Mary's Praise

Luke 1:46-55

     Well, it is with great joy and anticipation that we return to our study of Luke's gospel.  Luke, known as the beloved physician who wrote one of the four gospels, one of the four histories of the life and work of Jesus Christ.  We have come to love this book and we're only in the first chapter and so much is yet ahead of us of the richness of this Holy Spirit inspired testimony.

     In order to fix in our minds the passage before us, I want to just give you a little bit of brief background from Luke chapter 1.  Luke's story of Jesus begins with a couple, an old couple in their 60's, or 70's, or 80's.  Barren, never able to have children, their names - Zacharias and Elizabeth.  Zacharias happened to be a priest.  They lived out in the hill country of Judea, perhaps in the vicinity of Jerusalem in the southern part of the land of Israel.  And several weeks a year it was his responsibility to leave his local ministry as a priest and go to the temple and serve in the temple.  Each of the priests did that at certain times during the year.  And on this occasion while he was there the angel Gabriel appeared to him.  Nobody had seen an angel in over 450 years.  God hadn't spoken at all in over 400 years.  There hadn't been any miracles in over 400 years, and perhaps it had been 500 years since there were miracles, plural.  So life was pretty common and pretty routine.  There was no intervention by God for centuries until this moment.

     The angel Gabriel coming out of the presence of God comes to Zacharias while he's serving his duties as a priest in the temple.  And he announces to Zacharias that he and his wife are going to have a child, and that child is going to be the forerunner of the Messiah, the greatest prophet up until that time who ever lived, John the Baptist.

     And, of course, following the forerunner, John the Baptist of the Messiah, would be the Messiah.  So this was an incredible and important news as the plan of redemption had now reached its crescendo.  And God was moving into history to bring the Messiah, the Lord, the Savior, the Lamb who would bear the sins of the world.

     So the story in the first part of Luke chapter 1 is a story of the announcement of the birth of John the Baptist to Zacharias and Elizabeth.  And that story sort of comes to its end, Elizabeth is pregnant.  God gave Zacharias and Elizabeth together the ability to produce a son and that son is now in her womb and she is six months pregnant when that part of the story closes.

     And then comes the story starting in verse 26 of a young girl.  This time not an older lady, this time a young girl,  Not a married lady but a virgin probably a 13-year-old girl by the name of Mary. And the same angel Gabriel comes to her, this time in the north in Galilee about 75 or 80 miles away from where Elizabeth and Zacharias lived.  And God sent this angel with another birth announcement, this time the virgin will conceive without a man and God Himself will create in her womb a child who will be the Son of the Most High, He will be the One given the throne of His father David.  He will have a kingdom over the house of Jacob and a kingdom that has no end.  He will be, in a word, the Messiah, the Savior of the world, the Son of God.

     And so, you have these two incredible conception miracles.  One in the case of Elizabeth and one in the case of Mary.  Last time we saw how the two women met.  Mary, having heard from Gabriel and realizing that she is going to be the mother of the Son of God, realizing that God is going to perform in her a conception miracle is told by the angel about Elizabeth.  She otherwise would not have known.  She is told about Elizabeth who is now pregnant six months even in her old age, well in to her 60's, 70's, maybe even 80's.  And Mary then hastens, as we learned last time in verse 39, to go to the hill country to meet Elizabeth.

     We saw some things about that that are absolutely critical.  Who would understand a 13-year-old girl saying she was pregnant by God?  Who would buy that?  Well there was only one person who would really understand because she had just received the conception miracle from God.  Who would believe that a 13-year-old girl had been visited by Gabriel?  Well there was one person who would believe it, that's Elizabeth because she had been visited by Gabriel as well.  Who would believe a young girl who said she's the mother of the Messiah?  I'll tell you who, an older lady who had just been told she was the mother of the forerunner of Messiah.  And if the forerunner was conceived, the Messiah couldn't be far behind.

     It was very important then that Mary see Elizabeth.  And the reason that they were to meet was for confirmation of this incredible message.  Last time we saw that meeting take place and  Mary received personal confirmation.  The angel had come to her and she believed it, but surely in the midst of her faith were some lingering doubts and questions and how was this going to happen and how could it take place?  And the miracle was more than she could comprehend.  And what was all involved in this.  We can only imagine the swirling emotions that churned in the mind of Mary.  The angel told her she would have a son in her womb that would be created there by God.  That son would be the Messiah of Israel, the Savior of the world, God in human flesh.  On the one hand, she would be thinking about the privilege because certainly there had been many Jewish mothers who had wished to be the mother of Messiah.  She knew her honor was singular, her honor was unique. 

     On the other hand, she was only 13, she was betrothed to a young man named Joseph.  All of a sudden she would now be in the position of being unwed and pregnant which could be not only embarrassing but life threatening. Deuteronomy 22 called for execution in such conditions and the society of her time called for a divorce in that condition.  Joseph would know it wasn't his child.  Would there be disgrace?  Would she be an outcast?  Would she be stoned?  Would she be divorced?  How could she get people to believe this?  All of these thoughts swirling around in her mind, even though she believed there would be all these thoughts.

     In spite of the fears, in spite of the questions, she willingly submitted to God's plan.  In verse 38 she said to the angel Gabriel, "Behold, the bondslave of the Lord, be it done to me according to your word."  That shows her faith.  She submits completely.  Some women would have boasted. Some women would have rebelled.  But Mary's response was right.  She modestly, quietly embraced God's will for her and left the concerns with God.  And then she went immediately, verse 39 says, to visit Elizabeth and there she received confirmation. 

     I told you she received a three-fold confirmation.  First of all, personal confirmation when she saw the birth miracle, or the conception miracle that had occurred in Elizabeth because she could see that Elizabeth was six months pregnant.  There was personal confirmation that conception miracles did happen and that God was doing that and Elizabeth was personal proof of that.

     And then there was physical confirmation that came when the babe in the womb of Elizabeth, John the Baptist, leaped for joy when he heard the message about Messiah's conception.  God literally using the physical animation of that fetus to confirm that in fact that this was a true word from God.

     Then there was prophetic confirmation.  Personal confirmation came from Elizabeth.  The physical confirmation came from the unborn John the Baptist.  The prophetic confirmation came from God Himself who filled Elizabeth with His Holy Spirit and she spoke the Word of God as we remember in verses 42 to 45.

     All of that just removed any final small trace of doubt from Mary's mind, all of that erased any lingering fears or questions.  This was the final confirmation that what the angel had told her was in fact the truth and that she was carrying in her womb the beginnings of the life of the Messiah, the Savior of the world.  All her doubts then having been erased, all her questions to some degree having been answered, her faith having been settled rock solid, she then in verse 46 bursts out in praise...praise pours out of her mouth.

     This is what she says, "And Mary said, "My soul exalts the Lord and my spirit has rejoiced in God my savior, for He has had regard for the humble state of His bondslave for behold, from this time on all generations will count me blessed for the Mighty One has done great things for me and holy is His name.  And His mercy is upon generation after generation toward those who fear Him.  He has done mighty deeds with His arm.  He has scattered those who were proud and the thoughts of their heart.  He has brought down rulers from their thrones and has exalted those who are humble.  He has filled the hungry with good things and sent away the rich empty handed.  He has given help to Israel, His servant, in remembrance of His mercy as He spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and his offspring forever."

     That is called Mary's Magnificat from the Latin word that translates the word "exalts" in verse 46.  We'll just call it Mary's praise.

     Mary is a model believer.  She heard a word from the Lord.  She believed it.  She submitted to it.  And she praised God for it.  Mary is a model believer who hears the Word of God, believes it with her whole heart, acts upon it no matter what the consequence might be, leaving her concerns with God and bursts forth in praise.

     The praise of Mary, frankly, is a classic example of pure worship.  There may not be a better one in the New Testament.  In fact, this is often called the Hymn of the Incarnation.  It is a hymn of praise to God who is incarnate in Christ...and in Mary's case in her very womb.

     Now just some thoughts in general about what I just read, this praise of Mary.  It is filled with echoes of Scripture, filled with Scripture.  And it reveals that Mary, this young teen-aged girl had her heart and mind literally saturated with the Old Testament Word of God.  The psalm contains repeated echoes of Hannah's prayers, you remember, from 1 Samuel 1 and 2.  Hannah was the one who had prayed to God for a child and God also worked wondrously in her life to provide her with a child named Samuel.  The psalm that Mary pours out here contains numerous references to the law, to the Psalms and to the writings of the prophets.  It indicates that this young teen-aged girl knew her Old Testament.  It's a great testimony to her own life and her devotion.  It's a great testimony to her parents and how she had been raised to love the Word of God and to know it very well.  And it's not as if before offering this praise she has to go and find a concordance so she can bring together the assorted verses.  They just flow from within her.

     For example, she starts out in verse 46 by saying. "My soul doeth magnify the Lord," which is an echo of Psalm 34:2, "My soul shall make her boast in the Lord."  In verse 47 she says, "And my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior," which echoes Isaiah 45:21, "There is no God else beside Me, a just God and a Savior."  And in verse 48 she says, "He has regarded the lowest state of His handmaid," which echoes 1 Samuel 1:11, "If Thou wilt indeed look on the infliction of Thine handmaid and remember me and not forget Thy handmaid," the words of Hannah.  It also is reminiscent of Psalm 136:23, "Who remembered us in our low estate, for His mercy endures forever."  Again in verse 48 she says, "Behold from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed," which echoes the words of Leah in Genesis 30 verse 13, "Happy am I for the daughters will call me blessed."  In verse 49 she says, "He that is mighty has done to me great things," which echoes Psalm 126:3, "The Lord has done great things for us whereof we are glad."  And then in verse 49 she says, "Holy is His name," directly quoting Psalm 111:9, "Holy and reverend is His name."  And so it goes that she is very well versed in the Old Testament as she unfolds her familiarity with Scripture and applies it to her own situation.

     She also understands the history of Israel.  She understands how God has exercised His mighty arm in verse 51 and how in the past He has scattered the proud.  He has brought down rulers.  He exalts the humble.  He has filled the hungry with good things, sent the rich empty handed. She understands how through the history of Israel God has helped Israel, verse 54, and done so in remembrance of His mercy promised, in verse 55, by the Abrahamic covenant.  She is not just familiar with Scripture, she knows covenant theology.  She understands the theology of the Abrahamic covenant.  She understands that it was an eternal pledge made to Abraham by which generations would be blessed.  She is knowledgeable of Scripture and she is familiar with theology.  She had read, she had heard, she had memorized, she had meditated on the sacred Scripture and when her heart burst out in praise it wasn't trivial and it wasn't sort of self-invented.  Scripture just poured out of her mouth.  It was the language of Scripture showing her alacrity, her facility and her familiarity with the text.  Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks, as Matthew 12:34 and when she spoke it reflected that her heart was filled with God's Word.

     Mary, this young teen-aged girl knew the God of Scripture, the God of Israel in a deeply personal way.  She knew His Word. She understood it.  She had studied it. She had laid hold of its promises and its covenants.  And those promises filled her thoughts and filled her heart.  And when she says in verse 48, "All generations will call me blessed," she is speaking of herself as the recipient, not the dispenser of blessing.  She doesn't say all generations will look to me to bless them.  They'll consider me blessed because of what I received.  She is never the dispenser of blessing.  She's never the dispenser of divine grace.  It is the Lord to whom her soul magnifies in verse 46.  It is God my Savior whom her spirit exalts in verse 47.  She sings of the great things that God has done, verse 49, for me.  Great things God has done on her behalf.  She rejoices in the great mercy God has shown her.

     And, you see, none of this supports the foolish notion that Mary herself ought to be an object of adoration.  Mary does not identify herself as being the object of adoration, but rather she adores God.  Tragically, ironic it is that somebody would make her the object of adoration, make her the object of praise.  On one occasion a woman in a crowd tried to do that, recorded in Luke 11.  In the middle of a crowd a woman cried out to Jesus, "Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breasts which you nursed." And that was true.  She was blessed but Jesus' response immediately was not to elevate Mary.  His response in Luke 11:27 and 28 was this, "Yes, yea rather blessed are they that hear the Word of God and keep it."  The path of blessing is the path of obedience to the Word of God.  That was true for Mary, that's true for anybody and everybody.

     Now this is the key to understanding Mary's praise.  It is an expression of great faith.  It is an expression of her love for God, her worship of God, her understanding of Scripture, the promises of God, the pledges of God.  A young woman in incredible circumstances with immense challenges and difficulties who was nevertheless pouring out worship to the God she knew and the God she believed.

     What you get from this in all the legacy that Mary leaves us is an example of what a model believer is like.  As I've said before, she doesn't hear your prayers, she doesn't answer prayer.  She's not a co-redemptrix.  All those things that have been said about Mary misrepresent her completely.  She would be appalled if she knew that people worshiped her.  She is a model of the true worshiper who worships the only one worthy to be worshiped.  She is not the worshiped, she is the worshiper.

     I want to show you three things that we learn about worship from Mary.  Number one is the attitude of worship.  Mary is a perfect illustration of the attitude of worship.  And I'm going to give you four sub-points to this that unfold at least to me the attitude of worship. 

     Number one, worship is internal...worship is internal.  You will notice in verse 46 that Mary said, "My soul exalts the Lord."  In verse 47, "My spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior."  Down deeper than her mouth, down deeper than her lips was her soul and her spirit.  Those terms really are interchangeable in the Scripture, they have to do with the inner person.  She summons up, she uses them both though to sort of emphasize how whole this is in her inner person.  Her whole inner being, mind, emotion, will, she sums it all up, all of her mental faculties, all of her emotional feelings, all of those elements of her being on the inside are called together like the instruments in a great orchestra that come together in a crescendo of praise...everything deep inside of her.  Worship begins with an attitude.  It is the inner heart of adoring praise that is the essence of real worship.  External worship, shallow superficial observance is intolerable to God.  Isaiah 29:13 says, "This people draw near Me with their mouth and with their lips they do honor Me, but every move of their heart far from Me."  That is a dishonor to God.  Jesus said God is a spirit and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.  It has to rise from deep inside.

     The true worshiper is the one whose heart is devoted to adoring God with total sincerity, the one who deep down has profound gratitude to God.  And that's where it has to come from, not on the surface.  It cannot be shallow.  It cannot be in any sense superficial.  That is frankly intolerable to God.  It has to come from deep inside the soul and spirit.  As it were, untouched by circumstances, it rises because of what we know to be true about our God and His great work.  It is internal.  Let's build on that a little bit.

     Secondly, it's intense...it's intense.  In verse 46 she says, "My soul exalts the Lord," and some translations would say, "Makes great," some would say, "Magnifies."  The word is megalunae(?), mega...in other words, it means to enlarge, to magnify, to cause something to swell, or to cause something to grow, to extend something.  It's...mega is used with being loud, it's used for the word "great" or "large" and it also implies the intensity here.

     Mary is not just from deep within praising God in some minimal fashion, but with a swelling, magnifying, enlarging attitude from the heart. And then the word "rejoices" in verse 47, "My spirit has rejoiced, or rejoices," agalliao, it means to be overjoyed.  It's another...it's a word of hyperbole again, it's another word that means to have an exceeding joy, or as it's translated in one case "unspeakable joy," loud joy, grandiose joy.  So you can see the intensity here.  This is...this is an overwhelming kind of thing rising from within this young girl.

     Mary is not only internal in her worship, she's intense.  You see, with Mary you don't have to induce worship, and true worship with us is the same thing.  It's not something you have to induce on the surface.  I don't know about you but I don't have to hear schmaltzy music to sort of emotionally and psychologically mellow me out to worship God.  It's got to be something deeper than that.  It can't be induced by certain kinds of music, strains of the organ and stained glass windows, etc.  It's one of the reasons, to be honest with you, that I have something of a sort of a distaste for some of that.  And if you look around you see there's no holy hardware hanging in here.  It's just a pretty plain place, it's not that that in itself is wrong, it's just that worship is not necessarily associated or attached to that.  In fact, I would probably find little disagreement if I said to you that the places in the world that have done the most to try to put worship-inducing architecture have the least real worship going on.  Worship is something that comes out of the heart, it's not something you induce.

     And you will notice that the music that we present here is not music that's intended to do something to your emotions, it's music that's intended to do something to your mind.  It's music to make you think, not make you feel.  We want you to think about the great truths so that you can worship God on the basis of the things that are true about Him, that's worshiping in truth as well as spirit.

     And so, the worship that Mary offered was not something that took some kind of external inducement to generate.  It was something that came from the heart on a contemplation of what God was doing in her life, and we'll see more about that in a moment.  She worshiped then internally and she worshiped with intensity.  She couldn't resist the magnification of the Lord and this overjoyed attitude.

     You know, you can travel all over the world and you'll see idols and shrines to Mary everywhere.  I mean, I've seen them in churches, cathedrals, in houses and I've seen them in hotel lobbies, I've seen them in hotel rooms.  I've seen them in restaurants.  I've seen them along the highways and byways and paths up in the mountains in the most remote places.  This is a result of the Roman Catholic Church exalting Mary saying that she was immaculately conceived, that she was leading a sinless life, that she was a perpetual virgin, that therefore because of her sinlessness she didn't die but was ascended into heaven called the assumption of Mary.  They teach now that she is the Queen of Heaven and that she is the co-redemptrix with Christ.  All of this is foreign to Scripture, none of this is in the Bible at all and it all convolutes the true understanding of Mary.  Mary is not one to be worshiped, Mary is one who was the true and pure worshiper of God.  Here she is intensely magnifying God, nothing superficial about it.  There's nothing induced about it.  It is all spontaneous.  It is not generated by the outside circumstances which were foreboding for her in some ways, it is generated by the inside attitude, rises up from inside with great intensity.

     You know, the history of Israel can furnish you with a contrast of that.  All you have to do is go back and read Malachi.  Read the first chapter of Malachi about verse 7 to verse 14, and God indicts the Jewish community, the Jewish people because they were bringing him polluted sacrifices.  Instead of bringing the spotless lamb, they were bringing the lame ones.  They were offering God the worst of their flock.  Their whole worship, all their sacrifices was a travesty of superficiality and God in Malachi 1 says, "You don't think that pleases Me, do you?  You don't think I'm accepting that, do you?  Try offering that to your governor when it's time to pay your taxes and see how he likes it.  If he wouldn't accept it, do you think I'm going to accept it?"

     The prophet Amos, the herdsman of Tekoa, sent by God to expose and denounce the apostasy and hypocrisy of Israel said essentially the same thing in Amos 5.  Speaking for God he says, "I hate your feasts, I despise your festivals and your ceremonies.  I don't want your burnt offerings, your meat offerings.  I don't want your songs, stop singing your songs, stop playing your harps, it's making Me sick.  It's all so superficial and so shallow."

     And then there was the prophet Isaiah in chapter 1 who does the same thing.  He says, you know, he says, for God, "To what purpose is all of this stuff you're doing?  I'm full of your burnt offerings and rams and fat of said beasts and I don't delight in the blood of bullocks, or lambs, or goats.  Don't bring anymore oblations to Me.  Your incense is an abomination.  The Sabbaths and new moons, the calling of assemblies, I can't tolerate them.  It's all iniquity, even your solemn meetings.  My soul hates your new moons, your feast days, you are a trouble to Me...they are a trouble to Me, I am weary of it all."  And He goes on indicting them for their superficiality.