May the Lord be with us and bless
us as we consider his word together this morning. We'll turn to the
chapter that we read and the gospel according to Luke chapter
2 and we'll read verse 19. Luke chapter 2 and verse 19. But Mary kept all these things
and pondered them in her heart. But Mary kept all these things
and pondered them in her heart. No doubt we all have heard and
considered this account a number of times in the last week. I
want us to just try and consider the life and the last few days
at least of Mary when we read these words. Mary had come with
Joseph from Nazareth. She was heavily pregnant. She
was due to be delivered very shortly and they had made the
journey from the north, Nazareth in Galilee, down to Bethlehem
in Judea. It was no easy journey and eventually
they had come to Bethlehem. They had made, it would seem,
enquiries as to where to stay and finally what had been provided
was this stable or a cattle shed. It seems probably attached to
the side of the inn. And there they were. There they
expected to spend the night. And there she gave birth. There she was delivered of the
child. And at the time it would seem
it was probably only her and Joseph as they went through the
labour and as the Lord Jesus was born. They were quiet and
alone following his birth there in the stable that night. But
then, suddenly, a group of men arrive. Suddenly, a group of
shepherds arrive at the stable door. Now Mary and Joseph, it
would seem, knew nothing of the shepherds' visit from the angels. The first they knew was the shepherds
arrived. And the shepherds came telling
of a wondrous vision and of amazing things that they had heard. The
shepherds told them that whilst they had been on the hillside
that night, they had seen an angel. And then they had seen
a multitude of angels of the heavenly host. They told them
that they had heard wondrous things. That they had been told
that a saviour had been born. They had been told that the saviour
was in Bethlehem, in the city of David. They had been told
that that saviour was the Christ, the promised Messiah. And they
had been told that they would find that child wrapped in swaddling
clothes and lying in a manger. And there the shepherds found
him. They found him wrapped in swaddling
clothes, lying in a manger. And that fact confirmed to the
shepherds that the rest of the message of the angels was true.
They found him, as the angel said, therefore, there was the
Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And I'm sure the shepherds
relayed this to Mary and Joseph, that then the heavenly host had
surrounded them, praising God, saying, glory to God in the highest
and on earth, peace, goodwill, toward men. They would have told
them, we came quickly therefore and we have come and searched
you out and we have found you and that child whom you have
given birth to, that child who has been born this night, we
know is the saviour. And these shepherds are rejoicing. They are They go on their way
praising God. They cannot stop talking about
what they have heard and what they have seen. I believe when
they're with Mary and Joseph, and then when they leave, they
want to tell everyone else. We read when they seen it, they
made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning
this child. And all they that heard it wondered
at those things which were told unto their shepherds. And the
shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the
things that they had heard and seen that was told unto them."
We can picture these shepherds, can't we? Having found the Lord
Jesus, the Christ, now they go and want to tell others. And
they are full almost of excitement as they go. They are praising
God. They are glorifying God. And
they are making known abroad the sayings that they've heard.
Far and wide, to others that they know, their families, their
friends, other shepherds, people that they meet, they want to
tell them all about that wondrous night when the angels came and
they found the child. The shepherds are full of the
news and the people wonder at what they hear from the shepherds. But we have here almost a stark
contrast to the joyous, outward praising and excitement of the
shepherds. We have here Mary. Mary is still there. Mary is
still with her child. Mary has seen what they have
seen and she has heard through them what they have heard. And
yet Mary, she keeps these things and ponders them in her heart. She considers them. She carefully
thinks about them. The word also implies that she
weighs them up, she compares these things with other things
that she has heard recently, with other things that have occurred
recently. She compares, she ponders them,
she thinks about them in her heart. This is no loud, vocal,
outward A voicing and praising that everyone else could see.
This is no speaking to everyone. This is a quiet meditation before
the Lord. A pondering of everything that
has happened. It's almost in stark contrast
that we find these words in the middle of the passage of the
shepherds. But Mary kept all these things
and pondered them. in her heart. I wonder, I wonder
this year, so anyone here who has really desired, really prayed
that this time, this year, this Christmas time, there would be
something for you. There would be a special blessing
this year, as you were directed as we consider the birth of Christ
this week and the build-up and the leading up to it, that there
would be something for you, that the Lord would lead you into
it, that the Lord would bless you with His blessing. And what
you've desired is you wanted to rejoice. You wanted to rejoice
in the Lord Jesus Christ. You've wanted to be able to sing
and to speak and to tell and to glorify God and to speak to
others as the shepherds did. Have you prayed for something
this year that there might be liberty in your heart and you
might be full of the things that you have heard, full of the coming
of Christ and liberty to speak of them? Has that been your prayer? That there would be some special
blessing for you that you might be able to be like the shepherds
were, speaking to others, rejoicing in your heart, not being able,
as it were, to keep it to yourself any longer. But is it true that it's ended
and you're disappointed? It seems that it's come to an
end. You have not received what you
thought you would. You've not received the blessing, the liberty
you thought you would. It's all come and gone. The services
have been attended. The carol services have been
attended. The carols have been sung. The passages have been
read. The sermons have been heard. And yet, something's been missing. Where was that special blessing
you've prayed for? Where is that liberty you longed
for to be able to join with the shepherds? You're disappointed.
Have you come to the conclusion therefore that There was nothing
for you this year. It was as last year, and it's
as the year before. The Lord has not come. The Lord
will not come. There is no blessing for you
this year. Well, let me ask you, have you, are you pondering? Have you pondered these things? because Mary was as blessed in
her pondering as the shepherds were in their glorifying. Have you thought on these things? Here is the blessing to think
on him, to consider in your heart these things, to weigh them up
as it were, to compare them as she did, to meditate on Him,
on all that you have heard, on all that you have done, to ponder
them in your heart. Here we find blessing from God
as we think on these things. There may not be the wondrous
liberty that you expected you might have, but there is blessing
for your soul in pondering these things in your heart. And here
we have an ongoing thing. I believe Mary continued to ponder,
continued to think, continued to quietly consider the things
which occurred. And you see, because we have
come to this side of the Christmas day, does not mean that therefore
it is all over and therefore we must forget it and move on
into the new year. Here there was an ongoing pondering. May we, as we go on in the coming
weeks, into the coming year, not forget the wonder of the
coming of Christ, not forget to meditate on them, to think
on them in our hearts, to keep these things, not let them go,
to keep them and ponder them in her heart. Here is the blessing
from God for us. Well, what did she ponder? What did Mary Ponder. I want to consider four points
this morning. Firstly, she pondered herself. Secondly, she pondered
her God. Thirdly, she pondered her way. And fourthly, she pondered her
son. Herself, her God, her way and
her son. Firstly then, she thought on
herself. Herself. Who was Mary? Well, Mary was a girl from Nazareth. She was engaged, espoused to
be married to Joseph. She was, to all intents and purposes,
an ordinary girl, going about her normal business, her ordinary
life in Nazareth. She was a sinner, She had done
wrong. She would continue to do wrong.
She had not kept God's law perfectly as none of us have. She did not
deserve any blessing from God for who and what she was. She
was a young girl, it would seem, who was living a life like anyone
else. She was not married. She had
no status in life. She had no status in society.
And yet, the Lord came to her. And the Lord spoke directly to
her. The angel came to her, where
she was. We know, we read that the angel
Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth,
to a virgin, a spouse to a man whose name was Joseph, the house
of David, and of the Virgin's name was Mary. And the angel came into her and
said, Hail! Thou that art highly favoured,
the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women. What? What words to receive from
the angel for Mary? Suddenly an angel appears. And
the angel says that she is highly favoured, that God is with her,
that she is blessed among women. Why her? It must have gone through
Mary's mind. Why me? Why not my neighbours? Why not my friends? Why has God
come to me and declared that I am highly favoured and that
God is with me? But the angel nonetheless has
come. that the angel has delivered
a true message. We know how she felt, for she
says in her song, verses later in Luke 1, that he hath regarded
the lowest state of his handmaiden. She felt her lowest state. She
felt her unworthiness to receive anything from God. She felt her
sinnership. She felt that she could never
earn God's favour. God had regarded her low estate. She pondered who she was. And that God had come to her. God had spoken to her. And that
God had blessed her in a way that all had longed to be blessed. The women of the Old Testament
from the time of creation, the time of Eve, had longed to give
birth to the Messiah. That they might be the one chosen
to bring forth the Saviour. And yet, Mary ponders. He's come to me. He's blessed
me. I have conceived that thing which
will be called the Son of God. should be called Jesus the Saviour.
The Lord has come to me and chosen me that I should bring forth
one who shall be great, the son of the highest, and that who
will be given the throne of his father David. Why me? thinks Mary. When I am one of
low estate, when I am of unimportance, when I am a sinner, she pondered
herself. Have you pondered yourself? Pondered
who you are. Pondered what God has done. That you are a sinner. That you
have disobeyed God. That you have failed in his commands. That you have run away. But yet
that Lord comes to sinners. that the Lord comes to those
who feel their lowest state, that the Lord reaches out to
those who feel far off, to ordinary people, not to the religious
elite, not to those who think they're righteous and moral,
not to those who are earning their way to heaven, so they
think, but to Marys, and to Joseph's, and to shepherds on the hillside,
and then to lepers, and to the lame, and to the blind. That's where and that's who he
comes to. She pondered who she was. You
ponder where you were. You ponder what you are. And
yet the truth of the gospel that the Lord comes to such that none
are beyond the reach of his grace, that none are beyond the reach
of his salvation, because he came to seek and to save the
lost. Ponder yourself. Ponder where
you were and ponder where you are. Think on these things. Meditate on these things. She
kept these things and thought about them in her heart. Here
was encouragement. Here was blessing for her when
she thought of where she was but 12 months earlier. And now
here she finds herself in the stable in Bethlehem. Here she
finds herself with the Son of God, the Saviour Himself, in
her arms. Why me? thinks Mary. Oh, where were you 12 months
ago? What was the state of your heart
12 months ago? What was the state of your life
12 months ago? What was your standing before
the Lord? And now you look where you were and is there something
you can say, something's changed, something's happened and now
I look where I am, I ponder myself and I see a difference. God could reach to Mary, to the
shepherds and to others, the Lord can reach to you and me. She pondered herself, what blessing
when we consider ourselves as sinners, then surely we see the
magnified grace of God in comparison. So firstly herself, secondly
she pondered, she thought on her God. her God. She had proved in a very clear
and real way the words of the angel, for with God nothing shall
be called impossible. And what impossibilities there
is for Mary! What impossibilities! She is
a virgin, She is not married and yet she is with child. Her cousin Elizabeth is old and
beyond the age of having children and yet she is with child. Mary, just in those two things,
witnesses amazing miracles. Nothing shall be impossible with
God. She ponders her God, what she
has seen in his ability to do, what she has seen in his power
to come and do the miraculous, that nothing, not even her virginity
and the old age of her cousin, is a barrier to God bringing
forth John and the Lord Jesus Christ. Nothing is a barrier
to him. Nothing is beyond his reach.
Nothing is beyond his power. Through this whole experience,
Mary has a wonderful opening up of the glory of Her Majesty
and the power of God before her. She literally walks it out. Literally walks out God's miracles. Every time she feels the movement
of the child Jesus in her womb, it is another reminder of the
miracles that God can do. Nothing is too hard. for the
Lord. Nothing shall be called impossible."
Oh, what encouragement for Mary as she ponders these things,
as she thinks on these things, that everything was in his hands
and therefore she could leave everything else in his hands. The mystery of the conception
of Christ, the mystery in her eyes as the angels coming to
the shepherds, the mystery of the way in coming into the stable
in Bethlehem, the mystery and the uncertainty of the future.
All these things that must have run through her mind could be
left with God because nothing was impossible. Because he had
brought it to pass. She ponders it and sees it's
his work. It's his work. It's his way.
What encouragement to sit to keep these things and ponder
them. We ponder the greatness of God.
We sit down and think what we know of the greatness, the power
of God. what he is able to do. You look
and you see the wondrous miracles that he does to bring forth this
salvation, his son. The miracles he performs that
Jesus might come into the world. The sin of the world, the rebellion
of man is no barrier cannot stop the coming of the Messiah, the
coming of the Christ. A virgin shall conceive and bear
a son. It shall, it must come to pass. For God has determined, God has
decreed that God would come in the flesh. That a man would come
that was God. Oh, we consider the greatness
of the power of God. When we ponder these things that
his ability to bring forth salvation through Christ does not show
us that he is able to do great things for us. He is able to
do great things in our lives. He is able to do great things
in our soul. No man had a hand in the coming
of Christ and no Mary was used. But she had no hand in the coming
of Christ. It was all the power, the wisdom of God. It's encouragement
for you. Salvation, your salvation, is
all in His hand. It's all in His power. He is
able. He is able to bring the Son of
God forth from the womb of a virgin. He is able to come To bless us? Oh, ponder this God. You're not
beyond Him. Your situation is not beyond
Him. The weight of your sin is not beyond Him. Ponder these
things in her heart. Ponder yourself. Ponder her God. Thirdly, she pondered her way. Her way. You think of the way that Mary
had come in these past few months and how amazing it is and how
ordered it is. You see her there with Joseph
in Nazareth, newly conceived in the early stages of her pregnancy
and yet she comes down and finally gives birth to a child miles
and miles away in Bethlehem. What must occur for that to occur? What must happen to bring her
from Nazareth to Bethlehem? She must go to Bethlehem, for
the prophecy says that it will be in Bethlehem that the Christ
will be born. She must go there, but how could
it be? How could it come to pass? Well,
see the perfect working, the perfect timing of God. For as
she comes to the latter stages, when she will be delivered of
a child, there comes out a decree from Caesar Augustus. And the
decree from Caesar Augustus determines that everyone must return to
their home city to be registered to be taxed. And that decree
therefore commands Mary and Joseph to go to their home city from
the lineage of David. And where is that? Bethlehem. You see the timing? of God and
bringing it to pass that these times, those months, Mary must
go with Joseph to none other place but Bethlehem. Bethlehem. She had to be taxed. She had to be registered. It
was providence. It was God's working through
natural things. And yet through all the hard
journey, the walking, the travelling, the riding perhaps, on the dusty
roads and those hard paths down from Nazareth to Bethlehem, she
does not go into labour, she does not give birth because she
must get to Bethlehem. She must come there and there
in Bethlehem they find the provision of the stable. Now often we think,
don't we, that the stable and the no room in the inn is a truth,
that they were rejected, that there was no room for the Lord,
no room for the Christ. Well, that's in a sense true.
But of course, remember that the stable was also a wonderful
provision. The fact that there was somewhere,
there was somewhere with a roof, there was somewhere out of the
wind, a provision of a stable. And there she gives birth in
Bethlehem. So the prophecies, the promises
all come together through God's providence. She kept these things. She pondered them in her heart.
She thought of how God had guided. She thought of how God had brought
it all to pass. And she thought of how God had
been over it all, the circumstances they hadn't understood, how devastating
when you're in Nazareth to be told you must go down into Bethlehem
to be registered, how devastating, how they may have rebelled against
it, how they may have thought how unwise it would be to make
the journey and yet now they see God's perfect timing in it
all. And there she ponders these things. She feels the belief, the weight
of the prophecies, the fulfilment of them all. And the words of
the shepherds confirm them. Here is my child. Here is the Saviour. It's come together. She pondered
these things in her heart. Again, this year, sit down and
ponder in your heart the way, ponder the way that the Lord
has been with you. the way that the Lord has guided
you, the way the Lord has blessed you and led you in this past
year. You think again where we were 12 months ago and trace
out those answered prayers, trace out those blessings of providence,
trace out those provisions that God has given to you to ponder
our way and what he has done. May we see his hand in those
things of our life. how He has provided, how He has
brought the blessing, given us what we needed, given us what
we could not give ourselves. And we have all received the
blessing of the Gospel. We have all received the blessing
of opportunities for worship together. We have all received
the blessing of the Word of God to read. We have received these
things from Him. We look back and see the way
the Lord has been with us. And it may be for some a particular
thing, a particular occurrence, a particular time which comes
to mind. Oh, I couldn't see it then. I couldn't understand it
when I was in the middle of it. But now I look back and I see
His hand. I see His wisdom. Consider, I
ponder my way. That does us good, doesn't it?
It does us good, it reminds us that God who was there in the
past will be with us today and in the future. It reminds us
that he is in utter control. It reminds us that his wisdom
is beyond ours. Ponder our way. He has led us through another
year. He has done it. He has provided
and kept and helped. He has brought us here this morning.
He has brought us round the word of God this morning. He has brought
us to again remember the coming of Christ this morning. He has
done it. Ponder your way. Keep these things
in your heart and ponder them. She pondered herself, her God,
her way and fourthly she pondered her son. She thought on her son. And isn't this the most wonderful
thing? The most glorious person to ponder,
to think on, to dwell on. We look, she looked to him and
thought on him. For there, her son, wrapped in
swaddling clothes and lying in the manger, there was her son.
But there was not just her son, because there was the Saviour,
there was Christ the Lord. And she knew it and had heard
it a number of times. The angel came to her personally
and told her that thou shalt conceive in thy womb, bring forth
a son which thou 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. Here she had the promise
from the angel that she would have a son and that he would
be the saviour, that he would be great, that he would be the
son of God, that he would have the throne of David, that his
kingdom would be forever. The promise of the Christ. She received it herself and surely
these words flooded back into her mind as she sat on the floor
in that stable that night. The message to Joseph of the
angel, he must have relayed it to Mary. And that message comes
again to their minds as they see this child in the stable. Thou shalt bring forth, she shall
bring forth a son. Thou shalt call his name Jesus.
for he shall save his people from their sins. Another word
to ponder. The Lord came to me, thinks Mary,
and tells me of this king that I would give birth to. The Lord
came to Joseph, thinks Mary, and told us that we would call
his name Jesus, for he would save his people. And then the
shepherds come. And then the shepherds come and
tell her that they have also seen the angels. and been told
that the Saviour, which is Christ, has been born. You see how all
these words, these messages, they flow together. She brings
them all together in her mind, in that stable in Bethlehem,
and she ponders them in her heart. Because there's no doubt, through
all the things that have been said, that that child is the
Christ. There in that child is the saviour,
the saviour of sinners, the saviour of the world and yes, the saviour
of Mary. Her hope for salvation is all
bound up in that child as well. The longed for, the looked for,
the prophesied saviour has come, the son of God, has come to earth. The hope of the world has come
to be a man. Emmanuel has been born. God is with us. She ponders her son. Oh, she
didn't know what would happen. She didn't know what would come
to pass and how it would come to pass. But the message was
clear of who he was. Oh, this year, have you been
looking for some word, some display of the glory of God in the highest
and the angels before you? Some blessing of joy and of liberty? And yet, have you not pondered
this boy, this child, her son? Sit and consider these things
to look on him Because we know that this child grows to be a
man. We know this child grows to live a life. As God, he lives
the life of perfection that you cannot live. As man, he dies
the death for sinners that we deserve. As we ponder him, we
look beyond Bethlehem and we look to Calvary. And there we
see all that we need for our salvation. There we see all that
we need to be right with God, the Saviour. For he shall save
his people from their sins. Have you pondered who this child
is? Have you pondered what he has
come to do? Have you pondered what he accomplished
in his coming? That he is the Saviour? That
he is able to forgive? Have you pondered that he is
the Messiah, the promised one from Genesis 3.15, who is crushed,
the head of the devil? Have you pondered that here is
the Lamb of God? The Lamb of God who goes as a
substitute for sinners, who bears our sins on his back, who carries
them to the cross and bears them away. Have you pondered this
child? Here is the blessing. Here is
the blessing as we see that the sins of his people are all dealt
with on that cross. Mary kept all these things and
she pondered them in her heart. Well, this morning you may long
to be like the shepherds. You may wish you could be like
the shepherds, that you could make known abroad that you could
be rejoicing and glorifying and praising God in an outward clear
way, you may think you have missed out on the blessing this year. Oh, but don't you have something
to ponder? Don't you have something to think about? Don't you have
something to meditate on? Who you are and where you were.
The greatness, the power and majesty of your God. The way
the Lord has led you and been with you. And most of all, His
Son. And when you think on those things,
when you ponder these things, you will find the blessing. You
will find the encouragement. You will find your ability to
look out of yourself to Him. you will see him. You know, Mary
kept these things and pondered them in her heart. But there's
no need to say that Mary was unsure, or Mary did not really
believe, or Mary didn't have faith, or Mary didn't believe
who it was, or Mary didn't trust in her son. Mary displays great
faith as she goes through her life. When Jesus comes to a performance
of his first miracle, the marriage at Cana, it is Mary who goes
to the servants and says, whatsoever he saith unto you, do it. She had faith. She knew who he
was. She knew what he could do. And
she encouraged others at this point now to believe, to trust,
to listen and to do what Jesus told them. quietly displayed
her faith. She quietly encouraged others
in that way also to do what he said. You see, she did ponder,
she witnessed it all, she saw it all, she pondered it all and
she did then also encourage, she did speak. Oh well, may we
all be able to display that faith that she had in the son. that
we might be encouraged to do what he has said, and also encouraged
to tell others in that way as she did. Maybe not as a shepherd
at this time, but one day to encourage others. What he has
said, I will do. What he has said, you should
do. Oh, she pondered. May we ponder this year. And as we go on now and leave
the season behind us and step in the coming days into a new
year, may we not stop pondering and meditating on Him, on ourselves
and on our God, to seek to know Him, to think about Him in our
hearts and to remember what we've heard this year and not let it
go. Mary kept all these things and
pondered them in her heart. Amen.