Hi, my name is George Sinclair. I'm the lead pastor of Church of the Messiah.
! It is wonderful that you would like to check out some of the sermons done by Church of the Messiah,
either by myself or some of the others. Listen, just a couple of things. First of all, would you pray for us
that we will open God's Word well to His glory and for the good of people like yourself?
The second thing is, if you aren't connected to a church and if you are a Christian,
we really, I would really like to encourage you to find a good local church where they believe the
Bible, they preach the gospel, and if you have some trouble finding that, send us an email. We will do
what we can to help connect you with a good local church wherever you are. And if you're a non-Christian,
checking us out, we're really, really, really glad you're doing that. Don't hesitate to send us
questions. It helps me actually to know, as I'm preaching, how to deal with the types of things
that you're really struggling with. So God bless.
What I'm about to say might be a bit of a trigger for some people, and I don't apologize for it,
because it's important to talk about. But I just want to let you know, because the text has actually
something very important to talk about in terms of sexual violence against women. And so I know that
there might be women here who have been victims, or maybe even being victims of sexual violence. And
so this could be a bit hard. Even me saying this could be a bit hard. All I could say is, if it is
hard, we would love to walk with you and pray with you. And if you need some help in pursuing justice,
we would love to walk with you as you pursue that. But I'm not just saying this just because it would be
a good thing to get your attention at the beginning, although I probably, most of you thought when you
were coming to church today, I wouldn't begin my sermon with something like that. But during this
season of Advent, we're going to do four songs of the Savior. And all of them are in the Gospel of Luke.
And the first one we're going to look at is what's called the Magnificat, or Mary's Song. And it's sung by
Mary after she, well, we'll get to it in the story, but it's before the birth of Jesus. Next Sunday, we're going to
look at Zedekiah's song after John the Baptist is born and before the birth of Jesus. And on the third Sunday,
we're going to look at the song that the angels sang to the shepherds to announce that Jesus was born. And then on the
Sunday before Christmas, we're going to look at the song that Simeon sang over the baby Jesus. And that's called the
Nunc Dimittis, for those of you who are familiar with that from maybe classical music or liturgy. And it's very
interesting. So if you turn your Bibles, it's, I'm going to, well, it was going to be in Luke chapter one. And here's the
thing about it. So what goes on before Mary's Song? If you don't know what goes on before Mary's Song, then Mary's Song doesn't
make any sense. And so what's happened just before this is that the angel Gabriel has appeared to a young woman by the name of
Mary. And Mary was probably 15 years old. In those days, engagements were about a year. So she probably would have been
married around 16. So she's probably 15 when he has this visit from the angel and she would be in her home. And she's Jewish. And
she's of lower working class background. And she lives in Nowheresville, even in terms of the Jewish world and in terms of
ultimately the colonizing power of Rome, the great Roman Empire. She's a very, very, very low status. And she, if, if, and they
would think Jerusalem was Nowheresville. So this is like Nowheresville squared where she is. And she's in, in her house, probably. And all of a sudden, an angel appears from
God and speaks to her. And when he speaks to her, he says that she's favored. Basically, he says that the Most High God would like to use her to be the vehicle or the means by which God, the Son of God, would enter into the human story.
That the great invasion, which has been promised in the scriptures for centuries, is about to take place.
And that the Son of God himself will be born through her. And after he says these things to her, Mary asks some clarifying questions. Because she's not dumb, she's smart. And she knows how babies are born.
One of the problems we have regularly reading the Bible is that we think because we have things like TikTok and Instagram, we're smarter than older people who didn't have those things.
Although, as increasing research shows, you might actually be smarter before TikTok and Instagram than after you've gotten immersed in it.
But she's smart. She knows how babies are born. And she says, well, how on earth is this going to be? I've never known a man sexually. I'm a virgin.
And then Gabriel, on behalf of God, says, well, the Holy Spirit's going to overshadow you.
And God is going to do a miracle within your womb. And you will become pregnant.
Now, it's very interesting, I think, that Luke is the only one of the gospel writers who tells this story.
And it's interesting for this reason. Luke was a pagan who became a Christian.
That means that the guy who wrote this was a man who would have worshipped the Roman and Greek gods and goddesses as part of his just normal habit.
He would have been involved in the worship and sacrifice into these deities from childhood.
From childhood, it would have been deeply ingrained in him.
And then somewhere along the line, we're not told how, he becomes a Christian.
He leaves behind the pagan deities and pledges himself to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
He pledges himself to the God revealed in Jesus and to Jesus himself.
And so Luke, after he becomes a Christian, by the way, if you go back and read it from the start,
what he did is he went and decided he would go and talk to as many eyewitnesses as he could find and put together the true story of Jesus,
write a biography of Jesus, and he did that while many eyewitnesses were still alive.
But he probably put this thing in here in a way that maybe the Jewish writers who wrote the other biographies of Jesus from a time of eyewitnesses might not have thought of.
Because he would have known that when it comes to this point in the time of the story,
that an angel, a representative of God, has come to speak to Mary,
to say that this is what the God of, the triune God would like to do,
he would know, and maybe this was how he experienced it the first time,
there would be a bit of a catch in his chest.
And that's because the gods of the ancient world raped women.
The gods of the ancient world were serial rapists.
And so he would have, when he heard this story for the first time,
he would have been going, maybe even expecting a certain particular thing to happen.
But what happens would have blown his mind and blown his entire religious categories.
Because the angel, the representative, the triune God, waits for Mary's consent.
Waits for Mary's consent.
In the ancient world, a Roman, I mean, not that all men would have been rapists,
but a Roman man, a Greek man, a well-educated man, a common man,
would have said the idea that a woman needs to give consent
is against all piety and against all reason.
Because surely all of our worship and our understanding of the gods
is that the strong and the powerful can do whatever they want
without the consent of other people.
The gods regularly send others out to die on their behalf and for their own glory.
And obviously that's the case.
And obviously that's just what reason tells you,
that the strong can do what they want with the weak.
And that's how society is organized.
It's part of our cultural norms,
that those things are completely and utterly valid.
And it would have not just been in the Roman world,
but throughout the entire ancient world,
where things like harems and all were in fact just a commonplace.
Because of course, once again with harems,
is that powerful men can accumulate as many women as they want,
usually without their will,
to satisfy their sexual desires.
And in the history of the entire world,
all of a sudden,
there is something which blows these categories
completely and utterly up.
You see, in the ancient world,
the gods can rape and the powerful can rape,
then why can't I?
If I'm a man and I'm strong enough.
But if the Most High Triune God needs consent,
every man needs consent,
with no exception.
And it's very interesting that this story isn't just sort of like one of those things
where it's a little tiny aside,
buried in a whole pile of other types of things
that you just sort of all of it,
you just skip over.
This is actually part of the central,
part of the,
if you were to take the whole story of Jesus,
and that's unbelievably foundational for all Christians,
and yet even within that,
if you were to take a couple of the high moments,
like if you were to tell some kids about the high moments of the story of Jesus,
the story of the birth of Jesus
would be one of those high moments in that particular story.
And so right at that high moment of the high story
is this idea of consent.
And the history of thinking begins to change at this moment.
I told several people this week,
some of my non-Christian friends,
I had two opportunities to talk to people
who are outside the Christian faith this week,
and they happened to ask me about my sermon.
And I said,
well, you actually might find this very interesting.
You know, I said,
the average Canadian thinks that a woman needing to give consent
for sexual knowing is just common sense and reasonable.
But that's not true.
It's actually a Christian idea.
I tell them what I just told you.
It's a Christian idea.
It came into the world through the Bible.
That's how the idea came to be.
And so for people now in the world
who think it's just reasonable,
it's in fact a memory of a memory of a memory of a memory of a memory
of this central story which has now formed you.
And in fact, I said,
if you think about it for a second,
one of the two or three governing stories
that govern how Canadians think
is the naturalistic understanding of evolutionary theory.
And at the heart of that theory is this,
the strong eat the weak,
so the strong survive and the weak die.
And there's no way you can go from the story
of the strong eating the weak
so that the strong survive
to therefore women need to give their consent.
That doesn't fit with that story.
So the only reason that that story
has an overwhelmed consciousness yet in the West
is because of the memory of the memory of the memory
of the memory of this Christian story,
which now seems to be mere common sense
that any thoughtful person would come to understand.
And the key to this, of course, whole story is that it's true.
Because if it's not true,
when I was in high school 100 million years ago,
a very common button that many people would wear,
sort of interesting they'd wear it to school,
would be question authority.
Another version was who says.
They'd wear it into class.
Who says?
Question authority.
Well, if this story is just a story amongst other stories,
then it actually, you can just say,
well, who says?
But Christians believe this is what actually happened.
It's a true story of what actually happened.
And so in the story,
if you just turn in your Bibles to verse 36,
sorry, verse 38, it says this.
And when the angel says to Mary about these things,
and he says, nothing will be impossible with God,
in verse 38 of chapter 1,
Mary said,
Behold, I am the servant of the Lord,
the doulos of the Lord.
That's what the word literally means, doulos.
Let it be to me according to your word.
And the angel departed from her.
And there's these two very, very powerful parts of her answer.
She first of all says to the Lord,
not to the angel, but to the Lord,
I will be your doulos.
That means it's a certain type of servant.
It's not like a slave,
but it's more than just like somebody
that you'd hire to clean your house.
It means I desire to belong to you.
And as belonging to you,
I trust that you will be the one who will care for me
and provide for me.
And whatever you say, I will do.
I will do.
That's her response to the angel.
And it's a very, very powerful prayer.
And we're going to return to it in a moment
in terms of all of its significance.
But that's her response to what is said.
And it's within this whole context
that you now have to understand the Magnificat,
which we're going to look at.
And here's how it goes.
Immediately after this,
Mary goes to see a relative named Elizabeth.
She's had a different type of miraculous.
Oh, I missed something.
The moment that Mary says her consent to God,
God does a miracle and implants a zygote
connected to the womb of Mary.
Mary says yes.
And God creates a zygote connected to the womb of Mary.
And Mary's pregnant.
It's a miracle.
She's now pregnant.
She goes to see Elizabeth.
Elizabeth and her.
Elizabeth ends up having a prophetic word
and pronouncing some prophetic words over Mary.
It's both a very charismatic and a very musical thing
that she sings over her.
And after she says,
after Elizabeth is filled with the Holy Spirit
and pronounces this prophetic word in song over Mary,
Mary then does what's called the Magnificat.
And so if you turn in your Bibles,
it's Luke chapter 1, verse 46 and following.
And just as you're turning that,
something here which is really, really cool,
which is this.
It's at least since the early 700s,
Christians who've decided to worship
and pray together at night
have included this
as part of their time of Bible reading and prayer,
the Magnificat.
Since the early 700s.
That means there's 1,300 years
that many Christians have thought
that if you want to spend time on a Sunday evening
or any evening reading the Bible and praying,
you should include this as one of the readings
to help form you
in terms of how to pray
and how to read the Bible.
Like, isn't that cool?
And in the Greek part of the world,
the part of the ancient world
that spoke Greek, not Latin,
that begins around the same time
when they'd put it in the morning,
not the evening.
And you get an echo of this
or a remnant of all of this
that if you go and get
the Book of Common Prayer,
you'll see that it is, in fact,
one of the regular canticles
of evening prayer, even song.
And anyway, here's the song
and here's what goes on in it.
So we have the context
of God approaching Mary.
She gives her this yes.
She's now pregnant with the Most High God,
the Son of God,
the Savior of the world,
and she bursts into song.
What we're going to do,
I'm going to read the whole song.
It's just very short.
Then we'll circle back
and we'll look at it,
three things in particular
that are very important to us.
And so in verse 46,
it goes,
Mary said,
my soul magnifies...
By the way,
one of the things is,
if you go to do even song,
there's an even song way
of singing it.
My soul doth magnify the Lord
and my spirit hath rejoiced
in God my Savior.
Anyway, that's if you do
the prayer book.
But it's also been the case
that people have
metrical versions of this.
And during our offertory,
we're going to sing
the Magnificat
with a metrical version
that goes back
to around the year 1600.
So pretty old.
And we're going to sing it
during the offertory
as I'm setting the table
for the Lord's Supper.
But here's how it goes right now.
My soul magnifies the Lord
and my spirit rejoices
in God my Savior.
For he has looked
on the humble estate
of his servant.
For behold,
from now on...
Here we are
in Ottawa
in 2025
reading this text
that she's blessed.
That's just
fulfilled prophecy.
You think of all
the different prophecies
that oracles would have made
in pagan temples
around this time.
Nobody knows anything
other than maybe
an ultra nerds,
nerds, nerds, nerd
doing a PhD dissertation
in classical studies
looking for some remote topic
of the ancient world
that nobody's written on
and they might find it.
Absolutely nobody
other than their PhDs,
even their PhD supervisors
probably bored with it,
but they have to do it
so the person got the PhD.
But this is true.
It happened.
Like here we are looking at it.
I'll read verse 40.
It's cool.
Like we don't realize.
That's true.
It happened, right?
Look at verse 48 again.
For he has looked
on the humble estate
of his servant.
For behold,
from now on
all generations
will call me blessed.
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
and 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.
That's Mary's song,
the Magnificat.
Now,
why do you think
that this might be something
that for 1300 years
many Christians have thought
would be a worthy part
if you're going to have
some Bible reading
and some prayer?
Let's also read this.
Why would they have thought that?
And they'd put in a creed
in the Lord's Prayer.
A couple of things like that
to help form you.
Well, let's look at the words.
I think you'll start to see
why they would want to do it.
So first of all,
look at that.
We'll go to verse 46 again.
My soul magnifies the Lord
and my spirit
has rejoiced in God my Savior.
And soul and spirit,
it's just creating
some poetic parallelism there.
But here's the first thing
to understand.
We moderns,
when we think of this,
we think of the soul
as being something
sort of wispy
and immaterial
somewhere in here.
But early Christians
would have said
they would have looked at us
puzzled if we thought that
because we tend to think
of things like soul
as something a bit emotional
and hence therefore
wispy and changeable.
The ancients would have
understand that
not that the soul
is hiding somewhere
in the body,
but that the body
is in the soul.
Now there's,
that's something
to blow your mind.
The body is in the soul.
In other words,
what a human being is,
is I am an enfleshed
or embodied
or material soul.
And so when she says
my soul magnifies the Lord
and my spirit rejoices
in God my Savior,
she's not saying
this little tiny bit
of emotional bit of me,
no, do you have soul,
is what's magnifying the Lord.
All of her is magnifying the Lord.
That's, that's,
and so here we can start
to see why it's something
that Christians would think
is good to read
because it's saying
my mind, my will,
my affections,
my imagination,
my creativity,
my desires,
my sexuality,
my use of money,
my relationship
with other people,
my relationship
with power,
my soul,
all of me magnifies
the Lord.
And what does
this word magnify?
It's very easy
to get that misunderstood
because it's not a word
that generally is used
in modern English.
And a lot of modern
translations avoid using it.
But it's, I think,
one of those cases
where I can understand
for devotional,
you don't,
you don't want to avoid words
that people don't understand.
But in a church,
it's part of a church's
obligation to help us
understand words.
And so the word magnify,
when we think of it,
we tend to think of it
as like I'm a really big
human being
with a really big mind
and I need to see
some little tiny bit
of bacteria.
So I get a,
you know,
I get a something
that I can magnify it
because I'm big
and that's small.
And, and,
but you get in there
within the idea.
That's not what it's saying.
You know,
the idea of magnify
is to,
to,
to make big,
to make much of,
to see as being
really important
as something that,
whether it's in your
inside voice,
speaking to yourself
or your outside voice
that you want to,
you want to think about
and say,
wow,
that's really big.
That's really awesome.
That's really glorious.
That's really beautiful.
That's really true.
Wow.
You want to have the wow
and,
and have things
that you say wow about
and that's what magnifying means.
So it says,
my soul magnifies the Lord
and my spirit rejoices
in God,
my savior.
And,
and,
and some of us Christians
say,
okay,
I can start to see that
because surely
that would be one of those things
when you're reading the Bible,
you want to be hearing things
that,
that not,
not the woes,
but why,
why God is so great
and why we need to make sure
that he's part of our internal thoughts
and dialogue
and,
and things that we say,
rather than having things
that we say all the time
of boy,
you're stupid,
boy,
you're ugly,
you know,
boy,
you're a failure,
you know,
boy,
you'll never announce anything,
you know,
gosh,
you're a failure.
Like,
rather than having that type
of an internal voice
going on in your mind,
wouldn't it be better
to talk about
how great the Lord is?
How great the Lord is?
To realize
that maybe part of the task
of being a Christian
is to change
how the talk
inside your head
goes
and the talk
of your outdoor lips
as well,
your outside lips
as well.
But there's even
something more than this
because,
you see,
a lot of people
would say,
and you can think
of here different people,
maybe you can think
of the type of person,
you know,
likes going to bars
and very secular,
or maybe you can think
of somebody
who's in a boardroom
or,
you know,
a university professor,
very secular,
and they hear something
like that and they do this.
Lean back and say,
well,
okay,
I mean,
if that turns your crank,
that's fine.
But I don't magnify
things like that.
I don't magnify
things like that.
If that turns your crank,
that's fine.
Now,
you know what's so funny
about that?
They just magnified
themselves.
They do magnify.
They just don't want
to magnify the Lord,
but they're quite happy
to magnify themselves.
Right?
I'm not that sort
of person.
Like,
you little people,
you do it,
but I'm not that type
of person.
So here's the thing.
The question is not,
will I magnify?
The question is,
what are you
currently magnifying?
That's the question.
And are you even
conscious
of what you magnify?
Or are you the victim
of your unconscious
magnifying?
And if you become
conscious of what
you magnify,
should you really
magnify that?
Like,
are you able
to change
what you magnify?
Let me tell you,
for the average
Canadian,
and probably the,
and when I say
average Canadian,
I conclude
average Christians,
the average Canadian
magnifies fear.
fear.
The average Canadian
magnifies fear.
Your algorithms
push it.
I know I'm
100 million years
old,
and,
but I'm guessing
that if in the
very dawn of things
you go back
and there was going
to be five or
ten centimeters
of snow,
and if you had
something that you
could look up,
or maybe you would
just call up the
weatherman or whatever,
it wouldn't be like
the apps now,
which have these
bold red things
to make you afraid
of all the snow
that's going to come.
Like,
if I had told my
parents,
oh,
mom and dad,
there's going to be
like seven or eight
centimeters of snow,
maybe I shouldn't
go to school.
They would have
cuffed me on the
side of the head
and said,
off you go to school.
Right?
But they want to
make you afraid
about the weather.
Not about the weather.
I mean,
Ottawa,
it snows in Ottawa.
Like,
if you're just
a brand new Canadian
and you've come
from,
like,
Hawaii,
and they didn't
tell you there snows
in Ottawa in January,
you need to ask
your money back,
right?
Because it snows,
right?
Like,
obviously there can
be lots of snow,
but I'm being very
trivial.
But the fact is,
we magnify our fears.
That's one thing
that Canadians do.
We magnify anxiety
and we magnify worry.
That's a common
type of thing.
It's why so many
people want to do
drugs and drink alcohol
and do a whole pile
of other types of things
because we magnify fear.
And that's separate
from the fact
or connected
to the fact,
actually,
that we magnify
ourselves,
we magnify sex,
we magnify money,
we magnify power,
we magnify
academic accomplishment,
we magnify
our creative accomplishment,
we magnify
our reputation,
we magnify,
and we come together
on a Sunday night
to say some prayers
as people who are
magnifying these things
and Mary teaches us
to magnify the Lord.
And my spirit
rejoices in God,
my Savior.
See,
the fact of the matter
is that many
of the things
that we magnify
actually only make
us more anxious.
If you magnify money,
you never have
enough money.
If you magnify
academic achievement,
you never have
enough academic achievement.
If you magnify
your looks,
bad news,
everybody ages.
Wrinkles
and dimples
where they're not cute
are the future
of every person.
But some people
might say,
here's the problem.
They'd say,
okay,
that all sounds good,
George,
but I mean,
the Savior bit?
I mean,
why on earth
do they want to say,
make you say,
my soul magnifies the Lord,
my spirit rejoices in God,
my Savior?
I mean,
George,
that's one of the things
which I've never
really understood.
about,
you know,
about Christianity.
So,
I mean,
there's two things here,
George,
that I don't really understand.
The first one is this,
that,
you know,
so you want to make God
really big.
You know,
that's what you're really
sort of saying,
right?
So you want to make God big.
You want to understand him
as really being big
and worthy of extolling
and understanding
just how big he is.
You want to have all of that
and then you want to make big
the fact that you're going
to be saved.
But,
George,
here's the problem,
George,
that don't you think
that it's better
if God just taught me
how to save myself.
Like,
it sounds a little bit
to me,
George,
like,
you know those old movies
from the 50s
and the 60s
where some man
had to rescue a woman
because women
couldn't rescue
or save themselves?
And haven't we evolved
to the point now
where we understand
that that's like
a really dumb thing
to teach people?
Like,
why teach women
that men have to come
and save them?
Like,
why don't we teach women
that they can save themselves,
that they can punch
the bad guy,
they can handle the guns,
they can do the kicks,
they can do the cleverness?
Like,
and if that,
if we've learned that
about men and women,
like,
why,
like,
George,
I don't understand
this whole thing
about why,
so not only do I not understand
how,
just talking about
how big God is,
like,
George,
don't you think
that this idea
of big God,
doesn't that just often
just crush people?
Like,
there's lots of religions,
like,
every religion really
other than maybe paganism
talks about the bigness of God,
like pantheism,
I mean,
everything is God,
that's bigger than you
and,
and Islam,
God is huge
and look at all the terrible
things that come from it
and,
and so I don't understand
why that just God
being really big
is something that would
be helpful to me
and,
and reduce my anxiety.
If it did,
like,
that would be interesting
and,
and why,
why this,
all this talk about
God needing to save me,
it just sounds so like
fifties
and,
and not in a,
not in a good way.
Well,
those are good observations.
Let's look at how Mary
deals with these types
of,
of problems
that we might have
with that,
whether we say it out loud
or just sort of in our soul
because it's part of
how our culture thinks.
Look at verse 46 again,
my soul magnifies the Lord
and my spirit rejoices
in God,
my Savior.
Verse 49,
48,
for he has looked
on the humble estate
of his servant.
For behold,
from now on
all generations
will call me blessed.
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.
generation.
Now,
we'll just pause here
for a second.
This is the first
of the two types
of reasons
about,
you know,
the types of problems
we might have
with this.
I think when I was young,
I would have thought
that my greatest need
was justice.
I needed more justice
from my teachers.
I needed more justice
from my parents.
I needed more justice
from my friends.
Now,
it probably is the case
that I did need
some justice
from people
like that.
But as I get older,
I realize that
my greatest need
isn't justice.
My greatest need
is mercy.
I mean,
one of the things
that we need
to learn in marriage,
I mean,
you know,
I probably would have
heard this,
that when you marry
somebody,
you're marrying a sinner.
You're a sinner
marrying a sinner
in marriage.
But one of the things
that really becomes
very obvious
as you get married,
and maybe it's not
obvious,
it takes a while
for it to penetrate
people like me
who had very thick skulls
and are clueless,
is a marriage won't survive
unless the other person
shows you mercy.
It just won't survive
without mercy being shown.
Because marriage reveals
not only that the other person
is a sinner,
but marriage reveals
how big a sinner
you actually are yourself.
I actually am myself.
And so what I really need
to have any type
of intimacy,
and that even in friendship,
what we often need
in friends primarily
is mercy.
Now,
what the Bible teaches
isn't cheap mercy,
but costly mercy
and true mercy.
Cheap mercy
is where the powerful
ignore justice
for pet causes
or favoritism.
We have a bit of a problem
with that right now
going on with the courts,
that there's a problem,
to talk once again
about the sexual matters,
that there seems to be
a problem right now
in the courts
of judges deciding
that they're going to dismiss
minimal sentences
or throw things out.
And that doesn't
cost them anything.
And a lot of Canadians
are thinking
that just makes no sense
from a justice point of view
that how they're treating
people who are pedophiles
and rapists
and sexual violence,
and they're getting passes,
or privileged groups
are getting passes,
and it's causing
a tiny bit of a start
of a scandal,
at least in some circles.
But they might say
they're showing mercy,
but they're not showing mercy.
They've just thrown
justice out the window.
True mercy
does not at all
ever contradict justice.
And only the gospel
and only the biblical faith
makes that very, very clear.
You know, it's not
that well-known,
but did you know
that in Islam,
I can't remember the surah,
in Islam,
everybody who dies
goes to hell.
And then before
those jihadis
who've killed people
get to go to the
Islamic heaven
and have the perpetual virgins
to their pleasure and delight,
they actually go to hell first,
and then Allah says
he'll go to hell
and he'll pick out
those lucky ones
whom he's going to send
up to his heaven.
But even then,
there's no type of justice.
He just picks the people.
But you see,
here's where the story
of Mary is so
and unbelievably powerful
and why it's so
emotionally rich.
The story of Mary's song
begins with this revelation
that God, the Son of God,
is about to enter
into the human condition
and enter into
the human world.
And he enters very lowly.
He enters the way
we all enter,
as a zygote,
attached to our mother's womb
and goes through
the entire process
of gestation and birth
and a helpless infant
and then works
as a lower working class man
and all of that.
And then this story
is the beginning of a story
that ends in Luke chapter 24
and before we get to that,
we get to the point
of the whole story
that changes the story,
which is God,
the Son of God,
dying on the cross
despite the fact
that he's innocent.
And we even get
within that whole story
that it's only in Luke's gospel
we get the famous account
of the two thieves
who were crucified
on either side of him.
And if you read
the other gospels,
each of those two thieves
called Jesus' names
and insulted him
for a lot of the day,
but at some point in time,
close to the time
at the end when they die,
one of the thieves,
seeing Jesus
and how he is
and his silence
and his dignity
has a change of heart
and rebukes the other person
who's insulting Jesus
and then turns to Jesus
and in an act
of very profound faith
that none of us have.
He says,
Jesus,
can I be with you
when you enter
into your glory?
And Jesus turns to him
and says,
today you will be with me
in paradise.
See, in a sense,
the whole gospel
is pointing us
to this point in time
that because God is,
Jesus is God,
the Son of God,
he truly can stand
for every single human being.
And so the justice
that I need to have
that falls upon me,
Jesus says,
would you, George,
consider me
to be your master
and allow me,
would you come into my life
and allow me
to come into your life
so that the things
that should happen to you
that will completely
and utterly ruin you
forever,
for all eternity,
I am willing
to have them fall on me
because I want
to show you mercy
and the justice
that should fall on you
will fall on me.
so that you might
know my mercy.
And if you say yes
to that,
that you will be
my servant
and that you will
let everything
according to your word
be true of me,
then my word to you
is that on the day
of your death
you will enter
into my paradise,
my kingdom.
And so in the death
of Jesus,
you see God's justice
maintained
and you see mercy
offered to those
like you and me
who are far from God.
and it's in that context
then,
look at what it says
again in verse 50.
And his mercy
is for those
who fear him
from generation to generation.
Now,
you can go back
and listen to my
Ecclesiastes sermons
about what the fear
of God means.
It's ultimately
a term of intimacy
and self-recognition
and proper boundaries
that allow proper love
and you can go back
and listen to them.
But did you get this?
When you enter
into that relationship,
when in a sense
you accept
God's mercy,
he's for you.
He's for you.
Right now,
today,
every day,
until you die,
he is for you.
Why would you not
want to have that
fill your mind
and magnify him?
And what better thing
can you have
to magnify him
than the knowledge
that his mercy
is for you
in all of your problems
and all of your mess
and not for you
in a way
that there's not going to,
you shouldn't still
be concerned for justice,
you should stand
for justice,
you should stand
against injustice,
but his mercy
is for you.
That's how we're
to hear the Bible.
That's how we're
to pray.
We're to fill our minds
with the greatness
and beauty of God,
the Savior.
And why do we need
a Savior?
It's all here
in the text.
It's very interesting.
Look at verses 51
to the following.
And by the way,
just two things
before I read 51
to the following.
The first thing is,
you'll notice,
you might say,
well no,
God hasn't fed the hungry
and God hasn't done this
and God hasn't done all of that,
not in the way
it's described,
but there's an actual
tense
in the original language
which doesn't exist
in English
and the tense is
that there are certain
things in the future
that are so absolutely
guaranteed certain
that the only way
to translate it
into English
is use a past tense.
So you can't change
the past?
This is so certain
about the future
you can't change it.
That's what it is.
The other thing,
just as an aside,
just skip down
to verse 54.
He has helped
his servant Israel
in remembrance
of his mercy.
You can't spiritualize that.
This is a very important text.
It's not saying
that you have to agree
with every single thing
that modern day Israel does.
It's not saying that.
But what it is telling us
is that God's not finished
with the Jewish people.
The promises he has made
to the Jewish people
have not been
completely finished yet.
Just as an aside,
it's really important
because we live
in a culture
increasingly formed
by anti-Semitism
to understand
that this is part
of Christianity.
God is not finished
with Israel
and the Jewish people.
But go back to 51
and look.
He has shown strength
with his arm.
He has scattered the proud
and 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 empty away.
Now just sort of pause there.
This sounds like
a lot of Hollywood movies,
doesn't it?
Like the original
Mighty Ducks.
You get a whole pile
of the really skinny nerds
and the tiny nerds
and the way overweight nerds
and the nerds
who can hardly
brush their teeth.
They're so completely
incompetent.
And they come together
as a team
and they get the coach
and they defeat
the team of other
13-year-olds
who all really look
like they're 23-year-old
men on steroids
and the losers win.
And that's a common theme
in movies
and we all sort of like it.
And a lot of people
who are far more conservative
might be bothered
by texts like this
because it sounds
like the worst
class envy possible
and as if we're
completely and utterly
against rich people
or people who are
good at thinking
and we don't like it
on one level
but in part of it
we all like that.
We like the idea
that the proud
are going to be
scattered their thoughts
and we like the fact
that this text says
that those who are
high and mighty
on their high horses
and their thrones
are going to be toppled
and we like that.
But here's the problem.
Years ago
my wife and I
would have times
when we had to have
a difficult conversation
with somebody.
Not with ourselves
but with somebody.
And I started to learn
that there was something
I needed to say
because I'd say
okay yeah yeah
I agree
we need to have
a difficult conversation
with Bob.
But if by we
you mean
you're going to have
that difficult conversation
while I stand
on the
and you're
like looking at
you going
way to go Louise
you're doing great.
You go for it.
Then I think
that's a great plan.
But if
by we
you mean
I'm going to talk
to that person
while you look at me
and give me thumbs up
and smile
then I think we have to
find a different plan.
The same thing
is going on here.
Who is having
their thoughts scattered
because they're proud
and who are on
high horses?
What?
God's talking about me?
I'm the proud one
on my high horse
and he's going to
topple me
and scatter my thoughts?
We don't even think of that.
Why do we not
think of that?
That's why you need
a savior.
Because all
God does
is give you
more power
to be you?
You're going to think
that text applies
to everybody
other than you.
And let me tell you
you talk to maybe
if you're old enough
you have kids
and you say
by the way
do you ever think
I'm proud
or on my high horse?
I don't think
that's ever true of me.
Well they might not
say anything
but inwardly
they're thinking
yes it absolutely
does apply to you dude.
Dad.
Mom.
Or we might say
that about our kids
who don't think
it applies to them.
Everybody else
sees that it applies
to us.
We just don't see
it about ourselves.
That's why we need
a savior.
In fact
when Christianity
goes bad
it's when Christianity
just becomes
moral advice
about how to save
yourself
and then it's
no longer
Christianity
and all it is
is legalism
and judgmentalism
and high horse
righteousness
and it's just
a complete
and utter train wreck.
Even if it's
popular
it's a train wreck.
This text reveals
I need a savior.
I can't leave me
to save me.
I need God
who loves me
to be my savior.
So that's the text.
We read it
it forms us
to understand
that
when you understand
that how big
God is
and how big
is his love
and that he
relates to me
regularly for mercy
that he's always
for me
and even
he even knows
that I don't see
these things
about myself
and he gently
prods me
to understand myself
and the fact
of the matter
is
is that we like
humble people
who are self-aware
of the fact
that they have
some problems.
Maybe they're not
nobody's perfect
but we're drawn
to people like that.
Why wouldn't we
have that type of
why wouldn't we
want to have
that thought
be that
which is the big
thought that we
talk to about
ourselves
and to know
that Jesus
is forming us
into this
and forming us
into understanding
our need for mercy
and those who
receive mercy
are those who
give mercy
and we're drawn
to people
who give mercy.
Why wouldn't
we want
these big thoughts
to be the big
thoughts that
fill our mind
day by day
knowing it happens
in the context
that we can
come together
on a Sunday
and say honestly
like we will
in confession
God I've had
a really bad
week.
I've had a week
where I've magnified
everything other
than you
and I've been
on my high horse
and I'm really
proud
and I am so glad
I can come
and hear the Bible
and have the Lord's
Supper
and remember
that Jesus
died for me
as a sinner
and that your
mercy is for me
and you want me
to say I'm
this week
help me to do it
this week.
I invite you
to stand.
Let's bow our heads
in prayer.
Father,
first of all
we ask that
your Holy Spirit
would do a gentle
but powerful
work in our minds
and you know
the things
that we tend
to magnify.
You know
those of us
who magnify
resentment,
who magnify
woes,
who magnify
fears,
who magnify
ourselves,
who make
money as if
it's the most
important thing
in the world
or power.
You know,
Father,
the things
that we're
magnifying
that we're
not even
aware of
and we ask,
Father,
that your Holy Spirit
through your word
would gently
convict us
of these things
that we magnify
that are just
ruining us
and we ask,
Father,
that your Holy Spirit
would move
within us
so that we develop
the habits
of magnifying you
in the context
of joy,
knowing you are
our Savior
and that you
are for us,
that you and your
mercy are for us
every day
until we see you
face to face.
And we ask,
Father,
that day by day
as we do this
that we might be
like Mary
and say to you
again and again
and again,
Lord Jesus,
I desire to be
your doulos,
your servant,
and may it be to me
in all that makes me
your word
in my sexuality
and my dealings
with money
and power
and thinking about myself
and others,
may it be according to me
according to your word.
I am your servant
and help me
to magnify you.
And so,
Father,
we ask these things
in the name of Jesus,
your Son
and our Savior.
Amen.