Galena Bible Church
Sunday, December 7, 2025
  • Go Tell it on the Mountain
  • Song
  • Hark The Herald Angels Sing / King Of Heaven
  • What Child Is This
  • Come Behold The Wondrous Mystery
  • O Come All You Unfaithful

  • INTRODUCTION

    Happy December to you all. It is crazy to think that another year is about to end. Even crazier is the end-of-the-year hustle and bustle that this time of the year brings.
    I have found, with each year that goes by, that I struggle more and more to keep the focus of the season on Christ. Maybe like yours, my focus turns to travel plans, Christmas shopping, meal planning, school events, and friend gatherings. All of which are good things, and all of these can help place our focus on Christ, but personally, and maybe I’m not alone, they somehow end up orienting my attention on everything but Christ.
    With this business in mind, we are beginning our Advent series, which we are calling Heaven and Nature Sing, where we will walk through the Christmas story by reflecting on the “songs” of Christmas sung before, during, and after the birth of Christ. We will be considering four songs:
    Mary’s Song (today’s text)
    Zechariah’s Song (Luke 1:67-79)
    The Angel’s Song (Luke 2:8-14)
    Simeon’s Song (Luke 2:25-35)
    The hope is that these “songs” (which aren’t all songs, but written song-like) could help us navigate the end-of-the-year business with the right response to the Christmas story. As Christians, we ought to be celebrating the loudest at the memory of our Savior's birth, but we need the right words, the right thoughts, the right motives for the season. The prayer is that these “songs” would give us that.
    As we look at our first of four songs this morning, let us commit our time to the Lord in prayer. Please pray with me. PRAY.
    Have you heard the phrase “climbing the corporate ladder?” Even if you don’t work a corporate job, we all understand the idea. The goal is to be higher than the next person. That success is measured in relation to where you stand relative to everyone else.
    Listen, if you want to climb the ladder, you don’t do it by being invisible. You do it by standing out, by being noticeable, by showcasing how impressive your accomplishments are. By asserting yourself.
    Another related phrase you might have heard is, if you don’t fight your way to the top, you’ll be forgotten at the bottom.”
    Who wants to be forgotten at the bottom?! No, if we have an opportunity to move up, we usually take it because we want to climb. In fact, we have a tendency to think this way, not just in the workplace but in every way.
    We measure our success in health by seeing where we stand in relation to everyone else.
    We measure our success in parenting by seeing where we stand in relation to others.
    We are constantly measuring and you can blame it on social media, you can blame it on our American culture, you can blame it on the flesh. Somehow we are trained to think that if we want to be happy, if we want to feel blessed, we do it by measuring ourselves in relation to everyone else.
    Not only do we have a tendency to think this way, but I trust you know by now that this isn’t the way.
    Some of the most discouraging times in my life have been when I’m measure myself against others.
    I grew up with a love for music, and although I would see my progress in my young years as a musician as fast, I never felt good enough. That feeling drove me to practice more, to play more. I went to a music institute to be the best, but even there, I felt like I was the least talented at the school. Every Saturday night when I would come home from music school, I wanted to quit, even though my original motivation was to be a better servant in the church, I just felt like a nobody, and really just wanted to be somebody. Pretty pathetic isn’t it?
    —
    Mary’s song serves as a blueprint for our contentment because it turns this way of thinking that I have to be somebody to be blessed/happy/successful, and it turns it on it’s head. Our text today gives us a Gospel principle that the way of Christ is a reversal of the way of the World.
    Mary’s song teaches us to embrace our lowliness, and only after we embrace our state of lowliness (humility) does God’s saving intervention become overwhelmingly joyous to us. Only then do we become satisfied and experience what it means to be blessed.
    Mary’s song gives us four reasons for the lowly to rejoice with Mary. Let us walk through our text and consider these four reason.

    1. God looked upon the lowly (46-48)

    The first reason for us to embrace our lowliness is because God looked upon the lowly.
    Read verse 46-48 with me again.
    Luke 1:46–48 ESV
    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;
    We are jumping about halfway through the first chapter of the Gospel of Luke, so let me set the scene for us.

    Brief Background

    To Theophilus
    Luke writes to Theophilus, who was probably a Gentile, given that the name was Greek. From the opening of Luke, it seems that Theophilus was acquainted with the story of Jesus, because Luke’s motivation for writing this letter is that Theophilus would have certainty concerning the things you have been taught. (Lk. 1:4). The motivation is not just information, but certainty; we could say, the motivation is that these things would be believed, that Jesus is who he said he is, and fulfilled the prophecies of a savior from the Old Testament. Luke's aim is transformation, not information.
    Angel appears to Zechariah
    So Luke tells of an angel who appears to a man named Zechariah, who was a priest for the Temple of God, and tells him that although he and his wife are old of age (and weren’t able to have children), they will bear a son, who will be John the Baptist, who will make way for the Savior Jesus. Zechariah (the priest) doubts this message and is therefore mute until the birth of his son John.
    Angel appears to Mary
    Then Luke lets us know that Zechariah and his wife Elizabeth are related to this young girl named Mary, who also gets a visit from an angel who tells her that she has been chosen to carry the Savior of the World! She, unlike Zechariah, believes the angel, but soon after this visit from the angel, she begins her travels to go see Elizabeth, which would have been about a 3-day trip.
    She arrives at Zechariah and Elizabeth’s place, and upon her greeting of Elizabeth, John the Baptist jumps in her womb, and Elizabeth is empowered by the Spirit and says to Mary.
    Luke 1:42–45 ESV
    42 and she exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! 43 And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? 44 For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. 45 And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.”
    So Elizabeth greets Mary this way, and it is only after this word from Elizabeth that Mary launches into her praise (our text for today).
    1. God looked upon the lowly (46-48)
    Why now? Why didn’t she go into praise when she heard the message of the angel? What was it about Elizabeth’s words that led to Mary’s song?
    We can only speculate what happened to Mary between her encounter with the Angel and her greeting with Elizabeth, but what we see is God involved here as well. Verse 41 says that Elizabeth was filled with the Spirit and then spoke to Mary. While there is no evidence in the text that Mary doubted in the Angel’s words, it would seem that God used Elizabeth’s words to bring down what Mary knew from her head to her heart. Something that was probably Luke’s intention in writing to Theophilus as well. For knowledge to come down to his heart.
    Mary’s Song
    Mary’s song, which we could call the first Christmas carol, begins with praise to God, in fact, except for a couple of lines, the subject of the whole song is God. She magnifies God with her whole being. That is what is meant by “soul” and then “spirit” not that she is praising God with her soul and then her spirit, but rather its an expression that communicates all of her. With all of her, she is magnifying God.
    She then tells us specifically why she is praising God in verse 48.
    Luke 1:48 ESV
    48 for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant. For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
    The word there “for” could also be translated as because. She is praising God because He has looked on the humble estate of his servant.
    Some translations say “lowly state” which is another way of saying, “God looked at me a nobody.” In other words, out of all the people who should have God’s attention, who am I, that God would look to me, that God would be mindful of me, that God would choose me to carry Jesus?
    Isn’t that of encouragement? Is that not reason to rejoice, to know that God’s character is to look to the lowly? God’s character was to choose Abram, who was a nobody, to make a great nation, to choose David, the youngest son of Jesse, to be king over God’s people. To choose Samuel, a son from a woman who couldn’t have children, whom others made fun of.
    Over and over again, we see God looking to the lowly and exalting them, not for their sake, but for His glory. Church, this is good news for us. We don’t have to get the attention of our heavenly father; we have it! Yet, it is only when we embrace our lowliness, our state of need, and status of lacking… only then can we experience the joy Mary experienced. The feeling of being blessed because God looked down upon the lowly.
    We, too, can experience the blessing Mary received, because God has looked down upon us as well. He sent this child, Jesus, to seek and save the lost (that us!) Church, let us learn to rejoice with Mary and experience God’s blessing, his favor, by embracing our lowliness.

    2. God intervened for the lowly (49-50)

    Not only did God look to the lowly, but he also intervened for the lowly.
    Mary gives us a second reason for her praise in her song. She says in verses 49-50
    Luke 1:49–50 ESV
    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.
    She says again, “for” or because God has done great things for her.
    Maybe you’ve noticed already, but if you haven’t, Mary’s song reveals something about Mary. Mainly, that she knew her Bible, this song from Mary is rich with Old Testament allusions. So many that it’s hard to pinpoint any one source.
    For instance, in these verses, she alludes to the Old Testament pattern of praising God for His mighty works. Like we saw it in Deuteronomy 10:21
    Deuteronomy 10:21 ESV
    21 He is your praise. He is your God, who has done for you these great and terrifying things that your eyes have seen.
    Or Psalm 71:19
    Psalm 71:19 ESV
    19 Your righteousness, O God, reaches the high heavens. You who have done great things, O God, who is like you?
    We could go on, and on throughout Mary’s song, we can find all of these allusions to the Old Testament.
    We won’t for the sake of time, but you can also see strong similarities between Mary’s song and Hannah’s song in 1 Samuel 2:1-10.
    2. God intervened for the lowly (49-50)
    Because we know that Mary knows her Bible, when she says that God “has done great things for me” she is certainly referring to the situation before her of carrying Jesus. Still, because the language is clearly taken from the Old Testament, we would do well to see Mary referring to all that God has done leading up to this moment. God choosing His people, preserving His people, saving His people, leading His people, and providing for His people.
    Without God’s intervention, there would be no Israel, there would be no line of David, and there would be no savior. Yet, because God intervenes, because God acts, Mary is compelled to worship God as she reflects on the great things that God has done.
    When you think of God intervening for you, what great things that God has done do you think of?
    Did you know that in the Bible, there is only one thing called “the power of God”? The universe, as vast and grand as it is (think of the Milky Way). Something that we have not really been able to even explore. Yet, creation is never called the power of God.
    You know what is called the power of God? THE GOSPEL.
    In Romans 1:16, Paul calls the Gospel the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.
    In 1 Corinthians 1:18 he says,
    1 Corinthians 1:18 ESV
    18 For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
    2. God intervened for the lowly (49-50)
    When we think of the great things God has done, how He intervenes for the lowly, we look to the Gospel. We consider God stepping down from His high place and coming to us. He humbled Himself in the form of a man, came as a child. This story, the Christmas story, is evidence of God’s intervention for the lowly, for those who could not save themselves. This is the grounds for our worship. Therefore, let us embrace our lowliness and revel in His saving intervention through Jesus Christ.
    Holy is His Name
    Not only do we consider the Gospel, but also in the attributes Mary chooses to highlight. Mainly His holiness and his mercy.
    God is Holy (“holy is his name”). People sometimes misunderstand the word “holy.” It’s not really a common word outside of the church, and we sometimes use it to describe something that is “super-religious.”
    Yet, when we think of God as holy, we think of him as perfect, sinless, and unique. To think of God as Holy is think acknowledge that there is nothing and no one like Him. It also means that we don’t really have the right to stand before Him. For us to go before Him on our own would be like an ice cube approaching the sun.
    Therefore, if God is Holy, and we are to know God, we would need to be saved and changed. We need the good news of Jesus, that He did what we could not, to bring us into fellowship with our Holy and mighty God.
    Merciful
    Mary also says that His mercy is for those who fear him. If we acknowledge God’s holiness, we ought to have a reverent fear of God. Yet, we have grounds for joy church, because God is merciful. He looked upon the lowly, and has looked upon us so that we would not perish, but have everlasting life.

    3. God transformed the conditions of the lowly (51-53)

    We can learn to rejoice with Mary as we reflect on our God, who looked on the lowly and who intervenes for the lowly.
    Third, Mary’s song helps us see God as the one who transformed the conditions of the lowly.
    Read verses 51-53 with me again.
    Luke 1:51–53 ESV
    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.
    Here we have what we might call the “he has” section. Where Mary, reflecting on God’s actions, starts “riffing” on God’s actions for the lowly. Notice two things from Mary’s words here.
    Tenses of the Verbs
    First, look at the tenses of the verbs.
    He has shown
    He has scattered
    He has brought
    He has filled
    He has helped
    etc…
    Greek scholars debate whether Mary here is recalling what God has done in the Old Testament Scriptures, or whether she is leaning into what she knows the Savior will bring and singing prophetically about what Christ will do. As if saying, the conception of Jesus makes the proud and mighty of this world fall, and the humble be exalted. It is as good as done.
    So, is it a historical recall or a prophetic word? I don’t know… And, in reality, either interpretation accomplishes the purpose of Mary’s words. I think the goal is to magnify God’s way of life.
    The Reversal
    Which leads us to the second thing to notice in these three verses: the reversal nature of God’s saving work, which I think is the point of Mary’s words. Notice what Mary says.
    The proud are scattered, while the humble are exalted.
    The rich are sent away empty, but the hungry are filled.
    This kind of reversal is something of a Biblical principle. In fact, Jesus himself taught this in the beatitudes. We see it in Luke’s account of the beatitudes.
    Luke 6:20–23 ESV
    20 And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said: “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. 21 “Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you shall be satisfied. “Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh. 22 “Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man! 23 Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for so their fathers did to the prophets.
    And he continues…
    Luke 6:24–26 ESV
    24 “But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. 25 “Woe to you who are full now, for you shall be hungry. “Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep. 26 “Woe to you, when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets.
    You see, the blessed are those who acknowledge their lowliness and know that they have favor with God; they know that their reward is great in heaven because of Christ.
    3. God transformed the conditions of the lowly (51-53)
    The Gospel life is turning the world’s definition of blessed on its head. It means embracing our lowliness to experience the Joy of God’s saving work for us.
    Application
    Here is the problem…
    If we are honest, and I don’t want to presume on anyone here, but I go on a limb here and say that we might know theoretically that the Gospel life is a reversal of what the world wants to tell us it means to be blessed, but I think we struggle to want this gospel life.
    Think about it for a moment. What would it look like if you embraced your lowliness before God and experienced the blessing of his saving work? What would be different about you?
    How would you react if your Christmas dinner didn’t turn out the way you planned?
    How would you react if the gifts you were planning to purchase for your family members were no longer on sale?
    How would you react if sickness got in the way of getting together with family?
    How will you react when you look through last year’s goals and realize half of them or more are still unmet?
    We have trained ourselves to think that being blessed only happens when we get exactly what we want, when we have abundance, and when we are healthy.
    BUT CHURCH, the Gospel life is embracing our lack, coming to the Lord, and knowing that our favor with God is not dependent on us. It is known that before the King of Kings, and Lord of Lords, before the creator himself, before the almighty God, I can come before Him and He looks in my direction, He intervenes for me, He turns my lack and teaches me to experience joy because of my status before Him.
    This is Mary’s song! The first Christmas carol is a blueprint for the true Joy grounded upon God’s saving work for the lowly.

    4. God kept His promises (54-55)

    I hope we long for a gospel life that embraces our lowliness. I pray that this Christmas season, in your moments of not having it together, when your weakness seems most present, you remember that God steps down from His throne into our world to save, intervene, and rescue the lowly. On those grounds, we are blessed like Mary.
    Yet, if you forget these truths. If you leave here and the hustle and bustle becomes so much that your focus is taken away from the reason for the season, and you forget to embrace your lowliness. Find comfort in knowing that God doesn’t forget.
    Mary’s song gives us the fourth and last reason to rejoice this Christmas season: while we forget, God never forgets, and he kept his promises.
    Mary’s song ends with these words.
    Luke 1:54–55 ESV
    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.”
    He has helped Israel, and specifically, Mary mentions what we call the Abrahamic covenant or the promise that God made with Abraham in Genesis 12:1-3, where God calls Abraham and tells him that out of his descendants will he make a great nation, and that God intends to bless all the other nations through Abraham.
    God didn’t forget his promise, and sends Jesus Christ to fulfill this promise. Yet, God’s mercy is not only toward Abraham but to his offspring. Who are his offspring? Well, the Bible tells us that we are Abraham’s offspring. Look at what Galatians 3:8-9 says
    Galatians 3:8–9 ESV
    8 And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.” 9 So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.
    He goes on to say in verse 29. Gal. 3:29
    Galatians 3:29 ESV
    And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.
    4. God kept His promises (54-55)
    According to Paul, we are all offspring of Abraham, all of us who are of faith. Therefore, God’s remembrance of his mercy is not based on whether or not I remember, but it is based on His remembrance.
    He didn’t forget about his covenant with Abraham all those years ago. Even if we forget or lose sight of the way, God doesn’t forget.
    While our society might tell us that if you don’t fight your way to the top, you’ll be forgotten at the bottom. That if you want to be blessed you have to be somebody. As we remember the coming of Jesus, let us allow Mary’s song to remind us that we have reason to embrace our lowliness, our “being nobody” because:
    God looked to the lowly
    God intervened for the lowly
    God transformed the conditions of the lowly
    And God kept his promises. That even if we forget to embrace our lowliness, he doesn’t forget His promises. There is a reason to rejoice this Christmas season.

    OUTRO

    While the word might try to convince us that being blessed is having abundance, having all together, being rich, having a full table, Mary’s song is the reminder we need this Advent to know that it is through Christ we are enabled to rest and rejoice in God’s saving work when we embrace our lowliness.
    We have the ability in those moments where our weakness and our lack is before us, we can lean into that and allow the Gospel God’s saving intervention become overwhelmingly joyous to us.

    Communion

    One regular practice given to the church to help us not forget God’s saving intervention is to remember and proclaim Christ’s death for our sins, as He asked us to by celebrating the Lord’s Supper.
    At this time, I’ll invite the brothers to come up to distribute the bread.
    If you are visiting and you have placed your faith in Christ for salvation, we invite you to join us in partaking in the bread and the cup. But if you are unsure of where you stand with God, we ask that you let the elements pass.
    _____________ will come and pray for the bread.
    READ: 1 Cor 11:23-24
    1 Corinthians 11:23–24 (ESV)
    that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”
    (PAUSE)
    ___________ will now come up to pray for the cup.
    READ: 1 Cor 11:25-26
    1 Corinthians 11:25–26 ESV
    25 In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
    Amen!
    Please stand as Pastor Tim comes now for the closing prayer and benediction.

      • Luke 1:42–45NBLH

      • Deuteronomy 10:21NBLH

      • Psalm 71:19NBLH

      • 1 Corinthians 1:18NBLH

      • Luke 6:20–23NBLH

      • Luke 6:24–26NBLH

      • Galatians 3:8–9NBLH

      • Galatians 3:29NBLH

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