-This arrival, instead of bringing about division will bring reconciliation, unity, peace, creating a new family of people from every tribe, tongue, and nation to come together under 1 banner

-Elizabeth, just as her husband Zechariah did earlier, becomes a prophetess for the Lord.

-We often make a great deal out of Peter being the first person to recognize that Jesus is the Christ in Mark 8, but Elizabeth saw and acknowledged it even before Peter. Refers to Jesus as “my Lord” in 43

44 -John leaped for joy, unlike Jacob & Esau who leaped with contention. Yet just as with J&E, the older would serve the younger. Instead of undermining, cutting, biting, fighting, John embraces his role as one who came to prepare the way, realizing it even from the womb (where he’s filled with the HS)

-This is meant to demonstrate the way the gospel message (the Good News that Jesus’ arrival changes everything) undermines and then replaces everyone’s deepest longings and desires.

-Think of the way we’re taught from our world that bigger is always better. But is it? Let’s take a bigger house, that you then have to heat, and clean, and fill, and use. Is it really that much better? 

-Or think of any celebrity. When news leaks about their addictions or broken relationships do you really think they have life figured out? 

-I love the way Augustine talked about this in the 4^th century (and people haven’t really changed at all since then). He argued that we’re far more led by our emotions than we realize (can’t claim to be purely a logical person, talk to Micah). And because of that, we all have an internal drive and desire that will never be fully met until we meet Jesus. Then once we have Jesus everything else makes sense. Our longings/desires will change, our motivations will change, and that will ultimately make a change in the way we live the rest of our lives.

-I say all that, because at Christmas time we’re celebrating what seems like a foolish thing. Have you ever compared the Christian story to the arrival of other gods? Rome was founded by Romulus, who was descended from the gods, nursed by a wolf, and then single-handedly creates the walls that form the city. If you go back further, ANE creation share all the fights the gods were having that led to the creation of the world. And in all these competitions for people’s allegiance, comes a little baby. Who in their right mind would come up with a story like this as THE solution for the problems in the world? It just doesn’t make sense! Unless it’s true.

-I share all that, because that’s exactly what Mary’s song focuses on.

• Mary Rejoices (46-55)

-Comparison to Hannah’s praise in 1 Samuel 2

-Hannah had led a life of lack. Her husband had another wife who had multiple kids, but Hannah had none. She had begged God for years for a child, but had he hadn’t answered. Every year the family would go to the temple to sacrifice, and one year Hannah was observed by the priest who thought she was drunk (silently praying to herself) But God answered her prayers, and she had a child named Samuel.

-As we read it, pay attention to the way God works. Bows of the mighty broken, feeble are bound with strength, raises the poor so they sit with princes. Doesn’t it sound like God’s work is subverting the expectations of the world and then fulfilling them in ways no one would have expected?

1. In God’s Blessings (46-49)

-Just as Hannah praised God for who He is, which leads to His blessings, Mary begins by recounting the ways God has blessed.

-Mary realizes she hasn’t done anything to achieve this nor is she worthy of this, no this is all because God “has looked on the humble estate of his servant.” (48) 

-How often do you take for granted all that God has done for you? Paul asks this very question in 1 Cor. 4:7 “What do you have that you did not receive?” It’s a rhetorical question: answer is NOTHING! Everything we have and are is a gift from our Father in heaven. 

-Mary realizes this is a gift from God, even though she may be socially ostracized, looked down upon by her friends and family, God is enough.

-I think it’s worth looking at vs. 48 as we think about the rest of this song. Notice that Mary says ALL generations will call her blessed.

-I listened to a podcast over the summer that talked about this fact: that we are supposed to bless Mary. Now, this isn’t supposed to be a veneration to her as RCC does, but she does give birth to the Son of God who came to earth to take away our sins. It was because Mary was willing to bear the scorn and shame of the world that we have salvation today. Do you thank God for Mary’s faithful obedience? I worded that very carefully: not thanking Mary for her obedience, thanking God for her obedience. 

-But this gift isn’t just a blessing to Mary, it’s a blessing to the whole world:

• In God’s Mercy (50-53)

-God coming to earth is going to lead to a moral, political, and social revolution the likes of which won’t be seen again until he comes for a second time.

-First, moral 51. He has the full strength necessary, morality is defined in relation to him (holy is his name vs 49).

-This is what God has also said in 1 Peter “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble (1 Peter 5:5). Humility is seen as a virtue today, but it wasn’t in the 1^st century. And even much “humility” today is a false façade that is still seeking the same goal as pride: recognition and affirmation of you. 

-What humility is going to look like is someone who doesn’t worry about themselves, but someone who loves God, life, and you without trying to build a brand, a following, or themselves up. 

-Second, political 52. God’s way is antithetical the world’s ways. Those who achieve power, greatness, fame and accolades on earth will be the last ones in God’s kingdom. Humiliation leads to exaltation, but can’t get exaltation without humiliation. The J curve

-Think of what a difference it would make if our political leaders followed God’s commands of serving others. 

-Third, social 53. The only way to receive from God is to come to him empty, if you come full you’ll leave with nothing. 

-Jesus tells a parable of a rich man who thought he’d made it. He built storehouses (enough to last for the rest of his life) and he said to himself that it’s time to eat, drink, and be merry! Guess what happened that night! He died. How much of his money did he take with him? Zippo! His bank account in eternity wasn’t any higher than anyone else.

-This is a large part of where the church should be such a counter-cultural community, which means at times it’s going to be very difficult. Sometimes the only thing we’ll have is the gospel message in common, but dear friends that’s enough! We may not vote the same, we may not have the same amount of money in our bank accounts, we may not have the same cultural backgrounds, but we do have something that’s better and more lasting than any of those differences: salvation in Jesus alone!

-But don’t miss that we’re not the first people Jesus has engaged in this way.

• In God’s Promises (54-55)

-Friends, we stand on the shoulders of giants. We’re only here today because of thousands of faithful followers of Jesus who have gone before us to allow us to be here today. And sometimes it feels like we’ll never make it, but don’t forget that God NEVER forgets His promises. God’s memory is eternal, ours are tiny.

-Think of how much time had passed before Abraham’s promise was fulfilled here in Mary. Almost 2,000 years! And if the Lord should wait to return another 2,000, God still won’t forget His promises!

-What do we do with this song? I can think of 3 primary things:

-When the Lord speaks, listen and obey. Mark Twain “it’s not the things in the Bible I don’t understand that trouble me, it’s the things I do understand.” Be like Mary and just say “Yes Lord” 

-How often do you take time to praise God, giving thanks to Him for how he’s worked in your life? We, as humans, are forgetful people. We need to regularly remember/be reminded of how God has worked in all our lives.

-Lastly, don’t forget that God’s way is so often the opposite of the way we think things are/should be. No one would have ever expected God’s salvific plan to come about through these ordinary human means, which means that even you and I can be used by God to accomplish His purposes.