WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:07.000 There's a Christmas carol you might start hearing again soon if you haven't already. 00:00:07.000 --> 00:00:12.000 It's quite popular even in non-Christian settings. 00:00:12.000 --> 00:00:15.000 ! It goes something like this. 00:00:15.000 --> 00:00:21.000 Mary, did you know that your baby boy would one day walk on water? 00:00:21.000 --> 00:00:26.000 Mary, did you know that your baby boy would save our sons and daughters? 00:00:26.000 --> 00:00:30.000 Did you know that your baby boy has come to make you new? 00:00:30.000 --> 00:00:36.000 This child that you've delivered will soon deliver you. 00:00:36.000 --> 00:00:42.000 I'm not going to sing it for you today, but you'll hear it soon enough. 00:00:42.000 --> 00:00:53.000 We don't know exactly, do we, what Mary understood after the angel Gabriel came to announce to her that she would have a son and she would have to call him Jesus. 00:00:53.000 --> 00:01:01.000 If her reaction later in Jesus' life is anything to go by, I'm not sure she did understand all of what it meant. 00:01:01.000 --> 00:01:06.000 Definitely not in the way that we understand when we look back at those events. 00:01:06.000 --> 00:01:08.000 How could she? 00:01:08.000 --> 00:01:27.000 You can understand how it would be quite overwhelming for her, an unmarried virgin girl in first century Palestine, without, again, everything that we've known since, about Jesus' life, death and resurrection. 00:01:27.000 --> 00:01:34.000 And having just been visited by the angel Gabriel telling you that you're going to become pregnant and bear the son of God. 00:01:34.000 --> 00:01:43.000 We can try and place ourselves in her shoes and get a sense of how overwhelming all of this must have been. 00:01:43.000 --> 00:02:00.000 And yet her first reaction, when she's heard that her elderly cousin Elizabeth had become pregnant as well, when the sign the angel Gabriel gave to her, when he announced this promise to her, was for her to go to her cousin. 00:02:00.000 --> 00:02:07.000 And we can understand that at a very human level as well, can't we? 00:02:07.000 --> 00:02:10.000 That's what we do. 00:02:10.000 --> 00:02:25.000 When we're in a position where we have to process something that we can't talk to anybody about, that we feel no one else will understand, we seek someone out who would be able to understand. 00:02:25.000 --> 00:02:34.000 And she's going through an extraordinary, unimaginable pregnancy, that should humanly speaking be impossible. 00:02:34.000 --> 00:02:38.000 Who will understand? Elizabeth will understand. 00:02:38.000 --> 00:02:46.000 And all of this may well have been kind of playing around in her mind and the human shame that would have come along with her position. 00:02:46.000 --> 00:02:55.000 Even if she had said to the angel, Behold, I am the servant of the Lord, let it be to me according to your word. 00:02:55.000 --> 00:03:02.000 And we know that too, don't we? We can have different emotions swirling around in us at the same time. 00:03:02.000 --> 00:03:06.000 That doesn't mean we don't believe one thing because we feel something else as well. 00:03:06.000 --> 00:03:10.000 And in our faith it often is the same thing. 00:03:10.000 --> 00:03:14.000 We believe in God but at the same time we struggle with doubts and fears. 00:03:14.000 --> 00:03:19.000 Those things aren't necessarily mutually exclusive at the same time. 00:03:19.000 --> 00:03:24.000 And so far we've seen a son, haven't we? Two sons in fact promised. 00:03:24.000 --> 00:03:29.000 We've seen an impossible promise we can believe in. 00:03:29.000 --> 00:03:35.000 And now we see a blessed promise in this passage. 00:03:35.000 --> 00:03:44.000 And by now we're not surprised, are we, to find what we don't expect. 00:03:44.000 --> 00:03:52.000 Everything is unexpected when it comes to the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ. 00:03:52.000 --> 00:03:59.000 We might have expected a scene of them talking about their experiences if we've written the story. 00:03:59.000 --> 00:04:02.000 How did they feel? What was it like? 00:04:02.000 --> 00:04:06.000 What were their hopes and dreams for their children? 00:04:06.000 --> 00:04:09.000 How disrupted their lives would be now? 00:04:09.000 --> 00:04:13.000 But you know, it will all be worth it because the children would be special. 00:04:13.000 --> 00:04:17.000 Or rather extra special in this case. 00:04:17.000 --> 00:04:23.000 If we'd written the story, that's probably how the scene would have played out, I think. 00:04:23.000 --> 00:04:25.000 But no. 00:04:25.000 --> 00:04:26.000 No. 00:04:26.000 --> 00:04:31.000 John the Baptist and the Holy Spirit have other plans. 00:04:31.000 --> 00:04:35.000 Now Jesus was probably just a couple of weeks old at this point. 00:04:35.000 --> 00:04:37.000 Since conception. 00:04:37.000 --> 00:04:40.000 Not more than a bunch of cells in some ways. 00:04:40.000 --> 00:04:44.000 We're not sure exactly how many weeks, but not much. 00:04:44.000 --> 00:04:51.000 And the next extraordinary thing in the announcement of the birth of Jesus happens. 00:04:51.000 --> 00:04:55.000 Right here at this meeting of Mary and Elizabeth. 00:04:55.000 --> 00:05:01.000 It's not just Elizabeth who's overjoyed at having her cousin come to her. 00:05:01.000 --> 00:05:08.000 Her six month old baby in her womb leaps with joy. 00:05:08.000 --> 00:05:12.000 Now babies move. 00:05:12.000 --> 00:05:14.000 Expectant mothers know that very well. 00:05:14.000 --> 00:05:16.000 And some more than others. 00:05:16.000 --> 00:05:25.000 I've read about a baby who kicked so hard he broke his mother's rib. 00:05:25.000 --> 00:05:31.000 And that's not what happens here. 00:05:31.000 --> 00:05:37.000 This isn't an ordinary just a baby adjusting to get a bit more comfortable, is it? 00:05:37.000 --> 00:05:40.000 No, the Holy Spirit comes over Elizabeth. 00:05:40.000 --> 00:05:44.000 And she effectively prophesies. 00:05:44.000 --> 00:05:54.000 Through her, that unborn baby, John the Baptist, starts his ministry of announcing Jesus even from the womb. 00:05:54.000 --> 00:05:57.000 He was the last prophet. 00:05:57.000 --> 00:06:06.000 And the Bible tells us that Jesus calls him the greatest prophet because he was the one who would announce the coming of the Messiah. 00:06:06.000 --> 00:06:09.000 And he recognizes this. 00:06:09.000 --> 00:06:15.000 And he recognizes this to our eyes, probably still a very unformed baby in Mary's womb. 00:06:15.000 --> 00:06:18.000 She wouldn't have shown the pregnancy yet. 00:06:18.000 --> 00:06:22.000 But he recognizes what is going on. 00:06:22.000 --> 00:06:27.000 And he leaps with joy. 00:06:27.000 --> 00:06:31.000 And we have this remarkable, remarkable fact recounted to us. 00:06:31.000 --> 00:06:37.000 That Elizabeth knew what was going on because the Holy Spirit told her. 00:06:37.000 --> 00:06:46.000 And she tells us exactly what we should think of this obscure girl from a backwater place in Galilee. 00:06:46.000 --> 00:06:51.000 That she's blessed among women and the baby in her womb is blessed. 00:06:51.000 --> 00:06:52.000 Blessed by God. 00:06:52.000 --> 00:06:54.000 Recognized by God. 00:06:54.000 --> 00:06:56.000 And as we read last week, didn't we? 00:06:56.000 --> 00:06:58.000 Favored by God. 00:06:58.000 --> 00:07:03.000 And the reason, though, is what's important here. 00:07:03.000 --> 00:07:05.000 The reason she's called blessed. 00:07:05.000 --> 00:07:08.000 It's not that she became supernaturally pregnant. 00:07:08.000 --> 00:07:10.000 As amazing as that is. 00:07:10.000 --> 00:07:14.000 If you think about it, that probably created a lot more problems in her life. 00:07:14.000 --> 00:07:16.000 That she could have very well done without. 00:07:16.000 --> 00:07:18.000 Thank you very much. 00:07:18.000 --> 00:07:25.000 She could have done without the drama, the hassle, the embarrassment, the awkward questions and explanations. 00:07:25.000 --> 00:07:27.000 The looks on the street. 00:07:27.000 --> 00:07:29.000 The friends who shun her. 00:07:29.000 --> 00:07:34.000 And the problems with Joseph who wanted to break up the engagement. 00:07:34.000 --> 00:07:38.000 Mary's blessed, Elizabeth says. 00:07:38.000 --> 00:07:43.000 And by implication, Elizabeth is blessed because Mary comes to her. 00:07:43.000 --> 00:07:48.000 Because she is the mother of my Lord. 00:07:48.000 --> 00:07:53.000 Now 1 Corinthians 12 verse 3 says no one can confess Jesus as Lord. 00:07:53.000 --> 00:07:56.000 Other than by the work of the Holy Spirit. 00:07:56.000 --> 00:07:59.000 And that's what we see here as well, isn't it? 00:07:59.000 --> 00:08:03.000 Now just maybe quickly an aside I think at this point. 00:08:03.000 --> 00:08:06.000 I think our society has massively lost the plot on this. 00:08:06.000 --> 00:08:09.000 Don't you think? 00:08:09.000 --> 00:08:22.000 John the Baptist here, unborn as is, six months in the womb, recognizes what we want to deny in our approach to human life. 00:08:22.000 --> 00:08:26.000 To the unborn children we don't recognize as babies. 00:08:26.000 --> 00:08:32.000 Have you noticed how the text also talks about babies all the way through? 00:08:32.000 --> 00:08:39.000 Are not fetuses or products of conception or cells or even horror of horrors? 00:08:39.000 --> 00:08:41.000 A parasite? 00:08:41.000 --> 00:08:45.000 That's what people call unborn babies. 00:08:45.000 --> 00:08:51.000 John the Baptist, unborn as he was, leaps for joy because, as Elizabeth tells us, 00:08:51.000 --> 00:08:59.000 Mary is, is, not will be, the mother of her Lord. 00:08:59.000 --> 00:09:02.000 Blessed, verse 42, is the fruit of your womb. 00:09:02.000 --> 00:09:08.000 And that is just a Hebrew way of talking about children, born or unborn. 00:09:08.000 --> 00:09:13.000 The Greek word translated baby here is used for born and unborn children as well. 00:09:13.000 --> 00:09:17.000 So if we want to talk about whether the Bible is pro-life, 00:09:17.000 --> 00:09:22.000 I think John the Baptist is 1000% pro-life right here. 00:09:22.000 --> 00:09:29.000 He leaps for joy because even at that very, very initial stage of Mary's pregnancy, 00:09:29.000 --> 00:09:36.000 the Son of God had become Jesus Christ, a human being and God at the same time. 00:09:36.000 --> 00:09:38.000 So we need to remember that. 00:09:38.000 --> 00:09:45.000 And I think if we believe the Bible that must drive our thinking and actions about abortion in our nation. 00:09:45.000 --> 00:09:48.000 But that's an aside. 00:09:48.000 --> 00:09:56.000 Mary is called blessed because she's given the privilege of giving birth to the Messiah, isn't she? 00:09:56.000 --> 00:09:59.000 And Elizabeth recognizes that. 00:09:59.000 --> 00:10:04.000 Nothing special has happened to Mary in some sense, 00:10:04.000 --> 00:10:07.000 in the sense that she didn't become something she wasn't. 00:10:07.000 --> 00:10:09.000 She didn't become divine. 00:10:09.000 --> 00:10:15.000 She didn't become, as many people believe, someone we have to pray through to reach God. 00:10:16.000 --> 00:10:19.000 But she is indeed blessed, isn't she? 00:10:19.000 --> 00:10:26.000 For all eternity, she will be the person who gave birth to the Lord Jesus Christ. 00:10:27.000 --> 00:10:30.000 Who taught him how to eat. 00:10:30.000 --> 00:10:31.000 Who cleaned his diapers. 00:10:31.000 --> 00:10:34.000 Who taught him how to walk and get dressed. 00:10:34.000 --> 00:10:38.000 Who took him on play dates and to the synagogue to be taught. 00:10:38.000 --> 00:10:42.000 Who to share him with others when he had grown up. 00:10:42.000 --> 00:10:44.000 And who watched him die on the cross. 00:10:44.000 --> 00:10:46.000 And suffered that anguish. 00:10:46.000 --> 00:10:50.000 She was blessed because God had chosen her, 00:10:50.000 --> 00:10:56.000 who had not done anything to deserve that honor, that privilege. 00:10:56.000 --> 00:10:59.000 Someone who didn't have status, who wasn't important. 00:10:59.000 --> 00:11:05.000 But God chose her to play a role in his saving plan for humanity. 00:11:05.000 --> 00:11:13.000 It doesn't always feel like a blessing to raise children, especially when they are little. 00:11:13.000 --> 00:11:20.000 And it is only really later, I think, that we see that she fully understood what it is that he came and what he would do. 00:11:20.000 --> 00:11:29.000 But Elizabeth here recognizes through the power of the Holy Spirit that he would be the Lord. 00:11:29.000 --> 00:11:34.000 She recognized something of what he was right there and then. 00:11:34.000 --> 00:11:41.000 She recognized someone who even her own son, Gabriel, remember, said John the Baptist would be great before the Lord. 00:11:41.000 --> 00:11:51.000 She recognizes that even her own son recognizes this baby as the Lord, as God. 00:11:51.000 --> 00:11:55.000 The promised Savior of the world God had promised. 00:11:55.000 --> 00:12:00.000 But there is even more to it than that. 00:12:00.000 --> 00:12:02.000 That we see. 00:12:02.000 --> 00:12:09.000 As much of a blessing it is that Mary was going to give birth to Jesus. 00:12:09.000 --> 00:12:12.000 Elizabeth tells us in verse 45, 00:12:12.000 --> 00:12:29.000 And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord. 00:12:29.000 --> 00:12:33.000 That she believed that what God promised to her would come true. 00:12:33.000 --> 00:12:37.000 That God had promised to Israel through all their history would come through. 00:12:37.000 --> 00:12:44.000 That what God had promised since the beginning of time, since the Garden of Eden, since the Fall, would come true. 00:12:44.000 --> 00:12:49.000 And especially the promises that he made to her would come true. 00:12:49.000 --> 00:12:51.000 And that is the nub of it, isn't it? 00:12:51.000 --> 00:13:00.000 Now what we have seen so far is this contrast between Zechariah and Mary and how they react to this news, these promises of sons to be born. 00:13:00.000 --> 00:13:06.000 Mary heard the promises from God and she believed them. 00:13:06.000 --> 00:13:10.000 Whether she understood it all and all the implications or not. 00:13:10.000 --> 00:13:13.000 Or whether she had all her questions answered or not. 00:13:13.000 --> 00:13:17.000 And I think in fact we know she didn't. 00:13:17.000 --> 00:13:23.000 She didn't know, as the lyrics of that carol we spoke about at the beginning goes on, 00:13:23.000 --> 00:13:26.000 That her baby boy is the Lord of all creation. 00:13:26.000 --> 00:13:29.000 That one day he would rule the nations. 00:13:29.000 --> 00:13:32.000 That he is heaven's perfect lamb. 00:13:32.000 --> 00:13:37.000 That that sleeping child you are holding is the great I am. 00:13:37.000 --> 00:13:44.000 The greatest blessing anyone can receive from God is for God to recognize us. 00:13:44.000 --> 00:13:47.000 To treat us like we don't deserve. 00:13:47.000 --> 00:13:52.000 To love us even when we are not just neutral towards him. 00:13:52.000 --> 00:13:56.000 But the Bible tells us hated him. 00:13:56.000 --> 00:14:00.000 To adopt us as his sons and daughters. 00:14:00.000 --> 00:14:04.000 As impossible as a virgin conceiving. 00:14:04.000 --> 00:14:07.000 But not impossible for God. 00:14:07.000 --> 00:14:12.000 And if that's you sitting here today, you are blessed among men and women. 00:14:12.000 --> 00:14:18.000 More blessed than what Elizabeth was calling Mary in some sense. 00:14:18.000 --> 00:14:25.000 If you believe that those promises of God to you, that Jesus was born as a man, that he is the son of God, that he died for you. 00:14:25.000 --> 00:14:28.000 And that you are, that your sins are forgiven. 00:14:28.000 --> 00:14:30.000 If you believe in Jesus. 00:14:32.000 --> 00:14:35.000 I think often that's a massive stumbling block for people, isn't it? 00:14:36.000 --> 00:14:40.000 But they can't believe it all and therefore they don't believe any of it. 00:14:40.000 --> 00:14:47.000 That they want to understand everything and all the implications for their lives and all the questions they possibly have. 00:14:47.000 --> 00:14:51.000 And that somehow those things keep them from believing what they can believe right now. 00:14:51.000 --> 00:14:53.000 The promises that God has made to them. 00:14:54.000 --> 00:14:55.000 Now that's you. 00:14:55.000 --> 00:15:00.000 Then God is asking you to recognize that Jesus is the Lord. 00:15:00.000 --> 00:15:08.000 That his greatest promise to us to give us a savior to the human race has been fulfilled. 00:15:08.000 --> 00:15:12.000 To recognize what Mary recognized. 00:15:12.000 --> 00:15:19.000 And that he can be your savior despite you not having done anything to deserve it. 00:15:20.000 --> 00:15:22.000 You don't have to be important. 00:15:22.000 --> 00:15:25.000 You don't have to have honor and status. 00:15:25.000 --> 00:15:27.000 You don't have to be perfect. 00:15:29.000 --> 00:15:37.000 May you, maybe even physically, leap for joy this Christmas time when you put your faith in Jesus. 00:15:37.000 --> 00:15:46.000 And if you have believed God's promises, like Mary, may you leap with joy anew this Christmas time. 00:15:46.000 --> 00:15:51.000 May you marvel at the wonder of what happened 2000 years ago in Galilee. 00:15:52.000 --> 00:16:00.000 But may you be even more astounded at the fact that he's made those promises to you. 00:16:01.000 --> 00:16:04.000 And that he gave you the favor to believe them. 00:16:04.000 --> 00:16:05.000 Amen. 00:16:06.000 --> 00:16:07.000 Let's pray. 00:16:07.000 --> 00:16:08.000 Let's pray. 00:16:08.000 --> 00:16:08.000 00:16:08.000 --> 00:16:08.000 00:16:08.000 --> 00:16:08.000 00:16:08.000 --> 00:16:08.000 00:16:08.000 --> 00:16:09.100 Let's pray. 00:16:09.100 --> 00:16:09.100 00:16:09.100 --> 00:16:09.100 00:16:09.100 --> 00:16:09.100 00:16:09.100 --> 00:16:09.100 00:16:09.100 --> 00:16:09.100 00:16:09.100 --> 00:16:09.100 00:16:09.100 --> 00:16:09.100 00:16:09.100 --> 00:16:09.100 00:16:09.100 --> 00:16:09.100 00:16:09.100 --> 00:16:09.100 00:16:09.100 --> 00:16:09.100 00:16:09.100 --> 00:16:09.100 00:16:09.100 --> 00:16:09.100 00:16:09.100 --> 00:16:09.100 00:16:09.100 --> 00:16:09.100 00:16:09.100 --> 00:16:09.100 00:16:09.100 --> 00:16:09.100 00:16:09.100 --> 00:16:09.100 00:16:09.100 --> 00:16:09.100 00:16:09.100 --> 00:16:09.100 00:16:09.100 --> 00:16:09.100 00:16:09.100 --> 00:16:09.100 00:16:09.100 --> 00:16:09.100 00:16:09.100 --> 00:16:09.100 00:16:09.100 --> 00:16:09.100 00:16:09.100 --> 00:16:09.100 00:16:09.100 --> 00:16:09.100