Great Things

I want to tell you about the time that I got to meet John Piper. Now for those of you who don’t know, John Piper is an influential pastor up in Minneapolis. He wrote books like Desiring God, and Don’t Waste Your Life, that were very instrumental in my high school and college years for me, and so John Piper was a bit of a hero to me, and this is the story [of how] I got to meet my hero, John Piper. And like all good stories, this story begins in an airport bathroom. (laughter)

Back in our seminary days, Krista and I were traveling to visit family, and I had to go preflight, and so I went to the bathroom. I found my stall, sat down, and I discovered that somebody had left a rolled up magazine, Real Simple, the Real Simple magazine, rolled up on the handrail right there in the bathroom. And I thought, “Well, I’m going to be here for a while so...” Now mind you this was pre-COVID, so I pulled out the magazine, I unrolled it, I leafed through it. And as I opened it up, a plane ticket fell out of the magazine onto the floor, and I picked it up and it was for a flight in 30 minutes to Minneapolis, and the passenger’s name was, you guessed it, John Piper. And I thought, “I wonder how many John Pipers can live in Minneapolis. (Right?) This must be him, the John Piper from the stage and the screens and the books. Oh, I know what I’ll do. I’ll run to the gate. I’ll give him his ticket back. I’ll get to meet him in person, and I’ll be John Piper’s hero of the day. Because I saved him, he got to go on his flight. This is amazing.”

And as I was thinking about that, there was a knock (knocks) (laughter) on the stall door, and I hear the unmistakable voice of John Piper say from the other side of the stall door, “I believe I left my magazine in there, and it wouldn’t be a big deal but my ticket’s on the inside. Could you hand it to me?” And I said, “Yes, here it is,” and I handed it under the stall door, and he said (I’m not making this up), he said, “Thank you.” (laughter) And that was the day I got to meet my hero, John Piper. (laughter) True story! True story!

I tell you that story simply to point out that when things get personal, everything changes. Right? It’s one thing to see somebody on the screen. It’s another thing to hand them a magazine under the bathroom door. Right? All of a sudden he was real, sort of, to me. It was a personal, tangible, real encounter.

Why do I bring that up? Because that’s something of what’s happening to Mary, only on a much grander scale. All these years of reading her Bible, hearing stories of the great things that God had done through the lives of people like Sarah and Deborah and Naomi and Ruth and Hannah and Abigail, and so many others, these heroic ladies of God who had been used by God to accomplish great things in the story of God’s redemptive plan. She read all those stories, but now it’s happening to her. God has chosen her to bear this baby boy who will be the Savior of the world, the King of Israel, and the Son of God. All these stories of God’s saving intervention went from abstract and distant and historical to be personal and tangible and real. It’s up close and personal now, and when it’s personal everything changes.

Mary’s world has been utterly changed. In this passage we’re going to look at today, it’s all beginning to sink in, and Mary’s heart will overflow with wonder, awe, and praise at what God has done, these great things for her.

So grab your Bibles. We’re going to be in Luke, chapter 1, verse 39 down to 56. You’ll find this reading on page 856 in the pew Bible there by your knees. Eight–five–six, and in this beautiful passage what we see is what is known as the “Magnificat,” Mary’s song of praise. It’s, in many ways, the first Christmas carol, and it comes from the overflow of her heart. We’re going to see three things about Mary’s heart this morning. It’s a heart of faith, a heart of joy, and a heart of hope. Faith, joy, and hope, all springing from her heart. And by the way, this is the very kind of heart that God wants to bring into your life and mine this Christmas season as we pause and let the wonder in. So let’s turn to our Lord and pray, and ask Him to foster this kind of heart in us this morning.

Let’s pray.

Heavenly Father, we come to you, and our weeks are crazy. Our lives are frantic, and we need you to slow us down. We want to be still and know that you are God. Help us to rest in your mercy and grace in the power of your might on our behalf as Mary did, and as you call us to as well. Give us a heart full of faith, joy, and hope in who you are. We pray this in Jesus’ name and for His sake, Amen. Amen.

So the first thing we see here is Mary’s Heart of Faith. Now, remember when Gabriel came to Mary and told her that God had chosen her to be the mother of His Son (if she was willing to bear Him)? Mary wondered, initially, how a miraculous virgin conception was even possible. Remember this. And Gabriel said, “Nothing will be impossible with God.” Do you remember that from last week? “Nothing will be impossible with God.” And to support that claim, he gave an example, an illustration, in Luke 1:36. He said this, “Your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren.”

“Mary, if you want to know if God is able to bring about a miraculous, impossible pregnancy, look no further than Elizabeth, your relative.”

Chapter 1, verse 39: “In those days 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.”

So what we see here is that within just a few days of Gabriel’s visit, announcing God’s plan to Mary, Mary heads off, having willingly accepted this plan with the phrase, “Behold I am the servant of the Lord. Let it be to me according to your word.” And within days, Mary goes with haste down south from Galilee in the north to Judah in the south just outside of Jerusalem to a small town there. She takes this two to three-day journey to visit Elizabeth. Now, why? Why?

Actually, before we get to that, let me just point out how long she stays. In verse 56, Mary remained with Elizabeth for about three months and returned to her home. So we know here, here’s the timetable. We know that in verse 36, Elizabeth is six months along in her pregnancy, and Mary is going to stay with her now for three months. So basically Mary joins Elizabeth for the third trimester of her pregnancy and leaves shortly before the birth of her son who will grow up to be known as John the Baptizer.

The question is: Why? Why does Mary go with haste like this, so immediately, to see Elizabeth? Well, I think there are two main reasons. The first one is companionship, companionship. No one is going to believe that she has miraculously conceived a child by the Holy Spirit, right? That’s a hard sell. But maybe there’s one person on this whole planet who will believe, and that might be Elizabeth, who was also having a miraculous pregnancy of her own, and she, of all people, surely she will understand.

And don’t you realize this is why Gabriel mentions it in part? He wants Mary to know she’s not alone. She has someone she can talk with, and how gracious of our God to make sure Mary didn’t have to walk this road alone. Isn’t that good?

The second reason I think she goes with haste down to visit Elizabeth is confirmation. Not just companionship but confirmation. If what God said about Elizabeth’s pregnancy is in fact true, then this really is a miraculous pregnancy; just like the angel said, Mary will know with confidence that nothing will be impossible with God, right? In other words, Mary believes what the angel told her, but she’s seeking out confirmation that she might believe even more in what God has done on her behalf.

Now what happens next is mind-blowing. Remember it has just been days, mere days, since Gabriel announced the plan of God and Mary accepted. There are no cell phones, no social media. Elizabeth has no idea Mary is coming. Okay? She just shows up. She knocks on the door (knocks) and calls out, “Aunt Elizabeth, shalom! I’m here. It’s Mary.”

Verse 41: “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 cry, ‘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 in my 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.’”

Now here’s what I think is so amazing. I suspect this is the moment Mary found out she was pregnant. Think about it. It’s just been a handful of days between when Gabriel told her it was going to happen, and she said, “Let it be to me according to your word,” and it’s just been a matter of days until she greets Elizabeth and finds out here she actually conceived. I don’t know how she would have known any other way. I think Elizabeth knew before Mary did that she was pregnant. Isn’t that amazing? And little John the Baptist knew even before Elizabeth did.

So there’s a cascade here: John leaps, the Spirit fills, Elizabeth prophesies, and Mary is filled with wonder. And don’t you see? In all of this, God is confirming to Mary that nothing will be impossible with God. Not only is Elizabeth miraculously pregnant, Mary herself has already conceived.

And isn’t this remarkable that God uses an in utero preborn baby to be the first witness to the coming of His Son? Isn’t that amazing? John the Baptizer’s role was to prepare the way of the Lord, remember? He was to identify and point out Jesus to the world. John says of himself in John 3:29 that he is the friend of the bridegroom. He stands and hears Him, and rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice. And John, you see, is getting an early start. That’s all he’s doing, and this is amazing. This one and a half pound, nine to ten-inch-long, pre-born baby with translucent skin, just on the cusp of viability, rejoices and testifies to the incarnation of the Son of God, who is at this moment just a cluster of blastocyst cells. This is amazing.

By the way, it is because of texts like this and others that Bible–faithful Christians cherish the sanctity of human life from beginning to end. (applause) If Jesus is recognizably the incarnate Son of God just days after conception by another preborn baby on the cusp of viability (And that’s viability on a modern scale. At this time, he’s not viable at all, in the first century), then these preborn babies are human beings, made in the image of God, and must be treated as such. As the great theologian, Dr. Seuss, said, “A person’s a person no matter how small.”

Now, back to Mary. Mary’s heart here is filled with faith, because God holds true to His Word, [doesn’t He]? Mary’s heart is filled with faith because God holds true to His Word.

Isaiah 40:8 says, “The grass withers, and the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.”

Ezekiel 12:28: “The word that I speak (the Lord is saying) will be performed, declares the Lord GOD.” And friends, you realize when it’s personal everything changes. In this moment Mary knows for sure in her own life and experience that God holds true to His Word. All of a sudden that truth is personal. It’s tangible. It’s real, and so her heart is full of faith in the God who holds true to His Word.

How about you? Is your heart full of faith in the God who holds true to His Word this morning? The Heart of Faith.

Secondly, A Heart of Joy.

Upon the realization of God’s faithfulness, Mary bursts out in this beautiful poem. Look at verse 46.

“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.’”

Notice Mary is speaking from the overflow of her inner self here. “My soul magnifies the Lord. My spirit rejoices in God, my Savior.” This is the overflow of a heart of worship. She’s brimming with joy over the realization that God has brought all these things to pass. She really is pregnant. She really is the favored one of the Lord. She really is the conduit of the saving work of God. She is the mother of the Savior of humanity. And you can see her humility here, can’t you? He has looked on the humble estate of His servant. Mary’s just a nobody from nowhere, remember? From the sticks of Nazareth, a blue collar family, engaged now to a manual laborer with no educational experience. And yet she says, “From now on all generations will call me blessed.”

“The thought that God would exalt me of all people, choose me to bear His Son, to lift me up, to favor me with this honor, that all generations might bless my name, this is overwhelming.” “For he who is mighty,” she says, “has done great things for me, and holy is his name.” This is simply astounding because Mary realizes that she is a nobody, made into a somebody by Jesus. She’s a nobody, made somebody by Jesus. And Mary’s heart is filled with joy because God blesses unlikely people. God blesses unlikely people.

Friends, this is one of the most unexpected things about our God. He most often chooses to work through the least, the lowly and the left-behind. God picks Gideon out of a pit. He lifted Joseph from a prison. He called Moses in a desert. He found David in a shepherd’s field. And our God delights in showing Himself strong in the mess of human weakness.

First Corinthians 1, verses 27 to 28 and 31. Paul says this: “God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God...so that, as it is written, ‘Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.’”

And Mary’s heart is filled with joy in the God who blesses unlikely people. How about you? Is your heart filled with joy this morning in the God who blesses unlikely people?

There’s a Heart Of Faith, a Heart Of Joy, and now thirdly, a Heart Of Hope.

Mary’s poem now expands from what God has done in particular for her to what God is doing more broadly in world history. So, she zooms out. What God has done for me in blessing the unlikely one is just the sort of thing that our God loves to do, and in fact, God is in the business of turning this world upside down. She gives three couplets, three pairs of statements in juxtaposition here.

The first couplet is in verses 50 and 51.

Verse 50: “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.”

So on the one hand, you have God’s mercy coming down, generation upon generation, upon those who fear Him. Fear, of course, here is reverence and awe and respect at the holiness of who God is.

On the other hand, you have God’s strong arm sweeping down, scattering those who are proud in the thoughts of their hearts. Quite a contrast: fear of the Lord, pride in the hearts. Two different responses from God: mercy and scattering.

The second couplet is here in verse 52: “He has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate.”

Mary knows that if Jesus is, in fact, the Messiah, the King, then Mary, who is a nobody from nowhere, is being exalted now into the royal family, right? This is radical change for her. And the mighty folk who occupy the thrones now must be prepared to be shaken down. Right? This is the contrast.

The third couplet, verse 53: “He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty.”

So for the hungry there’s a nourishing fullness, but for the rich they are sent away empty.

Do you see what each of these couplets is doing? There’s a contrast in them, and they are illustrations of what the world looks like when God intervenes and begins to set it aright. See, normally life favors the proud, the mighty, the rich. Right? They can escape through life with ease, unencumbered. And those who fear the Lord, who are of humble estate, the hungry ones, tend to get trampled on in life. But Mary knows if Jesus is indeed who He says He is, if He is the Son of God, if He is the King of Israel, if He is the Savior of the world, then all of this is about to change, that His coming means the world is about to be turned upside down, and the blessings of God will flow, not to the proud, but to the humble. Not to the mighty, but to the lowly. Not to the rich, but to the hungry.

And she says, “Look, it’s beginning even now, for the Lord has set His favor upon the humble, the lowly—this poor country girl from the obscurity of Nazareth.” God is already at work, turning the world upside down in Jesus. And if that’s true, then that means there’s hope for a little country like Israel. She brings this whole poem now to a crescendo in verses 54 and 55: “He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his offspring forever.”

She turns to her people, her nation, this nation of Israel that is under the thumb of Roman rule, subjugated into the dust, oppressed with their backs bent low, taxed unto the point where they’re living hand–to–mouth, and Mary longs for the day of Messiah when King Jesus will right every wrong. He will rule with justice and equity. He will make everything sad come untrue, and the promises to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and the twelve tribes of Israel will be entirely fulfilled, and the glory of God will cover the earth as the waters cover the seas.

Mary longs, and her heart is full of hope in the God who is setting the world right. Mary’s heart is full of hope in the God who is setting the world right. Jesus’ coming, Mary knows, means that the world is being turned upside down, or maybe we should say right side up.

Now it’s important to notice that Mary didn’t have the advantage that we have of clearly distinguishing Jesus’ work in His first and second comings. We know, on this side of the cross, that Jesus, in His first coming, He came to set the world to rights on the inside of us spiritually. When He died in our place and for our sake and offered up His life on the cross to bear all of our sin and shame and rise again to make us right with God and ascend to sit at His Father’s right hand as the exalted King of kings, and Lord of lords, He began setting the world aright on the inside of who we are. And one day He will return at His second coming, and He will set all of this world right in every way. Everything wrong will be righted. Everything ugly will be made beautiful. Everything broken will be whole, and He will reign with justice and righteousness forever.

In His first coming, Jesus set our world to rights in here. In His second coming, Jesus will set the world to rights out there. And on this side of the cross and resurrection, it is fairly easy for us to nuance that distinction. But Mary, not surprisingly, on that side of the cross and incarnation, sees it all blended together in a stew. She sees it at once that Jesus’ coming means the setting of the world to rights in every way. But she’s right, isn’t she? That the blessings of God in Jesus Christ flow not to the proud, but to the humble; not to the mighty, but the lowly; not to the rich, but to the hungry. Which begs the question: “Which of these groups do I most belong to? Am I proud and mighty and rich, or am I humble and lowly and hungry?

Friends, God can only bless one of those groups. James 4:6: “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” And Mary’s heart here is filled with hope in the God who is setting the world to rights. How about you? Is your heart filled with hope in the God who is setting the world to rights this morning?

See, at the end of the day our takeaway is simple. When it’s personal everything changes, doesn’t it? When it’s personal everything changes. The reason Mary’s heart is so full of faith, joy and hope; it’s overflowing in this chorus of wonder, awe, and praise, is because God has become personal to her in a way that changed her radically. She says, “My Savior! My Lord! I am His servant! He has done great things for me!” That this God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the one she knew from history and the Bible, became real in her personal life, and it changed everything.

Friends, has there been a moment in your life where the Lord God became so very personal to you? Has there been a moment in your life? I don’t mean, “Did you ever experience an angelic vision when you were chosen to be the mother of the incarnate Son of God?” That’s a once and done deal, okay?

No, I mean has there ever been a time when God shifted for you, beyond this abstract theoretical thing to become personal, tangible, real to you, to you, in your life, where you realize that Jesus came for you? Not just for the world, but for you; that God loves not just the world, but He loves you; that Jesus laid down His life on the cross for the sins of the world, but not just the whole world, but your sins; that Jesus rose from the dead not just generically, but specifically, personally for you; when Jesus becomes not just Savior, but my Savior; not just Lord but my Lord; not just God, but my God?

You see, it’s all in the pronouns, isn’t it? Has that ever happened to you?

Friends, here’s what I know. I know God wants more than anything to fill your heart this Christmas with faith and joy and hope in Jesus Christ, and that only happens when we allow God to get personal with us. We have to come to Him like Mary—humbly, lowly, hungry. It’s the only way He can bless us. It’s, in fact, the only way we can have Him, and for most of us our biggest problem is our pride, our might and our riches. They get in the way, and so we find ourselves faithless, joyless, hopeless.

I’m telling you if you’ll come humbly, you will receive mercy. If you come lowly, you will be lifted up. If you come hungry, you will be filled, and your heart will be full of faith, joy, and hope. Faith in the God who holds true to His Word always, joy in the God who blesses unlikely people like you and me, and hope in the God who is setting the world to rights, first on the inside, and then one day everywhere else because when it gets personal, everything changes. Amen? Amen.

Let’s pray.

Father, more than anything we want to experience you. We want your Word to be alive to us, your Son to be real to us, your saving work to be our resting place. Help us trust in you. Become so real and personal to us we ask. We seek, we knock, we pray that you would come to us. Here we are, humble, lowly, hungry for you. We pray this in Jesus’ name, Amen.