Sermon Manuscript

Christ and Need ~ 20151220 ~ Pastor Rodney Zedicher ~ Ephraim Church of the Bible ~ www.ephraimbible.org

12/20 Christ and Need; Audio not available

The Reproach of Zechariah and Elizabeth

Luke's narrative begins with an old priest chosen to serve in the temple. Zechariah was old, his wife was barren, and he was skeptical. When the angel announced that he would have a son who would prepare the way for the coming of the Lord, he questioned the possibility, and as a consequence, was mute until the birth of his son John.

Luke 1:24 After these days his wife Elizabeth conceived, and for five months she kept herself hidden, saying, 25 “Thus the Lord has done for me in the days when he looked on me, to take away my reproach among people.”

Elizabeth bore reproach. Something was wrong with her. We are told in verse 7 that she was barren, and now she is old. It is impossible for her to have a child. That is a reproach because she was unable to provide an heir for her husband to continue the family line. Unless he went around her and had a child with another woman (which he was rightly unwilling to do), they would be a dead end on the family tree. Although they bore it gracefully, this couple was scorned, they carried shame, their name was smudged. But God took away their reproach. Elizabeth conceived in her old age.

Elizabeth's Humility

Elizabeth had a young relative named Mary. As a young woman she received a staggering pronouncement from the angel.

Luke 1:30 And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 31 And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”

Mary too questioned this announcement, but unlike Zechariah, her questions did not stem from doubt and unbelief. She responded:

Luke 1:38 And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.

Mary went to visit Elizabeth, and this old woman exclaimed

Luke 1:43 And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me?

Hear the humility in this cry? Why to me? What did I do to deserve this unprecedented blessing? This is a gift, a treasure! Why is this granted to me? Elizabeth was profoundly humble and acutely aware of the undeserved gift she had been given.

Mary's Magnificent God

Mary's heart overflows in worship that lifts up God. Listen to her song of praise:

Luke 1:46 And Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord, 47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, 48 for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant. For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed; 49 for he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name. 50 And his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. 51 He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts; 52 he has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate; 53 he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty. 54 He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, 55 as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his offspring forever.”

Mary wants God to be magnified. Her soul is set on making God known. She wants God to be seen for how great he really is. My soul magnifies the Lord.

God Enjoyed

Her spirit rejoices in God. She finds her joy in God. What you rejoice in, what you delight in, is the thing that you treasure, the thing that is most valuable, the thing that makes you truly happy. God is her greatest treasure. Mary's spirit delights in God her Savior.

Mary's Humble Estate

Her delight in God is rooted in his initiative to save. She rejoices in God her Savior, because he has looked on the humble estate of his servant. She places herself in the role of servant. She stands in a place of humility. Not the kind of humility that says 'look at me, I am so humble', but the kind that is fully aware of her own lowly state. Humble, base, cast down, brought low, pressed down, depressed. Not a poor me pity me attitude that is seeking attention, seeking for someone to affirm her, but rather a simple accurate self-awareness, that she is nothing special. She is ordinary. She is not a person of privilege or rank or status. She is poor. We know this from the offering of purification that they offer in the temple 40 days after the birth. The law specifies in Leviticus 12:

Leviticus 12:8 And if she cannot afford a lamb, then she shall take two turtledoves or two pigeons, one for a burnt offering and the other for a sin offering. And the priest shall make atonement for her, and she shall be clean.”

And Luke 2:24 tells us that they came to the temple:

Luke 2:24 and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the Law of the Lord, “a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons.”

They could not afford a lamb. They were poor. They were plain. They were ordinary. You could say they were even pushed down, depressed, low. They didn't have anything to offer. They didn't have anything. She was in a humble estate. She was a servant. But God had blessed her. All generations will call her blessed, not because she was worthy, not because she earned or deserved or merited any special treatment, but freely, mercifully, undeservedly. She was blessed because God chose to bless her. She received a gift. God simply chose to extend this blessing to her, and she was blessed. In the angel's greeting, he addressed her as 'favored one' and he said 'you have found favor with God'. The word 'favor' is the word grace. Grace by nature is favor or kindness shown to the undeserving.

The Mighty God Does Great Things

She was blessed because the mighty God had done great things for her. God had done it. God, the mighty God, for whom nothing is impossible, had done the impossible. God had brought life to the dead womb of an old and barren woman. God placed life inside the womb of a virgin supernaturally, sovereignly, without violating her purity. God, the mighty God has brought salvation to a poor, humble virgin girl. God had chosen her to be the human mother to the long awaited promised Messiah of Israel. The one who would save his people from their sins.

Notice in this, God gets all the attention. God gets all the glory. God is magnified. She says 'holy is his name'.

Mercy to Those Who Fear

Mary sings that his mercy is for those who fear him. Mercy is deserved punishment withheld. Mary recognizes that she is nothing more than a sinner who has rebelled against a good and holy God, who has chosen to go her own way, who like everyone else has gone astray, and deserves, like everyone else, to be punished. To get what she deserves would be to experience God's holy wrath against sin. But she sings because God withholds his punishment for those who are awed by who God is. God extends mercy to those who stand in awe-struck fear of his holiness, power and majesty.

Mercy and Justice

Understand, God cannot allow sin to go unpunished. God is just. God is holy. God is righteous. And we are glad that God punishes sinners. We are glad that evil people will one day get what they deserve. We are glad that justice will ultimately prevail. We are glad that the people who have wronged us, the people who have done horrific things, the people who have hurt those we love will be recompensed for what they have done. But we are not so glad when we begin to understand that we are in the same boat with them. All we like sheep have gone astray. There is none righteous, no, not one. We sit in judgment of those we deem wicked, and are eager to see them punished for the wrongs they have done, yet we have failed to give God the glory that is his due. We regularly break the greatest command to love God with heart and soul and mind and strength. We take offense at the big things that others have done but we condone and excuse our own self-centered pride and self-sufficiency. We want God to judge sinners, but we don't even recognize the offense of our own attempt to live independent from our Creator. We have turned - every one - to our own way. Our sin, just like the sin that we are offended by, cannot go unpunished. God is just. All sin must be punished. Even Mary's. Even mine. And Mary carried in her womb the one who would bear in his own body on the cross my sin, and the sins of the world. The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. Mary carried in her womb the one who would pay the ultimate price that would make mercy possible and still maintain absolute holiness, righteousness and justice. God's mercy is for those who fear him, who recognize what they justly deserve, and run to God as their only hope for rescue from what they have earned.

God Opposes the Proud

Mary celebrates God's mercy to those who are humble, to those who fear him, but she also celebrates his bringing down and scattering and sending away empty of the rich and mighty and proud.

Luke 1:51 He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts; 52 he has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate; 53 he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty. 54 He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, 55 as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his offspring forever.”

God scatters the proud. Those who think of themselves as above others, those who are lifted up, God scatters. He disperses them, he puts them to flight, in the thoughts of their hearts. It seems that God allows proud people to do what they want to do. They follow their own hearts, and the result is that they are scattered. They come to nothing.

God brings down the mighty from their thrones. King Herod, who was threatened by the news of one born king of the Jews, who desperately clung to his power and position by slaughtering all the male children in Bethlehem and the surrounding areas, was dead in a few years. God brings down the mighty.

God sends the rich away empty. In Jesus' story about the rich man who had everything, and the poor man who begged at his gate, when they both died, the rich man was in torment in the flames and poor Lazarus was being comforted. The rich man was desperate for even a drop of water to cool his tongue, but he was left empty (Luke 16:19-31). When a rich young man came to Jesus asking what he needed to do to inherit eternal life, he went away sad, not because Jesus did not love him, not because Jesus refused to tell him how to have eternal life, but because he wanted to keep what he had more than he wanted to follow Jesus (Luke 18:18-26). Jesus tells a parable about the rich fool who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God (Luke 12:16-21). God scatters the proud, brings down the mighty, and sends the rich away empty, and God deserves praise for this. It is right and good and worthy of our worship that God opposes the proud.

God Gives Grace to the Humble

God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble (James 4:6; 1 Peter 5:5, from Prov.3:34). Mary praises God that he has exalted those of humble estate. God lifts up those who have been pressed down.

Jesus Seeks Lost Sinners

When we visited the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, built over the place of Jesus' birth, we had to stoop down to get in. The doorway to enter the church is only about 4 feet tall. The taller you are, the lower you have to stoop. I think this is a reminder that only those who humble themselves can to come to Jesus. Jesus said:

Luke 5:32 I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”

Luke 19:10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

Jesus came for lost people. He came to obliterate pride. Self-righteous people received scathing rebuke from Jesus, but broken people received his tender care.

Matthew 12:20 a bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not quench, until he brings justice to victory;

Jesus came for those who were aware of their need, who are willing to own the title of lost sinner. The worst possible condition you could find yourself in is to think that you are all right. God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Jesus is the good shepherd to sheep who are lost, who need his direction, who have gone astray and need his protection.

Mary praises God that he fills the hungry with good things. Jesus said:

Matthew 5:6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

God blesses those who are acutely aware of their need, of their desperate situation. God fills the hungry with good things.

Let me ask you today, how hungry are you? Even the finest things lose their appeal when you are full. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. Blessed are those who are painfully aware of their own need, of their own desperate and hopeless condition. How hungry are you? How alert are you to your own spiritual need? I believe that our capacity for enjoying God is directly proportionate to our sense of need for him. Mary's soul overflows with joy in God because she is hungry for God. Her heart spills out in worship because she is aware of her own humble state, that she is undeserving of any of God's good gifts.

She delights in God and sings his praises not because he gives good things out of obligation, as if he owed us anything, but because he is merciful to sinners and is faithful to keep his promises.

Blessed Believers

When Mary came to visit her relative, Elizabeth said

Luke 1:45 And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.”

Mary was a believer. She took God at his word and believed what he said. Those who believe are blessed.

John 6:35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.

Have you come to Jesus hungry? Desperate? Starving? Knowing there is nothing else that can meet your need and satisfy your longing soul? Your capacity to enjoy God is directly linked to your awareness of your own need. Are you hungry?

May God give us the gift to see our sin as he sees it.

May God awaken in us a desperate hunger for him.

Pastor Rodney Zedicher ~ Ephraim Church of the Bible ~ www.ephraimbible.org