020 - Blessed Is She Who Believed

You pick up your Bible and wonder, is there more here than meets the eye?

Is there something here for me? I mean, it's just words printed on paper, right? Well, it may look like just print on a page, but it's more than ink. Join us for the next half hour as we explore God's Word together, as we learn how to explore it on our own, as we ask God to meet us there in its pages.

Welcome to More Than Ink. I've never seen an angel, have you? No, I never have, but if I ever did, I think it would really freak me out. And what if that angel spoke to you? Yeah, and what if they told you about your future? How would you respond?

I think it would be really weird, but that's what happens with Mary today on More Than Ink. Well, good morning and hello and Merry Christmas to you. It's Christmas time. We are well along in the Christmas season. And I'm Dorothy.

And I'm Jim. And we're just delighted you're back with us as we take a look at the unknown background of the Christmas story. Oh, right. Well, I mean, this is the lesser known stuff for a lot of people. I mean, the stuff about being born in a manger and the wise men and stuff like that.

Everyone knows that. But a lot of this stuff, if you're not in the Bible, this might miss you. Especially what we talked about last week, a lot of the Old Testament stuff. Okay. And this very inside look at the conversation with Mary, the mother of Jesus, when Gabriel came to her and said, You're the one who will bear the sun.

Right. And keep in mind here that Mary is just a normal person. She's a young girl. She's very young. She may be as young as 14 to fit in the category of being a young virgin. And for many of us, we think, you know, what is God thinking in trusting this whole plan to a teenage girl? Right.

But there's not as much risk here on God's part as you might think there is. And we'll see that as we do this. So we need to set up the context because what we want to spend our time on mostly here is what she says in response. She has this great thing that she says.

It's considered kind of like a song, kind of, and it's sort of prophetic. But it's her response to God after God comes and breaks the news to her about what's going to happen. So we're going to go through the context of what happened there and how did she come to know that she was going to have Jesus and all that kind of stuff. And it will help you understand much, much better why it is she says what she says. So we're going to pick up a story in Luke 1.

We asked her last week if you could read ahead and do that. And we're going to start in verse 26, which is where Gabriel comes and meets with Mary and breaks the news. And again, you know this.

It's very familiar if you've ever watched the Charlie Brown Christmas. You know there's that moment when Linus takes the stage and reads this story. Here we go. Luke 1, 26. Now in six months, that's the sixth month of Elizabeth's pregnancy, the angel of Gabriel sent from God to a city in Galilee called Nazareth to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph of the descendants of David.

Just like we talked about last week. And the virgin's name was Mary. And she was a virgin.

Just kind of picking up that Isaiah stuff. And coming in, he said to her, Hail, favored one, the Lord is with you. And she was greatly troubled with this statement and kept pondering what kind of salutation this might be. Mary was a thinker. She's like, okay. She's not afraid. She doesn't fall on her face the way people often do when suddenly confronted with an angel.

She could have blurted out something really stupid right here, but she doesn't. But he says, you are the one on whom God's favor rests. And the angel said to her, do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you'll conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus. And he will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David. And he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and his kingdom will have no end. It sounds like Gabriel was reading the Old Testament. It sounds like he was just reading that Davidic covenant that we talked about last week. That we talked about last week.

He just checked them all off on the list. Right here. Saying, here he is. Here's the guy.

Here's the guy. And Mary said to the angel, well, how can this be since I'm a virgin? Darn good question. It's a logical question for a 14-year-old girl to ask.

A thinking teenager. And the angel answered and said to her, the Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. And for that reason the holy offspring shall be called the Son of God. And behold, even your relative has also conceived a son in her old age. And she who was called barren is now in her sixth month. For nothing will be impossible with God. And Mary said, behold the bond slave of the Lord.

Be it done to me according to your word. And the angel departed from her. So again, you know, even the virgin issue, a lot of people say, wow, a virgin just means young woman. But she was having a problem with the fact that she was a virgin. She was going to have a baby.

I've never been with a man, and I'm not planning to be with a man. Right, so central to Gabriel's argument is, look, anything is possible with God. Oh, well, okay. And to demonstrate that, underscore that, he says now your relative, Elizabeth, who is an old woman and recognized as barren, is six months along. Another impossible situation. Now Elizabeth's child was conceived in the normal human way. Mary's child will be another thing entirely.

Exactly, exactly. And we'll find out more about that. But that should give her enough evidence, in a sense, to kind of go with the program here. You know, Elizabeth is pregnant.

That's highly unlikely. Gabriel says, you know. Isn't her restomos astonishing?

I think it is. I am the Lord's servant. Be it done to me as you have said. Now, she didn't have a clue what she was signing up for at this point. She just knows she was saying yes to the God she had believed all her life.

And we know from the New Testament that one who believes God is reckoned as righteousness, because that's exactly what Abraham did. Yeah, yeah. So she accepted the program. I mean, she bought into it.

And this is not a small thing, because most of us would balk at the whole thing like, I don't think so, this is not so. And by the way, too, there's a social ostracizing issue going on here if she buries a child and she's not married. I'm not sure all of that had penetrated yet. I don't think so either. It was going to, certainly, as from the time he was born, she was going to have to face up to rumors of unfaithfulness and illegitimacy of her child.

All his life, really, that was going to come back to haunt Jesus as an adult. But that's what she's heading into now. And she says yes. Well, let's pick up the story so we can get to what she says in response. So, you know, sure enough, she wants to find out if her cousin's pregnant.

Right. Okay, let's check up on the angel and see if this really is happening. Do you want to read?

I'll read. So verse 39. Now, at this time, Mary arose and went with haste to the hill country to a city in Judah and entered the house of Zacharias and greeted Elizabeth. Now, we're going to deal with Zacharias' story next week when we talk about the birth of John the Baptist. But she has heard, the angel has told her, your aging relative, Elizabeth, is six months along.

And so here we go in verse 41. And it came about that when Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. And she cried out with a loud voice and said, blessed among women are you, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And how has it happened to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? What?

And when the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby leaped in my womb for joy, and blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what the Lord had spoken to her. Wow. Wow. Wow. And Mary hasn't even said anything yet as far as the documented discussion here.

No. And we know actually from earlier in Luke that John the Baptist, it says, would be filled with the Holy Spirit from the womb. From the womb, yeah.

So this is a really interesting thing happening here that Elizabeth, that's six months along. Now, for those of you who have carried babies in your womb, you know by six months that little baby is active, punching you. Kicking, yeah.

Kicking, poking around. And when as soon as Mary comes in the door, and Mary is just barely pregnant. Right, right.

Might not even have shown up on a pregnancy test yet. Right. That the baby that Elizabeth is carrying leaps and jumps and kicks in all directions.

He is dancing in celebration of this recognition, womb to womb, of the one that Mary is carrying. This is an astonishing thing. It's astonishing, yeah.

It's astonishing. It's quoted a lot when we talk about people who are pro-life and saying, you know, this passage tends to give the indication that there's some kind of conscience in the womb, you know, and especially being filled with the Spirit. Yeah, not conscience, conscious. Conscious, I'm sorry. Consciousness and awareness. So there's more going on than just blobs of cells here.

And here's a womb to womb thing going on right here. Certainly. And so Elizabeth cries out, blessed are you. So there's two different words for blessing here in this passage.

And so I want to just put this on the table right up front. This first one when Elizabeth cries out, blessed are you, that's the Greek word eulogao from which we get eulogy. Eulogy. It means to speak well of someone or to say good words of someone. So she's saying, oh, you are blessed.

I'm speaking well of you because you believe the Lord. But later on when she says in verse 45, blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment. This is a totally different word. This is the word makarios, which means to be filled up with the character or the fullness of God, to be fully satisfied in God, and it has no bearing on circumstances at all.

Right. It's a completely independent quality that is being satisfied in the enoughness of God and indwelt with Him. And it seems to be tied with her belief. Her belief. Yes, absolutely. It's connected to belief, to believing God will do what He said He would do.

Right. She believed there'd be a fulfillment of what the Lord had spoken. That's faith, isn't it? To believe God will be reckoned as righteousness, as the New Testament says about Abraham. And actually that's what the Old Testament says. That's what the Old Testament says.

Genesis 16. And that's what Paul goes on over in Romans and talks about. It's all about faith.

Right. That's where we get our position with God. So, you know, Mary has said yes to the Lord because she believed Him and embarked on this journey of literally being filled up with God in a very concrete, material way as that baby grows in her womb. I remember contemplating this deeply when I was pregnant for the first time. Well, actually the second time, but the first time that would produce a living child. And was pregnant at Christmas time and had just begun to be aware of the fluttering of that baby in the womb.

And I just was astonished at the depth of the emotion that was brought forward with that, that carrying a life within me and about to produce this life that I didn't do anything except provide a space for. Right. You just said, okay.

Okay. Well, so now we're at the point where Mary, we finally hear some words out of Mary's mouth. And what comes out of Mary's mouth right here is not really Mary's words. I mean, it's sort of Mary's words.

Well, it is. She's crying out. It's mixed together with, dare I say, like a prophetic understanding from God.

Because she speaks, like I say, she speaks well above her pay grade right here. Well, yeah, but the spirit has touched her emotionally as well as spiritually and she is just overwhelmed with the affirmation that Elizabeth is pregnant because God said she would be. And has recognized that Mary is pregnant because God said she would be. And God is doing what they culturally had been expecting all their lives. I mean, every young Jewish girl was hoping that she would be the mother of Messiah. Right.

Right. And so for Mary to be the one who is selected by God. And she believes. She sees her pregnant cousin and all the pieces fall in place and now she says. And now she just delights. She just explodes in praise. Let's just read it and then because I'm doing all the reading, you can make the commentary.

I'll make the sound effects. My soul exalts the Lord and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior. For he has looked on the humble estate of his servant. For behold, from now on, all generations will call me blessed.

That is that makarius, that filled up with the fullness of God. For he who is mighty has done great things for me and holy is his name. And his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation.

He has shown strength with his arm. He has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. He has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate. He has filled the hungry with good things and the rich he has sent away empty.

He has helped his servant Israel in remembrance of his mercy as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his offspring forever. Wow. So where's the part about the baby? Isn't that interesting?

It's fascinating. She doesn't say, thank you Lord for this baby. No. No. It's all about what God has already accomplished.

Yeah. And if you stand back and you look at this, you realize that the first half of the verses, she talks about herself and the Lord and what the Lord is doing through her. And then somewhere there, things switch, switches, and she takes a view of the entire earth, of the world and all the peoples and around 50 to the end. And so that's where actually she's talking about the baby.

What's going on? She gets this understanding. Well, from generation to generation. So there's a passing down from father to son.

Yeah. His mercy is for those who fear him. And so she goes on after that point and talks about what's going to happen in terms of the reception of this baby in the world and what God is about in a large scale. But before we get there, let's go back to the beginning because that's from 46 to 50, she ties herself into what's going on and it's very personal and it's worth understanding exactly what she's going through emotionally.

So what can you pick out emotionally about what she's going through? Well, she says, my soul magnifies. I feel like a magnifying glass. God is made large through me.

My spirit is rejoicing in God my savior. Well, you know, we refer to the baby she would bear as our savior, but she said, oh, God is my savior. And sometimes we don't think about the fact that Mary also needed a savior. Yep.

Yep. And she's amazed by the fact that he has looked on someone like her who's in a humble estate, which means she's kind of a, she's a lowly person. She's just a nobody. She is not royalty at all. And you would expect the Messiah to come out of some kind of royalty, even though she has a bloodline to David, but she's just a nobody. Well, so do lots of people. That's right.

But she's like a nobody. I mean, so that this great King is going to come from me. He looked on my humble estate and now for all generations after this, they'll look at me and say, you're blessed. You're blessed in the sense that you have said yes to the Lord. He is enough.

I will literally be filled with him. Yeah, exactly. I mean, it echoes back to what Elizabeth is saying, that she's blessed because she believed what's going to happen. Right.

And she not just believed it and gave mental assent. She said, okay, let's do it. I'm in. Right.

I'm in. Isn't it amazing that God comes to her and essentially asks for her consent? Right.

Right? He says, you are the one that the Lord has looked on and said, there's the girl. But she must then take that step of faith to respond and say, oh, okay, be it done to me according to what you said.

I'll go through with this. Yeah. And I have to imagine, although we don't have any cases of this, that this is the, quote, the excuse she gave when people would say, wait, you're not married, but you're pregnant. She'd say, well, this is something God's doing. And this is explicitly what God is saying here.

This is something that I'm doing. And Gabriel has told her that. And I'm sure she probably received responses from that, that people laugh at her and think she's just making us up or something.

But it is quite explicit here. God wants her in the loop knowing what's going on. Well, we would say, a girl who came to us and said, well, God did this, we'd say, well, you're a little nuts, honey. You're a little nuts.

Let's put you on meds. Right? Because that's not the way babies happen. Exactly. But I was just thinking, if God had kept her in the dark all the way through this and she just found herself pregnant without having slept with a man, how am I supposed to explain this? I'm going to bring you in on the whole story. Well, she clearly understands. I mean, Gabriel had literally repeated to her the whole covenant with David.

Yep. Laid it all out. He says, you will bear the Son. He will be great. He'll be called the Son of the Most High.

The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever and his kingdom will have no end. Well, Mary took that, understood that properly. By the way, she just explodes in praise and says, this is something God has done and always intended to do, to bring about the salvation of his people by being with them and forgiving their sin. And somehow she's saying to herself, and I'm part of this plan. I'm brought into the center of this plan.

Humble as I am from the nowhere backwoods of Nazareth, God wants me involved in this? Yeah. Really? So the Mighty One has done great things. Has done great things for me. Has done. Has done.

Has done. And when we read it, all of those past tenses, he has shown strength. He has brought down the mighty. He has exalted those of humble estate. He has filled the hungry.

He has sent away the rich empty handed. He has helped his servant Israel in remembrance of his mercy. God has already done it as part of the remembrance, the observation of what he had promised to do, his covenant with Israel. And in fact, it's a Bible study skill that if you see future events recited in the past tense in the Bible.

Right. That should get your attention. That should get your attention that you're actually getting a perspective from heaven because God is timeless and for him everything already has happened. So he speaks in the past tense because he sees ahead in the future and everything's already there on the page. I've already done this.

I've already got this. So this happens here. It'll happen again when we hear Zacharias. You're starting to see a window into God's view of what's going on here because everything is completed already even though Mary's just barely pregnant.

So yeah, kind of crazy. Well then she rolls into a general sense about what this baby will be and what he'll do when you get into like 50, you know, his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. So there's kind of a multi-generational, an ongoing benefit from those who fear him. Oh we should talk about that fearing. The fearing.

What does that mean? It means a proper reverencing for who he is. It's the same word that we use for that trembling fear but it has the implication of I am profoundly respectful of this mighty one. Yeah, yeah. I'm not flippant about this, I'm mindful about this.

I'm respecting this. So then she goes on and talks about the effect of what this mighty one who's on the throne of David is going to do. I mean it's really a fascinating thing, you know, 51 he's shown strength with his arm and has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. And you know when you see strength of the arm that's really, that's might. That's might. That's the might say.

This one who's going to be born is going to be this might. The arm of the Lord who will act. Exactly.

Act and bring justice. 52 he talks more about position. Well you know people, you know we hate prideful people because they elevate themselves too high. Well he's brought down those mighties from their thrones and exalted people like me of humble estate. You know when Jesus was teaching about the kingdom he says, hey the kingdom is upside down and inside out from the way you think it is. The last will be first. The first will be last. The mighty will be brought low.

Those who are self-satisfied and satisfied in their riches will be scattered. So you know he's going to turn everything upside down. Which is part of his genius of using someone like Mary who's a nobody. Right. A nobody.

Not someone with great regal kind of bona fides. Yeah it's amazing. And then not only will he in might and in position change everything, turn everything upside down.

I love 53. He's filled the hungry with good things. Filled the hungry and the rich he's sent away empty.

So those who are kind of self-sufficient, self-reliant, you know working on their own riches. He's going to send them away empty. It's going to be empty but those who are needy, he'll fill them. Well that sounds like the Beatitudes.

It does doesn't it? Blessed are the poor. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they shall be satisfied.

And from a kingly perspective this is a great thing because 51 and 52 are all about might and power and turning things on its head and stuff like that. I hope our king is a nice guy, this Jesus, and he is in 53. He fills the hungry with good things. Well everybody wants a king who can feed them. As a matter of fact we saw the life of Jesus in John. Jesus had fed the 5,000. They followed and said hey we need this guy to make this guy king because he could give us a free lunch.

Bagels for breakfast, yeah exactly. So that's not a bad thing but it is nice to know that this king who's on this forever throne is someone who really cares about feeding us, who cares about our needs. And that's why it's such a great contrast with the might and the strength of his arm. He's not only strong in his arm and he puts down tyrants but he also is concerned with our needs.

That's just what a great contrast. But if you're full up of yourself and self-satisfied, he says you know if that's what you think strength is then that's all you're going to get. You will be sent away empty because it's going to prove to be emptiness. If you rely on yourself alone then all you have is yourself.

Good luck with that. And then he kind of closes it all out with this wonderful statement of faithfulness. God's faithfulness to Israel, promises through David and through all of that. He helped his servant Israel and in remembrance of his mercy he didn't forget them.

He didn't forget them. And I'm sure people at the time were saying what that Messiah thing. Well in that phrase remembrance of his mercy shows up over and over again in different forms in the Old Testament. We call on God to remember your loving kindness to Israel because our circumstances are telling us something else.

God remember your mercy. So we have to bring forward into the present what we know has already been proven true to us and it should occupy a front of our minds as well as our current circumstances. So it's absolutely evident that God has remembered because Messiah is about to be born.

Oh my gosh. And the result of a promise that he spoke to our fathers she says in 55 this has been coming. We've all been waiting. That he's promised to our fathers and to Abraham and to his offspring forever. So this is the fulfillment of all these promises. Great statement of the faithfulness of this God King in all this as well. This is the fulfillment of all that.

Just really. It's just amazing that Mary, this 14 year old girl, she's clearly steeped in the Scriptures. She knows these things. God didn't just zap words into her head she'd never heard before. But all of the connections are being suddenly made and affirmed and brought into a deeper understanding for her. And she's getting what a big deal this is.

Yes. She's seeing it from an eternal perspective. God is doing what he has always said he would do.

And can you believe it? He's involving me. He's involving me.

Someone from a very humble estate. He's involving me. Which is kind of good news for us because he involves us too. Wow. That's astonishing. And Paul goes on and says God uses the weak things to confound the mighty and the powerful. So this is exactly what he's doing through Mary here. And she's worshiping God. She's overwhelmed and pouring out this praise. Yeah.

It's just astonishing. Well and really it's not fixed on her circumstances at all. It is fixed on God and his faithfulness and his word and his promise, his covenant, his presence, his eternity. Yeah all these things have come to a point focus in this one spot with Gabriel talking to her. And she said okay I'm in.

I'm in. Here we go. And then it's been affirmed for her. And it's been affirmed for her.

By this incredible encounter with her relative. Yeah. And the babies are leaping in the womb and the praise is just pouring out.

Yeah. Great circumstance. I always would have liked to be a fly on the wall when she was talking to Joseph about all this. Well yeah we find out from the story that it maybe didn't go so well in the first conversation. But God intercedes Joseph as well so he gets everyone on the same page. Well listen next time we're going to come back we're going to move to the Father John the Baptist which you think is a strange connection for Christmas.

Oh it's so important. It is probably for me the most important passage of Christmas is what comes out of the mouth of Zacharias. So we'll talk about that. So that passage actually sandwiches this one so Luke writes it that we get the introduction to Zacharias and then this time with Mary and then the finish of the story with Zacharias. So we'll go into that next week.

Stay in Luke 1 that's where you'll find it and we'd love to have you come back next week and see this astonishing thing from Zacharias. So I'm Jim. And I'm Dorothy. And we're wonderfully glad that you're with us. Have a great Christmas and we'll see you next week. Bye. More Than Ink is a production of Main Street Church of Brigham City and is solely responsible for its content. To contact us with your questions or comments just go to our website morethanink.org. That's pretty good. That might be better. We'll do that one.