Mindful, Mighty, Merciful (Part 1 of 2)

Christmas is all about Jesus, so it only makes sense that the very first Christmas songs recorded in Luke's Gospel are all about him. Today on Truth for Life Weekend, we kick off the Advent season with a special series titled Songs for a Savior. Alistair Begg begins our study today with Mary's song.

Luke chapter 1 and verse 46, the song of Mary. And Mary said, My soul glorifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has been mindful of the humble estate of his servant. From now on all generations will call me blessed, for the Mighty One has done great things for me. Holy is his name. His mercy extends to those who fear him from generation to generation. He has performed mighty deeds with his arm. He has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts. He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble. He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty. He has helped his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful to Abraham and his descendants forever, even as he said to our fathers.

Mary stayed with Elizabeth for about three months and then returned home. Amen. Well, one of the first signals that we have moved into the Christmas season—and, of course, this is already very clear to us—is the fact that the music in public places changes.

Nobody really announces it. Just all of a sudden you realize that you're walking through the mall to the tune of Jingle Bells or some other deeply theological piece of work. It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas, or, as I was singing, coming this morning, it's beginning to look a lot like Glasgow.

And if you wonder what it would be like to live in Glasgow, imagine this now continuing for the next three months, and you realize why Cleveland is such a wonderful place to stay, and you don't have to go away to Florida like many of you do. But anyway, the change in the music gives us an indication of what's going on. And so it's not a particular surprise to discover that in the narrative here in Luke's Gospel, that Luke himself punctuates the story of the birth of Jesus with a series of songs. The first of these is the song of Mary, the Magnificat, as it's referred to. The second is the song of Zechariah. The third is the song of Simeon. Our focus in the past in looking at the Magnificat—and incidentally, Magnificat is just the first word in the Vulgate in the Latin translation of the New Testament. That's what gives to us the word, the magnificat, if you come across it, magnificat anima, mia dominum, which is the opening phrase of it. When we've looked at it in the last couple of occasions, we have focused, I think, a little bit on Mary herself and the place of Mary in the purposes of God. This morning I want us actually to focus entirely on the one of whom Mary sings—namely, God himself. Now, the background to the song I must leave for you to fill in on your own.

You can read around it when you go home this afternoon. And when you do, you will discover that, for example, from about 26 and following—that's verse 26—the background to the song is a combination of the natural and the supernatural. It is the interweaving of things that are ordinary and things that are clearly extraordinary. So, for example, the news of a lady going to have a baby is ordinary news. The way in which this baby is going to be conceived or has been conceived is extraordinary news. And so, when you look at the text, you discover that Mary, in response to the arrival of the angel, is greatly troubled. Verse 29, she's fearful, and she wonders. When she is given the explanation for the conception of this child—because, after all, Mary is engaged or betrothed to Joseph, they're not a twenty-first-century couple engaging in the privileges of marriage outside the bonds of marriage, and so there is no indication that she would ever have, that this would be true of her—how could she possibly have conceived a child when she's had no physical relationships with the one who's going to be her husband? Well, the answer comes, that which is conceived in you is by the Holy Spirit. This is entirely supernatural. And then her response to that is entirely natural.

How was this going to work out? And then the Holy Spirit, through the angel, speaks again. And then eventually, in a spirit of submission, in verse 38, she says, I am the Lord's servant.

May it be to me as you have said. And with that, the sort of supernatural, extraordinary element of it concludes, and then a fairly routine and ordinary element begins—namely, like any lady, as she would say, I need to go and find somebody to talk to about this. And so Luke tells us that Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea, where she entered Zechariah's home and greeted Elizabeth. Elizabeth was her cousin. And what you would have taking place there is a kind of girls' night in.

And in contemporary terms, they would have watched a kind of chick movie and had popcorn and felt each other's tummies, and talked about it, and said, Boy, the girl, the green, the yellow, the pink, whatever you want to do about the crib, and all that kind of stuff. This is routine. You see, what you have here is what you would expect here. You have humanity, and you have deity. You have the supernatural intervention of God, and you have the natural responses of these girls to the privilege of childbirth. And as Mary reasons, and as she responds, her lips declare her devotion, and she launches into song, and she sings, My soul glorifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior. Or, if you like, she sings, Tell out my soul the greatness of the Lord. You might say that what we have in this song is a song of overflowing thankfulness that emerges from the overflowing generosity of God himself. And as you consider the song at your leisure later in the day, you will realize, along with me, that she's not singing about herself—which is jolly good—she's singing about who God is and what God has done. There's a tremendous amount in this short song, and our time is constrained, and so we're going to look at the song with three words in mind.

I'll tell you what they are so you know where we're going. The words are mindful, mighty, and merciful. God is mindful, God is mighty, God is merciful. If your Bible is open before you, you should be able to look into the Bible and understand why it is that we would have these words.

You don't want them to be an invention, something that I've come up with as a scheme, to be pressed down upon the Bible. But rather, it should become apparent to you that it is legitimate for us to say these three things from this particular passage. First of all, then, God is mindful. You will notice that Mary speaks initially in terms which are personal. Verse 48, For he, that is, God, has been mindful of the humble state of his servant. In other words, God has been mindful of me, Mary says. God could have found a rich, noble, powerful queen who lived in a palace.

But he has chosen not to do so. He's come instead to a lowly maiden who has no apparent significance whatsoever. Oh, she means something to the immediate family and friends that she knows, but beyond that, she's an unknown quantity, just a slip of a girl. And the inevitability of Mary's response is the response of everyone to God's mindfulness. What does it mean that he has been mindful of her? Well, the Oxford English Dictionary defines mindful as taking thought or taking care or keeping remembrance of.

Okay? Taking thought, taking care, keeping remembrance of. So Mary says, My soul magnifies the Lord, my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, because he has taken thought of me. He is taking care of me. I am in his remembrance. But she doesn't sing simply in personal terms.

You will notice that she sings also in corporate terms. And you need to go forward to verse 54, 55, to see this. He has helped his servant Israel, not only his servant Mary, and he's remembered—that's the same word for mindful—he's mindful to be merciful to Abram and his descendants forever, even as he said to our fathers. Now, the significance in this is as follows, that God is mindful of Mary as an individual because he is mindful of his people as a company. Her significance in the scheme of God's plan of redemption is entirely related to the purpose of God to choose out for himself a people that are his very own. And that people is the focus of his love and of his concern. They are, if you like, the very apple of his eye. And the wonder of what it means to be in the remembrance of God is directly tied to being part of the people of God.

Now, this is where a little history helps. And many of you who've been here for a long time know that your Bible, like mine, can go very, very easily to Genesis chapter 12 and verse 3, because we turn to it so many, many times. And there in Genesis 12, the Lord is speaking to Abram. He calls him out from his people and from his country and his household, and he calls him to go to a place that he's going to show him. And the promise of God to Abram is, verse 2 of Genesis 12, I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you, and I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing, and I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse, and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you.

What a strange, strange statement. How odd of God to call this man from a pagan background out of the Ur of the Chaldees and to make this amazing covenant with him! And how Abraham marveled at it, and how as time went by when he and Sarah were still childless, they wondered, How would it possibly be that God could fulfill a promise through his seed when he didn't have any? How would this promise be fulfilled if he did not have a child?

And then, of course, you have the wonder of God's intervention in that. And all the way through the Old Testament, God is saying again and again to his people, I am mindful of you, and I will fulfill the promise that I have made. The people listen to the prophets as they came.

They listen to the judges as they spoke. They knew that the prophet Isaiah meant something when he said, For unto you a child is born, and unto you a son is given. And the government will be upon his shoulders, and his name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, and the Prince of Peace. And of the influence and of his reign there will be no end, and he will reign on the throne of his father David forever and ever.

His kingdom will never come to an end. And the bright people of the time would sit around and have Bible studies and say, Well, this must be all part and parcel of the fulfilling of God's promise to Abraham. And they must have concluded that that is absolutely right. And perhaps they ponder the mystery that was contained in the very words, For unto you a child will be born.

That's pretty natural, isn't it? And unto you a son will be given. A child will be born—humanity. A son will be given—deity. Because, you see, Jesus the Son, revealed in Bethlehem, is the eternal Son with the Father and the Holy Spirit.

The second person of the Trinity did not begin to exist in Bethlehem. God the Son was in eternity with God the Father and God the Spirit. And so you have this amazing interface between that which is divine and that which is human, revealed ultimately in the person of Jesus himself. But coming back to this notion of history, in the days that were dark and difficult, when the promise of God seemed to have dimmed and seemed so unlikely, the people of God may even have said to one another, just in a phrase like this, Well, don't forget, God is mindful. God is mindful.

A generation would rise, and a generation would go, and people would come, and grandparents would pass on, and the little ones would now rise to positions of influence, and still the people of God are holding on to this covenant promise that God had made to their forefather Abraham. Through your seed, all the nations of the earth will be blessed. Because God is mindful. When the psalmist speaks of this, he says in Psalm 8, doesn't he, What is man that you are mindful of him? That you're mindful of him.

That you remember him. You see, the greatness of God is not revealed in his isolation from us, but the greatness of God is revealed in his intimacy with us. We tend to think of greatness in terms of isolation. The more money you get, the longer you can make your driveway. The more money you get, the further you can remove yourself from the general hoi polloi. The more status you acquire, the more you can remove yourself from humanity. People will have to come and approach you through various channels and so on. You might end up in Buckingham Palace. You might be able to have security all around you.

And everyone will look as they drive down the mall, and they will say, Wow! That's the queen in there! She's so remote from us! She's so great! She's isolated!

I haven't had a phone call from her in the last twenty-six years. Her greatness is revealed in how isolated I am from her. But God's greatness is revealed in his intimacy with us. That in the person of Jesus, God, says C. S. Lewis, has landed on this enemy-occupied planet, and he's landed in human form.

Why? Because he is mindful. For the LORD their God, says Zephaniah, will be mindful of his people and restore their fortunes. So the people who lived in between the Testaments, if you like, in that one sheet in your Bible, which you should really tear out, because it makes you think that you've almost got two Bibles, but in the blank page in the middle, in between Malachi and Matthew, you really should take it out. But the people who lived in that section, then they found themselves rehearsing God's promises. But it must have seemed for so long in the darkness that God had forgotten. Where was all this stuff about the people walking in darkness? Have seen a great light in those living in the land of the shadow. A light has dawned.

Where is all this stuff going to be? And then suddenly, the maiden, in the routine ordinariness of her anticipated marriage to this boy Joseph, who must have loved her with a passion because of the way in which he responds to the news that comes his way in the routine of her life, the angel Gabriel comes and says, Hey, Mary, you're highly favored. What? She must have pulled the covers up under her chin when the angel left and said, Maybe this is this mindful thing. Maybe this is this promise. Because we know a child is to be born, and a son is given. What, to me?

She's not about to try and get her agent to get her a slot on Oprah so that she can talk about herself. She closes her bedroom door, and she buries her face. And she says, My soul magnifies God. My spirit rejoices in God, Yeshua, my Savior. For he has been mindful of me. He didn't say, He finally found out how significant I am.

He has been mindful of the lowly estate of his handmaiden. Secondly, God is mighty. God is mighty. The picture in verse 51 of his arm being bared is obviously an anthropomorphism, which is a good word if you are having a real run at Scrabble—God who his Spirit obviously has no arm to bear. Therefore, when it says that he has bared his holy arm, as in Exodus 6, in bringing his people out of Israel, it is a picture to help us understand that this mighty God has stepped forward.

And you find that again and again. For I am the LORD your God, who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear, I will help you. And God himself extends his arm.

And so, in her song, she mentions this. As she reflects on what God has done throughout history, she realizes that he is mindful of his promises, and he is mighty in his deeds. He is a merciful Savior, but he is also a mighty warrior. And as a mighty warrior, he turns human attitudes upside down.

Notice this. He has performed mighty deeds with his arm. What has he done? Well, he has taken what society, what culture, what men and women lay greatest store by, and he has demolished it.

Look carefully. One, he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts. Secondly, he has brought down the rulers from their thrones. You can go through the whole of the Old Testament, and you can see that happening again and again. You can go through social history, and you can see it happening again and again. The proud empires of the world have eventually crumbled to nothing.

All of them eventually will. There is only one kingdom that will last for whenever and ever. There is only one King, one Majesty, before whom we ought to bow. And thirdly, he sends the rich away empty. Fills up the hungry with good things, says, Here, have some more of this. But the rich sends them away empty.

Do you see the paradox in this? Rich, empty? Empty, rich? Who are the people who shouldn't be empty?

Rich people. You can buy what you want. Eat where you like.

Go where you choose. He sends the rich away empty. Is it possible to be rich and empty?

I think so. Because the more the rich have of the wealth we may prize, the emptier and more hollow things will be seen to be—unless we are to discover true riches. For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for our sakes he became poor, so that we, through his poverty, might become rich. You see, no man or woman can ever really handle material wealth until they have discovered that their genuine and truest riches are found in Jesus. When that matter is settled, then all the benefits that he may give to you, all the privileges that you may enjoy, may then be used in a way that recognizes the fact that God is mighty, and he sets down the proud and the arrogant.

That is Alistair Begg with a reminder that God is not only mighty, he's also mindful of us. You're listening to Truth for Life Weekend. Teaching the Bible is our mission at Truth for Life. We try to do that in a way that's clear and relevant.

We know when God's Word is faithfully proclaimed, unbelievers will be converted, believers will be established, and local churches will be strengthened. We also work hard to carefully select books that will deepen your faith, help you grow in your relationship with God. So we're extremely excited about our current book recommendation. It checks all of our boxes, and the author is a favorite here at Truth for Life. The book is titled Truth for Life 365 Daily Devotions, and you guessed it, it's written by Alistair Begg. This beautiful hardcover book is filled with the clear, solid Bible teaching that you have come to expect from Alistair. At the end of each entry, you are prompted to apply what you've just read to your own heart and life. The Truth for Life devotional is a great way to allow God's Spirit to work through his Word, so you can deepen your faith in 2022.

And let me suggest this makes a perfect Christmas gift. Find out more about the book Truth for Life 365 Daily Devotions when you visit our website at truthforlife.org. I'm Bob Lapine. Thanks for joining us today. I hope you can be back next weekend when Alistair explains why Mary's song is the song we want our children and grandchildren to sing. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life, where the Learning is for Living.