Living in the Light of Joy (Do You See What I See?)
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Our Scripture lesson this morning is taken from Lk 1:46-55:
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.
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;
he has brought down the mighty from their thrones
and exalted those of humble estate;
he has filled the hungry with good things,
and the rich he has sent away empty.
He has helped his servant Israel,
in remembrance of his mercy,
as he spoke to our fathers,
to Abraham and to his offspring forever.”
May God bless this, the reading of His holy and infallible Word.
Do You See What I See?
Do You See What I See?
One of the all-time favorite Christmas songs is entitled, “Do You See What I See?” In the Magnificat, Mary is calling us to see what she sees.
We are all familiar with a magnifying glass. In the opening two verses of the Magnificat, Mary is saying her joy is acting like a magnifying glass, “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.”
Please do not misunderstand the point that Mary is trying to make. She is not saying God is small and she is making Him larger by her rejoicing. No, what she is saying is that we have made God small, and her rejoicing in what God has done for her helps us to see God for who He really is.
In 1952, J. B. Phillips wrote a book entitled Your God is Too Small. Although I do not agree with all of his conclusions, I do believe he correctly identified a real problem in the modern church. I know this is the case, because for the first third of my life, my God was too small. It was not until I was in seminary that I saw God for who He really is. I distinctly remember walking out of my systematic theology class one afternoon thinking to myself, “Why was I never taught this?”
I grew up in the United Methodist and Evangelical Free Church, and in those churches, neither the children nor the adults are catechized. Last Sunday, Evan, Conner and I studied together Q & A 4 of the Westminster Shorter Catechism; the Q & A we used as our confession of faith this morning. It has been said that Q & A 4 is the finest definition of who God is that has ever been written. It is one of the questions that we require all of our young people to memorize. May I suggest you would do well in memorizing it yourselves. Take your bulletins home with you and cut out this Q & A and memorize it until the truth of who God is in your heart and soul.
Biblical truth, deeply implanted into our hearts and souls transforms us. It transformed Mary. Studying the Magnificat closely, it becomes evident that Mary was very well catechized as a young woman. Many liberal scholars doubt that Mary could have composed such a theologically rich song. What they are discounting is how well Mary’s parents and synagogue catechized her. We see evidence of this catechizing in the Magnificat because it is full of the language and theology of the Psalms. Clearly Mary was from a family of Psalm singers.
Nothing implants information and ideas into the human heart more effectively than singing. For example: I still sing the Alphabet Song when I am trying to remember the order of the alphabet! I am willing to bet most of you do as well! Consequently, when Mary reflected upon what God had done for her, the language and theology of the Psalms bubbled out of her heart like a spring!
When a person gets the Word of God this thoroughly ingrained into their heart, their thinking changes and they see God as He truly is. In vs.50, Mary identifies such people as those who “fear God”. A God-fearer is a person who truly sees God for who he really is. In vss. 49-50, Mary says that God-fearers see three things about God that other people do not: God is holy, God is mighty, and God is merciful..
The Joy of Seeing God’s Holiness
The Joy of Seeing God’s Holiness
The root meaning of holiness is to be set apart.
God is holy, because He is in a class by Himself. This is the primary meaning of the word “one” in the Shema will looked at several weeks ago:
“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.
Yahweh (the LORD) is the One-of-a-Kind God! How often Mary and her family must have sung these words:
You have multiplied, O Lord my God,
your wondrous deeds and your thoughts toward us;
none can compare with you!
I will proclaim and tell of them,
yet they are more than can be told.
Is it any wonder that Mary composed the Magnificat in her heart as she reflected upon the “wondrous deeds” God had done for her!
We find the holiness of God in three words in Q & A 4 of the Shorter Catechism. These three words are: infinite, eternal, and unchangeable.
These three attributes of God are not shared with any other being. Only the LORD God is infinite, eternal, and unchangeable.
The other attributes of God, such as his wisdom and might, are shared with the creators whom God made. All of us, to some extent have wisdom and might, but only God’s wisdom and might are infinite, eternal and unchangeable.
When we are born, we are weak and helpless. As time goes on, we grow in strength and wisdom. As some point we reach the peak of our strength and wisdom, and from that point on begins a slow decline, until, we die, weak and helpless like an infant!
God is not like that at all! This is why Mary’s heart was filled with such joy. Only an all-mighty God has the power to reverse the power of sin and the death. This is the hope and peace we have been looking at the last two Sundays of Advent.
Let us now turn to....
The Joy of Seeing God’s Might
The Joy of Seeing God’s Might
In the Magnificat, Mary recounts the mighty things that God has done not only for her, but for Israel and all who fear God.
In vs. 49, Mary speaks of God doing “mighty” things for her—she is referring to the miraculous conception of the Messiah within her womb. As I pointed out last Sunday, Elizabeth’s conception was miraculous, she was well past the age in which it is possible for a woman to conceive. However, a virgin birth is in a totally different category—it is biologically impossible.
The virgin birth of Jesus is still one of the most cited reasons people reject Christianity. However, those who doubt the Virgin Birth are not taking into account all the facts:
First, they are forgetting that God “is a spirit”, that is He in not limited by the physical laws that govern the physical universe. He is not “physical”, He is “meta-physical”!
Second, He is not just mighty, He is infinite, eternal and unchangeable in His might. As Gabriel reminded Mary, “Nothing will be impossible for God!”
Beginning in vs. 51, Mary lists seven “impossible” things God has done for those who fear God.
He has showed the strength of His arm.
He has scattered the proud.
He has brought down the mighty.
He has exalted the humble.
He has filled the hungry with good things.
He has sent the rich away empty.
He has helped His servant, Israel.
In making this list, Mary wants all who hear her song to realize that she is not the only one God remembers in their low estate. She wants you to see what she sees, in order that you might experience what she experienced!
Do you feel at times as though life has cut you down low? Do you feel insignificant and powerless in this world? If so, do not despair, there is a mighty God who can reverse your fortunes!
Why should we expect God to uses His might to rescue us? We can expect this because He is merciful.
The Joy of Seeing God’s Mercy
The Joy of Seeing God’s Mercy
Throughout this message I have been saying that those who see God for who He really is are those who fear God. To our ears, “the fear of God” sounds like a negative thing—we fear those things that are dangerous. However, not everything that is dangerous is bad. In a famous scene in C. S. Lewis’ book The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Mr. and Mrs. Beaver explain the true nature of Aslan (the Christ figure in the book) to Susan and Lucy:
“If there’s anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking,” said Mrs. Beaver; “they’re either braver than most or else just silly.”
“Then he isn’t safe?” said Lucy.
“Safe?” said Mr. Beaver; “don’t you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? Of course, he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.”
God’s holiness and might make Him anything but “safe”, but He is good!
Why is God good?
God is good, because He is merciful.
The mercy Mary has in mind is what the Hebrews call Hesed.
Hesed is God’s commitment to and affection for the people He has bound Himself to in covenant. Mary sings of this in vss. 54-55:
He has helped his servant Israel,
in remembrance of his mercy,
as he spoke to our fathers,
to Abraham and to his offspring forever.”
Remember, I said earlier that all of God’s attributes are infinite, eternal and unchangeable. If you are in covenant with God, then God’s mercy towards you is infinite, eternal and unchangeable! Please let this sink in. See God for who He really is:
His mercy towards you knows no bounds!
His mercy towards you knows no beginning or end!
His mercy towards you will never be less and cannot be more!
Our problem is we really do make God too small. We make God after our own image, and in so doing we make an idol. The One True God can only be seen in His Word and in His mighty acts. Do you see what Mary saw?