Advent 3: Celebration

SERMON: 2010-12-19--ad0310--advent-3-celebration SOURCE DURATION: 00:34:38.000 PROPOSED CUTS: 1 CONFIDENCE: 0.95 APPROVED: false REASON: Segment [0] marks the clear beginning of the sermon exposition. Segment [310] captures the end of the authoritative acoustic music interval (ending at 00:34:37.180), marking the conclusion of the recorded material. Acoustic segmentation found sustained music at the end edge and moved the boundary to the adjacent transcript segment. ACOUSTIC EVIDENCE: available ACOUSTIC MUSIC INTERVALS: 00:30:28.340-00:34:37.180 ACOUSTIC SPEECH OVERLAP: yes ACOUSTIC BOUNDARIES APPLIED: end Inline CUT markers identify each proposed audio boundary after the relevant word. --- ORIGINAL TRANSCRIPT WITH PROPOSED CUTS MARKED --- Now if you're familiar this morning with the Christmas story as it is recorded for us in Luke chapter 1, then you may recall that that chapter contains four spontaneous outbursts of praise. The first is the song of Mary that we've just read. That's followed then by the song of Zechariah. That's followed then in chapter 2 by the angelic chorus declaring in 2.14, "Glory to God on the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests." And that in turn is followed after the birth of Jesus when he is being presented in the temple by the song of Simeon. "Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, now dismiss your servant in peace." And it's not surprising that the Christmas story contains these four spontaneous outbursts of praise because celebration lies at the heart of the Christmas message, doesn't it? "Joy to the world, the Lord has come." It's exactly two months ago to the day this weekend that many of us crowded around our television sets and watched many of us with bated breath as the 33 Chilean miners were being winched out of their 700 meter underground cave. And you could almost hear the collective sigh of relief around the world and you could certainly tune in to the celebration of the Chilean people in particular when those people, against all odds, were rescued from a sure and certain death. And I in no way this morning want to detract from the significance of that miraculous act of redemption, but Scripture makes it clear that that is nothing compared to the redemption that the Lord Jesus has already come to bring and that one day he will finalize to its full reality. And Mary understood that a little bit when she said, "My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God, my Savior." And in the time that we have this morning, as we look at Mary's song of joy, I want to point out three factors that drove her celebration. Three elements that can also drive your and mine celebration as we move forward to Christmas. Because you see, it's perfectly well possible that you're here this morning and an Advent doesn't mean much to you. Maybe Christmas doesn't mean much to you. Maybe you hear these stories of redemption, these testimonies of faith, and you say, "It doesn't register with me." I feel more like Scrooge Bohumbug. All the sentimentality of the season leaves me cold, and the reality that lies beyond it of which people speak, I can't identify with that. The antidote to that is to understand what Mary understood and to understand what drove her praise. And so let me give you then the three elements that I find in the song of Mary that enabled her to cry out to God, together with all the participants in the Christmas story, things that drove their celebration of praise. The first is this. Celebration is rooted in the character of God. Notice again how Mary puts it, "The Mighty One has done great things for me. Holy is His name. His mercy extends to those who fear Him from generation to generation." Notice in those two verses, she gives three attributes or characteristics of God. She describes Him as the Mighty One, she describes Him as the Holy One, and then she describes Him as the Merciful One. Let me just quickly talk about each. God is not only mighty, He is also almighty, that is to say, all-powerful. Years ago in the Old Testament, when He revealed Himself to Abraham, He revealed Himself as El Shaddai, God Almighty. There is nobody bigger or stronger than God. And a lot of times people get kind of nervous about that because, you know, as the old adage goes, "Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely," and many of us in deep places of our hearts, we worry about power because power can be used to hurt us, and that's very true, and it's very true in a fallen world. But it's not power that is wrong, it's the abusive power that is wrong. The same Father who can use His power abusively in the life of His wife or children can also use that power to shelter, provide, and protect. And all through Scripture, God uses His power for the salvation, for the protection, for the good of His people. Mary understood that there was nobody bigger than God, and so therefore she was safe in His hands. Holiness. Holiness means separation from evil, a total commitment to righteousness. And again, many even of us as Christians, I think, were a little nervous about God's holiness because we recognize intuitively that means He makes no toleration for the sin and the wrong characteristics in our lives, and it sort of scares us the way that a child is scared of his parents when he's done wrong, or a student is scared of his teacher when he's been found out. But again, holiness is not only a consuming fire, but it means that God is as straight as an arrow. He is true to His character. You and I never need to worry about waking up tomorrow thinking that God has changed, that He likes something yesterday that He doesn't like today, or that He hated something yesterday that He likes now. More than that, we never have to worry that God can be manipulated by other people's situations or circumstances and have them turn against us because God is consistent with His character. The holiness of God makes it safe for us to be who He calls us to be. And then His mercy. You know, mercy and grace, we often use the terms interchangeably, but they're not really the same, are they? Grace means God giving us what we do not deserve. I didn't do my homework. My teacher nevertheless allows me to pass. That's grace. It's undeserved merit. Mercy, on the other hand, is God does not give me what I deserve. I deserve to go to jail. I deserve to be punished. I deserve to get into trouble. God says, "I show you mercy. I don't give you what you deserve." The two are two sides of the same coin, and they're both very important because they enable the cycle of sin to be broken. Did you catch what Melanie said earlier in her testimony when she said, "God, please don't make me pay for my sin the rest of my life"? Did you hear that? Well, that's mercy because the law says you pay till justice has been satisfied. And there are a lot of people that live that way. Even there were Christians who lived that way. I want justice done. Well, I'll tell you, I don't care for justice half as much as I care for mercy because mercy lets me get off the hook in the places where I've screwed up. And Grace says, "Not only do you not have to go to jail for the rest of your life because of your crimes, I will nevertheless bless you, give you a new beginning, and give you a whole life." And sometimes, you know, God just loves to demonstrate that. You heard it in Melanie's story. You heard it in Elden's story. That's mercy and that's grace. Sometimes it seems like, even as Christians, don't we sometimes have the elder brother complex that says, "Not quite fair. Somebody should have to pay more somewhere." I'm glad we don't have to pay because without grace and without mercy, the cycle cannot be broken. You see, Mary understood that not only is God Almighty, He's not only holy, but she understood His mercy endures from generation to generation. And I don't know about you, but it makes me rather glad because it gives me hope. And it gives me a message of hope to share with other people. It doesn't matter who you are. It doesn't matter where you've been. It doesn't matter how badly you've screwed up. It doesn't matter what you have deserved. His mercy endures from generation to generation. Aren't you glad too? Aren't you glad? That's mercy. So Mary understood that. And not only that, but she also understood that celebration is rooted in the mighty acts of God. Notice how she goes on, "He has performed mighty deeds with His arm. He has scattered those who are proud and they're in most thoughts. He has brought down rulers from their thrones, but has lifted up the humble. He has filled the hungry with good things, but has sent the rich away empty. He has helped His servant Israel, remembering to be merciful to Abraham and His descendants forever, even as He said to our fathers." Two things in that somewhat lengthy passage that I want us to note this morning. The first is that God has a long memory. That is to say, He remembers His covenant. He has helped His servant Israel, remembering to be merciful to Abraham and His descendants forever, even as He said to our forefathers. And that closely echoes the words of Zechariah when he said, "Praise be to the Lord the God of Israel, because He has come and has redeemed His people." Now notice, "to show mercy to our fathers and to remember His holy covenant, the oath He swore to our father Abraham, to rescue us from the hand of our enemies and to enable us to serve Him without fear in holiness and righteousness before Him all our days." God remembers His covenant, the covenant He made with Abraham. Well, you say, "What was the nature of that covenant?" Well, it's recorded for us in Genesis chapter 12. Let me take a moment and read you those verses. "The Lord said to Abraham, 'Leave your country, your people, and your father's household. Go to the land that I will show you. I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you. I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you, I will curse, and all the people on earth will be blessed through you.'" And without spending a lot of time on that verse, allow me to point out there are three things that Abraham has to give up. In return for that, he gets four things, if you expand it a little bit. Just very quickly, notice that he has to leave his country, he has to leave his people, and he has to leave his father's household. That represents security, that represents the life that Abraham had where his needs were satisfied in the connections of community. God says, "You leave your country, you leave your people, you leave your father's household." And then God gives him these promises. "I'm going to give you a land, and I'm going to show it to you." He doesn't even know what it is yet, but God says, "I will show it to you." And then God says, "I'm going to make out of you a great nation, because I'm going to bless you, and not only will I bless you and make your name great, but you will become a blessing, and I will bless those who bless you, whoever curses you I will curse, and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you." And the Apostle Paul in Romans chapter 4, verse 13, interprets this promise as God's promise to Abraham that he and his descendants will inherit the earth, and that it is inherited not by works, but by faith. And we know from the New Testament that that covenant made with Abraham is fulfilled in the person of Jesus, who is Abraham's seed to whom the promise comes. And you and I, when, as these four folks did this morning, profess our faith in Jesus, by being in Christ, we are now Abraham's offspring. Listen to this carefully, because this is what changes your life. When you understand this, you will never, ever be the same. The promise that God made to Abraham that by faith, he and his descendants would inherit the earth, now in Christ, becomes yours and mine. And so why do you think it is that any of us come to faith? Because we're so smart, because we're so spiritual, or because we're so... No, no, no, no, no. In case you've forgotten, no. No, no. It's because God remembers His covenant. He said to Abraham, "You and your descendants, I'm going to be your God, and I'm going to bless you, I'm going to give you a land, I'm going to make out of you a mighty people, and through you my blessings are going to flow to the nations of the world." And so, you know, sometimes we sit here and we say, "Well, I don't know if I can do this. I don't know how to come to faith. I don't know how to experience redemption." Well, God says, "I'm faithful to my covenant, and when the time is right, I will be involved in the events and in the affairs of your life. And if need be, I will bring you to your knees so that you can leave your father's house, and you can leave your people, and you can leave your land, all of the things that you find security in outside of Jesus, and I will show you Jesus, and the promises of Jesus will come true in your life, and you will have your eyes opened, and you will experience the reality of the covenant promises made to Abraham." Does that make sense? God remembers His covenant. And if you listen to each of these stories, then in each of these stories, you see, people raised in Christian homes, and in some cases, people who wandered away from the Lord, and not everybody who wanders away comes back. But God is faithful in ways that we cannot even imagine. And He remembers, He remembers His covenant. You with me? Not only that, but He reverses the social order. Listen to this, "He has performed mighty deeds with His arm. He has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts. He has brought down rulers from their thrones, but has lifted up the humble. He has filled the hungry with good things, but He has sent the rich away empty." Notice the emphasis, "He scatters those who are proud. He brings down rulers from their thrones. He lifts up the humble. He fills the hungry, but He sends away the rich empty." Words that are very similar to that used by John the Baptist, as he quotes from the book of Isaiah, "A voice of one crying in the desert, 'Prepare the way of the Lord.' Make straight paths for Him. Every valley shall be filled in, every mountain and hill made low. The crooked roads shall become straight, the rough way smooth, and all mankind will see God's salvation." You see, celebration is rooted in the mighty acts of God, and God not only remembers His covenant with Abram, but God also delights in reversing the social order. And think that through with me for just a moment, because in the world, who rises to the top? Well, it's Cain and his offspring. It's people who are proud in their inmost imagination, people who say no to God, who say, "I don't need you to tell me how to do life. I can figure it out for myself. I am master of my own soul and captain of my own destiny. I don't have to listen to anybody." And you can look almost anywhere you want to look in society, and you find that these become the great heroes of our day. They rise to positions of prestige and power. They utilize worldly methods more often than not to get there. Sometimes, particularly in the Western world, we often hide behind the Christian notion of, well, we're servants, and some people truly are if they've been influenced by the Gospel, but the natural man, it's all about me, my power, and my life, and my happiness. And you find that in politics. You find that just about every year where you look, and the result is that life becomes increasingly crooked. And sin piles upon sin, and you get family dysfunction, you get family breakdown, you get chaos in the marketplace, confusion in society, and it spirals down into the kind of thing that you see, for example, in Haiti, where you would think after an earthquake that so destroyed their city, everybody would work together at trying to get things restored. Would you not? Doesn't that make sense? What do you find instead? Now, they're killing each other because they're fighting for political power. And you say to yourself, "Who's got the energy or the wherewithal to do this kind of foolishness?" And they often say to people, "Listen, there's a very fine line between social order and social chaos." And when the wrong people rise to positions of prestige and power, and it doesn't matter where it is, you will have unrest and you will have destruction. And so when Jesus comes, what does he do? He always levels the playing field. He takes the mountains down, that is to say the people who are arrogant and who are proud and who think they can do it without God. And in the Christmas story, who does he find? Not the Pharisees, not the religious people, not the smart people, not the kings. No, no, it's a young girl, maybe 16 or younger, some people think. You know, old people like Simeon and Anna and shepherds out on the field. Do you understand what I'm saying? It's never our sin that keeps us out of the kingdom. Sometimes we have these pity parties, right? We hear other people share their stories, we look at our own lives and we say, "Well, why does that never happen to me?" And everybody's journey is different and we don't have to experience what other people experience. But I'll tell you, the salvation of God does not come to those who are proud in their inmost imagination. The Bible says in the book of Proverbs and James Cote said, "God opposes the proud, but he gives grace to the humble." And you'll find in each of the stories, and you can hear those stories multiplied many times over in this community and in many other church communities, when do we experience God's saving power? When he brings us to our lowest, when we know that we know that we know we cannot do it on our own. We've made a mess of our own lives, we cry out and we say, "Oh God, have mercy." And God steps in and he says, "This is what I want to hear from you." Mary's celebration is rooted in her vision of God's character. It's rooted in her knowledge of the mighty acts of God. God who remembers his covenant and God who comes to restore and establish the social order. And anybody who comes to God on God's terms will experience his salvation and his saving power. And that brings me then to the third point that I want to make, which is that for Mary, celebration is rooted in a personal experience of God. Mary said, "My soul glorifies the Lord, my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant from now on all generations will call me Blast, for the mighty one has done great things for me, holy is his name." Now notice how often she uses the personal pronoun "me." "My soul glorifies the Lord, my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, he has been mindful of the humble state of me," we could add, "his servant from now on all generations will call me Blast, for the mighty one has done great things for me, holy is his name." See? You can know all about the attributes of God. You can know about the mighty acts of God, you can study biblical history and church history, and you can understand it all intellectually, and it can still leave your heart totally cold. How many people don't you know who believe all the right things, but whose hosannas languish on their lips? Well, four of these young people raised in the church heard all the stories. They probably could have done their catechism tests and passed with flying colors. But knowing intellectually who God is and what God is committed to is very different from experiencing it firsthand, because it is not knowledge, important as it is, it is not knowledge that puts us into the kingdom. What is it that puts us into the kingdom? It is coming by faith in surrender. It is admitting, "I cannot do this on my own, Jesus, I need you." And you see such a marvelous example of that with Mary when the angel Gabriel comes to her, and she says, "I am the Lord's servant, may it be to me as you have said." Now think this through with me for just a moment. She's just been told she's going to be pregnant. She's not married, she's engaged. Can you imagine the shame that is associated with a young girl in that culture walking around, being pregnant, telling everybody, "Well, you know, you're not going to believe this, but the Holy Spirit did this to me. Tell me another one." There's a price to pay. But Mary, in that moment of choice, said, "May it be to me according to your will." And when you listen to people's stories, and when you listen to those moments when God becomes real, and it moves from the head, as we often say, to the heart, when it moves from an external knowledge to an experiential reality, it is always in the context of somewhere along the line, "I am yielding to the authority of Jesus, and I am acknowledging him not only as my Savior, but as my Lord." That's what God looks for. And when he finds that kind of heart, he comes with his presence, and he comes with his power, and life can never, ever be the same. Listen to how Isaiah put it years ago, a verse that I feel compelled to share with you this morning for some reason. "Thus says the high and the lofty one who inhabits eternity, whose name is holy." Remember, he's far removed from sinful people. "I dwell in the high and the holy place." So holy? In the Old Testament, they had to go through all kinds of ritual to not be struck dead in his presence. "I dwell in the high and holy place, but also with him who is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite." And to revive means to make alive again. And as I read that verse, there was something about that verse that just really registered with my own soul. Maybe you're here this morning and you have no song in your heart. Maybe, as I said earlier, Christmas just brings with it increased pain and increased sorrow. And you can't wait for it to be over and done. And if that applies to you, and you've never ever made that surrender to Jesus, then let me tell you, you can go to church all your life, you can pray all the prayers in the world, and you can do all the good deeds you want to do. You will never know the freedom that comes from Jesus until you say, "Lord, here I am. Take me and fill me with your presence." And it may be this morning that you've made that kind of commitment, and you've known that reality. But, you know, sometimes the fire dies out, doesn't it? I mean, it's not just the weather that gets cold. Living the Christian life gets hard. We get misunderstood. We get misrepresented. Things don't always go the way you've heard in the stories today. And sometimes we say, "Lord, I've lost my joy." And the antidote to that is not to try harder and not to try to sing louder. The thing to do is to say, "Lord, take me back to where I got off the track. Take me back to where I took matters back into my own hands, to where I didn't take you into consideration. And Lord, please forgive me and restore me. Don't make me pay for my sins forever. Show me mercy. Show me grace. That's who you are. If you can show mercy and grace to Israel, who had screwed up so badly, so repeatedly, then you can show mercy and you can show grace to me." And then stand firm in the character of who God is, what God has done in Christ, and say, "Lord, I'm not going to let go of you until you give me what I need to live before your face." And see Christmas transformed from just another season, from just an external stimulation to an internal reality that stays with us all through the year. Because you see, He demonstrates His mercy from generation to generation. [CUT] [PROPOSED CUT 1 START at 00:30:28.340; remove through 00:34:38.000] To the river I am going, bringing sins I cannot bear. Come and cleanse me. Come forgive me. Lord, I need to meet you there. In these waters, healing mercy flows with freedom from despair. I am going to that river. Lord, I need to meet you there. Precious Jesus, I am ready to surrender every care. Take my hand now. Lead me closer. Lord, I need to meet you there. To the river I am going, bringing sins I cannot bear. Come and cleanse me. Come forgive me. Lord, I need to meet you there. In these waters, healing mercy flows with freedom from despair. I am going to that river. Lord, I need to meet you there. Precious Jesus, I am ready to surrender every care. Take my hand now. Lead me closer. Lord, I need to meet you there. Come and join us in the river. Come find life beyond compare. He is calling. He is waiting. Jesus longs to meet you there. Precious Jesus, I am ready to surrender every care. Take my hand now. Lead me closer. Lord, I need to meet you there. [ [CUT]MUSIC] [PROPOSED CUT 1 END at 00:34:38.000; resume after this marked segment]