And Mary said,

And Mary remained with her about three months and returned to her home.—Luke 1:46–56

Introduction

I want to open the sermon with a couple of “life together” points of introduction. First, I want to say “thank you” to everyone that has participated in our Q&A sessions. Your questions and participation have really helped us in this process as we have sought the Lord for his clarity of direction for Bethlehem’s future. One fruit of this interaction is that we have developed a vision and FAQ document. Your questions really helped shape that document—especially in terms of what questions needed to be answered. The elders approved the document on Tuesday and I told them I would give you a heads up in this sermon (which I am doing now) so you would know to look for it in your email early in the week.

Second, as we close out our fiscal year, we want to let you know about our financial needs as a church. We need to raise $2.2 million to meet our 2019 budget. We are praying for a 2 Corinthians 8 miracle—for grace to come down, joy to come up, and lavish generosity to go out. We know that there are lots of giving requests during this season of giving. My inbox was extra full, for example, on “Giving Tuesday.”

Last year, I spoke to you about how Bethlehem is the best mutual fund around because we can robustly say “yes” to investing in so many Kingdom ministries at this church (theological education, missions advancement, church planting, the joy of the next generation, leadership development, caring for the most vulnerable, the spread of the gospel throughout the Twin Cities). What a joy that we do not have to pick and choose between all of these worthy investments!

This year I was struck by something a little different. The Tuesday after Black Friday and Cyber Monday is called “Giving Tuesday.” My email inbox was more full than normal that day with requests from parachurch ministries. The very next day, I officiated a funeral. How very enlightening for me as I was confronted again with the obvious differences between the local church and the parachurch. To put a fine point on it, let me say it this way: Parachurch ministries do many important things, but they are not going to do the most personal things like bury you. What a profound privilege to be a pastor in those moments. It is so intimate and personal! And as I was driving home from the graveside service, I realized afresh what makes the local church so special and powerful, and it made me so thankful once again to be a pastor. You are entrusting us with your eternity. You are saying, “Help prepare me for eternity and the final Judgment. I don’t want to get eternity wrong. Walk with me right up to the moment when I stand before the judgment seat of Christ. And then walk my family through the grief of losing me and remind them of the eternal gain I have found in Christ so they grieve like those who have hope.” For a Christian, every funeral is an Easter service.

Therefore, letting you know about our financial need feels easy to me because it feels like letting your family know of their need. When my family asks for help, it feels so natural and automatic for me to help them. So I am praying that the family of faith will come together and lean upon the Lord for an outpouring of the grace of generous giving.

Prayer

Last Sunday, we began our Advent series by working our way through how Mary received the Good News and then responded to the Good News. In fact, we learned that Mary responded to the staggering shock of the Good News in four stages. Mary starts out skeptical—saying how can these things be? Then she receives what the angel says with submission—saying, “May it be to me according to your word.” Then she receives confirmation as Elizabeth speaks by the Spirit. Then she bursts into celebration with a song of praise we now call the “Magnificat.”

Today we are going to look only at verse 47.

And Mary said,

Notice that Mary says her soul “magnifies the Lord” and her spirit rejoices in God [her] Savior.” The rest of the song is the reason for the worship, but we first need to look at what worship is. So this sermon is something of an anatomy of worship.

What you might see right away is that this poem begins with parallelism, meaning that two sentences are put in a parallel construction that is mutually interpretive— saying the same or similar things to get at the meaning of worship. 

Subject                                  Action                         Object

My soul                                  Magnifies                  the Lord

My spirit                                 Rejoices                    in God my Savior

Outline

1. Subject: My Soul/My Spirit
2. Action: Magnifies/Rejoices
3. Object: the Lord/God My Savior
   

1) Subject: My Soul/Spirit

The subject is “my soul/my spirit.” Some people try to distinguish soul and spirit, and it is never fully persuasive to me. Parallelism like this highlights not two separate subjects, but one and the same described two different ways. Soul/spirit highlight the inner life of the person. The Bible will often contrast soul/spirit with the body. For example, the Bible says that the body without the soul is dead. The soul is that inner life, the real you that will live forever—either in heaven or in hell. At death, the body and the soul will be separated. Here’s the point: If the soul (that is the inner self) is worshiping, then your body will by definition be worshiping as well. But the inverse is also true. If your inner self is not worshiping, then the external body will not really be worshiping—no matter what kinds of external religious motions you are going through.

The first unmistakable and unavoidable point of worship is how intensely internal it is. You cannot escape the inner dimension of worship. This point is vital to understand because many people associate worship with formal religious ritual. Worship is presented as something you do at a worship service. You attend a service and do the prescribed religious actions or rituals. But you can go through the external motions without really worshiping. Jesus said the same things to religious people in his day like the Pharisees. He told them that they were hypocrites, that is, they were putting on a religious show of devotion. They were doing the external actions without their heart being actively engaged. Jesus said, “These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.” Worship does not happen when the heart or soul is far from God. Worship cannot be defined as a formal/external/religious act in which the heart or the affections are disengaged or disconnected, because worship is an act of the soul, not just the lips.

I emphasize this point not to shame anyone this morning, but to serve as your shepherd to help you understand the true meaning of Christmas and the right response to Christmas. So many people go to church over the holidays like it is a traditional duty to attend. We feel good if we just do our duty and sing when we are supposed to sing and sit when we are supposed to sit and close our eyes when we are supposed to pray. But real worship is intensely internal, not external. This is something arising from the core of her being.

2) Action: Magnify/Rejoice

What does it mean to magnify something?

We all know that the word magnify in scientific terms means to bring something into focus. But there are two different ways to do so. You can magnify something the way a microscope does: take something small and make it look bigger than it is. Or you can magnify something like a telescope: take something big and make it look more like it really is.

Obviously, we are talking about the second type of magnification when God is the One being magnified. And we need these moments of magnification because perception and reality don’t align properly at times when it comes to God. Something similar happens when we look up at the night sky. Many have heard the familiar song: “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.” Perception and reality are far removed from each other in that situation. The stars are not little, but they can appear deceptively small because of the massive distance that separates us. How should we handle this common difficulty?

John Piper gives a helpful corrective.

The problem is that in the night sky the wonders of the heavens do not appear as they really are. They seem small and not very bright or awesome. So we must magnify them. That's what a telescope is for. Not to make them look bigger than they are. But to help us, in our weakness, to stop thinking of them as small and show us how great they really are.[1]

He gives the example of a comet that was going to pass by the earth in 1986, and why people needed a telescope to be as impressed as they should be.

If you can magnify Hyakutake, and show me that a smudgy softball is really 30,000 miles across (four times the size of the earth), I will be more amazed. Or if you can magnify the tail and show me that a dim cloudy trail of light a few handbreadths in width is really 6,000,000 miles long, then I will feel differently about this amazing thing called a comet.[2]

We sometimes do the opposite of this text. We can take our problems and magnify them—so that they seem even bigger than they really are. I am not saying our problems are small. I am just saying that perception and reality do not match if you make your problems bigger than your God. Repenting often means re-sizing. Repenting of the way that we shrink God down to size and take him out of focus in our lives. And it is stunningly easy to do in the hustle and bustle of the holiday season.

The second action word is the word rejoice. In my experience, people do not associate worship with rejoicing. They think of worship as a religious activity and they think that non-religious, secular people do not worship—they just enjoy things. But that completely misses the point of what worship really is.

Let me give you an example of something that happened to me recently that brought this point into perspective again. In recent years, I have had the opportunity to experience the wide world of vintage toys. One experience in particular stands out in my memory. I drove to someone’s house to look at some vintage Transformers he had for sale. As I talked with him, I discovered that we grew up in the same era. We had a similar background in that our childhood toys followed the same trajectory: from He-Man, to G.I. Joe, to Transformers.

Suddenly, he said, “I will be right back. I have to show you something.” He left me in his garage with his kids as he ran into the house and down the basement. He came back proudly holding a vintage G.I. Joe Combat Jet SkyStriker in the original box. He had to show me the excellent condition of the box. He had to show me how well the landing gear still worked. He had to show me that all the missiles and weapons were still there. He demonstrated how well the landing gear worked and the pristine condition of the guy with the parachute. He was magnifying the things he delighted in—he was trying to bring them into focus for me so that I would not miss them and I would delight in them as well. 

Now, I have to admit that I was not a passive spectator. I may have geeked out a little as well, because it brought back a flood of memories for me. I said, “Whoa, I remember that guy with the parachute! I can even remember getting this for Christmas and opening the box and putting all the stickers and missiles on the jet. Then I immediately used this jet to take down the evil Cobra Rattler Plane. This is so cool!” Then he exclaimed in response, “Yes, isn’t it great?”

Isn’t it great? That phrase triggered another memory in my mind that made me realize what was happening in that moment. I realized C.S. Lewis was right.

‘The World Rings With Praise’

C.S. Lewis was a formidable skeptic long before he became a Christian. In fact, he wrote a short essay titled “A Word About Praising” in his book Reflections on the Psalms that highlights a problem he felt as he read the Psalms before he was a believer. It troubled him that God was always calling for praise. It sounded to him like a vain woman always demanding compliments.

But then something struck him that changed his entire perspective. He began to realize that the whole world “rings with praise” (pp. 109–110). 

The most obvious fact about praise—whether of God or anything—strangely escaped me. I thought of it in terms of compliment, approval, or the giving of honor. I had never noticed that all enjoyment spontaneously overflows into praise unless (sometimes even if) shyness or the fear of boring others is deliberately brought in to check it.

The world rings with praise—lovers praising their mistresses, readers their favorite poet, walkers praising the countryside, players praising their favorite game—praise of weather, wines, dishes, actors, motors, horses, colleges, countries, historical personages, children, flowers, mountains, rare stamps, rare beetles, even sometimes politicians or scholars. I had not noticed how the humblest, and at the same time most balanced and capacious, praised most, while the cranks, misfits, and malcontents praised least. . . . I had not noticed either that just as men spontaneously praise whatever they value, so they spontaneously urge us to join them in praising it: “Isn’t she lovely? Wasn’t it glorious? Don’t you think that magnificent?” The psalmists in telling everyone to praise God are doing what all men do when they speak of what they care about.

My whole, more general, difficulty about the praise of God depended on my absurdly denying to us, as regards the supremely Valuable, what we delight to do, what indeed we can’t help doing, about everything else we value.

The climactic line from the vintage-toy owner (“Isn’t it great?”) reminded me of the phrases Lewis identified as the language of praise: “Isn’t she lovely? Wasn’t it glorious? Don’t you think that magnificent?” The dynamic of praise was on display once again, exactly like Lewis had described it: “All enjoyment spontaneously overflows into praise.” Our enjoyment of the toy led to a call for praise. So we can officially add to Lewis’s list “praise of rare toys” alongside “rare stamps and rare beetles.”

The language that Mary uses for worship is the language of joy and rejoicing and enjoyment. This is standard language for worship in Scripture. Consider the worship hymnal of the Bible—the Book of Psalms. Let’s just take one example and see the connection between worship and rejoicing in Psalm 9.

I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart;
     I will recount all of your wonderful deeds.
I will be glad and exult in you;
     I will sing praise to your name, O Most High. . . .
Sing praises to the Lord, who sits enthroned in Zion!
     Tell among the peoples his deeds!—Psalm 9:1–2, 11

Psalm 9 testifies once again to the connection between enjoyment (“be glad,” “exult”) and praise (“give thanks,” “sing praise”). The enjoyment and the praise flow from a specific recounting of God’s deeds. But note that these deeds are so enjoyable that they are called “wonderful” (v. 1). If someone can recount the landing gear, parachute, and cardboard box of a vintage toy, then each of God’s wonderful deeds can be recounted and enjoyed as well! Later, the psalmist calls others to sing praises to God and extend the telling of his deeds to all the peoples (v. 11).

In fact, Luke’s Gospel is known as the Gospel of joy because the words for rejoicing show up so often in this Gospel as people rejoice in salvation.

3) Object: The Lord/God My Savior

One would think that the object of worship would be obvious. We are called to magnify God. Luke wrote both Luke and Acts and consistently we see that the object being magnified is God.

 And her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown great (ἐμεγάλυνεν) mercy to her, and they rejoiced with her.—Luke 1:58

The Lord magnified his mercy toward Elizabeth, and notice the response—they rejoiced with her. Magnify and rejoice are brought together again. 

And the believers from among the circumcised who had come with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out even on the Gentiles. For they were hearing them speaking in tongues and extolling God.—Acts 10:45–46 

Here we notice that Gentile believers were magnifying God, and we also see that the gift and presence of the Holy Spirit is what led to this act of magnifying God. That is what the Spirit is given to do. That is why Paul says Christians are those who worship in the Spirit of God (Philippians 3:3). Speaking of Philippians, let’s tie this sermon in with what Pastor John preached on for Global Focus this year.

As it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.—Philippians 3:20–21 

This is the same word that Mary used. Paul’s eager expectation and ambition was that Christ would be magnified in his body. Whether by life or by death, he made it his aim to make much of Christ. In other words, worship was not just something he did with his lips in a worship service, but with his whole life in everyday life. When Paul calls the Philippians to “rejoice in the Lord always and again I say, rejoice” (Philippians 4:4), he is calling them to worship always or enjoy Christ always!

Notice that they are not merely rejoicing in salvation, but “in God my Savior.” Worship is always intensely personal. We are not worshiping the gift of salvation in a way that is disconnected from the Giver of salvation. God is the gospel. The gift we get in salvation is God’s gift of himself—Immanuel—“God with us”—and with us forever!

It may surprise you to see what the opposite of worship is. Some may think the opposite of worship is flagrantly sinning against God by breaking his rules. But the Gospel of Matthew has a stunning twist. The opposite of worship can also look like trying to save yourself by keeping the rules and thinking that God is so tight-fisted with his blessings that you have to pry them out of his hand and force him to bless you because you have obeyed enough. We can also seek our own praise and try to magnify ourselves.

They do all their deeds to be seen by others. For they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long, and they love the place of honor at feasts and the best seats in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces and being called rabbi by others.—Matthew 23:5–7

The Pharisees magnify their fringes. They make much of all of their religious actions and endeavors because they want people to praise them and think well of them. They want to be magnified.

Mary is rejoicing in God her Savior. This is a call to be glad in the salvation that God alone can bring. The Pharisees thought that they could magnify their religious works and commend themselves to God. But it never works that way. It is sinful, stupid, and offensive to God. 

I was talking this last week with one of my friends here at Bethlehem. He loves to share the gospel. I love to talk about the gospel with him. He says that he will often say to people who think that religion is a matter of performance: “Hey, how are you performing?” He will tell them that he bounces back and forth between about 3 to 4 percent. We are sinners. Even when we think we are doing well and the focus is on us, we sin and fall because of our pride and self-centeredness—we are not glorifying God in those moments. 

They will say, “About 50/50.” He says, “Do you think that is really going to be pure enough for God?” Why don’t you try it out?! Take a glass of water and then put the dog doo in there and try to drink it. See if you think it is acceptable. Are you telling me that you are offering that to God? What an appropriately revolting picture!

God has provided salvation in Jesus. That is why God sent his Son into the world—to save the world. How offensive is it to God if he provides this salvation and then we say, “No thank you, God, I am going to reject that because I prefer to do it on my own.” 

Application 

1. Our Rejoicing: We Rejoice in the God Who Saves

Rejoicing in the God who saves is not optional this Christmas if you believe the Good News. Rejoicing is not optional for us—it is essential because it is the chief end— the main reason—for our existence. It is why we were made! We were created to glorify God by enjoying him forever. Jesus had to warn the disciples later in Luke’s Gospel about what they are to rejoice in. The disciples were in danger of delighting in their spiritual performance. Even the demons are subject to our name. But Jesus corrected them:

 ^“Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”—Luke 10:20

The disciples are supposed to rejoice that their names are written in heaven—not rejoice in spiritual performance and achievement. This is a mark of spiritual health or gospel health. God’s commands to praise and rejoice are an expression of love, not the expression of an egomaniac. Praise is good, and it is good for us.

It would be spiritual suicide if we began to praise lesser things more than the One who is supreme over all. We are healthiest spiritually when we supremely value the supremely valuable. If the world rings with praise of lesser things, then we would be spiritually sick if we lacked praise for the One who is truly great and glorious and magnificent. It is not wrong to look nostalgically at a toy valued at $150 and say, “Isn’t it great?” But it is wrong in the extreme if someone can look at the supremely valuable God with a blank expression. 

Praising God is the surest sign that we are enjoying God and his gifts as we should. If we rejoice in him and drink deeply of his rivers of delights, we can’t help but praise him. The Bible does not absurdly deny us the chance to do with God what we do with all things we value: praise. The difference is that only God can offer the greatest enjoyment and thus spontaneously call for the highest praise. But the good news gets even better. 

2. God’s Rejoicing: The God Who Saves Also Rejoices in Us

Jesus rejoices in God and his plan of salvation. The very same word for rejoice in Luke 1 occurs in Luke 10:21–22.

This word shows up one more time in the Gospel of Luke. 

In that same hour he rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, or who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”—Luke 10:21–22

God is the happiest of all beings. No one out rejoices God. God himself rejoices not just in the plan of salvation, but in the people he saves. Isn’t this one of the most amazing, surprising discoveries of the gospel? Not only are we called to rejoice in God our Savior, but God our Savior rejoices in saving us. Zephaniah tells us that God sings over us with loud shouts of joy.

The Lord your God is in your midst,
     a mighty one who will save;
he will rejoice over you with gladness;
     he will quiet you by his love;
he will exult over you with loud singing.—Zephaniah 3:17

But we don’t have to go outside of Luke’s gospel to learn this truth. Consider Luke 15. 

So he told them this parable: “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’ Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.—Luke 15:3–7

There will be so much joy in heaven—not just the redeemed rejoicing that they are redeemed, but with God rejoicing in you being redeemed and the angels rejoicing in you being redeemed. Joy is at the heart of Christmas and heaven and all eternity.

Main Point: Joy in Christ is at the heart of Christmas. You cannot really respond rightly to Christmas without it. It would be like bread without flour or apple pie without apples, or a root beer float without root beer.

____________

[1] “Let All Who Seek Thee Rejoice and Be Glad in Thee,” Sermon preached on March 17, 1996. https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/let-all-who-seek-thee-rejoice-and-be-glad-in-thee-let-those-who-love-thy-salvation-say-continually-the-lord-be-magnified

[2] Ibid.

Sermon Discussion Questions

Outline

1. Subject: My Soul/My Spirit
2. Action: Magnifies/Rejoices
3. Object: The Lord/God My Savior

Main Point: Joy in Christ is at the heart of Christmas. You cannot really respond rightly to Christmas without it. It would be like bread without flour or apple pie without apples, or a root beer float without root beer.

Discussion Questions

• What is the structure of Luke 1:26–56—the four movements of the text?
• In Luke 1:46–56, what is the outline of the message in terms of the grammar of worship—subject, action, object?
• Why is it significant that the subject is “my soul/my spirit”?
• What does it mean that the action of worship or the heart of worship is to magnify and to rejoice?
• Why is it significant that the object of all worship is God himself and not his gifts?
• What is the relationship between worship and spiritual health?

Application Questions

• C. S. Lewis observed that those who are healthiest worship most. Those who worship least are the least healthy—Lewis called them “the misfits and the cranks.” If worship is a mark of spiritual health, how healthy are you today? Assess and discuss. What steps can you take to grow in the spiritual health of worship?
• We are called to magnify the Lord and rejoice in the God of our salvation. How do you respond to hearing that the God of our salvation also rejoices in us? How do those two truths fit together in Christian hedonism’s insistence that God is the happiest of all beings? How does God’s joy come together with our joy in the gospel?
• What part of this sermon or passage do you need to share with others? Plan to share, and pray about who to it share with and when and how to share it.

Prayer Focus
Pray for a grace to magnify the Lord and rejoice in God our Savior.