Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/Sermons/zz20101212.htm

CHRISTMAS INTERLUDE
Mary's Confessions In The Magnificat
Part II: Mary's Confession Regarding Her Station Before God
(Luke 1:48-49)
    Introduction: (To show the need . . . )

    God began to lead me to expound the Magnificat in this sermon series when I found a Children's Christmas CD my wife bought from an evangelical publisher had a story of a statue of Mary coming to life!

    Amazed at this find, I received its explanation from the article, "Mary Who?" by T. A. McMahon in The Berean Call, October 2000, p. 1. He wrote: "Americans from all denominations are reaching out to the Virgin Mary as a comforting conduit of spirituality'", adding that "apparitions of Mary . . . in Islamic countries" lead "multitudes" to "honor her" and a "chapter . . . in the Qur'an and numerous other verses there, as well as hundreds of hadiths, pay homage to Mary."

    One question we must then answer in this sermon series deals with Mary's station before God, and some reasons are as follows:

    (1) The Roman Catholic Church officially calls Mary Mother of God, a perpetual virgin, Mediatrix between God and man, and Queen of Heaven (Ibid.), but in practice it goes much further: canonized saint Bishop Alphonse de Liguori, in The Glories of Mary (1931), p. 260, 257 and 180 as cited in Loraine Boettner, Roman Catholicism (1978), p. 139-140, asserted: "The whole Trinity, O Mary, gave thee a name . . . above every other name, that at Thy name, every knee should bow, of things in heaven, on earth and under the earth . . . She is our Salvation, our Life . . . at the command of Mary all obey -- even God.'"

    Furthermore, Pope Pius XII's ex cathedra papal pronouncement of Mary's alleged "Assumption" to heaven, in part 21, supported canonized St. John the Damascene's word that "(i)t was fitting that the spouse whom the Father had taken to himself, should live in the divine mansions.'" (ewtn.com/library/PAPALDOC/P12MUNIF.HTM) Pope Pius XII thus backed the view that Mary is the wife of God the Father!

    (2) Not to be outdone, Islamic scholar Aliah Schiefler in Mary the Blessed Virgin of Islam, p. 64, claims an Islamic hadith (a tradition of Muhammad) cites Muhammad as saying: "The messenger of God (Gabriel) said, God married me in Paradise to Mary,''" that God wed Mary to Muhammad as one of his heavenly wives! (Ibid., McMahon)

    (3) A former evangelical Presbyterian minister and graduate of Gordon-Conwell Seminary, Scott Hahn, wrote that he repeated the rosary until he felt he had Jesus' Mother Mary as his own Mother, Ibid.

    So, in view of such astounding claims about her, we ask, "What does Mary's Magnificat teach on her station before God?!"

    Need: "What does the Magnificat say re: Mary's station with God?"

  1. Luke 1:48-49 reveals Mary confessed her station before God would ALWAYS be that of a HOLY GOD'S SERVANT due to His GRACE:
    1. Mary said she was God's "handmaiden" (Luke 1:48 KJV), a "female slave," Arndt & Ging., A Greek-Eng. Lex. of N. T., 1967, p. 204.
    2. She added: "(f)rom now on all generations" would call her "blessed" not due to any merit in herself, but due to God when she said, "for the Mighty One has done great things for me," Luke 1:48b-49a NIV.
    3. Mary claimed this divine provision was made separate from sin, in holiness, because God's Name, representing His character, was "holy," Luke 1:49b! (Z. P. E. B., vol. Four, p. 364-366, s. v. "Name.")
    4. The Old Testament passages Mary utilized also stress God's grace:
      1. The Magnificat is based on Hannah's 1 Samuel 2:1-10 prayer (Bib. Know. Com., O. T., p. 206), a prayer of praise by a once childless and hence abased wife, Hannah (Ibid., Z. P. E. B., v. One, p. 479) who was oppressed by her husband's other wife, Peninnah due to Hannah's barrenness until God had gave her a baby, 1 Sam. 1:1-28.
      2. Similarly, Galileans like Mary were despised by Rabbis for their lack of traditional strictness (A. Edersheim, The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, 2004, p. 156), so Mary herself as a Hannah -- blessed of God to bear a Special Infant in victory over despisers!
      3. Thus, in Luke 1:48, Mary alluded to 1 Samuel 1:11 where Hannah as God's afflicted "handmaid" stood in need of a baby from Him.
      4. Mary in Luke 1:49 then pointed to Psalm 111:9 where the psalmist called Israel to praise God for His works that display His greatness and led to His being revered and praised as a truly "holy" God.
      5. Thus, Mary confessed her blessed state to be noted throughout history was not due to any merit in her, but to a holy God's favor in giving her the Messiah to bear in victory over sinful despisers!
  2. Mary's confession thus vastly counters how she is elevated today:
    1. The elevation of Mary in Islam is denied by her Magnificat: the exaltation of Mary in Islam's Qur'an and hadiths is countered by her claim to be God's "handmaiden" for "all generations" since humanity was always to honor God for what He had done for her!
    2. The elevation of Mary in Catholicism is denied by her Magnificat: though the Roman Catholic Church officially hails Mary as the Mother of God, the Mediatrix between God and man and the Queen of Heaven due to this Church's claim of her "assumption" to heaven (explained in our conclusion), and that she commands even God (held by canonized saint Bishop Alphonse de Liguori), Mary's Magnificat claimed she was God's "handmaiden" for "all generations" as humanity was always to glorify God for what He had done for her!
    3. The claim that both the Roman Catholic Church and Islam make that Mary is a perpetual virgin is denied by the Magnificat's context:
      1. Matthew 1:25 claims Joseph was not intimate with Mary "until" (eos) she had delivered Jesus, U. B. S. Greek N. T., 1966, p. 3.
      2. Later, Mary bore Joseph sons and daughters, Matthew 13:53-56.
      3. To defend its dogma on Mary's perpetual virginity, the Catholic Church holds these "brothers" and "sisters" of Jesus are relatives like "nephews, nieces, cousins," etc. ( The New American Bible, 1986, ftn. to Mark 6:3). Yet, the crowd's naming of Jesus' parents to discover from where He got His power shows it was examining His genetic roots (Matt. 13:54-56), so if "brothers" and "sisters" means relatives outside the immediate family, it would only cloud the crowd's examination! No, these "brothers" and "sisters" had to be Jesus' half-siblings, the offspring of Joseph and Mary!
    4. The claim of both the Roman Catholic Church and of Islam that God has Mary wed in heaven (to God the Father in Catholicism or to Muhammad in Islam) is denied by the Magnificat's context:
      1. In Luke 1:49b, Mary said God is holy, so after His angel said she was to be Joseph's wife in Matthew 1:20 so that Joseph had taken her as his wife in Matthew 1:24, God would not have had Mary wed another in adultery that He Himself forbade in Exodus 20:14!
      2. Then, Mark 12:25 says that believers after this life are as heaven's angels who do not marry, so Mary could not be wed in heaven!
    5. The elevation of Mary by evangelicals is denied by her Magnificat: some evangelicals like former Presbyterian minister and graduate of Gordon-Conwell Seminary, Scott Hahn, may pray the rosary until they feel they have Jesus' Mother as their own, but the Magnificat claims Mary is God's servant for "all generations" as we are always to honor God for the thing He did for her in letting her be Jesus' Mother!
Application: (1) May we heed the God inspired Magnificat (2 Tim. 3:16), and (2) trust alone in Jesus alone for salvation! (John 3:16; Acts 4:10-12; Eph. 2:8-9). (2) May we view Mary as a dear Sister in Christ who was blessed of God to bear Jesus, but ONLY that!

Conclusion: (To illustrate the message . . . )

 The elevation of Mary in the Roman Catholic Church climaxed on November 1, 1950 with Pope Pius XII's papal pronouncement on "The Assumption" of Mary (Robert C. Broderick, ed., The Catholic Encyclopedia , p. 56). This decree officially declared that Mary had been enthroned as Queen of Heaven, Ibid., Boettner, p. 162-163.

Yet, two reasons Pope Pius XII offered in this pronouncement itself for its justification are COUNTERED by SCRIPTURE, leading us to glorify God's goodness to Mary versus exalting her (as follows):

(1) One part of the papal pronouncement claimed: "(I)t seems scarcely possible to suppose that she who conceived and bore Christ, who nursed Him . . . who held Him in her arms and clasped Him to her . . . was after this life on earth separated from Him in body." This was a reason given for Christ's alleged desire soon to take Mary to heaven (Henry Bettenson, ed., Docs. of the Christian Church, 2nd ed., p. 395).

However, in Luke 11:27-28 of the Official Catholic Bible, The New American Bible (1986), in reply to a woman who had called out to Him, "Blessed is the womb that carried you and the breasts at which you nursed," Jesus Himself had said, "Rather, blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it." Thus, in great contrast to the papal pronouncement, Jesus said anyone who hears and obeys God is more blessed than was Mary in her being His earthly Mother!

(2) Another part of the papal pronouncement held that Mary's "Assumption" was "signified . . . in that woman clothed with the sun whom John the Apostle contemplated on the Island of Patmos." (Ibid., ewtn.com/library/PAPALDOC/P12MUNIF.HTM) This can be none other that the "woman clothed with the sun" and on whose "head" is a "crown of twelve stars" in Revelation 12:1 of the Catholic Bible, Ibid.

However, Revelation 12:2 of that very Bible claims this woman "was with child and wailed aloud in pain as she labored to give birth." If this is Mary, she travailed as a sinner under Adam's curse (Genesis 3:1-16), and the Immaculate Conception and Assumption dogmas err!

No, the Revelation 12 woman is Israel, B. K. C., N. T., p. 957!

May we then HEAR God's word in the Magnificat, and may we HEED it by exalting GOD for His goodness TO MARY.

In so doing, may we trust in Christ as Savior, and honor HIM, resulting, according to Jesus, in being more blessed than was Mary by her becoming and functioning as His earthly Mother!