Sermon Tone Analysis

No sooner had Mary arrived at the house there was Holy Spirit mayhem!

Mary had just travelled 80 or 100 miles, a three or four day journey, to see the prophecy fulfilled told her by the Angel Gabriel concerning Elizabeth.

The baby that Elizabeth was carrying who had been filled with the Holy Spirit from before birth leaped for joy.

And in doing so Elizabeth herself was filled with the Holy Spirit.

Blessed is the fruit of your womb.

My Lord’s mother has even visited me!

And Zacharias, three months later, was also filled with the Holy Spirit and blessed the Lord God of Israel.

How wonderful all this is.

And all very selfless.

In both cases of being filled with the Holy Spirit God is immediately glorified.

This is the sign of anyone filled with the Holy Spirit of God because He cannot help but glorify Jesus and the Father.

Oh that we would truly be filled with His Spirit for we would not take thought for ourselves but like the disciples at Pentecost and thereafter they could not help speak of Jesus.

But it seems to me that those who claim to be filled with the Holy Spirit are more concerned with themselves and what they can do rather than exalting and praising God.

Such people are not filled with His Spirit as they suppose but are filled with ego instead.

The Holy Spirit cannot help but glorify God the Father and God the Son: the real proof of being filled by Him.

And this is how we can know how filled we are too.

Let’s make sure we go back to the fountain of life regularly and be filled.

Following on from Elizabeth Mary then speaks one of the greatest hymns ever composed in vs 46-55 which is very similar to Hannah’s prayer.

Let’s hear how that went, it is found in:

Hannah, herself had been barren but she gave birth to one of the greatest prophets, Samuel.

If we went line by line we would see the similarities immediately.

There’s rejoicing, humility, answer to prayer, the rich shamed but the poor and humble exalted.

These are great songs for the powerless with trust in the Powerful God.

Let’s have a closer look at Mary’s Magnificat:

v46

My soul makes great the Lord.

God cannot be any greater but He can be enlarged in our own lives and hearts.

When we understand more and more about what God has done in and through Jesus then our hearts and minds magnify God all the more.

All that I am magnifies the Lord.

This is what these following verses are about:

We need to be like King David who was totally consumed in worship he didn’t care what others thought.

His own wife despised him for his dancing before the Lord.

We do now have space in front of a couple of the pews if anyone fancies!

v47

Is Mary our Saviour?

No, but God is hers as well as ours and we rejoice with her.

v.49-50

It is the realisation of what God has done for us personally that starts off our praise.

Hear Mary: “For He who is mighty has done great things for me”.

For me.

For me.

Can’t get any more personal than that.

How great God is! How small we are!

How amazing it is that God humbles Himself to our level.

And such was Mary feeling.

God is so great that He does miracles, that He does the impossible and He is doing all that for someone like me! Mary speaks of God’s holiness and mercy too.

John Donne poetically said:

“God’s mercy hath no relation to time, no limitation in time.…

Whom God loves He loves to the end; and not only to their end, to their death, but to His end; and His end is, that He might love them still.”

As Mary’s heart is lifted up she sees God more clearly in the workings and history of humankind.

When we set our hearts to magnify God then our spiritual eyes are opened up.

Mary, then, in the next few verses, speaks prophetically about the future in the past tense; that is, speaking of things to come as though they have already happened.

v51

We see that those who are proud in their inmost thoughts are going to be brought low.

Throughout Scripture we find this so often to be the case.

We know of Nebuchadnezzar, whom we read about in Daniel, become like an animal for seven years because he thought he had gained the whole kingdom by his own power.

When he came to his senses he glorified God who has everyone in His hand.

We know of King Herod who died of worms when people praised him as a god and did not refuse the worship to redirect it to the true God.

God opposes the proud.

Jesus Himself said:

It is important to know that God has the hearts of leaders in His hand and can lead them but if they are proud they will fall.

It is not too political for me to say when Theresa May called the general election she thought that it would be a whitewash and there is something about pride in this for the election was very much about her and so it did not turn out according to her wishes.

God raises people up and can just as easily take power away and give to someone else such as the DUP.

This should inform our prayers, by the way.

God is able to move a leader’s heart.

It is too easy to become proud as if we are or can be something by ourselves.

Everything we are and have and can be is because of God giving us our lives, our intelligence, our abilities.

Our lives are in His hands just like our leaders so fear and praise belongs to God alone.

Augustine, wrote:

“For those who would learn God’s ways, humility is the first thing, humility is the second, and humility is the third.”

We can see that also in verse 48 that Mary was not much in her own eyes.

But God exalted her to be the one who, as Elizabeth said, was to be the mother of our Lord.

v52

He has pulled the mighty from their thrones and such were Belshazzar in Daniel and Heman in the Book of Esther but the lowly were exalted of such were Joseph and Esther.

But the lowliest of them all is Jesus who came as a babe, who is King of kings and Lord of lords, and died, who did the job of slaves in washing feet, and who on a cross died in a shameful way in the eyes of the law.

This Jesus…He is the one of which Scripture says:

Yes, He is exalted!

He is to be praised!

v53

In Mary’s song she says: He fills those who hunger and sends the rich away poor for they trusted in riches to gain the Kingdom.

Listen!

God always hears the prayers of those who admit their needs and He is willing to be provider, healer, friend, and comforter.

It is those who think that they are rich who do not receive help:

Our spiritual senses are dulled by the material things of this world.

We have everything.

We know that this is the case at this time of year because it is nigh impossible to buy anything for anyone these days because they already have everything.

All we have besides what we need can hinder our lives in Christ and compared to Christians elsewhere in the world we are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked in a spiritual sense.

If our love for Jesus is withered;

if we have no heart for the lost though we are told the fields are white for harvest;

if we do not love one another

then I put it that we have lost our passion that should be roaring hot for God and we need to repent.

Blessed are those who keep on being hungry for righteousness is a better translation.

It is not that we will be hungry once but we should keep on being hungry for the things of God.

And what is the promise?

We will be filled.

Our hunger, though, cannot be filled by anything or anyone other than God but if we try to be filled by our possessions; our entertainment; and our busyness then emptiness is the result.

God though, shows His hunger, His passion for us.

Surely we know that God desires us, right?

What is this time of year except a celebration of the greatest Christmas gift ever given?

Why?