And Mary said,

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

Introduction

1. Cell Phone Usage

I read a statistic that made me stop in my tracks earlier this month. “The typical cellphone user touches his or her phone 2,617 time every day, according to a study by research firm Dscout. But that’s just the average user: The study found that extreme cellphone users—meaning the top 10%—touch their phones more than 5,400 times daily” (Dscout, Jul 13, 2016).

Now what’s mind-blowing about that statistic is that there are only 1,440 minutes in a day. That means that the average smart phone user touches their phone almost two times per minute. That was the average user. The top 10% of cell phone users touch their phones almost four times a minute (5,400 times daily). 

• More than 65% (2 of every 3 people surveyed) of people sleep with their cell phone next to them.
• 31% said that they could not sit through a whole movie without checking their cell phone.
• 30% of people now have significant separation anxiety when they are away from their cell phones. I won’t tell you all the crazy survey results of what people would be willing to do rather than lose their cell phones. But I will highlight a couple things:
  • 21% percent of respondents would give up their shoes for a week instead of their phone.
  • 28% percent of Apple users said that they would rather go a week without seeing their significant other than give up their phone. (https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/08/infographic-what-would-you-give-up-to-keep-your-smartphone/243237/).

We definitely have a problem. Here is the question: What does cell phone usage have to do with Advent? Why start the sermon this way? You will have to wait until the end to hear the answer, but I think it is very significant.

2. Advent 2019

Let’s recap the journey we have been on as we have made our way through Luke 1:26–56.

First, we saw Mary received the good news and responded to it 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.”

Second, we zoomed in on verse 47 in order to understand what worship is. We looked at the subject (soul/spirit), action (magnify/rejoice), and object (Lord, God my Savior). That led to a natural question: What is Mary magnifying God for— what is she rejoicing in—that is, what are the reasons for rejoicing? Here is the way I would answer the question: The Magnificat is Mary’s act of rejoicing in reversal and rejoicing in remembrance.

Third, last week’s message looked at rejoicing in reversal. Mary rejoices that in the Messiah God is doing a work of sovereign subversion—undermining all the power structures of this fallen world. God is turning the world upside down. Because this is a fallen world in rebellion against God, turning the world upside down is actually turning it right side up. Today we turn to the last two verses of this poem of praise. 

Text: Luke 1:54–55

“He has helped his servant Israel,
    in remembrance of his mercy,
as he spoke to our fathers,
    to Abraham and to his offspring forever.”

In these two climactic verses, we see Mary rejoicing in remembrance. To understand these two verses we will have to do some x-ray work and zoom in on a few of these important words/phrases. Remember that Elizabeth has just exclaimed that the baby in Mary’s womb is actually her Lord. Now Mary responds with praise about what the coming of this baby really means. We will look at these three phrases: (1) he has helped his servant Israel, (2) in remembrance of his mercy, (3) as he spoke to Abraham and our forefathers. 

1) He Has Helped His Servant Israel (v. 54a)

The birth of this child means that God has “helped” his servant Israel. Mary presents herself as the Lord’s servant in the first half of the poem and now in this second half she presents her people (the Jewish people) as God’s servant.

What does the word helped mean? Helped feels a little weak and watered down as far as translations go. The word most directly means “to lift up.” Israel has been cast down. They are defeated—thrown down—by an enemy too great for them. They are living in captivity, and they feel forgotten.

Let’s put this into perspective. The last prophet to speak was the prophet Malachi. That was 400 years earlier. The voice of God has not come for 400 years. That is why it is so earth-shattering to have all these references to people speaking by the Holy Spirit. A new day has come! God is speaking to us!

I think that is why Luke goes out of his way to say that all of these people are really old (Zechariah, Elizabeth, Simeon, Anna). They have been waiting and they represent the past generations. Mary as the young teenager shows that a new age is dawning – the age of the new covenant. It is time to move from promises made to promises kept. That is why the next phrase defines this help as a remembrance.

2) In Remembrance of His Mercy (v. 54)

“He has helped his servant Israel,
    in remembrance of his mercy”

Mary says that the birth of this child represents remembrance. But what does God remember? Mary says that he remembers his mercy. Let us recall what we said last time about mercy. What is mercy? Perhaps the clearest distinction we can make is to compare and contrast mercy with grace. Grace is God’s love and kindness to those who do not deserve it because they are guilty. They need a Savior. Mercy is something intimately related to grace. Mercy is God’s love and kindness to those who are not only guilty but in misery because of their guilt. God looks down and sees people in their misery, agony, and pain as they struggle with the effects of living and participating in a fallen world.

How often in the Old Testament do we hear that God heard the groaning of his people and he looked down upon them and then visited them with mercy? The gospel is not good advice for those who need a little guidance, but good news for those who have completely lost their way. They don’t just need a little help. They are a mess and can’t fix it. So God must come to them in their misery and rescue them. But what mercy does he remember? The answer comes in the next phrase because it starts with the word “as.” 

3) Spoke to Our Fathers/Abraham and His Offspring (v. 55)

“As he spoke to our fathers,
    to Abraham and to his offspring forever.”

God spoke to Israel. But Mary gets more specific—“he spoke to our fathers,” that is “to Abraham and his offspring forever” (v. 55). God did not just talk to Abraham, he spoke promises to Abraham. What promises did he speak to Abraham and the Jewish forefathers? Of course, the clearest promise is that the Messiah would come through Abraham. Listen, for example, to Genesis 22:15–18

And the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven and said, “By myself I have sworn, declares the Lord, because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies, and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.”

The word offspring or seed is a collective term, that is, it can refer either to an individual or to a group. Sometimes only the context can tell you if the offspring or seed of Abraham is a collective group (Israel) or an individual (Messiah). The personal pronoun connected to the term can tell you whether offspring is singular or plural. God promises to multiply Abraham’s offspring (his family), but then he moves to a singular offspring (the gate of his enemies). Think about that verse next time you read Jesus saying, “I will build my church and the gates of hell will not be able to stand against it” (Matthew 16:18). Jesus, the seed of Abraham, is the one who crushes the head of the serpent and takes possession even of the gate of his enemies. Through Jesus, that singular seed, blessing is coming to all the nations of the earth. The apostle Paul makes both parts of the promise emphatically clear in Galatians 3:16 and 3:29. Verse 16 points to Jesus as the singular seed.

 Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, “And to offsprings,” referring to many, but referring to one, “And to your offspring,” who is Christ.

Verses 28–29 shows how Jesus as the singular offspring brings blessing to all the nations so that they are part of God’s people as the offspring of Abraham.

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.

See also Genesis 12:3, 18:18, 22:18. 26:4, 28:14.

But we do not have to go to Paul to see this point. It shows up in the very next chapter. This is exactly what Simeon sees later in chapter 2 by the power of the Holy Spirit.

  “Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace,
    according to your word;
for my eyes have seen your salvation
    that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples,
a light for revelation to the Gentiles,
    and for glory to your people Israel.”—Luke 2:29–32

Why is this fulfillment presented as mercy? Elizabeth just said that you are the mother of MY LORD! So Mary immediately erupts in praise: “When I give birth to this child, I am giving birth to the Savior, the One promised, predicted, and prophesied, the One we have been waiting for. All that was promised to Abraham—all of this great mercy, it is here because he is here.

The Incarnation is the supreme example of God’s faithfulness. Mary’s poem reaches a climax on this very note: What child is this in my womb? “The promise kept.” The Incarnation is the supreme example of God’s faithfulness: the fulfillment of his promise and through this promise—the fulfillment of all of his promises.

Luke 1:68–74

“Blessed be the Lord God of Israel,
    for he has visited and redeemed his people
and has raised up a horn of salvation for us
    in the house of his servant David,
as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old,
that we should be saved from our enemies
    and from the hand of all who hate us;
to show the mercy promised to our fathers
    and to remember his holy covenant,
the oath that he swore to our father Abraham, to grant us
    that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies,
might serve him without fear.”

But don’t miss what all of this means. It is not just that the promises of the Old Testament were about the coming of Jesus and now all of those promises are fulfilled. Jesus is the fulfillment and guarantee of all the promises by his blood. 

For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory.—2 Corinthians 1:20

The Incarnation is the supreme example of God’s faithfulness. But don’t forget. The fulfillment of this promise that Jesus would come also brings the fulfillment of all the promises! Now we are ready to move to application. 

Application: Advent and Cell Phones

Pastor and author John Ortberg found himself busy and tired. The hustle and bustle was getting to him and he started to feel like a shell of himself. He was tearing through life and missing out on the moment—and what is life, but a series of moments? He calls up his mentor Dallas Willard. What do I need to do?

“You must ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life.”

“OK—great. What else?”

“No, you don’t understand. There is nothing else. Hurry is the great enemy of spiritual life today.”

Not many people would list “hurry” as the great enemy of the spiritual life today. There are certainly ways in which liberal theology, prosperity gospel, prejudice, internet filth, and materialism are all greater dangers. 

But here is the connection between “hurry” and cell phone usage. What cell phone technology and social media try to do is compete for your attention. Your attention is the new real estate market. All of these devices and outlets are designed to grab your attention. They are designed to make you uncomfortable with doing something else until you check again. That is why so many people have separation anxiety with their phone and social media. They think that they could be missing something. 

This whole new world of hurry definitely has wreaked havoc on our attention spans. We used to have an 11-second attention span and now it is at eight seconds. To put that into perspective: a goldfish has a nine-second attention span. You heard that right – we are getting beat by goldfish, people!

But I am not just talking about decreasing attention spans or our ability to focus. I am not talking so much about focus as about formation. John Mark Comer says it just right in his book The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry.

There is more at stake [with technology] than our attention spans. Because what you give your attention to is the person you become. Put another way: the mind is the portal to the soul, and what you fill your mind with will shape the trajectory of your character. In the end, your life is no more than the sum of what you gave your attention to. (p. 55)

Here is my huge concern right now—not only as a pastor of people I love, but for myself. Robert Murray McCheyne said that it is spiritually vital to put Christ in the right perspective. For every one look at yourself, take 10 looks at Christ. Here is my concern: with cell phones and social media we have an exacerbated problem: for every one look at Christ we are taking 2,500 looks at something else—what other people had for lunch or the latest movie trailer or what some kitten did that was cute. It is not that those things are wrong. It is that those things have a cumulative effect—that distract us from setting our mind on things above—they draw us away from looking at the promises and therefore standing on the promises. In some cases, they can actually make you feel so much less content by focusing on what you don’t have—instead of setting your attention and your hope on what you do have and can’t lose.

If 28% of people would give up seeing their significant other rather than be without their phone, I wonder how Jesus ranks in the battle for your attention. People are commenting more and more about feeling the absence of God and heightened levels of anxiety. Jesus is Immanuel, “God with us.” And God is omnipresent and so the problem of his absence is not first and foremost about his distance from us, but our distraction away from him. How much time have we given to “treasuring these things in our hearts” like Mary does later in Luke 2? How much time have we spent pondering the promises and praying the promises and feeling the stability and security that comes from the guarantee of the promises as we stand upon them?

Conclusion: Christmas Is a Celebration of All the Promises Kept and All the Promises That Will Be Kept

It reminds me of the story of the little girl that told her sister that she had three nickels. She stretched out her hand and showed them to her sister. The older sister said, “You only have two nickels in your hand.”

“Yes, but I have three.”

“How?”

“Daddy promised me another one tonight when he got home from work.” 

“Well, then, you actually only have two and you will have three.”

“No,” she said emphatically. “Daddy promised. So I have three nickels.”

Christmas is a celebration of all that our Father has promised. Our closing song says it just right: “Word of the Father now in flesh appearing.” Jesus is the incarnation of all the promises of God. They find their “yes, and amen” in him. All of them. Not just the promises fulfilled in his first advent, but all of the promises that are true now and will be fulfilled at the Second Advent.

Sermon Discussion Questions

Main Point: Mary rejoices in how God lifts up Israel in remembering his promises.

Outline
Three Phrases of Luke 1:54–55:

1. “He has helped his servant Israel ...”
2. “... In remembrance of his mercy ...”
3. “... As he spoke to our fathers and to Abraham …”

Discussion Questions

• What is the main point of Luke 1:54–55?
• Can you summarize the four messages of Advent 2019? How do they fit together to help us understand Mary’s poem of praise?
• What does it mean that God has “helped” Israel? Why is this portrayed as “mercy”? What is the difference between mercy and grace?
• What particular promises are mentioned in Luke 1:55?
• How is Jesus the offspring of Abraham? How does he bring the Gentiles into the family of God as the offspring of Abraham?
• What is the connection between cell phone usage and the point of Advent, which is to look to Jesus and adore Jesus?

Application Questions

• Were you surprised by some of the statistics about cell phone use? How would you assess your own usage rates?
• How does this use impact your spiritual life and your ability to look to Jesus?
• What needs to change in order for Jesus to win the war for your attention? What practical/tangible changes can you make?
• What part of this sermon or passage do you need to share with others? Plan to share, and pray for who to share it with and when and how to share it.

Prayer Focus
Pray for a grace to rejoice in God’s faithfulness to his promises through Jesus, and pray for a grace to trust him for the guarantee of all of his promises.