Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Welcome to the Nov. 9 sermon from Clifford Baptist Church, 6:35 Fletcher's Level Road in Amherst. Today's scripture is Luke, chapter one, verses 39 through 56. And the sermon is entitled Great Things he hath Done, delivered today by Pastor Jeffrey Campbell.
[00:00:15] Speaker B: Look with me Luke, chapter number one, starting at verse number 39. And I'm going to go first through 45.
Mary arose in those days and went into the Hill country with haste into a city of Judah and entered the house of Zacharias and saluted Elizabeth.
And it came to pass that when Elizabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost.
And she spake out with a loud voice and said, blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb.
And whence is this to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For lo, as soon as the voice of that salutation sounded in mine ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy. And blessed is she that believed, for there shall be a performance of those things which were told her from the Lord.
There are four things that I want to show you today about how good and how great our God is.
The first one is this, that we are blessed are blessed to be believers.
Blessed believers.
Mary hears the news that Elizabeth is pregnant, and immediately she goes to be with her cousin.
This isn't just a drive down the street or next door. This is an 80 to 100 mile trip that, that she is determined to make, to go see her cousin and visit her to see her through this pregnancy. Now remember, Elizabeth is old, Mary is young. Two opposite sides of the spectrum.
Both of them are with child. And when she gets to Zacharias and Elizabeth's house, she enters the home and she greets them. We don't know what is said, but at the greeting of Mary's voice, something amazing happens. That baby inside of Elizabeth leaps.
As scripture tells us.
We see that that baby leaped in her womb and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit or the Holy Ghost.
And we see God's plan unfolding. And I'm not going to go down this rabbit trail, but I am going to say this. This is 100% proof that a baby is alive in the womb.
That is a life there.
As it responds to the voice and to the presence of a godly woman, that baby leaps. That baby is alive.
So what we see here is God is working.
God's plan is unfolding through the lives of Elizabeth and in the life of Mary.
As Elizabeth tells us, the baby would leap for joy.
But now the Lord is working to bring joy to our lives.
And here's what I want to ask you today. Are there times in your walk with the Lord, they may not all be joyful times, but our relationship with Jesus should bring us joy.
Circumstances should not dictate or take away or remove the joy that Jesus brings to our life.
And so today we're challenged as the joy, as this woman is filled with joy, that our lives should be filled with joy simply because the presence and the work of Jesus in our lives.
But how is Mary blessed or blessed? How is she blessed?
Here's what scripture tells us. Look at verse 42.
And she spake out with a loud voice and said, blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb. And whence is this to me that the mother of my Lord should come unto me? This is the word of Elizabeth saying, who am I that Mary should come to? The mother of my Lord shall come to me. Hey. Elizabeth already knows what's going on in Mary's life.
She references her as the mother of the Lord. There are three reasons we see that Mary is blessed. She's blessed among women. God is working in her life. And among all the women, she carries a very heavy responsibility. She is blessed by the Lord. As I said in another sermon, this does not elevate her to worship status.
But what this says is, God is working. Elizabeth identifies God is working in your life. Can you identify somebody's life around you that God is working in?
Don't look at yourself. Look around you.
Some people need to hear, God is working.
You're blessed. God's working in your life. I pulled a young man to the side last week, and I just told him this. Be obedient. God is working. I don't know what that looks like. I don't know what it means. God is working in your life.
And as blessed believers, we need to know that God wants to work in our lives. God should be working through our lives.
So she is blessed among women. She's also blessed because of her baby.
Now, that might seem like it contradicts one another. A teenager in this time with a child that is far from a blessing.
She will face ridicule. She will face gossip. She will face words and slander that she has.
[00:05:58] Speaker A: She.
[00:05:59] Speaker B: She probably shouldn't even hear.
But beside the point, Elizabeth knows this, that this mama is carrying a very special baby.
And that baby, as you see in verse number 43, is referred to the Lord.
So Elizabeth identifies her blessed because she is Carrying a very special baby. She's gonna give the birth to the Messiah. So Elizabeth says she is blessed also.
Look at verse number 45. And blessed is she that believed.
Here's what Elizabeth says. When Mary heard from the angel what God was doing in her life, she remember from last week. She pondered. She had some fear come on her. She had questions. But do you remember the four words we left the sermon off with last week?
Be it unto me. Right? She said, let it be. I'm going to believe you, God, for what you're going to do. And here, Elizabeth identifies this. That she is blessed because she believed. And not only that, verse number 45 says this, that God is going to perform exactly what he told her through the angel Gabriel.
Now, today, as you and I look at our lives, are we a blessed believer?
Okay, nobody is. All right, let me start over. Should I just end this thing now? Are y' all with me?
Let me ask that question. Are you a blessed believer?
Amen. And if you go down and you began to make a list, it would not stop with just three things. Mary is not blessed just because of these three things. She's blessed because her life will be devoted to a savior.
And so today, that's the challenge of you and I is we're not blessed because one time we said a prayer and asked Jesus to come into our heart and save us. No, that's just where it begins.
You and I are commanded to live blessed lives, faithful lives that will sing a song and testify of the goodness and the greatness of our God.
And so today, I'm afraid the song has gone silent in believers hearts.
When we ask, are we blessed?
We just keep our mouth shut.
Today, simply by being born in the United States of America, you are blessed.
You could have been any other country in this world, but God put you here.
You're blessed to wake up every morning and as a gentleman told you, I'm looking for him. I don't know that he's here today. He might be working. The gentleman told me, every morning I wake up, I sit up, and I swing around and put my feet on the floor. I am a blessed man.
But let me ask you this.
How is God working in your life that you can sing a song? He is doing great things.
There's another point. Go with me to verses 46 through 49.
And Mary said, this is Mary's answer. This is Mary's song. Okay? So before I ever start reading, this is Mary's song. It's called the Magnificent. If she is going to Sing this in praise to God. Look at these verses as we read verse 46 through 49. Mary said, My soul doth magnify the Lord and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior, for he hath regarded the low estate of his handmaiden. For behold, from henceforth, all generations shall call me blessed. For he that is mighty hath done in me great things, and holy is his name.
Point number two is this. God hath done great things personally.
God hath done great things personally. The beginning of Mary's song.
She is going to magnify the Lord with every word that she uses in this song. If you have the King James version in front of you in this song, the word hath h a t h hath is nine times. You will read it at the things that God has done.
Just in her very short teenage years of life, the things that God has done. And as she ponders and sings and worships, this is a surreal moment because God is working a miracle in her life.
Her spirit is rejoicing not in what she is doing, but what God is doing through her life. And you see that word magnified. She just wants to magnify the Lord with what her life will become.
Even though there's so many unanswered questions, so much negativity that she will face, Mary rejoices in the God of her salvation.
Because here's what you need to realize. Mary not only is carrying Jesus, she will have to accept him as Savior as well.
Let that run through our brain.
She is carrying her own Savior, not just the Savior of the world in the eyes of the world.
She says this. I am so undeserving.
How many of you feel like you're undeserving of God's love?
Amen. We are.
Mary says, I'm so undeserving. I'm a little girl. I'm a young handmaiden from Nazareth. I don't deserve God's favor to. To be upon me. I don't deserve God's work. And here's the thing, she can't turn it down even if she wanted to, because God is working.
God is working.
Generations are going to call her blessed because of her Son, not because of anything she does.
But God has done a mighty work. And Mary understands this powerful work can only be attributed to. To what God is doing. So she returns it to God and praise.
When's the last time you notice, number one, God's at work in your life or in someone's life.
That's one Step. The next step is to return it in praise and thanksgiving to him. God, thank you for what you're doing.
When's the last time believers sang a song of thanks, of the goodness of our God?
God, thank you for what you are doing.
This holy calling upon Mary's life is a responsibility that she cannot handle on her own. And she understands this. She needs the Lord's help.
What holy calling has God put on your life that you need God's help to understand it and to make it happen because you cannot do it on your own.
God's not going to ask you to birth the Savior of the world. God will not ask you because that's already happened. God may not be asking you to become a pastor, but God has put a holy calling on your life. If you are a believer in Jesus that you must answer.
And so many people are running from that.
It's okay to be scared of it. It's another thing to run from it. And here's what Mary says. God, thank you. I'm so undeserving. I don't know if I can do it. I cannot do it without your help. But God, please help me.
She would need that same help when from a distance, she would watch her son go to a cruel cross of Calvary.
God has done great things, and God has done great things for us personally.
Can you rejoice in what God is doing in your life? Can you see his hand or his power or his spirit at work as you faithfully obey that call? It starts with salvation. But let me ask you this. Where does the rest of your song go to?
I'm glad you asked.
Mary sings a second verse of her song. Look at verse number 50.
And his mercy is on them that fear him from generation to generation.
And he hath showed strength with his arm and he has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. And he hath put down the mighty from their seats and exalted them of a low degree. He hath filled the hungry with good things and the rich he hath sent empty away.
Point number three is this. God hath done great things for others.
God has done great things for others.
Mary speaks of God's mercy on those who fear the Lord from generation to generation.
The proud, the powerful, the prosperous are dealt with by the strong arm of the Lord.
Here's what I want to say before I get into this. It's not wrong to have stuff.
It is wrong if that stuff is your God. If it takes God's place, He can remove it just like that.
And so what Mary sees, Mary sees a people that are desperate for a Savior.
And as she sees that strong arm of the Lord, the proud become scattered and the powerful are put down and the prosperous become empty. The humble and the hungry are the ones that are exalted and filled in the eyes of of Mary's song and her prediction of what this little boy will do.
Mary has nothing.
I don't know how to explain that to you other than to say this. Mary has nothing.
She is poor.
Jesus wasn't born to a wealthy family, poor people.
And so what Mary sees and what is coming of her son, an undeserving, unworthy woman knows that God can work through her poor, pitiful life to bring glory to Jesus name.
And all she wants is that God would get the glory.
How many of you know that God's grace can work counterculturally?
It does.
That is the only way that when we understand how God works, it works beyond our human minds in the ways that we think or the ways that we desire things. The way that culture is going, not the way that Jesus is going.
What this world wants to love and honor and serve and worship is not Jesus.
And so today, what we need to understand as believers is this will we still follow when it looks like the rich are getting richer and the undeserving are coming into power and the prosperous just keep filling their baskets.
How does Jesus work?
His Word tells us that he works counterculturally. The last will become the first.
That believers need not to only love one another, but you better be loving your enemies.
And we're not to be conformed by the world, but transformed.
God's mercy is on those who fear and will walk with Jesus no matter what.
Mary's song was a song that she saw that God was doing great things in the lives of others. In the future and in generations that had passed, God was still at work.
There's one more part to this song.
Look at verse 54.
He hath holpened his servant Israel in remembrance of his mercy. And as he spake to our fathers, to Abraham, and to his seed forever. And Mary abode with her about three months and returned to her own house.
God has done great things for his people, church. He's done great things for us individually. He's done great things for others, and he's done great things for his people.
Mary pulls out Israel here and understands the promise not only to Abraham and to David, but Abraham's promise to make a great nation and that he would be a blessing and his family would Be a blessing to those nations around the earth.
We understand that that's where Mary is reaching to in her song, as she looks to the promised redeemer.
But she gives thanks because God has helped the people of God, Israel. God has helped them. God has led them. God has been faithful when they have turned their back. And now one of Israel's daughters stands on the brink, ready to give birth to the Savior. That is Jesus.
God is still at work.
God has been merciful to Israel time and time again.
God has been merciful to America time and time again.
But I feel like we're getting ready to get the. We're getting ready to get the belt.
Because we have not been faithful.
We have not sung the song. We have turned our back. We are forsaken our ways.
We are going to be disciplined as a nation for that.
But what about the people of God?
When Jesus was born, it went from Israel to whoever comes in. And it is adopted into the family of Jesus.
So today I look at the family of God before me. We have been adopted into God's family, not by nationality, but by the blood of Jesus Christ.
And we need to sing the song to God. Be the glory. Great things he has done for us.
But we know that it doesn't stop with us, that God still wants to work in the days ahead.
And so how does that happen?
Look at verse number 56.
And Mary abode with her about three months and returned to her own house.
I love worship service.
I don't necessarily like being up here in front of people all the time, but worship service at Clifford Baptist church since 2006 when I came, has been a blessing to my soul.
God has used this place.
God has done great things.
And it doesn't end.
It doesn't stop with you or me.
And here's what I've realized this week. God doesn't even need me.
And that's what Mary realized.
Why did God choose me?
I'm uneducated.
I'm poor.
I'm just a handmaiden. How can God use me?
And we know the story he did.
She went home.
Things were different at home.
Some of you may lead the blessing of a Sunday service and go home.
And you may face somebody in your home that doesn't believe.
You may face hard times. You may face persecution at your job. You see, when you leave the place of God and the people of God and you enter the world, it's not promised it's going to be easy.
I love the place of God because it's where I get Filled up because I know this world is going to wear me down and I need the people of God.
So I love church and I love Sunday morning. I love shaking hands and I love talking to you. I love spending time. I need you.
I need you.
Because in just a few minutes, I've got to go home.
And I've got to go to a world that doesn't know Jesus as Savior.
But they're looking and they're listening for somebody just to sing a song of praise.
When Mary goes home, she will face gossip and questions because she is a teenage girl that will begin to show that she is pregnant. But she leaves this encounter with her cousin, her sister, a fellow believer, rejoicing in what God is doing, even when it's hard.
But she's got to go home and she's got to face the reality and the calls and the voices and the gossip of what the world will throw at her.
We're getting ready to say Amen.
And you will go home.
Will you sing a song of praise of Jesus this week?
At work, at school, in your home, where you can witness that God has done great things.
Maybe there's somebody in this room that can relate your story, your song, your life. Christian is not done.
But listen, it must point to Jesus.
It always needs to point to Jesus.
That's our responsibility, believers this week.
But for the unbeliever that's in the room, I hope today the great thing that God has done for you that you will see coming into this world and on this earth through this little baby, this perfect, sinless son of God that's coming to the world, he wants to be your Savior.
The birth will be very, very not in the public. It's not going to be noticed by many.
But his death, his death brings life, forgiveness of sin to all those who will believe today. Maybe you can't sing the song of Jesus because you don't know him yet.
And this is my invitation that God, through the Holy Spirit, the same Holy Spirit that worked in the life of Elizabeth and Mary, that same Holy Spirit, will work in your life to show you that God has done great things. And the greatest thing that God will ever do was put his Son in our place for our redemption, that we may be saved and that we can have eternal life with him.
Praise God that on the third day he rose.
And how many of us believers believe that we serve a risen Savior?
That's the song we sing as we leave today.
Let's pray. Father. God, thank you for these moments.
God, as we bow before you. And we invite you to join us in these moments of invitation. God, I believe that in only the way that you can.
You know each heart, you know each mind. You know every situation represented in this place.
God, thank youk, Lord, as we sing these words to God be the glory. Maybe believers want to come and just say, God, thank youk for what yout have done. You have done great and marvelous things in my life.
God, I praise youe for what yout are doing today. If there is a believer that wants to just bow and pray, kneel and pray, they come.
But God, I pray for that one that knows in their heart that they're not saved.
They know they need you, but they put it off and they continue not to surrender.
Holy Spirit, I pray that you will work on that heart, Lord, that you will plow that ground that the sea today has fallen on fertile ground.
God, thank you for the work that you're going to do in that life. And we give it to you now. In Jesus name. Amen.
[00:29:12] Speaker A: Clifford Baptist Church invites you to join us for worship every Sunday morning at 11am for more information about our church, please call our church office at 434-946-0555.
