Now please do grab your Bibles again and turn to Luke chapter 1.
! We'll be focusing in on verses 46 to 56.
!
Luke chapter 1.
My soul magnifies the Lord.
Did you see Mary says that in verse 46?
My soul magnifies the Lord.
Mary here is pregnant with the Lord Jesus in her womb.
She knows the Lord God has come to earth and has become a baby in her womb right now.
She sees what God is doing in the world and in her life and she bursts into song and cries out,
My soul magnifies the Lord.
Now what does that mean?
It means God is made big in my soul.
I am beginning to grasp the bigness of God in my life and my soul praises, expresses that bigness.
So, this doesn't mean like a magnifying glass.
It's not that.
So, what does a magnifying glass do?
A magnifying glass takes what is actually small, like a bug.
It's actually small, but a magnifying glass makes it look bigger than it really is, doesn't it?
But that's not what Mary's saying.
She isn't saying God is actually really small, but my soul is making him look bigger than he is.
No.
When our souls magnify the Lord, it's more like a telescope.
What does a telescope do?
A telescope magnifies in a different way.
A telescope looks at what is actually big, like a galaxy or a star, something huge.
But we normally think it's small.
We normally think it's just kind of a speck up there in the sky.
And a telescope magnifies it, so we begin to see it how it really is.
A telescope magnifies it, what we think is small, and it blows it up in our eyes, so we begin to see how big it really is.
And we think, whoa, that galaxy up there, that is actually huge.
Well, that is what's going on in Mary's soul here.
She sees what God is doing in her life, doing in the world, and God is seen as big in her soul.
She starts to see how big he really is, and her soul, her words, her praises reflect that bigness.
You could say, Mary really understands Christmas.
Because Christmas is about God showing himself to be big.
The Lord Jesus coming to earth, growing side of a womb, being born as a baby, this is God showing that he is big.
He's bigger than the powers of this world.
He's bigger than the ways of this world.
He's bigger than the troubles in our lives.
And Mary gets it.
She sees Christmas isn't really about the presents and the turkey and the festivity.
She sees Christmas is about God doing something mighty.
Bringing salvation to a world of sinners.
Sending a saviour to raise up the small and unworthy.
Christmas is God showing that he is bigger than you could possibly imagine.
So, place your eye onto the lens of Mary's soul.
And you see that she grasps that God has done a big thing by sending his son as a baby.
You realise, God is big.
My soul magnifies the Lord.
But we often feel the opposite to this at Christmas time, don't we?
Look into your soul right now.
For most of us, God does not feel big in our soul, does he?
God can so often feel like a distant speck far, far away.
And the things of this world, the troubles of our lives, that's what fills our souls.
Our souls, naturally, we don't magnify the Lord.
Our souls magnify other things.
Just look at what the world magnifies this Christmas time.
Look at the adverts.
Look where people's time and money is spent.
What does the world see as big and important?
What does the world say at Christmas time?
My soul magnifies my Amazon wish list.
That's what's big in our souls, isn't it?
And it's not just at Christmas time.
Just look at our world.
Look how we treat God every day.
God is seen as a distant speck, barely even acknowledged in this nation.
He's treated as irrelevant.
Even worse.
The world says, my life is fine without God.
The world sings, my soul magnifies myself.
We've made God small.
But even for us in Christ, who know God is big, who rejoice in God, we can still find God is eclipsed in our lives by other things.
We can still feel like God is small.
Christmas time can be one of the loneliest and darkest times of the year, can't it?
We find the lens of our soul can only focus on that darkness.
And what is the big thing we find in our souls?
It's sadness.
Emptiness.
Loneliness.
It's pain and grief and anxiety.
These things can feel overwhelming.
They're the big things in our souls.
Financial worries are the things that we can only think about.
The fears of what the future holds.
That's the big thing in my heart.
I want to see God as big, but my soul just seems to magnify my pain and my sadness.
That's what is eclipsing my life.
God does, he doesn't feel big.
My grief does.
My life is a mess, and that's what my soul magnifies.
That's all I can see.
Well, if that is you, we will see today, Jesus has come to change that.
As we look at Mary's reaction to Christmas, to God coming into this world, we see that God has come to undo all of that in our hearts.
Christmas is about God knowing we don't magnify him in our souls.
Other things take priority.
Other things come in view.
But Jesus has come to change that, to reverse that, to make us see the bigness of God, and to take all those other things in our souls and to make them smaller.
To turn the gloom in our lives into joy.
And how is he doing that?
Well, we need to look at Mary.
In Mary, we see that God makes himself big by choosing the small.
And this is the first thing I want us to see today.
God makes himself big by choosing the small.
So why is Mary rejoicing like this?
Why does her soul magnify the Lord?
Well, she looks down at her womb, which is probably not even a bump yet.
And she realizes that the Lord God has come to earth, and he's come as a baby inside of her womb.
Did you see that back in verse 43?
So Mary is visiting her cousin Elizabeth.
And Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, she speaks of the reality of this pregnancy.
Verse 43.
And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord, God, should come to me?
They both realize that inside Mary's womb is the Lord.
It's God.
Do you know that Christmas song, Mary, Did You Know?
It's probably being played all the time right now.
In that song, I won't sing it.
I'll spare you that.
It's a line in this song that says this.
Mary, did you know that your baby boy is Lord of all creation?
Have you heard that?
Well, we can answer that song today.
We can answer that question.
Yeah, she knew.
You don't need to listen to that song anymore.
There you go.
There's the answer.
She knew.
And of all people, of all people, God has chosen Mary to hold the Lord in her womb.
Mary is likely a teenager when she becomes pregnant by the Holy Spirit.
And what's her life like?
She's not royalty.
She's not rich.
She's likely a peasant girl.
She's probably pleasant as well.
She's basically a nobody.
And God has chosen her of all people, that this small, peasant girl nobody, to be the mother of God in the flesh.
God is using this small, unremarkable girl and using her to bring the saviour of humanity into the world.
Look at verse 47.
My soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my saviour.
For, because, he has looked on the humble estate of his servants.
For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed.
For he who is mighty has done great things for me.
Humble estate here, it means her lowliness.
It means her unworthiness, her nothingness.
God didn't choose Mary because she was impressive.
He didn't choose Mary because she deserved it.
No.
She wasn't sinless or anything like that.
No.
Look at verse 50.
It's all because of God's mercy.
In God's mercy, God has taken this little, lowly, vulnerable teenager and used her for salvation.
He's taken the nothing and used it for something, something big in fact, for God's plan of salvation.
God has said, you, little Mary, you will now be part of my big plan for history.
Mary.
And she's playing an amazing part.
Mary is given the special privilege of holding the saviour in her womb for nine months.
And so she's right to say, from now on all generations will call me blessed.
Mary really is blessed.
God showed her great favour.
She had a great privilege.
She knew Christ in ways that we don't.
She knew him as a mother.
And mothers know their children in deeper ways than other people, don't they?
Kids here, your mum knows you really well, doesn't she?
Mums know everything.
They're amazing.
She knows your birthday, your doctor's name, your favourite colour, your favourite food,
what you want for Christmas, what makes you happy when you're sad.
She knows what's wrong, even when you don't know what's wrong.
And she has a picture of you on the background of her phone.
Mums are amazing.
They know everything about us.
Mums.
Mothers know their children in special ways.
And so Mary had a great privilege to know Jesus in that special way.
She's blessed.
Now, that doesn't mean that she was sinless,
or that we should worship her or pray to her.
Nothing at all suggests that here.
In fact, that's the opposite point being made here.
Mary magnifies the Lord in her soul and rejoices because she isn't great.
She isn't someone who is worthy.
She is of a humble estate.
Yet, the Lord has shown her mercy and chosen her, this little nobody, and done big things in her life.
And Mary realises this.
She sees it in her own life.
And she says, look how God treats nobodies like me.
And her soul magnifies the Lord.
She sees how big and great and merciful the Lord is.
God doesn't need the big or the mighty or the powerful or the influential people of this world to bring salvation.
He doesn't need them.
No, God is bigger than that.
God is bigger than the ways of this world.
God is bringing salvation all in his power.
And he's bringing it to the small, the weak, the ruined, people who have nothing to bring to the table.
People like Mary.
People like me and you.
God is bringing salvation to sinners.
And God is transforming sinners.
He's taking our small, insignificant lives and making them a part of his big plan for history.
God makes himself big by choosing the small.
So salvation, it's not about what you can bring to the table.
God doesn't need you to be impressive for him to choose you.
It doesn't matter if your life is a mess or if you don't have it all sorted, because none of us do.
It doesn't matter if you feel or think you're small in the eyes of the world.
No, God is choosing the small, the unimpressive, the messy, the sinful.
God makes himself big by choosing the small.
And did you see, this isn't just for Mary.
Mary magnifies the Lord because she sees this as going global.
Look at verse 52.
God has exalted those of humble estate.
Verse 53.
He's filled the hungry with good things.
He's raised the nothing into something.
But also, he's done the opposite.
He's brought the mighty down low.
Do you see that in verse 51?
He has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.
He's brought down the mighty from their thrones, verse 52.
Verse 53.
The rich he sent away empty.
Now, what does all this mean?
Does this mean you can't have a big paycheck if you want to be saved?
No.
God is talking about a spiritual reversal of the world.
Those of humble estate are people just like Mary.
People who know that they are nothing before God.
Who know that they're small.
Who are ruined people.
Who come to God saying, Lord, I am a spiritual disaster.
That's why they're called the hungry here as well.
That they know that they're not spiritually satisfied.
They're hungry for God.
And so the proud are the opposite.
The proud are those who think that they don't need God.
He's small in their souls.
And they think they're big.
They think they're mighty and spiritually rich.
And they're in control of their lives.
They say, I owe nothing to God.
I need nothing from him.
My life is fine just the way it is.
Their song is, my soul magnifies myself.
There are two types of people.
Those who know they need God.
And those who think they don't.
And Christ has come to raise up those who know that they need him.
A podcast clip popped up on my YouTube the other day.
And it was a conversation between two, both of them, really successful YouTubers.
And one of them was a Christian.
But the interviewer, this YouTuber, he wasn't a Christian.
And the Christian was saying, in this interview, he was saying, all my success is because of God.
I'm nothing without God.
He gives me everything I have.
And the interviewer, he was hearing this.
And he just couldn't get his head around that.
He kept replying to the Christian.
He was saying, no, but it was you.
You put the hard work in.
You did this.
This is made by you.
There were two souls in that podcast.
One thought he was mighty on a throne.
And one knew that he was poor.
And Jesus has come to say to those who think that they're so great, who laugh at the idea of needing a savior.
He says, you will be brought down from your throne and put in the dust.
You aren't so big.
What the world calls mighty and rich and full, I will show them to be nothing.
You will not be part of my big plan.
But to those who know that they are nothing before God, those people, God will exalt.
God will make them a part of his big plan for salvation.
God makes himself big by choosing the small.
And how is God doing this?
Well, did you notice?
He's already done it.
Did you see how all this is worded?
He has brought down the mighty.
He has filled the hungry.
Mary looks down at her womb and knows God has already shown himself to be big.
And she sees it in this little baby boy.
And this is my second point today.
God makes himself big by becoming small.
So how is the Lord raising up the small and the humble?
By becoming one of them.
We here, all of us, we are lowly, small, nobodies before a big God.
Our souls are full of grief and sadness and pain.
Our lives are eclipsed by fear and loneliness.
And our great God has come to earth to live a life just like that.
To know and experience the sadness of your life.
Look at the Lord here.
Where is the Lord here?
He is a tiny, vulnerable, helpless speck in the womb of a teenager.
Look how lowly and weak the Lord God has made himself.
Just think, who are some of the most vulnerable people in our world?
Well, it would definitely include a pregnant teenager and her unborn baby.
And God came in that form.
God didn't just appear in the clouds to bring salvation and he just stayed floating above us.
No, God came as this delicate, precious baby and he became one of us.
He became body and blood.
That's what we celebrate here at the Lord's table.
God has shown mercy on the lowly by becoming one of the lowly.
And as Jesus grew, he lived his life with all the pains and the troubles that we feel.
He has a soul.
Right now, he has a soul that has known sadness and grief and lowliness.
And rejection and homelessness.
All the things that are so easily magnified in our souls at Christmas.
Whatever is taking up your soul this Christmas, whatever is eclipsing God in your life right now,
Jesus knows how you feel.
God knows your weakness.
He's felt your suffering.
He's wept like you have wept.
And on the cross, Jesus took the depths of our sin on himself.
He felt the depths and the agony of human suffering.
All so he could bring us out of it.
When Jesus was raised from the dead, he was raising the lowly with him.
He was exalting the humble, giving them hope and a future.
That this is the big God taking the small and making them a part of his big plan for salvation.
God makes himself big by becoming small.
God is not a far off speck in the sky.
He has come down to us and known us.
He's come to know your lowliness and to transform the suffering in your life.
To make God big in your life.
And make your pain smaller.
Christ has declared whatever is eclipsing God in your life.
Whatever else your soul magnifies.
It no longer needs to take over your life.
If grief is magnified in your soul right now.
Christ knows how you feel.
He knows that pain and that weakness.
And you can come to a big God with your sadness.
Because he cares about it.
And one day he's going to end it.
He heals the broken hearted.
If loneliness and abandonment is all that you see in your soul right now.
Know this.
God is not far off.
He's not a distant speck up there.
He has come to earth and the Lord Jesus to say.
I am with you.
I am one of you.
And I know you.
You may think that you're a forgotten nobody in this world.
But when you belong to Christ.
God makes you something.
You are a loved part of God's big plan for salvation.
And if there is fear in your life right now.
Fear of what the future holds.
And it's like you just feel weak and you can't handle it.
Christ has known your weakness.
And he shows you that God is bigger than the troubles of your life.
He's over your life.
And when we see the mercy and power of God in the Lord Jesus Christ.
When we see that God has come in the form of a baby in a womb.
To mercifully know us and help us.
When we grasp Christmas.
That's when we realise God is big.
God makes himself big by becoming small.
So this Christmas.
Look at the Lord Jesus.
Look at this baby.
Look at the mercy of God.
And let our souls magnify the Lord.
Let me pray.