The Carol of Mary - Part 1
The Carols of Christmas • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 36:50
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· 54 viewsExploring the "carols" recorded in Scripture surrounding the birth of Christ. All joyful as Jesus is the joy of the world
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Transition w/ key word – Our text reveals 4 attitudes in Mary’s Christmas carol that call “Oh come let us adore Him.”
1. An attitude of reflection
A. Personal reflection
B. Historical reflection
C. Prophetical reflection
2. An attitude of adoration
Praising God for His mercy to…
A. The Helpless - vs. 51
B. The Humble - vs. 50 & 52
C. The Hungry - vs. 53
Introduction – I love Christmas music! When I was little, my mom & dad had a big console record player. At Christmas time, mom would stack that turntable with Christmas records. I can still remember hearing Andy Williams crooning “It’s the most wonderful time of the year.” With the orchestration & sound effects of the song “Sleigh Ride”, you could imagine yourself in a horse drawn sleigh with the sound of the jingle bells on the horses moving in time to the beating hooves and as the snow falls around you in a winter wonderland. Of course there were Christian Christmas carols galore like we’ve begin singing this morning. I’ve listened this week repeatedly to Casting Crowns version of Joy to the World too many times to count. I even listened to Handel’s Messiah while writing this message! Now I have to admit, after 20 years of pastoring, I feel great pressure every Christmas to keep the Christmas story fresh and profound in my own life and be able to communicate a familiar story in a way to stir in us the awe and wonder of Christmas. I had lots of fuzzy ideas and for some reason just could not nail down my Christmas series plan till this past week! Did you know there are 4 Christmas carols in the NT surrounding the birth of Christ? Over the next 4 Sundays & on Christmas Eve, we’re going to examine them in this series I’m calling “The Carols of Christmas.” My prayer is the Lord will use these carols from Mary, Zacharias, The Angels, Shepherds & Simeon to help us have a fresh view of the Christmas story through the eyes of people who were actually there when Jesus Christ was born and saw the work of God to give His the greatest gift of all: Jesus Christ, Son of God, Son of Man, fully God, fully Man. Today, we’ll begin by looking at part of Mary’s Christmas carol recorded in Luke 1:46-55 and Lord willing finish it next Sunday. Transition w/ key word – Our text reveals 4 attitudes in Mary’s Christmas carol that call to us several hundred centuries later: “Oh come let us adore Him.” Read text. The first attitude is:
1. An attitude of reflection
Explanation - In 1:26 and following, the Angel Gabriel was sent by God to inform Mary she’s going to have a miracle baby. Here she’s a young woman, engaged to be married, a virgin and she finds out she’s going to have a baby before she’s married! Betrothal or engagement in Jewish custom was as binding as if they couple had said “I do.” But strict rules where in place how the couple would date and in Mary’s case, according to Matt. 1:18 “Before they came together…”; clearly meaning Joseph & Mary had not had physical relations to consummate their marriage. And not only that, vs. 35 tells us this miracle baby is going to be called the Son of God! Talk about putting the quash on her wedding plans! “I’m sorry mom & dad, we need to cancel the big wedding plans, I’m pregnant with the Messiah, the Son of God.” Yeah right! Who’s going to believe that whopper?
The sign for Mary was her aged cousin Elizabeth, who was never able to have children, is already 6 months along! So Mary goes to see her cousin Elizabeth to see this for herself! Matthew’s account from Joseph’s point of view tells us in Matt. 12:24-25, tells us Joseph awoke from his dream and the news from the Angel Gabriel, Mary was pregnant with the Messiah, the Son of God, that Joseph got up that night and went and took Mary to be his wife but didn’t have relations with her till after Jesus was born. So Mary goes to Elizabeth’s house and we reading Luke 1:39-45 how Elizabeth’s baby even knew Mary was pregnant! Read that SCOTUS! That brings us to this beautiful hymn, a carol of worship that flowed out of Mary’s overflowing heart that reveal her attitude in all this: First of all we see an attitude of reflection:
A. Personal reflection - This is called Mary’s Magnificat, from the Latin translation of “My soul magnifies the Lord.” Some of your Bibles may have these verses offset in the typesetting to indicate it is poetic or musical form. Mary reflected personally on the goodness, mercy and work of God in her life. Notice how personal her relationship is with the Lord in vs. 47 “God my Savior.” Mary was overwhelmed by the goodness and mercy of God as vs. 49 indicates “He who is mighty as done great things for me.” Mary had no delusions of her humble status as a young virgin looking forward to her wedding day. She refers to herself as a maidservant of the Lord in vs. 48 and her lowly state. She was expressing awe and wonder and why in the world God would choose her to carry the Child Israel had been waiting on for thousands of years! there were thousands of others God could have picked for this momentous task, and yet God divinely and sovereignly chose Mary to give birth to Immanuel. 9 times in this text she says “He has” or “has” - her carol reflected upon the fact this was all God’s doing as she reflected on the work of Almighty God. Her attitude was one of personal reflection! It was also:
B. Historical reflection - Mary’s carol is literally saturated with Scripture! This young woman knew her Bible, the OT, as well as the History of Israel. Mary’s Christmas carol references directly or alludes to at least a dozen OT passages and heavily resembles Hannah’s song in 1st Samuel 2:1-10. For example:
Vs. 46-47 - Mirror 1st Sam. 2:1 “My heart rejoices in the Lord…b/c I rejoice in your salvation.” Also Is. 61:10 “I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation. Or Habakkuk 3:18 “Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation.” Vs. 48a - Her lowly state as a maidservant - Echos Hannah’s plea to God in 1st Sam. 1:11 “Oh Lord of hosts, if you will indeed look on the affliction of your maidservant and remember me.” Vs. 48b “all generations will call me blessed” - Mirrors Leah’s praise in Gen. 30:13. Vs. 49 “He who is mighty has done great things for me.”; echoes Ps. 71:19 “Also Your righteousness, O God, is very high, You who have done great things; O God, who is like You?”
These are examples of Mary’s historical reflection on God’s work in Israel’s past. It’s a testimony of God’s faithfulness to His people throughout their history and an expression of faith that just as God had been and continues to be faithful to Israel, He will be faithful to Mary in her pregnancy and all the unknowns that would come with it as well.
C. Prophetical reflection - Not only does her carol represent an attitude of personal reflection & historical reflection but also prophetical reflection.
Vs. 54-55 - She takes God’s promises to Abraham that were reiterated in the prophets to gaze into the future to see God’s faithfulness out there in the unknown future! God had been merciful to her personally, historically to Israel and she expressed faith and trust that the merciful God of the ages would continue to be merciful to sinful humans in the future! Consider: Is. 41:8-9 “But you, Israel, are My servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, The descendants of Abraham My friend. You whom I have taken from the ends of the earth, And called from its farthest regions, And said to you, ‘You are My servant, I have chosen you and have not cast you away:” Micah 7:20 “You will give truth to Jacob and mercy to Abraham, Which You have sworn to our fathers From days of old.” Ps. 98:3 “He has remembered His mercy and His faithfulness to the house of Israel; all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.
The point of all this is that God is a faithful, gracious and merciful God! Christmas is a reminder of the goodness of God who gave us Himself! Mary’s song and attitude of reflection should stir in our hearts what great things God has done for us too! We couldn’t begin to know how to save ourselves. When Adam & Eve sinned, they didn’t know what to do to atone for their sins so they tried sewing fig leaves together to cover their nakedness. God stepped in & Mary’s Christmas carol reminds us salvation & atonement for sins is completely the work of God based on the Word of God!
Do you have a personal, life-transforming faith relationship with Jesus Christ today? In honest reflection, can you point to a time in your life when you repented of your sin & asked Jesus Christ to forgive you and save you? Share the ABC’s -
In the busyness of the Christmas season, let me just encourage you in the days leading up to Christmas to reflect on the goodness of God in your life! Thanksgiving & Christmas are inseparable & forever intertwined & should bubble over out of us not just at Christmas but literally every day of our lives! We have a song of reflection: Notice also Mary’s Christmas carol presents:
2. An attitude of adoration
Explanation - Adoration is a natural byproduct of reflection on the goodness and mercy of God! It is very simply worship! It is to ascribe worth-ship to the gracious & merciful God of Heaven, the Creator and author of life itself.
Praising God for His mercy to…
A. The Helpless - vs. 51 - Repeatedly throughout human history, God has shown the strength of His arm to rescue and come to the aid of the helpless. We see this in the Garden of Eden when God came in response to Adam & Eve’s rebellion and sin, ruining God’s perfect environment & creation, by covering their sin and making atonement for sin. We see it when God destroyed the world by flood yet Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. How about God coming to the rescue of a poor woman named Jochebed, under threat of Pharaoh himself she was to murder her male baby by throwing him into the Nile River, yet Jochebed, by faith put her baby in a floating cradle and God made sure that child cried out when Pharoah’s own daughter came down to bathe in the river & she rescued the very boy God would call someday to lead His people out of captivity & bondage! How about God coming to the rescue of the COI at the Red Sea - you don’t get more helpless than that with a couple of million people trapped between the Red Sea & Pharoah’s army; and God cam between them with the Shekinah glory of God, parted the Red Sea so the people passed over on dry ground, and then destroyed Pharaoh and his army! Mary’s carol expressed an attitude of adoration for God’s mercy to the helpless!
B. The Humble - vs. 50 & 52 - Mary also expressed adoration for God’s and grace to the humble, to those who fear God and are lowly. Think about old Gideon, scared to death about the Midianites, and God used Gideon to lead the COI to great victory with nothing more than 300 hundred men, some clay pots, torches and a great shout! How he used humble David to slay a giant name Goliath and He used David’s humble confidence in Almighty God the battle belongs to the Lord.
C. The Hungry - vs. 53 - Maybe Mary had in mind the time Elijah proclaimed a drought, food was scarce and yet God fed him with the ravens in 1st Kings 17. Or maybe she was reflecting in adoration of when God cared for the widow Ruth by the kind hand of Boaz, who became their “Kinsman Redeemer”. Boaz married Ruth who would give birth to Obed, who fathered Jesse, who fathered David whose hometown is none other than Bethlehem, which literally means “House of Bread”! You can’t make this stuff up! And God made sure Joseph and Mary had to go to Bethlehem in Luke 2 for Jesus Christ the Messiah to be born who 30 or so years later would later call Himself the Bread of Life in John 6:35, or would pronounce a blessing in the greatest sermon ever preached, the Sermon on the Mount in Matt. 6:5 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they shall be filled.” And then, the Holy Spirit would inspire Luke, the writer of this Gospel, in affirmation of Mary’s prophetic word “And the rich He has sent away empty”; to also record in Luke 18 the rich young ruler went away empty handed because he didn’t want to give up his riches to follow Jesus by faith.
Mary’s carol is truly a carol that reveals an attitude of reflection but also adoration because God is a good who sees the helpless and comes to their aid, He sees the humble and lifts them up and cares for the hungry by feed not just their physical hunger but spiritual hunger as well.
So what? What does Mary’s Christmas carol have to do with me on Dec. 5th, 2021, in dark days, hard days, uncertain days?
Applications -
1. What great things has the Lord done for you? List them, share them with others, but most of all thank God and worship Him! Worship in obedience to His commands. BTW - what things can you do for others because God has done so much for you? Even the most simple act of kindness and service to others God can us greatly in their lives! (Casey Byrd’s note to me for the meals for their twins.)
“Good morning Ralph, I just wanted to say thank you again to everyone that worked so hard and provided us food for a whole week! We are so grateful to having loving and caring people in this world that would do great things for others in their time of need. We definitely need more people/Christians in the world like the families that helped us out (complete strangers). Just having that week of food only allowed us to get settled with a schedule and really focus on our babies and not have to worry about making food or spending all our money at the store to keep up with the food demand. Please tell all those families we are so ever thankful for their sacrifices and hard work in helping us! We are so blessed to have such a great church and people doing such great things in our community! God is great!” Simple meals = “Great things” to that family!
2. Saturate yourself with the Word of God. These few verses reveal Mary was a student of Scripture, she makes at least a dozen references to the OT. How do you think she endured the ridicule and trauma of being pregnant out of wedlock? Her understanding of Scripture helped her understand God’s plan for her life and it will for you as well. It will keep your life from falling apart when the world around you is falling apart because you claim the promises of God. No matter what is coming our way, there are promises from God that apply directly to that situation, so saturate yourself with the Word of God!
3. This Christmas, above all, “Oh come let us adore Him, Christ the Lord.” Mary’s attitude of adoration should “prime the pump” for humble reverent worship and adoration of our Savior Jesus Christ, the greatest gift of all. So come all ye faithful, come joyful and triumphant and come let us adore Him Christ, the Lord.
Close – One of the greatest hymns of the Christian faith was first written by Swedish Pastor Carol Boberg in 1886 who was suddenly caught in a severe thunderstorm. The awesome and violent lightning and thunder quickly ended, leaving clear brilliant sunshine and the calm, sweet singing of the birds in the trees. Falling on his knees in awe and adoration of Almighty God, the pastor wrote nine stanzas of praise. Swedish congregations began to sing his lines to one of their old folk tunes. The text was later translated into German and Russian and ultimately into English by the Reverend S. K. Hine and his wife, English missionaries to the people of the Ukraine. When war broke out in 1939, it was necessary for the Hines to return to Britain, where Mr. Hine added the fourth stanza to this hymn. These four stanzas by Stuart Hine have since ministered and inspired God’s people worldwide: 3rd vs. makes it a Christmas song in my book!
O Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder consider all the worlds Thy hands have made, I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder, Thy pow’r thruout the universe displayed!
When thru the woods and forest glades I wander and hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees, when I look down from lofty mountain grandeur and hear the brook and feel the gentle breeze.
And when I think that God, His Son not sparing, sent Him to die, I scarce can take it in—That on the cross, my burden gladly bearing, He bled and died to take away my sin!
When Christ shall come with shout of acclamation and take me home, what joy shall fill my heart! Then I shall bow in humble adoration and there proclaim, my God, how great Thou art!
Refrain: Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to Thee; how great Thou art, how great Thou art! Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to Thee; how great Thou art, how great Thou art!
Osbeck, K. W. (1996). Amazing grace: 366 inspiring hymn stories for daily devotions (p. 141). Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications