December 22, 2012

God’s Promises Are as Good as Done!

God’s Promises Are as Good as Done!
I. A truth expressed in confident praise
II. A truth experienced in joyful living


The older we get, the more we know that the promises a person makes are only as reliable as the character of the person making them. We know the frustration of dealing with people who will promise you anything as long as they get what they want from you. But we also know how refreshing it is when a person makes a promise to us and then follows through, even though it may have required tremendous effort and sacrifice. We’re overjoyed to deal with someone who keeps their word.

That’s the joy of Christmas. Christmas is not the story of a few random people coming together and falling into something to make it happen. Christmas is the story of promises fulfilled. And what’s astounding is that those promises were made by the holy God to sinful people over thousands of years. In tomorrow night’s service we’ll hear about many of those promises and celebrate their fulfillment in the birth of Jesus.

This morning, however, we listen as Mary, the mother of Jesus, in a manner of speaking, celebrates Christmas before it even occurred. Her heart was filled with confidence and joy as she pondered the birth of her son, the world’s Savior from sin. We have her words of praise before us this morning. But how could she be so certain and so joyful even before Jesus was born? Because Mary knew that God’s promises are as good as done. They must be fulfilled to the letter.

What confidence and joy that truth gives us as we not only make our final preparations to celebrate the birth of Jesus but also as we live every day of our Christian lives here on earth. God’s promises are as good as done! May that truth inspire our joy-filled Christmas praise and our joy-filled Christmas living!

Part I.

What’s your definition of the word “praise?” Without much difficulty I’m sure you could offer me an answer. To praise someone means to tell them what a wonderful job they did. It’s to verbally admire someone for what they said or some activity they accomplished. It involves seeing or hearing something, analyzing it according the gifts and abilities of the person who created it, and then telling them how wonderful they, their efforts and their outcomes are. We praise them for a job well done.

Mary’s song before us this morning is known by almost all of us as the Magnificat. Some of you may recognize it from our order of worship known as Vespers or Evening Prayer. Listen once again to the last portion of it. “He has performed mighty deeds with his arm; he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts. He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble. He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty. He has helped his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful to Abraham and his descendants forever, even as he said to our fathers.”

It sounds as if Mary is praising God for much the same reason we do—for his past acts of salvation. But that isn’t the case. Even though she uses the past tense in speaking about the Lord’s actions, she’s actually referring to future his future actions. Now why would she do that? Because God’s promises are as good as done. Let’s take a look at the ones she mentions.

First she praises him for his mighty deeds. She’s not referring to the creation of the world or to the miraculous things he did for his Old Testament people, Israel. She’s referring to his greatest activity, that of the salvation of the world. That salvation would take nothing less than sending his eternal Son in human flesh and blood, the very flesh and blood that were forming in her womb. God would sacrifice that Son on the cross for the sins of the world and then raise that Son from the dead. You talk about mighty deeds! Our world has seen no mightier!

In doing so, Mary states that God would scatter the proud and bring down rulers from their thrones. It’s the height of sinful pride for a sinner to think that he or she doesn’t need anything from God, least of all salvation. Without a change of heart such proud sinners will be scattered from God forever. Likewise world rulers. They may falsely believe that there is no greater ruler than themselves, but they will realize too late that they are nothing compared to the King of kings and Lord of Lords, Jesus Christ.

But Mary would have us watch as God does something still greater. “He has lifted up the humble.” Jesus once declared that those who humble themselves will be exalted. Every sinful soul that humbly bows in contrite confession before the holy God does not hear words of condemnation, but words of forgiveness, comfort and joy. The mighty God lifts such a person up, washes them clean in the blood of Jesus and brings them into his presence.

And then he fills them—not with earthly success or wealth—but with his grace through his word and sacraments. He feeds us spiritually in the rich pastures of his grace and love. He sustains us through every event of life and calls us to himself in heaven. Mary looked ahead to all the spiritual blessings that countless Christians would receive as she stated, “He has filled the hungry with good things.”

Lastly, Mary praises the Lord for being merciful. When you consider how many countless people over thousands of years have ignored and even opposed the Lord, when you consider how often even his people have fallen into grievous sins, when you consider how we daily fail in our good intentions to live as his people, who would have blamed God if would have announced a change of plans? Who would blame God if he had turned his back and allowed sinners to go their own way without him? But he doesn’t and he won’t because he’s merciful. He showed it when he punished his Son for the sins of the world. Mary knew that’s what God would do with the Child in her womb because that’s what God had promised and she praised God for it.

God’s promises are as good as done—a truth we express in confident praise.

Over the next 48 hours we’ll join Mary in singing some of Christianity’s most loved hymns of praise. I’m sure you have one or more that you most enjoy. For millions of Christians, singing those hymns is one of the highlights of their Christmas worship. The words of those hymns recall God’s faithfulness to his promises. But then what? Once the calendar flips to the 26th, then what? Will our words of praise become silent as the pressures and worries of life return? Will we fall back into the sinful habit of wondering if God will really do what he has promised? Will guilt and shame over our sins replace the inner Christmas joy of our forgiveness? God forbid! God’s promises to be with us, to forgive us, to guide and strengthen us are just as certain as his promises to send us a Savior. No matter what promises he has made, they are all as good as done. He must live up to them. And he does! That’s what fills us with confidence as we praise him not just over the next couple days, but every day of our lives. God’s promises to us are as good as done!

Part II.

If you were Mary, how would you have reacted to the news that you were going to be the mother of the Savior? Mind you, Mary was likely between 16 and 20 years old. One reaction we might expect is anger—anger over what this pregnancy is going to do to her life, her plans. Another would be fear. What would her friends, relatives and neighbors think? What is she going to do now?

Mary quickly decided what to do, not in anger or fear, but in joy. Amazing! The angel Gabriel had told her about the pregnancy of her cousin, Elizabeth. Obviously Elizabeth’s child would have something to do with God’s plan for the Child that Mary was carrying. This wasn’t the time for anger or fear; it was the time for rejoicing! And who better to rejoice with than Elizabeth?

So Mary made the journey to visit her and when she finally arrives, there was one joyful exchange after another. The first one is from John the Baptist who isn’t even born yet. Elizabeth tells Mary, “As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy.” How could an unborn child know who was greeting his mother? And how could Elizabeth know this was a leap of joy and not just normal fetal movement? Luke tells us. It was the work of the Holy Spirit, filling mother and child and informing them.

Elizabeth then shares her joy with Mary. She states, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” Being the devout believers that she was, Elizabeth realized how blessed she was to stand in the presence of the one whom God had chosen to bring the Savior into the world. What an honor!

And then Mary expresses her joy. In the opening words of her song she praises God for what he is doing through her and for her. As a devout believer, she, too, has been waiting for the Lord to fulfill his promise to send a Savior into the world. That time is here. Within months the Savior would be born just as God had promised. The news that God was acting on his promise to send a Savior filled these women with pure and pious joy and they expressed it with their lives.

God’s promises are as good as done—a truth experienced in joyful living.

Don’t allow the pressures and the expectations of the next two days rob you of that joy! Just let Christmas be what your God has made it, not what you try to make it. It’s the birth of the Savior of the world, your Savior! Take your cue from these women and let your response be a life of joy over the news that Christ the Savior is born! Amen.