It's good to be with you, especially on this last Lord's Day before Christmas. And as we continue to think and ponder about Advent, about the birth of Jesus and his incarnation. It's also especially a privilege when I get to do a sermon coming after so many other really good sermons on Advent because I can just pull on everybody else's good stuff. And so tonight as we look at the Magnificat and as we look at Mary's song, we do so in the context of Advent. We do so having spent this season, having spent from the end of November up till now, meditating on what it means for God to become man, what it means for him to have drawn near, to have taken on our flesh. And that will bear weight as we come to our passage. That'll be a context that helps us understand. But as we come to our passage tonight and as we look at what Luke is doing in the Magnificat, one of the things that I hope that we can discover is that Advent is more about just remembering. Advent is more than just about thinking about what happened in the past, but that Advent in this period of meditating on the incarnation also has a lot to do with how we live today and the hope that we look forward to in the future. And so with that in mind, let's go to the Lord in a word of prayer. Gracious God and Heavenly Father, we praise you and thank you for this evening. We ask that you would be with us and that you would help us as we raise your word to understand the call that you have placed on our lives, that we might glorify you and be lights to this world. We pray this in Christ's name, amen. Now, the Magnificat, Even though it's still only in the first chapter of Luke, jumping in the way that we are is kind of like jumping in the middle of a story. And so, thus far, Luke has started off his gospel and has told his readers that he is writing a studied account. He has done his research, has gone and found eyewitnesses. and is writing this account for the benefit of a man named Theophilus. He's writing this that Theophilus might have certainty. And in the first chapter, thus far, Luke has introduced a faithful Jewish couple, a man and woman named Zechariah and Elizabeth, and has recorded the announcement to them that they will have a son. This son will be a miraculous child like the children born in the Old Testament to barren women, for Elizabeth is an old woman. She's beyond childbearing age, and yet God has promised her a child. And then beyond that, God has also come to Eve, or to, on my mind, Mary, and Mary will also bear a child. And then the two coming together now, come together before our passage. Mary's told that she'll bear a child, She hears this from Gabriel and her immediate response is to go visit Elizabeth. And these two women come together and come together like the coming together of testaments. The theme of God providing for barren women in the Old Testament is prominent. We see Sarah having a child, we see Rachel and Rebecca and Hannah, all barren women who are given children and Mary, in some ways the prototypical virgin Prototypical barren woman comes to Elizabeth. But Mary is not barren because she can't have children. She's barren because she's a virgin. It is the pinnacle of barrenness. There's no possible way that she could have a child. And yet, in a miraculous and new way in redemptive history, Mary is having a child and she comes to Elizabeth. And when she sees Elizabeth, Elizabeth and the child in her womb burst out into joy, the child leaps in Elizabeth's womb, and Elizabeth rejoices with Mary. And you can just imagine Elizabeth's excitement for Mary, but Mary's excitement especially. In Jewish culture, there's a context where in law and in testimony, you need two witnesses to something for it to be true. And thus far, Mary has only had this witness of an angel, She has this kind of remarkable, somewhat confusing experience with an angel, and now it's finally confirmed for her by an older, wiser relative. The words of Elizabeth, while they are rejoicing in praise, are also words of comfort to Mary, for God has spoken to others to confirm her state. And so with that context, Mary bursts into this song, the song that has come to be known as the Magnificat. That is kind of the transliteration of the Latin of the first couple words, and really it just means a praise or a rejoicing to God. And in this, we come with a context where oftentimes Mary and the Magnificat, and this time can be underdone by Protestants. Sometimes I think we are a little scared of Mary because of Catholics, because we think of, oh, is Mary a mediatrix or something like that? And tonight I want to come to Mary as an example, as one who is highly favored by God and who responds faithfully to God's call on her life. And I want to do that, again, by looking at Advent as not something that's merely about remembering the past, but it's about how we live today and what we look forward to. And so as we look at Mary's song, as we look at the Magnifica, I want to look at what it looks like to wait and to wait well between the times. And so tonight we'll be looking at first verses 46 to 49. We'll be looking at Mary's worship and how worship is involved in waiting well. And then from 50 to 53, we'll be looking at Mary's witness and what it means to witness between the times. And finally, we'll look at her watchfulness. We'll look at how she keeps a watch as she waits for the Lord and how that is baked into her response to God. So first, Mary's worship. The song starts, my soul magnifies the Lord. And my spirit rejoices in God, my savior. And just from there, we get to see the depths of Mary's theology. Um, and building off of what pastor Liam has been saying over the last couple of weeks, we see that her soul magnifies the Lord. This, this word that carries freight from the old Testament into the new Testament, this word that connotates that the personal name of God in the old Testament, this is the word of Yahweh, this is the name that was revealed to Moses. And this is who Mary sees as the active agent in this babe in her womb. And so Mary, bursting into praise for God, bursting into this, sees Yahweh, sees the God of Israel as the one acting in her life and the one that she has been brought up in his kind of divine drama of redemption. And In her worship, we see remarkably that she sees much of what God is doing as for her. It is her soul that rejoices in her Savior. She is his humble servant. Generations will call her blessed, and he has done great things for her. See, Mary, having waited, having been part of the faithful people of God waiting for his Messiah, is praising God because of what he has done for her. When we meditate on the Incarnation, when we meditate on Advent, when we meditate on Christmas, oftentimes we get lost in the scope of how big it is. And I don't know about you, but for me, sometimes it's easier for me to understand big things as they relate to big things. And so I can understand the miracle of Advent and the miracle of the Incarnation as it pertains to the salvation of the world or the purity of the church or the redemption of mankind. Big things relating to big things. But when it comes down to it, I'm oftentimes not sure how to apply the incarnation, the dwelling of God with his people to me. And Mary, the wise young girl that she is, knows exactly how to do that. God coming into the flesh, taking up residence in her womb, sees this as for her, and she praises God for it. And so when we seek to do that, it might be difficult. It might be hard, especially when we think that the time that's passed since from Christ to us is over 10 times as long as this country's been in existence. The amount of time that's passed is massive. And so how do we think of this event that's happened millennia ago as it applies to us today? One way to do that as is always a good practice is to look to the church and see how the church has thought about this over the years. And one suggestion comes from a medieval thinker by the name of Bernard of Clairvaux. And Bernard, when he's meditating on Advent and when he's meditating on Christmas, says that really there are three Advents that we should be thinking about. That there is the first Advent, the one that we normally think of, of Jesus coming, being incarnate. But then there's also the second Advent of the coming into man. So the first we have God coming to man, and then we have God coming into man, and then finally we have God coming against man in his final coming. And I would suggest to you that we, like Mary, should apply the incarnation, should apply Christmas to our lives as individuals, that this has weight and meaning to us as individuals, particularly in that second sense of Advent, that sense that God comes into man. And we see this particularly in the gospel of John. John teases this out for us. And so when Jesus is getting ready to go away, he'll tell his disciples, it's better for me to go away because a helper will come with you. And I will never leave you, but we'll be with you. I will not leave you as orphans. And we see this where Jesus is leaving is better for his people because he will come to his people by his spirit. This incredibly important thing helps us to understand that even today in our own salvation, In our own lives, God is doing mighty things in our lives. He sees our humble estate. He cares for us and is doing mighty things in our lives. And he's doing that by his spirit. He redeems us. He gives us new life. He gives us confidence and assurance of our salvation. He gives us hope and he does this by his spirit. And so when we seek to determine how to wait well between the ages. When we wait well between that first and that final coming of Advent, we are given the drive to worship God because of what he has done for us. Now, some of you here might also not know Jesus, might be wondering, what does this mean? What do I do? And part of the wonderful promise that we have is that In between the ages, since Christ has come in the first coming and before he comes again in that second coming, all those who believe in Christ, all those who put their faith in Christ, who repent and believe, will receive Christ. The Trinity, our triune God, is at one in their work of salvation. And so when we place our hope in Christ, when we place our faith in Christ, our God comes to us by his spirit. and saves us and redeems us. And so between the ages, as we learn how to and seek how to wait well, when we think about what it means to practice Advent, if you would say, we can meditate on and learn to live out the life of the Holy Spirit. And for those of us who might be thinking about that, we can place our hope in Christ and receive the wonderful, mighty work of God in our own lives. we wait well by worshiping. Secondly, we see that Mary witnesses. She turns in verse 50 from talking mainly about herself, right? We've seen that she praises God and worships God for what he's done for her. But then in 50, she transitions and starts to recount the works of God that he has done for Israel. And so she turns from her personal life and her personal relationship with God to what he has done for his covenant people, for the nation of Israel. And we see that she witnesses to his acts. She witnesses to his mercy to those who fear him. She witnesses to the strength of his arm, the fact that he has brought down the mighty, that he has humbled the proud, and that he has exalted the humble and filled the hungry. She witnesses to this. Now, When we get to this section, there's a couple kind of questions that pose themselves, and one of them being, what do we do with the past tense verbs? Mary is talking in the past tense. She's saying that God has done all of these things, but what do they refer to? And really, scholars kind of have three options there, that either it's a past tense thing, talking about things that God did in the Old Testament. Maybe the humbling of the proud is the humbling of those proud at Babel. Or maybe he brings down the mighty Nebuchadnezzar. These are all options. Some people say that it's a past tense, but referring to present experiences, that Mary is saying these things about what God is doing in her at that moment, that he has exalted the lowly, he has lifted up the humble, and he has brought down the mighty through the incarnation, what he's doing in her. Finally, some people say, well, they're past tense verbs, but it's referring to future things. It's what God will do in the future. And being somebody who's preaching and not a scholar who gets paid to have an opinion on something, I can say that it's probably all three. That Mary, in her witness, is speaking both historically, she's witnessing to what God has done, She's speaking personally to what God is doing in her, and she's speaking prophetically about what God will do in the future. And so there's this tension, and when we hold these three things together, we also avoid kind of two unhelpful pulls on how to apply this passage. And so some people will, particularly those who say, oh, this is a present reality, some people will revolutionize this text, and this is kind of a call to tear down the wealthy of the world and for the poor to rise up. And it becomes a revolutionary call to arms. On the other hand, people who place this solely in the future tend to spiritualize this text and say, Oh, Mary's not really talking about the poor. Mary's not really talking about the rich. They're all kind of metaphors for spiritual things. And Both of these aren't too far of extremes because God does care for the poor. God does care for the humble. God does care for the lowly. But he does so not because there's something meritorious in being poor, not because there's something meritorious in being lowly, but because this shows us our state. that we as sinners, as we said in our confession of faith, all of those born of natural generation fell in Adam. And so all of us are humble. And Mary recalling God's actions in history, recalling what God is doing for her and prophesying about the future, sees the whole of creation being leveled before Christ, that there are no longer the mountains of wealth and privilege. There are no longer the valleys of despair, but Christ goes, levels these before him. Because as Paul speaks in Acts, the wisdom of the wise is thwarted. And we know that there are not many among us who were wise according to this world. Christ levels that before him. And so we see Mary witnessing, we see her witnessing historically, we see her witnessing personally, we see her witnessing prophetically. And we ask, what does that mean for us to witness today? Do we, as our songs say, run out to the streets and go tell it on the mountain? Do we proclaim it in the streets? Well, yeah, that might be a fitting thing to do, but we might also witness this season as we gather around Christmas, as we offer a word of encouragement to a relative who's struggling, as we remind them of what the word of God promises us in the future. And we witness prophetically to what is coming and what is promised to God's people. We might witness personally, we might encourage our small group or encourage one another of the answered prayers that God has given us in our lives. We might witness historically, we might have that difficult conversation with a coworker who just can't believe that a normal, rational person would really think that Jesus was born. And we might witness, we might testify that, no, I believe that Jesus Christ was raised from the dead. See, witnessing, and this witnessing that we see in Mary isn't always a glorious, visible act, but sometimes the witness between the ages is the slow, quiet faithfulness of one who expects Christ to come again. So from there, we've seen both Mary's worship and Mary's witness. And finally, we come to Mary's watchfulness. And we see that especially in 54 and 55, but there we see really just a summary of the whole passage. In 54 and 55, Mary kind of summarizes God's work for Israel throughout the ages. He is kind of everything that she's saying so far is God has been faithful to his covenant and summarizes that. And we see that her watchfulness, her expectation, that what God is doing in her, the incarnation, the coming of Christ in her womb is something that was foretold millennia ago. But that watchfulness really just seeps through the entire passage. In this song, there are no less than 12 times where Mary quotes or alludes to an Old Testament passage. And even the very fabric and structure of the song is based off of Hannah's song. And so the entire song is seen as this extended meditation and response to God's work in her life that's based on the word of God. And so she, we see in Mary, a faithful Israelite woman who would have Saturday by Saturday, Sabbath day by Sabbath day, gone to the synagogues and heard the Torah read, sang the songs of her people that were awaiting redemption. She would have traveled to Jerusalem. She would have stored up these words in her heart, the words of God. And this is a pattern that we see doesn't stop at the incarnation. It doesn't stop here. For Luke tells us just a couple chapters later that as Jesus is speaking and teaching and he's doing things as a young boy, Mary treasured these things up in her heart. See, before Christ came as the word of God, Mary was already about the business of being watchful and storing up the word of God in her heart. Mary treasured the word of God before he was her son. This is what it means to be watchful. Oftentimes, when we think of watchfulness today, we can think of it as a doomsday kind of thing. It's having extra water or a bunker in the basement sort of thing. But that's not the watchfulness that Mary has. And that's not the watchfulness that we're called to in between the testaments. The watchfulness that we're called to is one against sin and against the entanglements of sin in our lives. It's against those antichrists that creep into the church and seek to damage Christ's body. It's against any temptation in our lives to forget that Christ will come again. And we remain watchful by storing up God's word in our hearts. We remain watchful by meditating on the law of the Lord day and night, by sitting under preaching, by applying that to our lives. And the Lord has reminded us and has told us that not a single word of his will return void, but that as we store those up, as we meditate on God's words, we become watchful and vigilant. We become those who expect the coming of Christ and expect the Messiah again. And so as we look at this passage, again, we see Advent as something that is not just about remembering. It's not just about looking to the past. It's not just about looking to a historical event, but it's about how we live today. It's about what we look forward to in the future. And so when we go to Christmas celebrations, when we are traveling, when we are getting back into the rhythm of things at work and we're not really looking forward to that. We have opportunities to worship God, to witness to his works in our lives and what he's done in history and to be watchful. As a call to that, we're reminded that his name is holy. We heard from Pastor Liam this morning the humility of Christ. We heard from him the coming in and the forsaking, the fact that Christ didn't see equality with God as something to be leveraged or used for his own good. And that is what we imitate. That is what Mary has stored up in her heart. That is what she's worshiping. She is worshiping the fact that God, the one who has equality with God, saw her humble estate and saw the humble estate of Israel. And what did he do? He became humble himself. He took on flesh. He became humble that he might lift us up, that he might take us up into the life of God. And we experience that now. We experience that by the Holy Spirit, that as the Spirit seals our salvation, as the Spirit indwells us, He gives us that salvation now. Like Mary, the Mighty One has done great things for us. He has conquered death. He's conquered death's sting. And so, for the Christian, for those who've placed their faith in Christ, we live in the Testaments as people who Already have experienced that salvation. We have already experienced the Great things of God and we look forward to those to come and so as we meditate on Advent as we Come closer and closer near and near to Christmas this year Let's learn from Advent how we must live the rest of the year that this is not something that is just around Christmas that Advent is a a reminder, a helpful remembrance of the truth and the reality for the Christian throughout the year, that Christ has come, that we live as redeemed people, that we are called to worship our God, that we're called to witness to a lost world, and that we're called to be watchful of our sins in the life surround us. Let's do that in faith. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, mighty God, you are worthy of our praise. You keep covenant from generation to generation, from age to age. You, in Christ, have fulfilled your promises to Abraham and to his offspring, for Christ is that offspring. And we, as beneficiaries of that covenant, of that, completed work now praise you and we praise you as children who can come before you and cry Abba Father, because of the spirit that is at work in our lives, because of the mighty things that you have done for us, because you have seen and reckoned with our humble state. Father, we pray that this would be a time of joy, of celebration, and anticipation. We pray that you would give us eyes to see, hearts to look forward to that coming day when Christ will come again, that we might live lives of worship and witness and watchfulness, that our lives indeed might say with our mouths, O come, O come, Emmanuel. Amen.