May God be with us this morning.
We turn together to his word again. And we're going to turn
to the chapter we read in the Gospel of Luke, in chapter one.
The Gospel according to Luke, chapter one. We're going to read the opening
verses of Mary's song, commonly known as the Magnificat, found
in verses 46 and 47. Verse 46 and 47, And Mary said,
My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in
God my Saviour. My soul doth magnify the Lord,
and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour. We often sing carols and other
hymns which call us to come and worship the Lord. In Sunday School
this morning we sang, didn't we, to come let us adore him,
Christ the Lord. And it is an exhortation to come
to the Lord to behold him, to adore him, and to worship him. The people who did visit the
Lord at the time of his birth came to worship him. We read of the wise men worshipping
the Lord there at Bethlehem when they presented their gifts to
him. They recognized who he was and
the need to bow and worship the Lord. And at this time of year
when we remember the birth of Jesus, but also whenever we meet
together and whenever we open his word, remembering that the
whole of the Bible speaks of Jesus Christ, it should lead
us to worship And in all the things that we
read and this week, in all the things that we do and are involved
in, I hope it's our desire that it's also a period and a time
of worship. When we come and adore him and
worship at his feet, many times the word of God calls
us, exhorts us to this spirit of worship. You only need to
look through the book of Psalms and you'll find there time and
again this call to worship. Come, let us worship the Lord
in the beauty of holiness, a phrase we hear a number of times in
the Psalms. Worship God. This is one of the
answers that Jesus gave to the devil in the time of his temptation
when he was told to bow down before the devil and he would
give him all the kingdoms of the world. And his answer was,
thou shalt worship the Lord your God and him only shalt thou serve. And so even the Lord Jesus, of
course, is directing us to worship God. Here, Mary worships the Lord. In her song, she opens, my soul
doth magnify the Lord, and really what she's saying is that she
worships him. exalts God. To magnify is to
make something bigger. Use a magnifying glass to make
something bigger. So something that was small,
you look at it and now it's bigger in your sight. She's not saying
that she's making God bigger. Mary can't make God bigger. But she's saying that in her
estimation, in her understanding, in her attitude before God, he
is exalted, he is getting bigger as far as she sees him. He's
so vast, so wonderful, so glorious. She wants to magnify him. And so she worships. Well, if, as our Lord said, we
are to worship God and him only that we are to serve, if we are
to worship him in the beauty of holiness, if we are to magnify
God, this morning I really want to think about what does this
worship look like? What is real worship? What does it really mean? to
worship God. And in answering that question
then to consider personally whether you and I are real worshippers,
whether we do magnify the Lord. And we'll look at that of course
particularly at the life and character of Mary and these verses. And so what is it to worship
and are you a true worshipper? And I hope we will see, and I
hope you will find that confirmation in your own life and heart that
you are a true worshipper of God. Because there is many mixed
views and wrong views of what worship is in the church today. There are views that we worship
when we don't worship, that we have worshipped God when we haven't
really. I think also there may be views
at times that we haven't worshipped when we have. And we can fall
into either side. Self-confidence and over-confidence
that there has been something acceptable in the eyes of God
which hasn't been. but also a pulling down where
we feel we have had nothing and we know nothing when we do. So what is worship and are we
a true worshiper? Well, first of all, in looking
at Mary and looking at her song, we see that worship is humbling. Worship is humbling. Perhaps in reaction, well probably
in reaction to Roman Catholic teaching we perhaps pull Mary
down. We react to the teaching that
Mary was sinless. Oh, that Mary is to be worshipped
and that Mary is to be prayed to. And we react against that
teaching and we bring Mary down. And we forget that the angel
told Mary that she was highly favoured among women. Yes, she
was an ordinary person. She was not sinless, she was
a sinner the same as everyone else. And she was not special
in any particular way. She was an ordinary person in
that way. But she was highly favored. She
was greatly blessed. The angel announced, Blessed
art thou among women. The Lord had chosen her for this
great privilege and blessing of being the mother of the Son
of God himself. I would mean, of course, that
she would bear the Christ child for the nine months of her pregnancy.
She would give birth to the child. But she would also be privileged
to witness the growing up of her son. She would see him as
that perfect child. She would see him in the family
home. She would witness God in the
flesh in her home life. She would also witness his suffering
and death. Mary was highly and greatly favored. But Mary in her song puts the
crown on the right head. My soul doth magnify the Lord. And so her heart, her soul, is
toward God. She isn't telling Elizabeth how
blessed she is. She hasn't gone to Judea to her
cousin to tell her that she is highly favored and that she is
greatly blessed and that she is chosen of God. She hasn't
gone to exhort herself. And in her song here, she doesn't,
if you like, take on the Pharisees' attitude and say to God, how
good and how favoured and how honoured I am, however true that
might be. But her heart is towards the
Lord. My soul magnifies the Lord. And her eyes, therefore, are
always towards him. And remarkably, her eyes are
always towards her son. My spirit has rejoiced in God,
my savior. And the remarkable thing about
those words is that she is speaking of the child who's actually in
her womb at that time. And so she exalts her own son
in recognition that he is God. My soul doth magnify the Lord. And so her worship is humbling. It brings her down and exalts
the Lord. In fact, she refers to herself
in verse 48, he hath regarded the lowest state of his handmaiden. That's how she sees herself.
That's how she views the Lord. And so we remember that true
worship is a humbling experience. It brings us down and lifts up
the Lord. It's the attitude of John the
Baptist. He must increase and I must decrease. We may look at ourselves, our
families, our church, our society, and consider ourselves enlightened
because we don't bow before idols made of wood and stone. We may
look at other religions and almost find it difficult to believe
that people would have a shrine of animals and bow down to them
as gods. We may also almost be tempted
to mock at them and think how much better, how much more enlightened
we are in our understanding that we would never worship an idol
of wood and stone. It seems so foolish. And yet, we may fail to notice
that we are idol worshipers. And the great idol is the idol
of ourselves. We worship ourselves. You say,
I don't bow down to myself. I don't pray to myself. No. But do you exalt yourself? Do you magnify yourself? Our own pride. Our own choice and will. our own abilities and so our
life runs along this theme, everything I do will be for my happiness,
everything I do will be my choice, will be my will in my ability
with no thought for the choice and the will and the sovereignty
of God. And so we worship ourselves.
We magnify ourselves. We magnify our pride. And that's what man has done
ever since Adam fell. And that's essentially the key
sin of Adam and Eve, isn't it? It was to magnify themselves.
You will be as gods, said the serpent, knowing good and evil. And they took the fruit to magnify
themselves. And that is the spirit of sinful
man ever since. I must increase and he must decrease. That isn't worship. That's the
worship of self. But Mary doesn't have that attitude.
Mary says, my soul does magnify the Lord. We thought briefly in the Sunday
school. Those were here this morning of Herod. King Herod is one of
the people we thought about. You remember how Herod was told
where Jesus was by his scribes around him. They said, the scriptures
tell us that Christ will be born in Bethlehem. The wise men came
telling him that they had seen the star in the east and they
had followed it as far as to Jerusalem and that they were
now willing to go on to Bethlehem with that information. They witnessed
the wise men leave back up their things and to travel the short
distance from Jerusalem to Bethlehem in search of the newborn king. He even told them that he wanted
to worship. And so we may see the scene in
Jerusalem and we say, well, here is a believer. How wonderful.
King Herod is a believer. King Herod wants to worship the
Lord. He wants to seek the Christ himself. He is hot on the heels of the
wise men to find Jesus. But we know, don't we, that Herod
was a hypocrite. He said one thing, but meant
the opposite. Because Herod in contrast to
the wise men, was not full of Christ. They came seeking the
newborn king and worshipped him when they found him. But in contrast,
Herod was full of self. Herod was full of his own kingdom
and his own throne to the point that he was willing to destroy
any children who he thought might take his place. Herod was a hypocrite, he worshipped
himself. Again, we can point fingers in
his direction, but maybe we realise we're the same. By nature, that's
just not what we are. We could see the others going
off to worship the Lord and we could even say the right things
and say, I will come with you and I will try to find the Christ,
but in our heart, deep down, We're full of ourselves. That's not worship, because worship
is humbling. Worship has the Lord as its focus. Worship has this attitude. My
soul doth magnify the Lord. My spirit hath rejoiced in God,
my Savior. Secondly, Worship flows from
experience. Worship flows from experience. Mary, she has a reason to magnify
the Lord. She has a reason. In fact, she
has a number of reasons, but it's all centered in the Lord. What did we read that she was
told? The angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary, for thou hast
found favour with God. Behold, thou shalt conceive in
thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name Jesus. He shall be great, shall be called
the Son of the Highest. The Lord God shall give unto
him the throne of his father David, and he shall reign over
the house of Jacob for ever, and of his kingdom there shall
be no end. Surely this message from the
angel is packed with reasons to worship. Fear not, he says. It brings comfort to her. You
have found favor with God, he says. God has been gracious and
loving towards you. You have been Greatly privileged
that you will bring forth a son and you will call him Jesus the
Savior That you are the one Of all the women who have been born
into Israel and all the women who have been born into this
world Mary you are the one who is going to bear the seed of
which is long promised in the Garden of Eden. You are the one
who will bear a son who will bruise the head of the serpent.
You will conceive and bear a son. And he will be the son of the
highest. He will not be Joseph's son.
He is not the son of the carpenter. He's the son of the highest. And of his kingdom, there'll
be no end. And really, when you unpack what he is saying, the
angel is announcing the coming of Christ. The Messiah, the Savior
has come. And Mary, you are his mother. What a wonderful message. But Mary doesn't just rejoice
in the news But Mary also rejoices in a personal experience of God's
favour towards her. And we can see this in her song. How she speaks, he has regarded
the lowest state of his handmaiden. He's regarded me. He has put
down the mighty from their seats and exalted them of low degree. He has filled the hungry with
good things. And so I believe what we have
here is Mary, as it were, isn't just a body who is bearing the
Christ child, if I can put it that way, in an unfeeling way. She's not just the means of the
birth of Jesus. She is personally blessed to
the Spirit of God, to rejoice that she is of lower state. She is undeserving. She is a
sinner herself, but God has exalted her and privileged her. And so she has an experience
of God's blessing personally, as well as God's blessing in
the conception of Jesus Christ. And it's that which loosens her
tongue to sing this song. My soul does magnify the Lord.
And so we come to the second principle of worship. Worship
flows from experience. There's a sense that all of us
have a reason to magnify the Lord. Every single person in
the world has reason to magnify the Lord. He is worthy of praise
and adoration from every living soul in the world. He is their Lord and Creator.
He is their Father. in the sense that he has made
them and reigns over them. And there is every reason to
magnify the Lord for the truth of God and the truth that Christ
has been born, the truth that this child in Mary's womb is
the son of the highest, and that should lead us to worship. But the sad reality, of course,
is it doesn't. by nature these truths of the
powerful creator, faithful, eternal, glorious, merciful God does not
lead us to worship because our heart would not worship him. But when we know him personally
like Mary did, when we can say He has regarded the lower state
of his handmaid, and that is he's regarded my lower state,
and he has exalted me by his grace. When we have known the
personal blessing towards you and me, then we have reason to
magnify the Lord. I wonder if that's true of us this
morning. Do you have a reason to magnify
the Lord? A reason in your own heart and
experience, because he's regarded your lower states, saw you where
you were as ruined and helpless in the fall and desperate and
unable to save yourself. And yet he saw you and lifted
you and exalted you in that way and fed you with good things. They show to you that the Christ
child isn't just a human of history, but is your Lord and your Savior,
the one who has eternally loved you and as you came to him, received
you and blessed you. We have reason to magnify the
Lord because there is hope in the gospel for sinners as we
are. flows from experience, which
is why people may speak of worshipping God today, of attending a time
of worship, of experiencing a place of worship, of joining in the
activities of worship, but they don't know what real worship
is because worship flows from the experience of knowing Him. It comes from that and then flows
out in response, just like Mary's did. My soul doth magnify the Lord.
And so it is humbling, flows from a real experience. Thirdly,
worship is a matter of the heart. Worship is a matter of the heart.
It would appear From what we do know about the
character of Mary, that she was quite a quiet person. She quietly goes about her business. She quietly meets with Elizabeth. From at least what we read of
her, it would seem that she was a quieter character. But what we see here is that
Mary's heart is on fire. Her heart is burning with love
to the Lord. What we have here is clearly
not an outward show. She is not going from house to
house in Nazareth or in Judea and telling them all. She had
something to say, didn't she, Mary? She had a message she could
have given about the child that she was bearing, but we don't
read of her doing that. She's just one-to-one in Elizabeth's
house with her cousin. She's not saying these things
to impress a whole crowd of people, and she's not saying these things
to impress Elizabeth. She's saying it to exalt the
Lord. She is stirred in amazement at what God has done. Her heart
has been moved by what God has done. And so she speaks out this
praise. Mary knows her own sinful heart. She knows what she is. But she
also knows what it is to have a new heart. to be given a new
spirit, a new birth. And now her heart, her spirit
rejoices in God, her savior. She knows what her heart was,
but now she knows what her heart is. There's been a change in
the heart of Mary. And that is where is the seat
of this worship. It is a matter of the heart. My spirit doth rejoice in God
my Saviour." And you remember the words of the Lord Jesus to
the woman at the well in John chapter 4, that worship God must
worship him in spirit and in truth. He is pointing that woman
to the fact that true worship is a matter of the heart, of
the spirit. It flows from knowing him, that
experience of him in the heart. And so we remember this third
point, true worship is a matter of the heart. We do not worship
to impress others. The word of God tells us our
heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.
And we, if we analyze ourselves, at times we'll do things and
say things to impress others. Perhaps those who engage in public
prayer we can even fall into the temptation of saying prayers
to impress the congregation. True worship is not to impress
others. It's to worship the Lord. You
remember how Samuel, the prophet, went to anoint a new king and
was sent to Jesse in Bethlehem again? You see the importance
of the town of Bethlehem, and he comes, and there's all of
these brothers, and they are all presented before him one
by one. And finally, after God has rejected all of them, he
is reminded, look not on the outward appearance, for God looks
on the heart. And David was a man after God's
own heart. And David had been called and
chosen for this role. And he anointed him king there
in Bethlehem. And we're reminded again through
that account that God sees the hearts of every single one of
us. And so our worship should be a matter which is from within. As I say, I think that can be
difficult to discern at times. We, if we know anything of our
own selves, will say, but my heart is deceitful above all
things. I am in myself desperately wicked. My prayer life is not
perhaps what I'd want it to be. My prayers seem to be so poor. I seem to be so cold and half-hearted
at times. And so you say, is your worship
from within? But when I look within, It's
not always very encouraging. And so you may sadly conclude,
I'm not sure if I do worship. Well, let's take us to the end
of the life of Jesus. And you remember the two on the
road to Emmaus. And they walked along and they
were sad as they talked to each other about what they had heard
about the death, the resurrection of Jesus. They couldn't work
it out. They couldn't comprehend. And Jesus himself drew near and
went with them and spoke to them and opened unto them the scriptures
concerning himself. He pointed them to himself. It's interesting, isn't it, that
in the providence and wisdom of God, we have a number of sermons
recorded in the Bible. The sermons of the prophets,
of course, and the sermons of the apostles, or at least some
of them. I am in no way complaining about the sovereignty and inspiration
of God, but wouldn't it be nice to read that sermon? What did
the Lord say to the two on the road to Emmaus? How he opened
the scriptures concerning himself and walked them through the Old
Testament and showed them how he was the fulfillment of it
all. And they said at the end, did
not our heart burn within us while he taught with us by the
way and as he opened unto us the scriptures? And the point
is this, that they received They drank in, they loved what they
were hearing, they loved to hear of Christ, and they loved to
see the wonderful work of God and how he was fulfilling it
all in Christ, and they loved to hear of Jesus in that way,
and their heart was moved within them. They worshipped. And so you may say, well, my
heart's deceitful and I feel so sad and discouraged when I
look within. But when you hear Christ, when
he is faithfully preached to you, when you read his word and
find him, doesn't your heart burn within you? Isn't there
something wonderful about the person and work of Jesus Christ? Worship is a matter of the heart. When the Lord stirs us and our
faith is stirred and our heart is stirred and we see of things
concerning himself. And so thirdly, worship is a
matter of the heart. Fourthly, worship is also to
be spoken or sung. worship is spoken or sung. Mary said, my soul does magnify
the Lord. It's important to note here that
it was something that was said and therefore I think something
that was heard, at least heard by Elizabeth, her cousin. It was in her heart, But she
couldn't keep silent. It was spoken. Her heart flows
out. Yes, it's from the heart, but
it is also to be heard. If you shall believe in your
heart and confess with the mouth that Christ is risen from the
dead, you shall be saved. There's belief and confession. Of course, when we turn to the
book of Psalms, again, we're reminded that the book of Psalms
exalts us time and again to sing praises unto the Lord. The Psalms
tell us to meet together, to sing. The New Testament tells
us not to forsake the assembling of yourselves together. The New
Testament speaks to us of Christ singing with his disciples. There is to be worship in the
mouth as well as the heart. We are to sing his praise. That's why we sing in our services. It's an integral part. It's an
important part. That's why in COVID not being
able to sing was hard. And it's why when we could, we
went back to it. We didn't decide that we've moved
on. We move on from singing God's
praise because it's a scriptural appointment of grace. God blesses through the singing
of praise. And so we are to sing with understanding,
should mean and understand what we're singing. We are to sing
that praise. But This is what Mary does. She speaks, but I just want you
to take some encouragement here. Perhaps there may be some this
morning who are not big talkers. There are some people who are
confident in speaking, and people who are often speaking of the
Lord. They are good at conversation. They are good at weaving Christ
into conversation. They are good in speaking of
their experience or speaking of the law to others. And some
of God's people can feel discouraged. If you don't feel to be one of
those people. I feel confident in speaking. feel ever able to
know what to say perhaps it's a struggle and you may feel discouraged
by it I just want to take some encouragement here that this
song or these words of Mary's were spoken it would seem to
one person to Elizabeth and she speaks of
how she wants to magnify the Lord and so those little one-to-one
conversations That conversation with a loved
one, with the family, with a close friend, when you just converse
about what the Lord means to you, that is worship. That is from a heart of worship. And it's pleasing in his eyes,
as those who spoke often one with another. my soul doth magnify the Lord. And so it's a matter of the heart,
but it's a matter that is spoken. And fifthly and lastly, we see in Mary that true worship
is a matter of submission. It is in submission. Mary is such a lovely character
because she doesn't just say things, she does things. She walks out what she believes. I haven't got time to go into
all the detail, but you know the account and the character that
we have before us. Just take your mind through what Mary walks
through. She receives this message from
the angel, you will bear the Christ, the son will be the son
of the highest. And as you will know, this itself
brought a real problem. She was engaged to be married
to Joseph. And suddenly, she's with child,
Joseph, Her fiancé reaches a conclusion, which is a logical conclusion,
which is that his betrothed wife has been unfaithful to him. She's
bearing another man's child, and so he starts to think about
divorce and separation. Well, we don't read it in God's
Word, but I don't think it's too much of a leap to think that
if Joseph was thinking that, other people were thinking that
too. Imagine the gossip. Imagine the
conversations in Nazareth about Mary. Imagine the stigma that
she had to face in that way. And then the accusations from
Joseph before he received the dream from God and was satisfied
that this was the work of the Lord. How hard for Mary. And then in all the circumstances
of the birth, the decree, which, naturally speaking, is so inconvenient,
that when she's late term in her pregnancy, she now has to
make a journey down to Bethlehem at the worst possible moment
for her. And then the long journey, and
then the difficult circumstances and the surroundings of the birth. and the manger in Bethlehem. This wasn't in her plan. No doubt
this is what Mary wanted for her firstborn son. This isn't
how she imagined she would start family if you like. But she faithfully and in submission
to God walks out her pathway. She magnifies the Lord in her
voice but she magnifies the Lord in her life. She is in utter
submission to her God. And you know, when we come through
the years and Jesus' first miracle in Cana, when he turns the water
into wine, you remember how she goes and she says to him, she
says to the people there at the feast, whatever he says to you,
do it. And you see there, her attitude
is still submission to her son. What he says, you do it. And she had walked out her own
advice in her life. She did what God called her to
do. But you see, we sometimes look
at submission and we see it as a very passive thing. They're
a submissive person. They're a very passive person.
But Mary's submission is not passive. Mary's submission is
very active. She does what God calls her to
do. It moves her in her life. Not just in her words that she
speaks here, but in her life. And true worship is submission. It's easy, perhaps, to come to
a church on a Sunday morning and to join with the song and
to say, in effect, my soul doth magnify the Lord. My spirit rejoices
in God, my savior. And we can say it, appreciate
it, and sing it. But then when we hear a command
of God or a leading of the Lord, and we step into our life on
Monday morning, That's when it's tested, when you worship him
in submission in your life. Because that is worship which
is well pleasing unto him. In fact, he says that that obedience
is more pleasing than all the sacrifices that you could bring. Real worship is not to just confess
that he is Lord, but to own him as Lord of your life. For Mary, that meant bearing
reproach. It meant suffering a great deal
in her life. But she did as called. She took
his yoke upon her, and she never regretted it. My soul doth magnify
the Lord. and my spirit hath rejoiced in
God my Saviour." Well, here then are five key elements to worship.
It is humbling, it is from real experience, it's a matter of
the heart, it is not always silent, and it is in submission. May we, as we hear again the
birth and coming of Christ, may we, as we speak again of the
glorious truth of the gospel, be stirred to worship him, to
exalt his name together and say, my spirit, me, my spirit has
rejoiced in God, my savior. May God bless his word to us
this morning.