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It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas
Luke 1:46-55
"The Singing has Begun"
I. MARY SANG WITH A HOLY REJOICING
A. The focus of her rejoicing
B. The fullness of her rejoicing
II. MARY SANG AS A HUMBLE RESPONSE
A. To the grace of God
B. To the greatness of God
III. MARY SANG OF A HEAVENLY REVOLUTION
A. The facts in Mary’s song
B. The faith in Mary’s song
1. On a recent trip to Savannah, GA, I came across a historical marker that
surprised me a little bit. It was a plaque commemorating the writing of the famous
holiday song, "Jingle Bells".
2. It was written sometime in the late 1800's by James Pierpont, who was the
organist and choir director at the Unitarian Church in Savannah.
3. The fact that he was a Unitarian was about the only reason I could figure as to
why a church choir director would write a holiday song that had absolutely
nothing at all to do with Jesus.
4. Unfortunately, much of the holiday music that goes along with this time of year
is more festive than faithful and more about secular traditions than spiritual
truths.
5. In Luke chapter one, we find what could be considered one of the earliest
Christmas songs. It was sung by the Virgin Mary and is traditionally called "the
Magnificat," based on the Latin word for "magnify."
6. The real truth of Christmas, that the Son of God was actually born into this
world, certainly gives us a reason to sing.
7. As Wesley's famous holiday hymn put it:
Joy to the world, the Lord is come…
Let heaven and nature sing!
8. As we study this song by Mary that was inspired in her and preserved for us by
the Holy Spirit of God, we find a song saturated with the words of Old Testament
Scripture but sung to the tune of New Testament truth.
9. This song reminds us of what it is we have to sing about, not just with regard
to the birth of Jesus, but everything that His life and Lordship means to us as His
people.
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10. Christmas is not just about a baby in a manger, it is about a Kingdom that
has come and is coming through the virgin-born Son of God.
11. Let's listen in as this young Jewish girl sings her song of praise to the Lord,
and I hope that in the end you can sing with her.
12. Looking over this song, notice with me firstly that:
I. MARY SANG WITH A HOLY REJOICING
1. This is supposed to be "the hap – happiest season of all," and even those who
care little or nothing for Christianity feel pressured to adopt some measure of socalled "Christmas cheer", lest they be labeled a "Grinch" or a "Scrooge".
2. Mary's song in Luke 1 is filled with joy, but it had nothing to do with a lighted
tree, Santa Claus, or a sale at the mall.
3. Mary's rejoicing had everything to do with her God and the miraculous work
that He had done with her.
4. We too ought to have a sanctified sense of joy with regard to Christmas; a joy
that is bigger and deeper than any superficial holiday happiness.
5. Consider Mary's rejoicing in this song. Notice with me:
A. The focus of her rejoicing
1. Mary's song begins in verse 46. She said, "My soul doth magnify the Lord…"
The word "magnify" literally means to show as being great.
2. Mary's focus in this song was to show how great the Lord was. Though Mary
was uniquely "blessed" among women, she was not concerned with magnifying
herself.
3. Mary realized she had gotten much from her Lord, and therefore she wanted
to make much of her Lord.
4. Too often I think people are robbed of true joy at Christmas because they have
simply forgotten that it is not really about them.
5. Louisa May Alcott's famous novel, "Little Women" opens with the character
named Jo, grumbling, "Christmas won't be Christmas without any presents."
6. I think sometimes we are disappointed when our Christmas experience doesn't
match up with some Hollywood, Hallmark, mythological image of a happy family
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gathered around a perfectly decorated tree with presents pouring out from
underneath it, and Tiny Tim saying, "God bless us, everyone!".
7. When the reality is that if we had all those things, and yet Christ was not big to
us and magnified by us, then Christmas really wouldn't be Christmas.
8. As we celebrate this season the focus of our joy ought to be primarily on God
and His glory! As I have heard it said recently, He is the only reason for the
season, and our response to this season ought to be for His glory.
9. As Mary sang this song with a holy rejoicing in her heart, notice not only the
focus of her rejoicing, but look also at:
B. The fullness of her rejoicing
1. Look again at the text and notice verse 47. Mary sang, “And my spirit hath
rejoiced in God my Saviour.”
2. Notice particularly the word “rejoice”. It is translated from a word that literally
means to jump for joy. Mary said, “My spirit jumps for joy in God my Savior!”
3. Mary knew that even as God was sending a Savior for the world, he was also
sending a Savior for her, and the thought of that brought her full and complete
joy.
4. I wonder, is the knowledge of Jesus as your Savior enough to bring you this
kind of joy? Is the fact that Jesus has saved you from your sins all that is needed
to set your heart to singing?
5. Many of the commercials this time of year show people opening up a present
and then commencing to shout, and scream, and dance, obviously overjoyed that
they got just the thing they were wanting, and the thing the advertiser hopes you
will go out and buy as well.
6. Whether it’s a new gadget, a ring from Jared’s, or a brand new Lexus with a
gaudy, giant bow on it, our society seems to think that happiness comes from
getting or giving just the right gift.
7. And yet, the greatest gift of all has already been given! When God sent us a
Savior, we were given that which we needed the most, and that which we should
most appreciate and celebrate.
8. Even as Mary sings this song, she is nothing more than a peasant, Jewish girl.
She probably owns little more than the clothes on her back, and yet she has
complete joy in the knowledge of the salvation God has sent to her.
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9. Her joy in this text is not superficial or materialistic. It is a holy joy, fueled and
fulfilled simply by her God and what He had done for her.
10. Let us follow her example. Don’t get all tied up by the bows, and wrapped up
in the presents. Those things really don’t matter. True joy is in Jesus and His
glory!
11. As we look further at Mary’s song in this text, notice not only that Mary sang
with a holy rejoicing, but we find also that:
II. MARY SANG AS A HUMBLE RESPONSE
1. If Mary had been like a lot of people, her song may have sounded something
like, “Hey, everybody, look at me! I am the first pregnant virgin in history! I’m a
pretty big deal!”
2. In a sermon on this text, Dr. Russell Moore imagined Mary saying, “I can have
figurines made of me. I can have [football] passes named after me. Why, I can
even have people seeing my face in toast!”
3. Mary could have been puffed up with pride, but instead, we find her
responding with humility, recognizing that the real “big deal” was not her, but her
God and what He had done for her.
4. When we really understand how good God has been to us in spite of who we
are, I believe we too will respond as Mary did.
5. She sang this song in humble response to a couple of things. Notice that she
sang firstly responding:
A. To the grace of God
1. Look back at the text and notice verse 48. Mary sang, “For he hath regarded
the low estate of his handmaiden…”
2. Though some have tried to elevate the Virgin Mary to a status that the Bible
never gives her, she was under no such delusion about her own condition.
3. She recognized that she was of a “low estate”, and that for God to reach down
and do anything for her was an act of great grace.
4. Someone once said, “Those who know God will be humble, and those who
know themselves cannot be proud.”
5. Grace only seems like grace for those who know how unworthy they are.
People who know their own sinfulness and their own spiritual poverty are most
grateful for what God has done for them in Christ.
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6. Ingratitude comes when we think we are entitled to more than we have. We
are no longer moved by what God has done for us when we start to think that
somehow we deserve better than we already have.
7. The reality is that what all of us deserve is hell. As rebellious sinners, if we got
what we were really entitled to, we would be completely and eternally lost.
8. But God in grace has reached down to our low estate! When we could not, and
for that matter would not, come to where He was, graciously He came to us!
9. Mary’s humble song was not only in response to the grace of God towards her,
but notice further that it was also in response:
B. To the greatness of God
1. Notice verse 49. Mary sang, “For he that is mighty hath done to me great
things; and holy is his name.”
2. Mary recognized the greatness of what had happened to her, as well as the
greatness of the God who had done it.
3. Mary understood better than a lot of liberal theologians that the virgin birth was
a miracle that could only be explained by the greatness of the God who had
performed it.
4. I fear that too many of us have lost the wonder of what a great and mighty
thing God has done for us in Christ.
5. His miracle work was certainly not limited to Mary. As she sang in verse 50,
“…his mercy is on them that fear him from generation to generation.”
6. If you have believed the gospel and have come to know Jesus for yourself,
friend, that is the great work of a great God.
7. As the songwriter put it:
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,
Then sings my soul, my Savior God to Thee,
How great Thou art, how great Thou art!
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8. It seems that the older you get the less you look forward to Christmas. When
you are a kid, you start thinking about the next Christmas no sooner than the
batteries run out of this year’s toys.
9. By the time you hit about 30, however, and you see November roll around on
the calendar, you cringe a bit. The childhood anticipation of seeing Santa turns to
the adulthood stress of trying to do his job!
10. And yet, regardless of how many Christmases you have survived in your life,
the wonder of the first Christmas ought to never to grow dim for you, and your
response to it ought always to be a humble gratitude to God.
11. Look again at Mary’s song in this text and notice not only that Mary sang with
a holy rejoicing, and Mary sang as a humble response, but consider also thirdly
that:
III. MARY SANG OF A HEAVENLY REVOLUTION
1. Far from being a quaint, little Christmas carol, Mary’s song has a revolutionary,
controversial, and counter-cultural message in it.
2. I love the way one writer describes it. He said of Mary’s song, “It’s the gospel
before the gospel, a fierce bright shout of triumph thirty weeks before Bethlehem,
thirty years before Calvary and Easter…It’s all about God, and it’s all about
revolution.”i
3. Warren Wiersbe said, “Mary saw the Lord turning everything upside
down…The grace of God works contrary to the thoughts and ways of this world’s
system.”ii
4. Mary’s song reminds us that Christmas is not just a pretty story about a baby
sleeping in a manger under a star. It is the first step in God’s plan to turn this
sinful world completely around.
5. Let me show you what I mean. Think with me about the:
A. The facts in Mary’s song
1. Notice the things Mary sang about in the second half of her hymn. Look with
me at verses 51-53. It says:
“He hath shewed strength with his arm; he hath scattered the proud in the
imagination of their hearts. He hath put down the mighty from their seats, and
exalted them of low degree. He hath filled the hungry with good things; and the
rich he hath sent empty away.”
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2. Mary said that by sending the Messiah essentially God had flexed His muscles
and sent those who were proud running in fear. He had dethroned the powers
that be, and the rich he had stripped of their wealth.
3. You see what I mean when I say she was singing about a revolution? It was
the revolution that God had promised all the way back in the Garden of Eden.
4. There He promised that one day the “seed of the woman” would come and
crush the head of the serpent. God declared war then and there on Satan and his
evil system.
5. Mary recognized, and rightly so, that pride, political tyranny, and economic
oppression were all a part of that system.
6. Understand, though, Mary is not just some poor peasant singing, “We shall
overcome” in these verses.
7. She was a gospel believer recognizing that God had struck back at the great
enemy of mankind, and that He would defeat him by the Son that was even then
growing inside her womb.
8. Do you see Christmas in those terms? Do you recognize that when Jesus was
born in Bethlehem, it was not really a “silent night” at all?
9. In the birth of Christ, Heaven shouted to the devil and his reign of sin on earth,
“Your days are numbered! This man-child will one day crush your head with both
His hands and feet nailed to a tree!”
10. Mary was singing of the facts of what the gospel would do in this sin-sick
world. Consider, however, not only the facts in Mary’s song, but think with me
also about:
B. The faith in Mary’s song
1. The revolution that Mary was singing about was absolutely true! God would do
all those things and much more through the work of His Son, Jesus.
2. And yet, while Mary was singing those words, none of them appeared to be
true at all. The proud still thought she was nothing but a pregnant, peasant girl,
and would only give her a barn in which to give birth.
3. King Herod was still sitting on his throne in Judea and Caesar still controlled
most of the world from his palace in Rome.
4. The rich still got richer and the poor still struggled along for their bread.
Joseph’s calloused hands could still only provide enough money to buy a little
bird to offer at the Temple on behalf of their newborn son.
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5. No, what Mary sang about didn’t seem to be true at the time, but she looked at
the world with a faith that could see what God was doing when no one else
could.
6. She recognized long before it would be realized by many others that God had
in fact helped His people, Israel, and kept His covenant with the seed of
Abraham (v. 54-55) through the Seed of His Son, Jesus.
7. Dr. Russell Moore’s sermon on this text, that I mentioned a moment ago, is
entitled, “The Most Shocking Madonna Song Ever”. In it, he talked about Mary’s
faith as she sang.
8. He said, “Mary says, ‘I am singing of a blessing, of a blessing that triumphs.’”
Then he asked this:
“But I wonder if we will sing with her?...This lady’s faith is exactly the kind of faith
that God is calling us to, and the question is are you with her? Seeing your
blessing (in Jesus, and) crying out to God in thanksgiving for that blessing this
Christmas? Or are you with one of those, the proud and the haughty, that God is
going to knock down?”iii
9. Do you in faith recognize all of your blessings and all of your hopes fulfilled
and bound up in that baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger?
10. Or, are you still struggling as part of this world’s system, striving for more
wealth, power, and pride?
11. By faith, we can humbly but joyfully sing with Mary of the hope we have in
Christ, regardless of what our current situation and standing in life may appear to
be.
1. This past week, Forbes Magazine posted an article online entitled “The Top
Ten Christmas Songs You Should Not Be Tired of Hearing”.iv
2. According to the author, the top two were, “Little Saint Nick” by the Beach
Boys, and “Jingle Bell Rock.”
3. Honestly, I could do without hearing either of those. If I had to pick, I suppose
my favorite carol is “Joy to the World”.
4. But, after listening to Mary’s song, though I don’t know the tune, my heart
wants to sing this song with her more than any other.
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5. Whether we know the melody or not, in Christ and by faith, we can sing it. I
pray your soul magnifies the Lord this Christmas, and your spirit will rejoice in
God your Savior.
6. It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas, so let the singing begin!
i
Wright, N.T., Luke for Everyone, (Westminster John Knox Press, Louisville, KY, 2004), Amazon Kindle
edition
ii
Wiersbe, Warren, Be Compassionate, (Victor Books, Wheaton, IL, 1988), p. 18
iii
Moore, Russell D., “The Most Shocking Madonna Song Ever”, 12/21/08,
http://www.russellmoore.com/tag/luke-1/
iv
Catalano, Michele, “The Top Ten Christmas Songs You Should Not Be Tired of Hearing”, 12/13/12,
Forbes.com, accessed 12/13/12, http://www.forbes.com/sites/michelecatalano/2012/12/13/the-top-tenchristmas-songs-you-should-not-be-tired-of-hearing/
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