The Gospel of Luke 1:39-56 Mary: God, my Savior

Good morning. We're going to be going through Luke 1, 39 through 56, just a few verses at a time, and continue our study investigating Jesus. Now, Mary is going to visit Elizabeth. This is what we had here, and we had questions. So we'll be looking at what will Mary say to Elizabeth? What will Elizabeth say to Mary? How long will Mary stay with Elizabeth? We'll be looking at that. What will happen right after she leaves to go back to Nazareth? And when does Joseph find out that Mary is with child?

Now Luke 1.39-41 goes like this, Now at this time Mary arose and went in a hurry to the hill country, to a city of Judah, and entered the house of Zacharias and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit." Now, I want to bring up, you may recognize that a lot of the graphics I'm using are from the Nativity story. And they actually encourage pastors to use this in teaching.

One of the things, it's actually very well done. They've done a good job with it. It was actually filmed in Italy. But at a few points, I'll just point out some things that aren't quite according to the right sequence. For example, one of the things you may have noticed was that the passage we just read said that Mary greeted Elizabeth in the house. And it doesn't look like that in the movie. So anyway, that's just one little thing that I suppose you could say I'm being picky. Now, the hill country, that's a term they actually find a couple of times in first chapter of Luke.

The whole country in Israel extended north and south and went northward all the way just short of the Sea of Galilee into the south of Jerusalem. And each region was identified, each region of the hill country, was identified by the tribe or people who had settled there in times past. So you have, for example, the hill country of Samaria or Manasseh in the northern part. In the central part, the hill country of Ephraim. And so this nomenclature here, the hill country of Judah, the area that he refers to in the Gospel of Luke, and so he calls it the hill country of Judah or Judea, either one of those terms. Mary went to visit her relative Elizabeth then in that hill country of Judah. Bethlehem would have been kind of at the north end of that. It doesn't sound like she went to Bethlehem because Bethlehem's named shortly thereafter, so it was someplace other than Bethlehem, but in that region.

And typically the way the Jews would do that is they would go down along the Jordan River, and that did a couple of things. One, you always were sure you had water. Water was available. And the other thing is that allowed them to avoid going through Samaria. which was some area. And it had a problem because there were people who were mixed, Jews and Gentiles, and they also had a religion there that was a contamination of the religion in Jerusalem. So Mary would have gone from Nazareth down along the Jordan River and then down through Jericho and then a steep, windy climb up to Jerusalem and then through the hills to wherever town or city.

Elizabeth and Zacharias lived in. So, Gabriel had told Mary about Elizabeth. Since Gabriel had told Mary about Elizabeth being with child so late in life, Mary also wanted to share with Elizabeth about her own miraculous pregnancy. Here they would both have a miraculous pregnancy. It wouldn't be the same. Elizabeth's pregnancy would be by her husband. And whereas with Mary, it was a virgin, not just virgin birth, but a virgin conception. Virgin conception. And so you would have here, they would have something to share together. They also had had this pregnancy revealed ahead of time by the same angel, Gabriel, in each case. So there was a lot to share between them.

Furthermore, though they were opposite ends of the age spectrum, Elizabeth would be one who would certainly understand. And understanding is not something Mary would find a lot of when she got back to Nazareth. With the issues that were about to erupt in Nazareth, it would be good to have someone who completely understood. Someone who completely understood.

Now, so the baby who was to become John the Baptist leaped in Elizabeth's womb at the sound of Mary's greeting to Elizabeth. Isn't that amazing? We're talking about a baby that is six months along. And at this point in time, it says there in Luke chapter 1, that this baby would have the Holy Spirit, be filled with the Holy Spirit in Elizabeth's womb. This is extraordinary. This is not anything ordinary at all.

This baby was filled with the Spirit before he was born, Luke 1.15. So we had a special spiritual sensitivity by God's intent. Elizabeth too is said to be filled with the Holy Spirit. And Zacharias will shortly be filled with the Holy Spirit as well. We have a filled with the Holy Spirit family. That's just amazing, isn't it?

So Luke 1.42-45 reads like this, And she, that is Elizabeth, cried out with a loud voice and said, Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. How has it happened to me that the mother of my Lord would come to me? For behold, when the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby leaped in my womb for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what had been spoken to her by the Lord. It is amazing how much Elizabeth immediately understands.

We have no perception here that Elizabeth had been told, warned ahead of time, or that Mary had done any explaining. Just, Hi, I'm here. And I don't know how you feel about a relative that shows up with no notice whatsoever and then stays for three months, but apparently it was okay with Elizabeth, right? So here we have a loud voice in the house of a man with no voice.

Blessed is Mary among women to have the honor of bearing the Messiah and Savior, even if almost everyone views her, everyone else, views her with condemnation and shame. And blessed is the fruit of her womb, the Messiah and Savior, who, having the eternal Son of God from eternity past, now adds humanity to his deity. This was something that we talked about in the elective right before here. Christ is fully God and fully man. Fully God and fully man. Completely both.

Now Mary, as we see here, is very spiritually perceptive. She just immediately, without introductions, explanations, she immediately is seeing the import, the spiritual import of what's going on here. It is astounding. But I think we can credit it to what Dr. Luke records, and that is she was filled with the Holy Spirit. This was the Holy Spirit working in her to reveal and speak things that she hadn't even been introduced to.

She just sees Mary and immediately comes out with great understanding of what's going on. Mary had not, so far as we can tell, told Elizabeth anything. Hi, Elizabeth, I'm here. Just greeting. And then all of a sudden Elizabeth is coming out with these spiritual insights.

Elizabeth knew that Mary had begun to be the mother of her Lord. Do you see that in those words? Elizabeth knew instantly that Mary had begun to be the mother of her Lord, even though she asked how it came about that Mary had come to visit Elizabeth, her relative.

She didn't know how that had come about, but she knew the importance of the baby that she was carrying and the baby that Mary was carrying. So Mary believed back then what God told her through the angel Gabriel and God did the rest. Did Mary do anything to have this virgin conception? No. Was this whole thing going to proceed because Mary was doing anything?

No. All she did was believe what God told her through the angel Gabriel. That's it. God did the rest. That's the way our initial salvation and all of the Christian life works too. In our initial salvation, what are the things that we're supposed to do? You got your list out? You got it tattooed on both hands? No. We believe him about the gospel.

Christ died for your sins, was buried, and rose again. And God says, that's it, I'll do the rest. What happens is we spend the rest of our lives as Christians catching up to what God did when we believed. We spend the rest of our lives as Christians catching up to what God did when we believed.

So Mary is a very beautiful example here. Mary just believed God and God did the rest. And for our salvation, God just says, do you believe? Okay, that's good. I'll do the rest. And the same thing with the Christian life. Same thing with the Christian life. God asks that we believe him and he'll do the rest. That's it. Mary is blessed because she believed God. That's it. It's that simple.

Now, on page 2, you have this as kind of a half-page slide here, and it's shown in a Hebrew poetry pattern, Luke 1, 46-55. 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 bond-slave, and behold, from this time on all the generations will count me blessed. For the Mighty One has done great things for me. And I put a red bar, it's not red in your handout, but a red bar off to the left side there. And that's what Mary says in relationship to herself. The rest of what she says is not about her. Isn't that something? Not about her.

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 things with His arm. The arm is a picture of power. He has scattered those who were proud in the thoughts of their heart. He has brought down rulers from their thrones. He has exalted those who were humble. He has filled the hungry with good things. And He has 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 descendants forever. First she has my soul exalts the Lord.

These verses are sometimes called Mary's Magnificat. Now, it's not anything to do with cats. It's not magnificent cats, even though all cats think they're magnificent. Latin is the source here and it means magnified or implied. My soul magnifies. Sometimes it's just called Mary's song. As we read of Mary's poetic praise of the Lord, we see that she does not have a no name town, small town mindset.

I went to high school in a really small town. As a matter of fact, I talked to a judge in that county, a little town of Boonville, right? I talked to a judge in that county, and I was telling him, you know, I went to high school in Boonville, and he said, man, can anything good come out of Boonville? Anyway, there was a small-town mindset. I mean, it was very much this little valley is the world.

It was determined that this little valley, they needed to take the kids out of this little valley and take them down to the San Francisco Bay Area to show them around. And I had just moved from there, right? And so I'm down with these guys and they do not know what a traffic light is. They got freaked out in the elevator. They'd never been in one before, right? It is possible to have a mindset like that. We don't see this small town mindset with Mary.

She is astounding in what she talks about. She doesn't focus much on herself. She focuses on the Lord and His character and His accomplishments. Her time frame is all generations. She says nothing of the scandal soon coming in Nazareth. Not one bit. She's thinking about generations and generations. She's thinking about the whole world and the nation of Israel. That's her perspective, which is astounding.

Not one mention of the scandal that's about to face her when she goes back to Nazareth, which she will have to do sometime. Every time Mary mentions herself, it is always in relationship to the Lord. She doesn't mention herself except in relationship to the Lord. Really amazing.

That's a good way for us to view ourselves, isn't it? Always as we are in relationship to the Lord. That's the most important relationship, and that's what Mary brings forth in our thinking, in our talking with one another even, in relationship to the Lord. is most important. The pagan perspective about spiritual things is, what do I have to do to cause God to do this or that for me? That's the pagan perspective. And that's the way it was in the pagan religions. You'd go and the God really didn't care about you. The God didn't love you. The God didn't bless you. And if you didn't do something to get the God's attention, things were not going to go well for you.

Unfortunately, a number of Christians carry over this pagan perspective. What do I have to do to cause God to do this or that for me? Or as I've even sometimes heard it, what do I have to do to get God off my back? Right? Mary's perspective is that she is the Lord's bond slave. Who's defined by her relationship with the Lord. Defined by her relationship with the Lord. And Lord, whatever you want to do. Whatever you want to do in my life, I'm your bond slave. Now, one of the things you may have noticed in there, God my Savior. Mary recognized that she needed a Savior and her Savior was God.

By the eternal covenant, the Son of God would be born a human being and die on a cross for us, for you and me. And by the eternal covenant, arranged before God said, let there be light, Christ would be resurrected. She realized, okay, I'm going to give birth to this very important child, but I need salvation. I need salvation. And the Savior isn't me. God my Savior. Mary was going to give birth to the Savior who had died on a cross for her sins. Dying on a cross for her sins, Mary's sins. Mary's attitude, we point out, is in sharp contrast to the pagan cultures.

The pagan cultures in biblical times saw humility, and this was across the board from the Egyptians to the Assyrians and Babylonians and Canaanites. They saw humility as a character flaw, and exalted and admired personal pride as a virtue, and often cruelty along with that. That's one of the reasons I have kind of an artistic rendering of the Apostle Paul. When the Apostle Paul wrote to various Gentile churches, he had to counter the culture's message that humility is a character flaw and pride is a virtue. Instead, what you see Here is the Apostle Paul is writing, let this mind be in you as it was in Christ Jesus, who although he had the privileges of deity, left that and humbled himself to become a man.

So with that being the case, some of the Jews were even buying into this perspective, and especially the ones who were kind of at the top. Personal pride. I, and the law feeds this, doesn't it? I did this and I did that. That's why the Apostle Paul ends up saying, it's all rubbish. It's all rubbish. All the stuff I was proud of, all rubbish. So even some of the Jews were buying into this lie, but Mary saw right through that error of thinking. And this is amazing for what's probably a young teenage woman. She has an astounding insight and perspective here.

She saw that respecting God and humbling herself before him was the wiser course. God would bless her because of that. Do you think that God would have chosen a proud woman to bear the Messiah? I don't think so. Mary had the right understanding. the right understanding. So here she was, from a little no-name town, a young Jewish woman, about to bear the Messiah, the Savior of the world. Could you be tempted to be proud? I suppose, but thank God she didn't have that perspective.

Mary also, in this passage, sees God as the promise keeper. Mary knows the promises that God made to Abraham, which she mentions, and Isaac and Jacob, and to the fathers of the Hebrew nation. She sees that God is going to keep His promises to Israel. It's God's character. God's going to keep His promises because He's the promise keeper. Mary knows that an important part of the fulfillment of those covenants will come about by the birth of the child that at this time had already been conceived in her. God made promises to Abraham, oh it had been about 2,000 years before this, and to Isaac, and to Jacob, and to the leaders of the tribes as they exited as they exited Egypt well over a thousand years earlier. She saw that God was going to fulfill promises in this child that was going to be born from her.

One of those, just real briefly, Genesis 12.3 is where it talks about God's covenant with Abraham.

And here's where Christ comes out. And in you, Abraham, all the families of the earth will be blessed by Christ. By Christ coming. By Christ being born of Mary. By Christ dying on the cross and being resurrected. And in you, Abraham, all the families of the earth will be blessed. And Mary sees and understands that This baby about to be born from her is the answer to that promise. God is the promise keeper.

Luke 1.56 says, And Mary stayed with her about three months, and then returned to her home. At this point in time, I'll bring up the Nativity story again. What they do in the movie is to have Mary stick around for the birth of John the Baptist. But in fact, what it says here in the passage we're looking at, and Mary stayed with her about three months and then returned her home.

Now the time had come for Elizabeth to give birth and she gave birth to a son. The sequence sounds like Mary had gone before John was born, right? So again, I'm being picky, right? Otherwise, the movie is actually really well done. So Mary stayed with Elizabeth about three months. On her return home, to the city of Nazareth, Mary would face some huge challenges. Huge challenges.

Imagine the smirks, the unbelieving looks. She would tell Joseph and her parents that an angel had appeared to her. Oh yeah? Hmm. She would tell them that the angel said that she would be pregnant by the Holy Spirit. and that she would be giving birth to the Messiah. Woo! Have you lost it? Right? Can you imagine their reactions? You come back from this three-month trip, three months pregnant, and that's the story you come up with? You've got to be kidding!

She would have, on her entry into this small town, now let me tell you, Information travels really fast in small towns. Sometimes misinformation travels really fast in small towns. I remember one time that there was a girl who was a friend sitting at the other end of the pickup truck seat, right? Bench seat. She's at the other end sitting against that door.

I'm driving. we go through town and then drive back the next day this girl is congratulated on being engaged to me so you can imagine in this small town here what it would be like for Mary to just show up with a three-month baby bump And she's got stories.

An angel talked to her. An angel talked to her. And she is spiritually pregnant. The Holy Spirit did it. Can you imagine the talk that went around? Mary would retrace her steps. The one we saw on the map. Go back, kind of the same path, back to Nazareth. Where, when she got back, She would see Joseph and her parents and the people of Nazareth. Everybody would want, oh my, there's got to be some explanation for this. And they did not believe in the one she's got. Joseph did not believe the story she's got. So you can imagine Joseph, you're just kidding about the angel and being pregnant, right? Mary, no. Oh.

We're going to take a brief side trip into Matthew chapter 1, 18-25 and if you like to follow along it's in page 3 of your handout. Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows, when his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit.

In Joseph, her husband, because remember when they were engaged, betrothed in those times, you were called a husband and wife, even though you were not to be intimate until after your wedding. Joseph, her husband, being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her, planned to send her away secretly. But when he had considered this, actually it's planned to put her away secretly, it's a divorce. But when he had considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife.

For the child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet.

Behold the Virgin shall be with child and shall bear a son and they shall call his name Emmanuel which translated means God with us and Joseph awoke from his sleep and did as the angel the Lord commanded him and took Mary as his wife but kept her a virgin until She gave birth to a son and he called his name Jesus in the Jewish Tradition and these were rabbis extensions of the law and A man was not to be intimate with his wife while she was pregnant. Not while she was pregnant. So, this fits right along. He kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a son, which is Christ, right?

And then, what would the Jews think is the thing to do once the son is born? then you were to be intimate because it was seen as one of the 613 commandments that you were to be fruitful and multiply. So then he would be intimate with her once the son was born. through the questions, what will Mary say to Elizabeth? Well, what we find is that Mary wants greeting, then lets Elizabeth speak, which she did with a loud voice. And we just went through what Mary said, which we found was very large-minded in terms of time and generations, and in terms of the nation of Israel and the whole world. And then we have what Elizabeth will say to Mary, and Elizabeth seems to have understood just about everything except why was Mary showing up here, right? And of course Mary could explain that once she had the opportunity. So how long will Mary stay with Elizabeth?

Three months. Three months. So that meant she had this three-month baby bump by the time she got back to Nazareth. So what will happen right after she leaves to go back to Nazareth? John, John the Baptist, would be born. Immediately thereafter. And when does Joseph find out that Mary is with child? What we saw there in that passage in Matthew was it was discovered. It wasn't Mary told them about what was going to happen. It was discovered that she was with child. So that meant it wasn't until after Mary got back that Joseph found out. Can you imagine? Here's Joseph. Here's Mary's mom and dad. Mary walks in with a three-month baby bump and they're just mind-blown.

Why will Holly Hills Bible Church celebrate Christmas twice this year? And we're going to start our Christmas celebration in two weeks. And we're going to do that because that's where we are on the schedule for Luke. But then we'll have the actual traditional time for observing Christmas and so that will come along and we'll do that too. So we'll have Christmas in November and December. Now you have on page 4, a half page slide, Harmony of the Gospels and one of the things that's observed here is with regards to the events surrounding the Christmas account Matthew and Luke are the ones that have some content in that.

Mark and John do not. What's unique about John's introduction, however, is he has the pre-existence of Christ as the Son of God. Actually, as he puts it, the Word. In the beginning was the Word, right? So you have John has the pre-existence of Christ as the Word.

In Matthew, we're given a genealogy of Jesus from Abraham to Joseph. And then in Luke, we're going to find, when we get to chapter 3, the genealogy of Jesus through Mary. And one of the questions you're likely to ask is, how do you know that's the genealogy of Mary?

When we get there, we'll cover that. Gabriel announces John's birth to Zacharias, and then Gabriel visits Mary. So we've been through that. Mary visits Elizabeth. We've just looked at that today. The birth of John the Baptist we'll look at next Sunday. And then two weeks from now, we'll begin our Christmas celebration, as we'll have the birth of Christ in Bethlehem.

So I think the sequence is pretty well done. I think it's correct and well thought out. Matthew presents the events surrounding Christ's birth from Joseph's perspective. So Matthew represents Joseph's perspective. What we're seeing in Luke is Dr. Luke is writing up Christ's birth from Mary's perspective.

And so that's why the two accounts are quite different. But as you see in this harmony, they're compatible. Very different accounts, but compatible. If you were to ask, for example, about one of the births of one of our kids, if you asked me to tell the story, it would be very different from Nancy telling the story, right? So it's understandable that these two accounts would be different. All right.

Now, in the next passage, I've got some questions for you. When Elizabeth's baby is born, will it be a boy or a son? That's not a joke. But will it be a boy or a son? Anyway, we'll look at that. Okay. Why will Zacharias and Elizabeth astound everyone by breaking with the naming tradition among the Jews? Everybody's excited about this baby being born especially since Elizabeth is on in years but everybody is astounded at the name they pick or At least the name that they gave the baby When Zacharias is finally able to speak what will he say I? You imagine, you get to think about what your first words are for nine months, right? Think about it a while because that's all you're going to be able to do, right? So, what will he say when he finally gets to blurt something out, right?

What will be said for the third time in Luke chapter 1 that only Dr. Luke wrote and it's in Luke and in Acts? Dr. Luke wrote something that is in both Luke and Acts, it's now in chapter one for the third time. So we'll take a look at that, okay? So we'll resume our study investigating Jesus according to Dr. Luke here next Sunday and proceed with those questions.

All right, let's pray. Lord, we thank you as we see this passage. Not only is it a great accounting of what took place. It's also dramatic. It's astounding in places, and we thank you for that. We thank you also that there are things that we can take home from it, things that apply. Looking at this, realizing that God wants us to believe, and He'll do the rest. And that's a gracious perspective for us to have and to keep. We just thank you for this. In Jesus' name, amen.