Alright, we are looking at the gospel of Luke chapter 1. So please turn with me in your Bible to Luke chapter 1. So the sermon text has been read to you just now, so let us look to the Lord in prayer for help. Let us pray.

“Our dear Father in heaven, we thank You once again to be gathered together in this manner. We know that especially during the past many months; in fact the past two years. What a privilege it is to be able to gather with Your people and fellowship and to gather together, to raise up our voices to praise the great and the almighty God. And so now we pray as we come and open up Your Word, we look to You for enlightenment. We pray that the Spirit, Your Spirit may help us to understand Your truth. So bless our time together. For these, we pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.”

Alright our text this morning is Luke 1:46-55. Now the title given to this passage of Scripture in your Bible alright you have a subtitle. It’s either “Mary’s Song Of Praise” or simply “The Magnificat”. So I entitled alright my sermon this morning: “The Magnificat”. Now, this is a Latin word, now meaning, magnify. It’s taken from verse 46. So if you look at verse 46, it says there: “And Mary said”. Well, you may say: And Mary sing or sang, “My soul magnifies the Lord”. Alright, so that is where we get this title. Now what we want to do this morning as we look at this passage is first to look at why Mary sang this song, the song of praise. And then secondly, to look at the content. What was she singing about?

So those are the two things we want to consider as we look at this song of praise by Mary. Alright first, we consider the why. Why did Mary sing this song? Now that we have to go further back alright right to verse 26. So please listen as I read these few verses here beginning in verse 26. Now it says here: “Now in the sixth month (and that is the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy) now the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, and of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary. And having come in, the angel said to her, “Rejoice, highly favoured one, the Lord is with you!”

She was troubled at his saying, and considered what manner of greeting this was. Then the angel said to her, “Now do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favour with God. (Verse 31) And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name JESUS.”. Now, why did Mary sing this song? So we have it here. So the Magnificat is actually a song that Mary sang in response- in response to Gabriel’s announcement. That is what we find here in verses 26 through 31. So it is Mary’s response to Gabriel’s announcement. And there are four things I want to draw your attention to here in these few verses. Now first is that we are told in verse 26 that God sent an angel by the name of Gabriel.

Now do not just pass over this alright but just pause and think about this that Gabriel, remember, was one of the two archangels. In other words, he is a very important angel or messenger. The angels are the messengers of God. And so we know that there are these rankings among the angels. And here we have one of the two most important angels sent by God by the name of Gabriel. And then we are told that he was sent to a city or a town in Galilee named Nazareth. So second thing to take note of is this little town called Nazareth. Now, this is an unimportant town. Alright you read the gospel of John, they’ll ask: Can any good come out of this town alright? And so it is a small town, not an important city. So that’s the second information.

And the third is that this angel, very important angel was sent to a very unimportant town of Nazareth to a woman. And so verse 27, to a virgin whose name was Mary. Now, who was Mary? Now today of course you mention Mary, and in some contexts or in some places now she is highly revered. She is even more important than the Lord Jesus Christ. But who was Mary? Now Mary, remember was in a sense perhaps a small town girl, an unimportant person. An unimportant person. She was probably at this point at this time about fourteen or fifteen years old. That is roughly her age, a teenage girl, a common girl in an unimportant little town. Alright so we have an important angel sent to a very small town to a very ordinary teenage girl alright.

And then fourthly, we are told here that the angel came to this teenage girl with an important announcement- with an important announcement. And so when the angel appeared to Mary, we are told here in verse 28: “And having come in, the angel said to her, “Rejoice, highly favoured one, the Lord is with you!”. But when Mary saw him alright, Mary was troubled. When she heard that, she was afraid or troubled at his saying. You might consider, why? Well, it is because of this, of the announcement here. The angel in verse 30 said to her: “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favour with God. And behold (verse 31), you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name JESUS.”.

Now, this is completely as it were a surprise to Mary. It’s kind of like a bomb just exploded in front of her. Now maybe to give you a kind of analogy, to help you get a sense of the emotion and the experience of Mary at this time, it is almost like it’s kind of like the President of the United States, President Biden, now sending his very important messenger to Malaysia (maybe his secretary of state). And he flies in with his bodyguard and he arrives at the airport with all the black limousines and escorting him. And you might be thinking that he is going to Putrajaya. But no, he was not going there you know. He came, this very important messenger arrived at the airport, and you see the entourage driving and going to maybe Kajang or a place like this.

And you say: Why is this person going to that place, and who is he going to see there? And he’s going there into a little kampung and to visit a very ordinary teenage girl in the kampung and then with this huge announcement or this very important announcement. And so we can understand then the surprise that Mary, you know experienced. And she was astounded. In other words, what we find here is Mary, now she was responding to the angel’s announcement with incredulity, in unbelieved. Who am I (she might be thinking) that the archangel of God from heaven came and to this very ordinary place? Maybe when she saw the angels or you see the secretary of state and you would probably are embarrassed by your kind of setting. You try to clean up the place a little. Now, and then was this very important announcement.

And so that was the state of emotion of Mary at this time on that day, about some two thousand years ago. And so the angel had to kind of assure her alright have to give her some assurance. And that’s why we see the angel appearing to her and saying do not be afraid or you calm down as it were. Don’t be troubled. Listen, I have something very important to say to you. And so he gave that important message that she shall bring forth a son. No ordinary son, the Son of God, and His name shall be called Jesus. Verse 32: “He shall be great, and He will be called the Son of the Highest; the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.”.

You see, you can see that Mary received that information. The more she thought about it, the more she tried to make some sense of what that is, the more perhaps she is kind of troubled. In fact, she was troubled. And so the angel calmed her down and the angel assured her with this verse, with these words. Now in verse 34, you see Mary responded to the angel or said to the angel. She said: “How can this be, since I do not know a man?”. In other words, she fully understood what the angel was saying. I do not know if the angel told you that. I don’t know what might come to your mind. Maybe you say: Did I hear correctly? It could not be.

You see, the angel of that important message giving you kind of false information, saying something that is untrue. It is so difficult you see for a human to kind of process those information. And therefore, her question is kind of a very legitimate question. She asked: “How can this be, since I do not know a man?”. Now you see, what we find here is that Mary’s question was a question of biology. And if you know something of biology, you know that this doesn’t make sense. It is just impossible for this to happen to me. And that was Mary’s question. So how would the angel answer Mary? What kind of answer would you expect from the angel? Maybe the angel will tell Mary and say: Oh, you didn’t score A right for your biology? Actually, it’s different. It can happen alright.

That was not what the angel told Mary. Now, this is what the angel told Mary in verse 35: “And the angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God.”. Now, this is the angel’s answer, and the answer is not a biological answer. So we have a biological question, but here we have a theological answer alright- the answer is theological. And so what the angel is saying here is that it’s not about biology here but it is about theology. It’s about the work of God.

And so the expression there in verse 35 is this. When the angel said the Holy Spirit will come upon you (and that the power of the highest), and that’s a reference to the Holy Spirit will overshadow you. Now the word ‘overshadow’ is the word used in Genesis alright to describe the activity of the Holy Spirit in creation when the Holy Spirit or the Spirit of God hovers. Now that is the meaning, the overshadow. And so it is about the activity of the Holy Spirit. Your child will come from the Holy Spirit. It will be a miraculous child as it were. So He will be born of the virgin, and that is the angel’s answer to Mary.

And to further assure her, you can imagine of course Mary needed a lot of assurance from the angel, say I cannot make sense of it. And even after being told that theological answer to her question, and she’s still trying to understand it perhaps and to grasp it. And we know that very often we are like that. People can give you a theological answer to some questions, but you just find it very difficult to accept, to process. For example, when people tell you that there is only one God but there are three who are one alright as God. So God is one, but they are three persons. Or where people tell you that the Bible teaches that Jesus is one person but He has two natures. He is truly God and He is truly man at the same time.

You see, these are theological answers. And as humans, very often maybe we are in the position of Mary. We can understand. How can we understand? How do we make sense of theological answers or biblical truth? You see, when you read your Bible, now very often you come to truths like these that you find it very difficult as humans alright to grasp it alright, to fully process it, and understand it. And so the angel had to further assure her. And so what the angel does in verse 36 is this. And now, so the angel gave her further information: “Now indeed (verse 36), Elizabeth your relative has also conceived a son in her old age; and this is now the sixth month for her who was called barren.”.

You know what the angel is saying here in this verse (verse 36)? He said look, your relative, Elizabeth. Now look, she was old and she’s barren. She cannot bear children, but she’s pregnant. Now you see, a similar kind of scenario. So he is kind of trying to help her and say calm down, there’s another miracle happening alright just not very far away from you. So verse 37: “For with God nothing will be impossible.” Because this is not the work of man. This is about what God can do. Now you see, sometimes we say we don’t believe this, we don’t believe that. You don’t believe because you can’t do it. You don’t believe it because you think that humanly is impossible. But what is humanly impossible is possible with God. That is what the angel is saying. With God, nothing is impossible.

And then alright, so the truth kind of begins to sink in. And we are told in verse 39: “Then Mary arose in those days”. Having heard right that confirmation, maybe she thought to herself: Alright, I must go and see for myself alright. I must go to my relative Elizabeth and see for myself. And verse 39: “She arose in those days and went into the hill country with haste, to a city of Judah, and entered the house of Zacharias and greeted Elizabeth.”. Immediately she went and she went straight to Elizabeth. She wanted to see for herself alright whether you know what the angel told her. And so she entered, greeted Elizabeth.

Verse 41: “And it happened, when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, that the babe leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. Then she spoke (verse 42) with a loud voice and said, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!”. You see, all these are words, you see of confirmation that Mary meets Elizabeth and she heard that confirmation. She hasn’t told Elizabeth about this, but then the same information, the same truth is now being told to her. Verse 43: “But why is this granted to me (she said), that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For indeed, as soon as the voice of your greeting sounded in my ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy.”.

So even the baby in Elizabeth’s womb kind of welcomed that news, confirmed that what the angel said was true. So you see, all these are God’s gracious ways of helping us humans deal with very difficult truth of God. Now you see, God is very gracious now so bringing all these kinds of other, doing other things as it were, bringing other people to comfort and bring encouragement to Mary. And so you might imagine that when Mary saw Elizabeth, Elizabeth was already six months pregnant.

And so her pregnancy was kind of obvious to her, that this old woman with a big tummy. And it must be something or nothing. In fact for most of us, perhaps alright when you see an old woman with a big tummy, that is an old people’s problem alright with big tummy problem. But, that was not what she was thinking. She began to think that that is true, what the angel said is true. So this confirmation. And therefore verse 45: “Blessed is she who believed, for there will be a fulfilment of those things which were told her from the Lord.”. So all these are the confirmation.

Now in other words- in other words, what we are told here is this. That the reason- the reason why Mary sang that song of praise called the Magnificat is this that it was an expression of the depth of her feeling when she begins to make sense of what is happening; when she begins to understand more and more of what the angel was saying to her. When she begins to see all this, she begins to see with amazement alright this wonderful truth. So the song alright- the song of praise here (the Magnificat) is a song that expresses the depth of her feeling. In other words, when the truth as it were sank in, she broke forth in praise.

Now that is what worship is about. It is when God’s truth grips us; when God’s truth is being impressed upon us, when God’s truth sinks in as it were, we will break forth with praise alright with songs of praise to God. And note, you see what is stated here in verse 47 where she said in her song: “my spirit rejoiced in God my Saviour”. My spirit or my soul rejoices in God my Saviour. So the expression soul of spirit here, in fact, in verse 46 she said: “My soul magnifies”, and then “my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour”. Now, these two words are meant to tell us that she was completely overwhelmed. Her whole being was overwhelmed. She was moved as it were to the depth of her being at this information. It is just too good to be true.

Is that how the message or as it were of Christmas, the message of the first event of the Lord Jesus Christ impacts us? Is that how we feel the wonder of what God is doing- the amazement, the announcement of this news, of this truth? But that is what we see here in Mary. So she breaks forth in praise because she has come to a realisation of something immense. And this realisation of that something moves her deeply and stirs her soul. It’s like the psalmist who said: “Bless the LORD, O my soul. Bless the LORD, all that is within me.”. You see when the psalmist said that, he’s saying that there’s something that is stirring up, some information, some truth that is moving me.

Why was the psalmist blessing the Lord and praising the Lord? What is it that is stirring his soul? He said: “who forgives all my iniquity”. When he begins to understand this great truth of God’s forgiveness, of the great truth of salvation, you see the psalmist was moved. And that is what we are seeing here in Mary here. That’s why she is singing. She just cannot keep quiet alright. She could not keep quiet. She bursts off in praise. Now I want to ask you perhaps at this point whether you have ever heard anything in your life that stir you to the depth of your being. Have you ever heard anything that stirs you to the depth of your being? And what is that? And what is that? Is it: “Can it be, who would believe? The promised prince!”

Is that kind of thing, that kind of information that moves you? Or “amazing grace! How sweet the sound, that save a wretched like me!” Or perhaps “amazing love, how can it be, that Thou my God should die for me!”. Is there anything that you heard in your life that kind of stirs you? That is what is happening here in the case of Mary. She has heard something from God’s messenger. She has heard an important truth, an amazing truth from God through the angel and that is stirring her. You see, the gospel of Jesus Christ is the greatest news on earth. The news that God came to this world and to die for our sin that we might be saved and delivered from eternal damnation in hell.

Have you ever kind of paused, ever paused in your life and wonder at what really the Bible is saying here about salvation? Now if you had, if you had ever been stirred in your life alright by this amazing news, then you’ll understand why Mary is singing. So she is singing because she is stirred. She is singing also because now she cannot keep quiet. If you heard such a good news, will you keep quiet? And so she wants to sing. She wants to magnify. The word ‘magnify’ means she wants to proclaim. She wants to tell. She wants to make known. And that’s what she is doing here in this song. And so that leads us to the second thing we want to consider this morning.

So now we see why Mary is singing. Now we see why Mary suddenly burst forth with praise. She has heard something that stirs her to the depth of her being. My soul, she says, magnifies, and my spirit rejoices. And so now what is it that she is singing here, the content of her song? What is in other words the Magnificat about? Well, here Mary is singing, and she’s singing about this. She’s singing about one, who God is, and two, what He is doing. She is singing who God is and what He is doing. First, look at who God is. She burst forth in praise in verse 46, and she said in verse 47: “my spirit rejoiced in God my Saviour.”. “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoiced in God my Saviour.”.

The first thing she wants to tell people is this. It’s about who God is. When she says my soul magnifies the Lord, you see the word ‘Lord’. In fact, there are two things he tells us about who God is. The word ‘Lord’ is the same word used by Luke in his other writing in Acts chapter 4 alright. So you look at Acts chapter 4, he uses the same word (Luke). Chapter 4 and verse 24, and here Luke writes. Acts 4:24- “So when they heard that, they raised their voice to God with one accord and said (in your translation): Sovereign Lord”. Some translation is simply “Lord”. And they said: “Lord (or sovereign Lord), You are God, who made heaven and earth and the sea, and all that is in them”.

Now the context here is suffering, persecution. In times of trials, they came to God and they remind themselves: Look, in times of trouble, in times of trials, you come to God. And this is so important. It is so important that when you come to God in time of trouble to remember who He is. And this is what they are doing here. And that’s what Luke is telling us. He said these people came and they cried out and said, “Sovereign Lord”. And then they begin to say something about this sovereign Lord. Who is this Lord? Who is this God whom you are crying out to?

And they said here: “You are God, who made heaven and earth and the sea, and all that is in them”. In other words, You are the sovereign one. Sovereign Lord, You are the One who created everything. You are the One who is in control of everything. You are in charge. So in times of trouble, we don’t have to be afraid. That’s what they mean. And so here in Luke chapter 1 when Mary said here or sings here and said my soul magnifies the Lord, the first thing that came to her mind as she hears all this information, as she processes this information and to think: God, the Lord who made the heavens and the earth, who is sovereign over everything.

That is what this song is about. It’s about God, first and foremost about His greatness. You see, your response to God depends on who you think He is. If you think that He’s some little ones you know, then you have got no respect for a God like that. And so she has this reverential response. She’s responding to God with a sense of awe. And what is so amazing about this thought is this. As she thinks alright about this whole thing, and then she says it’s God. With God nothing is impossible. God, He’s the sovereign One. God, He’s the King of kings and Lord of lords. He’s the Master of the universe. He’s in charge of everything.

The more she thinks about that, then this amazement as it were comes upon her and she was thinking: Wow! Wow! This great God who created everything in the universe, this sovereign Lord, she said wow is now doing something about us. We, little insignificant humans, running about in this earth, and this God has the time and the interest to visit us. Who is man, the psalmist says. What is men that you should visit him? And that is the talk here. Mary begins to say he is the President of the United States, sending the secretary of state to come and say something, give us some information that has to do with us. He’s like now I’m giving you some help as it were from the President to maybe to redevelop your village. Why should this great king do this for me? Who am I?

Now you see, that is the feeling here. And that’s why you can sense what she’s saying here. My soul magnifies the Lord, and my heart or my spirit rejoices. And so she is utterly amazed. And then there’s a second information that she tells us about God here. And she says here not only my soul magnifies the Lord, the sovereign Lord, the One who is in control of everything. And then she said in verse 47: “my spirit rejoices”. She’s not only amazed. She’s not only surprised. So sometimes you can just be amazed and surprised, that’s it. But she also rejoices. There’s something about us, some benefit to us this great God. So what if He’s just great? I’m just amazed that He’s a great God, full stop alright.

But no. So what she’s saying here is that this great God is doing something about us. Or he said and so she said this great God is also my Saviour. My Saviour. So this God is my Saviour. You see, very often we only think of Jesus as my Saviour. We don’t think of God as my Saviour. But you see that in the Bible is very frequent that the Bible speaks of God as our Saviour. For example, if you turn to First Timothy chapter 1 alright, and Paul speaks of God that way. 1 Timothy 1:1, and Paul writes in verse 1 of First Timothy. He said: “Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the commandment of God our Saviour”.

Is God our Saviour? He said God is not just sovereign. He’s not just almighty. He’s not just up there, but He is our Saviour. And also you look at verse 3 of chapter 2, First Timothy: “For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour”. It’s God our Saviour. When he writes to Titus alright, he speaks of God in the same way in Titus 2:10- “not pilfering, but showing all good fidelity, that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour”. And verse 4 of chapter 3: “But when the kindness of the love of God our Saviour”. So you see the emphasis in the Bible and you see the same emphasis here by Mary that this great God, this sovereign God is our Saviour.

That is God. He’s not kind of uninterested in us. He is deeply interested in us, this great and almighty God. Now so the next thing he wants to tell us about God in her song. So first, he tells us who He is. He is the almighty God who is our Saviour. And then secondly alright, he tells us what He is doing with regard to us. What He is doing with regard to us. So back to Luke chapter 1. Luke chapter 1, and he says in verse 44 and this great God who is our Saviour, our deliverer. And that is what Saviour means- deliverer. “For He has regarded the lowly state of His servant (or in your translation, some translations: “For He has looked at the humble state of His servant”).

The word ‘lowly’, ‘humble’. Now what do you think it means? You see, by comparison, this high and mighty God and we are what? We are equally you know high and mighty? We’re His equal? No! You see, by saying that He has regarded or He looked at this humble state of ours. Now I believe in the Bible alright it’s a reference to both our humanity but also our fallen state. She is probably thinking of what the, in fact, these songs in a sense is similar to the song sung by Hannah in First Samuel and the same song sung by Moses in Exodus 15. See, the context of those songs, it’s about God’s deliverance. It is about God looking at the lowly state of His people.

And the lowly state of His people, we may remember in the Garden of Eden in Genesis 3 when men have fallen and look at the lowly state of man. But God came and He regarded or He looked upon the lowly state of man in his sin and hopelessness and helplessness. That is the lowly state of man. That is what we have degenerated to. Now we think of ourselves as great and grand. Now God looks at us, we are pitiful beings on earth. We are all dying. We are suffering in this world. Today, many people are trying to just make some sense of what life is all about. God looked down from heaven, He looked at our lowly state, naked in shame. When God looked at the people in Genesis 6, He sees them as wicked and evil continually.

That is their lowly state, and that’s what Mary is thinking about when God sees us. But now we are nothing. We are lowly, humble in that sense, and God came and He saw. Now I believe that you see these hymns here, this song here that Mary sang is filled with Scripture. And therefore, Mary must be thinking about the Scripture and what God has revealed in the past about God being almighty and about God being the Saviour of His people. Perhaps he was particularly thinking about Exodus 3. Now you might remember if you just flip over to Exodus 3:6 when God appeared to Moses. When God appeared to Moses, now what happened there in Exodus 3:6? And God told Moses this information.

You see, the first thing is to draw attention to who He is. And that’s what Mary is doing here, draw our attention to who God is. And so in verse 6, God said: “And moreover He said, “I am the God of your father—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God.”. Now he suddenly realised that God is holy and God is the almighty One, and we are in our humble and lowly state. We are nothing and we are sinful beings. We are ashamed. We are naked. We are in sin. We are not fit as it were to be near God. And we see the sense of that.

And perhaps Mary is thinking about the same thing as Moses was thinking. He is the almighty God, and we are insignificant beings. And then what? Verse 7: “And the LORD said: “I have surely seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows.”. You see what Mary is singing about that this great God, He sees us in our pitiful state. He feels for us. He loves us. He cares for us. He takes notice of us. And here He’s doing something about His people. He said I want to do something. I see your sorry state. I see your pitiful state, and I feel for you. I have compassion for you.

Verse 8: “So I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and bring them up from that land to a good and large land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites.”. I’m going to bring them. I’m going to deliver them from that sorry state to this other place of glory. Mary is thinking about that, and this is what God is doing. And so you come back to Mary’s song, and you begin to see all those imageries as it were perhaps in her heart and in her mind, for she said: “For He who is mighty has done great things for me”.

What has He done? Verse 50: “His mercy on those who fear Him from generation to generation.”. This great and almighty God, this holy God, this sovereign God, He is doing something about us. Now that’s what Mary is thinking about. Now I get it. When the angels say alright about this child in my womb conceived of the Holy Spirit, now this whole event you say, it is all about God’s mercy. This thing is about the great God doing something about humanity. And so she’s probably filled with amazement and excitement, filled with joy. She says here my spirit rejoices. This is a great and amazing and joyful truth. Joy to the world! The Lord is come.

And that is what Mary is singing about. Joy to the world! The Lord has come. Salvation has come upon us on earth, and it is that great God showing mercy to us. And then he says in verse 54: “He has helped His servant Israel, in remembrance of His mercy”. In other words, he is now saying why is God doing all these things? It amazes us. Why is God doing all these things and this important person coming to us and do all this thing for me? So why are you doing all these things? Who am I? Well, the answer is in remembrance of his mercy. Verse 55: “As He spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his seed forever.”.

God remembers. He is a faithful God. He has made that promise right from the very beginning. Do you realise that that God has from the very beginning even in the garden of Eden when men fell, He promised that a Saviour would come? A Saviour would come and to save His people from their sin. That’s why His name shall be called Jesus. A saviour, one who saves. Mary sees all that is happening as it were as a fulfilment of God’s promises. That’s what she has come to a realisation. It is now becoming real.

All the Old Testament prophets and all the Old Testament people, they were waiting. They were waiting for that fulfilment, for the day to come. And Mary is saying it is now here alright it has arrived. It is here, and that is what she is saying here. God is faithful. He remembers His mercies. And later on in this chapter in verse 71, he said: “That we should be saved from our enemies, from the hand of those who hate us, to perform mercy promised to our fathers and to remember His holy covenant, (verse 73) the oath which He swore to our father Abraham”. It is now here.

Now have you ever seen this about Christmas if Christmas is about the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ? Did you see what Mary see here? Do you see, do you understand what Gabriel was telling Mary in this passage? Now, this is Christmas, that is God in all His glory and majesty, He looks down upon us with pity and sent His Son to save. See, Mary stumbled upon it at first. Then she saw, then she understood what Gabriel was proclaiming. Do you hear what she heard, and do you see what she saw? Let us pray.

“Our dear Father in heaven, we want to thank You again for an opportunity to look at these passages of Scripture and to be reminded of Your great and amazing work of salvation, for You are the almighty God, the sovereign Lord, a God who is also our Saviour. That You have done a great deed on that day through Mary to bring about the Saviour so that all those who repent of their sin and believe in Him might be saved. And we want to thank You for the salvation, for we pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.”

This transcript has been lightly edited for readability.