From High to Low
Most religions of the world say that if you want to meet with God, the low has to ascend to the high, that sinners have to become saints. In order to be blessed, you have to change yourself, empty yourself, and position yourself in a way that makes you ready to receive the blessing. The idea is that salvation is something you level up to.
Christianity, however, isn’t like any other religion. It’s not just different, it’s the opposite. The gospel reverses religious protocol and expectations. In the gospel, the high becomes low so that the low can be high. Paul says it this way, “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich” (2 Cor. 8:9; cf. Ps. 138:6). In the gospel, God comes down to bring us up. Christianity isn’t about self-improvement for the strong. It’s about grace for the weak.
God’s Blueprint
This means that God’s blueprint for the world isn’t what you’d expect. The plan he’s unfolding in the world is centered on people who understand their lowliness not on people posturing for positions of power. God’s aim is to bring glory to himself by granting faith to unsuspecting people who he’ll raise up to glorify himself.
God’s plan is to reverse expectations by raising up the lowly and bringing down the mighty. As we’ve seen in Luke 1, God’s plan to save the world unfolds through a barren woman and a virgin, through a senior citizen and a teenager.
This theme of reversal continues in our text today (1:39-56). In this text, we’ll see an unexpected person trust the Lord’s word and then soar upward in praise to God as a result of her faith.
The main point I want to draw out for us today is that those whom the Lord chooses trust his word and live to praise him. This is the biblical pattern: God chooses, faith is created, and praise rises. In other words, we’ll never praise someone we don’t trust. Or to put it positively, we will praise those we trust. In our text, we’ll see Mary’s faith (vv. 39-45), then Mary’s song (vv. 46-56). After God gives Mary faith, Mary gives God a song.
Mary’s Faith
First, in verses 39-45, we see Mary’s faith. Mary wasted no time following up on Gabriel’s word about her relative Elizabeth being pregnant. She makes the ninety-mile trek to the Judean hill country “with haste” (v. 39). She wanted to see the pregnancy of the one “who was called barren” (v. 36), and what an amazing meeting it was.
By now, in 2025, billions of people have heard the story of John the Baptist and Jesus, and how God came to redeem the world through them. But these two ladies, a senior saint and a kid in the youth group, were the first two to know what God was up to. No wonder Mary was so giddy to get down to Judea to see Elizabeth! God uses people of every age to further his purposes.
Expectation Meets Realization
We have to understand this meeting the way they would have. This wasn’t just two ladies wanting to swap pregnancy stories and talk about baby names. The way Luke describes this meeting lets us know that what’s happening is something that people had been waiting on for a long time.
It says in verse 41 that when Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, John the Baptist leaped in her womb. Malachi said that the day of the Lord would be like “the sun of righteousness rising with healing in its wings,” and the people would “go out leaping like calves from the stall” (4:2). “Leaping” is the same word used in Luke 1 to describe what John the Baptist does in the womb when Mary shows up.
Luke also says that Elizabeth was “filled with the Holy Spirit” (v. 41), reminding us how Ezekiel said that part of the new covenant was that the Lord would put his Spirit in his people (36:27), and how Joel said that the Lord would pour out his Spirit on his people and “your sons and your daughters shall prophesy” (2:28). These things are converging in Mary and Elizabeth’s meeting.
John was the last and greatest of the prophets of the old covenant. Jesus was the Christ, the Lord of the new covenant. Their meeting in utero was in some ways the end of the one and the beginning of the other. It was a world-changing moment. One commentator puts it this way: “When Mary met Elizabeth, the covenants connected. Both sons were joined under one roof, and like the electrical contact between two power stations, the results were explosive. There was a spontaneous outburst of exultant joy, as the old covenant greeted the new.”[1]
In this explosive moment, hundreds of years of Old Testament expectation meets New Testament realization. God was activating his plan to save the world.
The Greatest Miracle
As great as this meeting was, the most profound thing happening, as is often the case, was happening behind the scenes. In verse 45, Elizabeth says that Mary is blessed because she believed the word of the Lord. The first miracle in the birth of Jesus is the miracle of faith in Mary’s heart.
Think about it. This young Jewish girl was visited by an angel, though a virgin she was told that she’d give birth to son, and that this son would be the Son of God and the Son of David and have a kingdom that lasts forever. And she basically says, “Okay, let’s do this!” (v. 38)
What does Mary have to go on? Only the word of God. All Mary has is her Bible and a promise from Gabriel. All she has is the word of the Lord. What do you have to go on? The same thing. True faith takes God at his word.
Mary is the epitome of true faith. She’s trusting in what doesn’t exist yet based on God’s promises. She’s a living example of Hebrews’ definition of faith, “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (11:1). Mary believed what she didn’t see. Her hope was in the promises of God.
What We Want Versus What God Promises
What about you? What about us as a church? Are we driven by what we want or what God promises? As individuals, we want health, wealth, and comfort, but God doesn’t promise any of those things to his people. We want a dream job, but God doesn’t promise that either. We want a spouse, children, or grandchildren, but God doesn’t promise us any of them. We want a nice house and sizeable retirement, but God doesn’t promise these either. What drives your heart, your wants or God’s promises?
As a church, we want more members, more leaders, a better building, a better this or better that, but God doesn’t promise us any of that. What does God promise you, and us?
He promises to give his grace and his Spirit to those who turn away from their sins and put their faith in Jesus (Eph. 1:13). He promises to grow our faith through his word (Rom. 10:17). He promises to grow us in love through the body of Christ (Eph. 4:16). He promises his presence when the church confronts sin in the church (Mt. 18:15-20). He promises wisdom to those who ask for it (Jas. 1:5). He promises to always be with us (Mt. 28:20). He promises to hear our prayers (Ps. 86:6-7). He promises to provide for our material needs (Mt. 6:8, 30-33). He promises to create spiritual fruit in the lives of those who abide in Jesus (Jn. 15:5). He promises peace to those who take their anxieties to him (Phil. 4:6-7). He promises rest to the weary (Mt. 11:28-30). He promises to be near to the brokenhearted (Ps. 34:18). He promises victory over sinful desires and passions (Gal. 5:24). He promises transformation to those who seek the Lord (2 Cor. 3:18). He promises to return to the earth again (1 Thess. 4:16). He promises resurrection to eternal life for those in Christ (1 Cor. 15:51-53). And he promises glory that will swallow up all our suffering (Rom. 8:18).
Look at all the Lord has promised us! He’s promised us a buffet of blessings with ten thousand beside. Why, then, do we get stuck on all the things we don’t have when what we do have far outweighs what we don’t have? Discontentment is the great enemy of our joy in God’s bounty. Trusting him in abundance is easy, but true faith perseveres through the lean years.
One of the ways this applies to our church is in our philosophy of ministry, or the way the elders think about how we lead the ministry of our church. Our philosophy of ministry is committed to the things Christians have been committed to for thousands of years, or what are commonly called the ordinary means of grace. These are the ways God intends to get his grace to his people, his saving and sanctifying grace. I’m talking about things like the word of God and prayer, the ordinances, singing and fellowship. These are the things God, in his word, has told us to do, whether they appear to “work” or not.
In our day and time, it’s common to think that a church’s success is determined numerically, whether its numbers of members or people in attendance or giving or programs or events. The unquestioned assumption is often “more means better,” or “more means faithful,” so churches resort to doing whatever gets more people or programs or giving.
God certainly uses this kind of attractional approach to reach people. But as elders we want to protect our church from being misled to think that, as Mark Dever says, “fruit has to be visible in order to be real or substantial or for the church to be counted as faithful.”[2]
We mustn’t confuse our wants with God’s promises. Like Mary, let’s bank our life and our future on what God promises to do, not what we think he should do.
God promises to bless his word, empower us with his Spirit as we love one another and make disciples of all nations. In the word and by the Spirit we have everything we need. All we have to do is decide if his word and Spirit is enough for us. It was enough for Mary, and it can be enough for us too.
Mary’s Song
As I said, we will praise what we trust. In verses 46-56, Mary’s faith spills over into song. There’s so much for us to learn from this song. Her response of praise is internal, honest, and biblical. Let’s take these one at a time.
Supernaturally Changed Hearts
First, her praise is internal. Notice the words she uses in verses 46-47. Her “soul” and “spirit” are what’s magnifying the Lord and rejoicing in him. Her praise wells up from the depths of her being. Her song is like lava bursting out of a heart on fire for God. What’s inside her can’t help but come out. This is always how true worship works.
The danger for so many of us is to give God lip service, going through the motions, and doing the things we always do in worship out of duty, not delight. We say words with our mouths but our hearts are far from God.
This is another reason why our focus as a church is on the word of God, because only God can change hearts. What if our numbers grow but our lives don’t change?
What does a supernaturally changed heart, the kind of heart Mary’s praise spills out of, look like? Knowing what it’s not can help us know what it is. It’s not about appearances, but about character. It’s not the same as gifts or talents. In the eyes of God, talent means nothing compared to character (1 Cor. 13:1-2). We often make excuses for people’s character because their gifts are so great. But that’s not how it works in the kingdom of God. It’s not that gifts are wrong, but we must not mistake gifts for grace. God doesn’t value skillful hands over a grace-filled heart. If you have great gifts and are leading and people are helped, but inside you’re envious, anxious, have no prayer life, filled with anger, irascible, judgmental, and manipulative you’re using gifts but without a changed heart. Don’t mistake the operation of gifts with grace.
It’s so easy to come to worship and serve in the church and use our gifts for ourself and not for God. We say to God, “Look how good I am, look what I’m doing for you.” We want God to bless us and others to notice us, but we’re not serving for God, we’re serving for ourself. We’re serving out of emptiness, not fullness. Externally we look fine, but internally we’re a mess and those who live with us can see it even if we can’t. We must have a heart that’s been supernaturally changed to truly serve out of love for God.
How do you get a supernaturally changed heart? You have to see the glory of God. You have to get to a point where you want God more than his gifts, where you long for him not his stuff.
This is what Mary is doing in her prayer. She uses the word “magnify” in verse 46 because she’s seeking to get a better, clearer picture of God in her heart and mind. Just as stars need magnifying with a telescope for us to see more of their greatness, so also God needs magnifying through praise so we see more of his greatness.
In true worship, we don’t add to God’s greatness but aim see it more clearly. This is what Mary is doing. She’s not putting a microscope on God and trying to make something small look big through magnification. Rather, she’s putting a telescope on God and trying to bring something big into sharper focus.
This is why she mentions God’s might and holiness in verse 49 and his mercy in verse 50. Mary is worshipping God for who he is, not just what he’s done. Our worship can become man-centered if we only focus on what God has done for us, rather than who he is in himself. This is one reason why the first couple songs we sing each week are typically about the nature and character of God. True worship starts with God, and as we see the glory of God, our hearts will change.
An Honest Prayer
The second thing Mary’s prayer is is honest. She’s not afraid to admit that she came from a “humble estate” and was merely a “servant” (v. 48). Mary is the first Cinderella story. She was from nowhere, living a normal peasant life until the King swept in and started rewriting her story.
Mary needed saving like everyone else (v. 47) and was saved just like anyone else (v. 50). God descended to save Mary so that she could ascend to him.
This shows us that great love is unexpected. That God loves himself is predictable. He’s perfectly glorious. That he loves creatures he made who’ve willfully rebelled against him is remarkable. He loves those we wouldn’t expect him to love.
Jesus says that it’s easy to love people like yourself (6:32-36). The greatness of our love is seen when we love people who don’t love us back. Small love is easy and everyone does it with no help from God. Great love is impossible and only comes from a supernaturally changed heart.
As we’ve already seen and will see throughout Luke, the Lord takes conventional standards of greatness and stands them on their heads. He lifts up the humble and poor and brings down the proud and rich (vv. 52-53).
It’s not the rich in general, but the proud rich that God brings down and sends away empty. Paul says that “the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils” (1 Tim. 6:10), but the Bible never condemns wealth in and of itself. There is however, as R. C. Sproul points out, “a universal condemnation of God against the rich who are the self-satisfied rich, for those who see no sense of dependence on their redeeming God. The people with a bootstrap mentality think that everything they have they have earned; they have acquired it without any assistance from the mercy and grace of God. People who think they are self-sufficient run a severe risk of opposition to God. ‘God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble’ (Jas. 4:6).”[3]
Later in Luke, we’ll meet the proud rich man who goes to hell while the humble poor man goes to heaven (16:19-31) and the self-righteous Pharisee whose prayers are denied while the sinful tax collector goes home justified (18:9-14). Mary is honest about her need, are you?
A Biblical Prayer
The third thing Mary’s prayer is is biblical. Almost every line is a quotation or allusion to some part of the Old Testament. Hannah’s prayer from 1 Samuel 2 and various prayers from the psalms form the substance of Mary’s prayer. Mary knew her Bible, making her prayer life much richer. The more familiar we become with the Bible the deeper and richer our prayers can be.
She says in verses 54-55 that all that’s happening is because God is “remembering” the word he spoke to Abraham. Our tendency as believers is to be as strong as the memory of our latest blessing, forgetting all the benefits God has poured out on us. But God doesn’t know how to forget so he always remembers his promises.
Mary’s prayer is rooted in the promises of God. Her confidence is in things God said that hadn’t happened yet. She had the word of God and that was enough for her. Her faith spilled over into praise, a praise filled with faith in God’s promises. Do you see how important it is for us as a church to stay glued to the promises and word of God? Our faith and praise depends on it.
Mary mentions the covenant God made with Abraham in verse 55. The promise that his descendants would be a great nation still rang in the ears of every Jewish boy and girl. It was the heart of their national identity.
But Luke, who wrote Acts too, is writing from the other side of Pentecost and so he understood the global scope of the promise to Abraham. His friend Paul says it this way, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise” (Gal. 3:28-29).
The promise to Abraham is for everyone who’s in Christ, Jew or Gentile. Mary’s baby boy would be for the whole world. Mary’s song will become the song of the nations. God’s Messiah will be a “Servant for Israel” and a “light to the nations” at the same time (Isa. 49:6).
This means that it’s good and biblical and healthy for our church to be full of people from all the nations who live in North Dallas. God’s Son came for the nations so as his followers we follow him to love the nations. Yes, laws are good and necessary, but we need to ask ourselves whether we care more about people’s souls than their immigration status or first language? We remember that we’re all just passing through, so we work and pray for ways to love our neighbors from the nations. In this, the power and glory of Jesus is magnified.
A Greater Blessing
Those whom the Lord chooses from all the nations will trust him and live to praise him.
We’re part of the generations who call Mary “blessed” (Lk. 1:48). But Mary’s son Jesus would later say that her blessing was nothing compared to the blessing of those “who hear the word of God and keep it” (11:27-28).
Inward hearing produces outward obedience. Have you heard the Lord’s word with the ears of your heart? Are you living it out?
[1]Philip Graham Ryken, Luke, Volume 1: Luke 1-12, Reformed Expository Commentary (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2009), 42.
[2]On Extra Biblical Qualifications for Elders – 9Marks
[3]R. C. Sproul, Luke: An Expositional Commentary (Sanford, FL: Ligonier Ministries, 2020), 38.