Humble, Blessed, Joyful • Luke 1:39-56

56:28 Teaching begins

Notes

Imagine all the world in darkness. Think of all the suffering, oppression, sickness, futility, and death.

Somewhere in this dark world two women get together, and suddenly the light goes on, they’re filled with joy, gladness, satisfaction, and hope.

These women are not gifted, powerful, rich, or famous; they are humble and lowly. Yet they have what everyone would love to have, because God is directly touching their lives.

This is simple but it is profound: joy and satisfaction and life come from knowing God and being exalted by Him.

I’m reading in Luke chapter one, from verse 39.

1. Mary hurries to visit Elizabeth, vv. 39-40.

A. The angel has just told her that God’s Spirit would overshadow her, and by His power she will conceive in her womb, and her child will be the Messiah. And Mary agreed. She said, “Behold the bondslave of the Lord. Be it done to me according to your word.”

B. And now what? In her mind she’s got to go to Elizabeth right now because she’s the only person who can relate to her in her predicament.

1. You think, predicament? A difficult, puzzling, or embarrassing situation from which there is no easy escape? A difficult, perplexing, trying situation?

2. Who can she tell this to? Who is the world is going to believe her? It’s momentous news but if she tells anyone they’ll think she’s crazy or lying to cover up sin. When Joseph found out he decided to divorce her secretly so Mary wouldn’t be publicly shamed and stoned.

3. The only person who will understand is Elizabeth. The angel said God was blessing her right now—she was six months pregnant. What’s going on? Elizabeth is the only one she can safely talk to and confide in.

4. I think also Mary doesn’t want to be around right now. She wants to be away.

C. So the travels from Nazareth in Galilee to the hill country of Judah.

1. The main city there is Hebron, which traditionally was a city of priests. That’s maybe sixty miles from Nazareth in the north to Hebron, south of Jerusalem.

2. I would think this was a challenge. Either she had been there before or she had to ask the way there. No sat nav. No phones so she couldn’t even call ahead to ask if this was a good time for her to come. She’s going by herself. She’s going to just pop in and say, “Hi.” What’s going to happen?

2. Nobody expects what comes next: the sudden, overwhelming presence and joy of God Himself, vv. 41-45.

A. All Mary does is go in the house and say hello to Elizabeth.

B. Elizabeth hears—and the baby leaps in her womb because he has been filled with the Holy Spirit. Remember the angel told Zacharias that the baby would be filled with the Holy Spirit while still in his mother’s womb. This is being fulfilled right now.

C. Then Elizabeth is filled with the Holy Spirit.

1. This being filled is what God said He would do in the last days. Peter talks about this much later in Acts 2, on the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit of God Himself was poured out on the disciples. Pour—a steady, continuous flow in great quantities or with force, to give readily and in large quantities.

2. This is right at the very beginning of what God is going to do, and it’s done in His Spirit, through God pouring Himself out, coming into contact, people coming under His influence. They experience His goodness.

3. Elizabeth receives immediate knowledge. She knows that Mary right now is the mother of the Messiah, the Lord. She knows that God spoke to Mary and she believed Him. She knows that her baby didn’t just kick like a baby, he leaped for joy because he was filled with the Holy Spirit and he was filled with joy.

4. With that heightened knowledge comes understanding. Elizabeth grasps that God is with them all, that He is filling them with Himself, that here is the Messiah that prophets and kings longed to see, and He is in her house right now, of all the places in the world He could be! Right here, right now!

5. At the same time as knowledge and understanding comes this overwhelming joy that lifts her, carries her, elevates her. She is aware of the absolute goodness of God.

D. That’s why she cries out in a loud voice—with emotion and wonder and joy.

1. If she were watching a football match and she was into it, and her team scored a goal she would be joyful, carried away with strong, intense, pleasant emotion—she would go aaaaaahhhhhh!

2. How much more now? You’re blessed among women! Your child is blessed! My baby is jumping for joy! You believed God would fulfill His word and you’re blessed by God!

E. Here is joy and satisfaction because God is touching these women and this baby, and they receive God’s goodness, while being aware of their low position and how they don’t deserve this. This understanding leads to intense joy. They’re experiencing right now: God blesses the humble and the lowly.

3. Mary is also filled with the Holy Spirit and she worships the Lord because God blesses the humble and judges the proud, vv. 46-56.

A. This song of Mary is called the Magnificat, the Latin rendition of the first word.

1. Mary exalts the Lord, she magnifies Him. God is already great. As we worship we acknowledge those qualities that make Him great, that increases our understanding of His goodness. We make our experience of Him greater.

2. This first verse is similar to Psalm 103:1 Bless the LORD, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name.

3. Notice also that under the influence of the Holy Spirit Mary acknowledges that she needs the Saviour who is coming. Jesus died to save Mary. She can’t save anyone because she was born just like you and I, and she knew she needed Jesus to save her. If you need saving you can’t save anyone else. You are in the same need as everyone else. She is blessed by God as someone who needs to be saved by God.

B. She worships God because the Most High blesses those who don’t deserve it.

1. Evaluation has to come from some kind of standard with which you measure.

2. The proud person has a false evaluation of who they are. They measure themselves by other people. You find that person is better than me, but I’m better than all these other people. I’m not the best, but I’m not the worst. I’m okay, I’m in the middle. On the average, I’m pretty good.

3. The humble is someone who has a true evaluation of who they are. You use a true absolute measure, not people, but God. If you become aware of who God is, then you ask yourself, “How do I compare with God? Do I measure up to Him? Am I eternal, holy, all-knowing? Do I love everyone and benefit them? What am I next to God?

4. This is what men and women in the Bible asked themselves as they encountered God.

a. You remember Isaiah seeing the Lord enthroned in the temple with seraphim crying out, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty!” And the walls are shaking and smoke is filling the temple. And Isaiah says, “Woe is me! I am undone! For my eyes have seen the Lord of glory.”

b. Daniel saw an angel of the Lord and he said all his splendour turned to ruin and destruction and he lost all strength and fell over on his face. He could not keep himself from being devastated by the presence of the Lord.

5. Imagine being in the presence of God and He doesn’t destroy you with His presence, but He regards you highly and blesses you!

6. Mary marvels—all generations from here on in will call me blessed by God because God has done great things for ME. Not I have done great things for God. There’s not a breath of anything Mary has done except believe God. It’s all about what God has done for her.

C. The Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is His name.

1. Name is all that a person is, what associations you have when you hear a person’s name. Like a brand. People work so that you have a feel for a product when you hear Cadbury’s as opposed to Hershey’s.

2. God’s name is good. Holy is divine perfection with no corruption, no shadow of evil.

3. The quotation is from Psalm 103:17-18 But the lovingkindness of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear Him, and His righteousness to children’s children, to those who keep His covenant and remember His precepts to do them.

4. The Mighty One has regarded me and done great things for me. Who am I before God? I should be dead, and yet God has blessed me!

D. God regards the lowly and He judges the proud.

1. The proud measure themselves among themselves, any standard but God. The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.” Therefore they think they are better than they really are.

2. Because of their superiority they can treat others any way they want and it doesn’t matter. They worship the creation rather than the Creator who is blessed forever. They oppress others and misuse their authority to bully them. Why treat them with respect? They’re nothing! Plus they lie, cheat, steal, it’s all okay. All wickedness comes from thinking you’re better than you really are.

3. All sin is against God first. Whatever wrong you do is first against what God has decreed so that every person has rights that you cannot violate. When you violate someone’s rights you sin against the authority of God. God sees, God knows, He is justly angry at arrogance.

4. So God judges the wicked, He scatters the proud. He blows on them and they scatter like chaff. Before God these little, arrogant people are lightweights. He blows them off their thrones. He sends the rich away empty-handed. Riches are nothing to God because they are material and temporary. A billion pounds sterling, what’s that? A world championship in football? The world’s most profitable corporation? The king of all the world? The anti-christ is coming and he will be the ruler of this world but he can’t keep it.

E. The true riches are eternal and unseen.

1. Rich is to belong to God because He redeemed you from sin and death.

2. Rich is God helping you in every way.

3. Rich is God fulfilling His promises and you are the beneficiary. Resurrection, eternal life, blessings forever, because His presence is with you. That’s rich.

4, Mary stayed with Elizabeth about three months.

A. It’s the best place to be for now. She’s with people who understand and can share with her in what God is doing.

B. She’s there for the delivery of John and Zacharias being able to speak again. That’s why we have this account. She either wrote it all down or told it directly to Luke.

5. So what?

A. The true riches are to know God and be exalted by God. That alone brings true joy.

B. Is that really true? I ask that because people would think this is the last place you would look to solve all your problems. Don’t you really have to address the problems themselves head on? If you have economic problems, do something economic. If you’re sick, go to the surgery. If you have depression, get a psychologist. God doesn’t seem to relate to any of those issues.

C. All issues are symptoms that come from one cause: no relationship with God. You take a branch and break it off of a tree, there are going to be issues. Suddenly there’s no fruit production. The leaves are withering. The branch is losing moisture. Do you suddenly try to increase fruit production? Do you try to keep the leaves on the branch? Do you get some water and throw in on the branch? None of those therapies address the real issue. The branch is broken off. It’s dead. It needs to be grafted back into the tree. When it’s grafted in all the other issues are also addressed.

D. Our real problem is no relationship with God. The solution is to re-establish relationship with God, to know Him and be in contact with Him. Jesus came to save sinners. He took responsibility for all your sins and failures and shortcomings. He paid for your sins by dying in your place. He rose from the dead and is Lord over all. Receive Jesus as your Lord and Saviour. He has wiped out your sins like a cloud. He grafts you into God.

E. He makes you a temple to be indwelt by His Spirit. Just like Elizabeth and Mary and John, Jesus will also fill you with His Spirit, so you can know Him and understand Him, so that you have His glory in you, and His life, and His joy.

F. Do you know how to be filled with the Spirit? You humble yourself and ask. How do you know you are filled? Knowledge, understanding, power. You will be more aware of Jesus and more aware of your lowliness of spirit, and God will communicate to You His love. He will give gifts to enable you to give that love to others.

G. Being born again and being filled with the Spirit is not a magic bullet that solves all problems on contact. Some problems will not be addressed until we are perfected by God. But the starting place is getting our relationship with God restored by Jesus.

G. We begin in the Spirit, and we continue to be filled with the Spirit. We ask Him to humble us, we keep asking to be filled. There is no substitute for humble, dependant relationship with Jesus.

Let’s pray.