Mary’s Worship: Luke 1:46-55

Outline

• God’s grace
• God’s power
• God’s faithfulness

Introduction

Christmas coming round only once a year is not enough. The greatest miracle that has ever happened, that God should become a man, that infinity should take on the infinite without becoming anything less needs to be considered over and over again. So this year as we approach the end of the year we are going to prepare our hearts to remember the incarnation by looking into the bible at those chapters usually reserved for Christmas time. No one knows when Jesus was born and nor is Christmas a biblically warranted holiday so we begin our meditations on the incarnation early this year. We begin by looking at a worship song. This is the song of Mary, traditionally it is known as Mary’s ‘Magnificat’ this comes from the Latin translation of the word, ‘magnify from Luke 1:46.

Elizabeth is pregnant with John the Baptist, Zechariah is mute because he did not believe the angel’s words. Mary herself has been visited by the angel Gabriel and she is miraculously pregnant with the Messiah Jesus Christ. We are told in 1:39 that she went in haste to Elizabeth, and upon arriving, Elizabeth upon hearing Mary’s voice responds. The Spirit in John leaps in recognition and Elizabeth is given spiritual insight. She blesses Mary, speaks of how overwhelmed she is that the Messiah through His mother has visited her, and commends Mary for belief when Zechariah was unbelieving. It is then that Mary responds in worship, and it is her song that we want to open up this morning.

Worship is a dominant theme around the birth of Christ. We have Mary’s song, Zechariah’s song, the angel’s choir singing for the shepherds and Simeon’s praise. It is appropriate that the most important events in human history which imply eternal salvation should be surrounded with overflowing hearts exalting in song. We want to tap into this joy. We will do this by studying this Spirit wrought song to learn about God and His salvation.