Being Pregnant With Joy
Download MP3If you have a bible, I invite you to turn to Luke chapter 1. Luke chapter 1 as we begin our advent series. I always love that Advent, you know, it it kicks off the Sunday after Thanksgiving, in which everybody's full of turkey, stuffing, tired from traveling here. I could just tell you guys are already really, really engaged. But one of the things we're gonna be looking at is how we are to actually respond to Christ.
Jeffrey Heine:And although I can't see your faces, I'm just gonna assume that you're responding very well this morning. But that's our advent series is how do we respond to the Christ child? And so this morning, we're gonna be looking at Mary and Elizabeth and John's response. And next week, we'll be looking at the shepherds, and then we will be looking at the Magi. And so that's what we'll be doing for the next 3 weeks.
Jeffrey Heine:Luke chapter 1, beginning in verse 26. In the 6th month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin's name was Mary. And he came and said to her, greetings, oh favored one. The Lord is with you.
Jeffrey Heine:But she was greatly troubled at the saying and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. And the angel said to her, do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great, and he will be called the son of the most high. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.
Jeffrey Heine:And Mary said to the angel, how would this be, since I am a virgin? And the angel answered her, the Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the most high will overshadow you. Therefore, this child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God. And behold, your relative Elizabeth, in her old age has also conceived a son. And this is the 6th month with her who was called barren, for nothing will be impossible with God.
Jeffrey Heine:And Mary said, behold, I am the servant of the Lord. Let it be to me according to your word. And the angel departed from her. In those days, Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country, to a town in Judah. And she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth.
Jeffrey Heine:And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, and she exclaimed with a loud cry, blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And why is this granted to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.
Jeffrey Heine:This is the word of the Lord. Pray with me. Father, we pray that you would open up your word to us and that the result would be joy, That we would have joy in this season as we, we are reminded of you coming to us in such an incredible way, descending and taking the form of the servant, but taking the form first of a small child. And, lord, I pray that we would be reminded of this wonderful news. And, Lord, it would be we would be led to worship, strengthen our worship of you.
Jeffrey Heine:May we grow in-depth and in breadth, in our passion and love for you. And we pray this all in the name of Jesus. Amen. So as all of you know, I am a girl dad. Lauren and I, we have 3 daughters, Caroline, Natalie, Georgia, ages 18, 15, and 12.
Jeffrey Heine:So I have one who's about to go off to college, one who's a freshman in high school, and one who just started junior high. Which means it's a really fun time at the Brooks household. It's a great age. We we have a blast together. All of my girls are very different from one another.
Jeffrey Heine:But I do think they would all agree on this, that junior high is just the worst. Junior high is is the hardest season. Maybe that combined with a freshman in high school. But it's just really hard. Any anyone here want to go back to junior high?
Jeffrey Heine:Like, anybody? No. You've served your time and you got out, and you never want to go back. Because that age is just horrible. It's when kids could get so mean.
Jeffrey Heine:Other girls are catty to you. You're not yet an adult, but you're no longer a child, and you can just kinda feel the tug of war between these things. And all you want to do is just fly under the radar. You don't want to draw attention to yourself. You just want to fit in.
Jeffrey Heine:You just want to have your dad not use you in sermon illustrations. That's pretty much all you want in life. Just so you know, I do always ask for my girls' permission before I use them now in a story, which is why there's no more stories of my girls on from the pulpit. But I I I think as a girl dad, I kinda get girls. I understand them at this age, and I know this.
Jeffrey Heine:The last thing that they would ever want is what happened to Mary. Mary is likely between the ages of 12 14 when she became pregnant. We know that because that's the normal age in which, girls in this day were betrothed. Think of it this way. You could get engaged before you got your learner's license.
Jeffrey Heine:Gabriel, the angel, had just visited her and announced that she was favored by God. And now we get to see what God's favor actually looks like. It looks like God's saying this. I'm about to make you pregnant outside of wedlock in a small and deeply religious town. I'm about to make junior high a whole lot rougher for you.
Jeffrey Heine:Actually, people are gonna gossip about you not just in junior high, they're gonna gossip about you your entire life. You and your son are gonna carry this stigma with you for a long time. I mean, have you read the gospels and you even when Jesus is an adult, notice how people interacted with him? Jesus would be talking about his father in heaven, and they'd interrupt Jesus and say, oh, you wanna talk about your father? Excuse me, Jesus, but who exactly is your father again?
Jeffrey Heine:Do you have a father? They were always needling Jesus in this area. Jesus had to endure this ridicule his entire earthly life. But here we get to see what so often god's favor upon us feels like. What his grace given to us looks like, and it it often doesn't look like grace.
Jeffrey Heine:Grace often turns our world completely upside down before it ever results in our joy. Now, Mary wasn't just pregnant though. She was pregnant with God's son. This child was gonna be called the son of the most high, but it still would not spare her the shame that she would experience. And that's what makes her reaction so amazing.
Jeffrey Heine:She hears this very disrupting news to her life, and she responds with these beautiful words. Let it be done to me according to your word. I am a servant of the Lord. Let it be done to me according to your word. I mean, do teenagers normally talk like this?
Jeffrey Heine:She she's an absolute model of submission here. I mean, even though her life is about to be turned completely upside down, she submits. Think of it this way. As a teenager, it was Mary who first taught us how to pray that, not my will be done, but thy will be done. She taught us to pray that before Jesus.
Jeffrey Heine:However, did you notice the one thing that's lacking from her response? I mean, we see submission. We see trust. We see strength in her. But what is completely absent is any sense of joy.
Jeffrey Heine:I mean, of all the women in the world, God has chosen her to be the one who is the mother of the long expected Messiah. She's going to be the mother of God, and yet there is not a single hint of joy in her life. She doesn't break out into song. She doesn't run out into the streets, you know, making her announcement that she's gonna be the mother of God. She doesn't break into her parents' room and say, guess what?
Jeffrey Heine:I'm pregnant. None of those things. She just essentially tells the angel, okay, I'll do it. If this is God's will, I'll do it. Now Gabriel, as he's talking with her, I'm sure he senses that Mary is struggling.
Jeffrey Heine:She needs some encouragement, maybe even proof that God can do the miraculous, or is doing something miraculous at this time. And so Gabriel tells her about her older cousin, Elizabeth, who was barren and way past the years for having children, and how Elizabeth is now pregnant. Now Gabriel doesn't tell Mary she should go to Elizabeth. But why else do you think he dropped the news? He knows that Mary needs the encouragement and support.
Jeffrey Heine:And so once Gabriel leaves, Mary sets off running with haste to Elizabeth. In all the Christmas stories, things seem to be done with haste. And we certainly see that with Mary here. Now as a dad of teenage daughters, one of the things that is missing here that I would have just loved to know about this is is what in the world were her parents thinking at this time? I mean, I would be freaking out at this if also my my daughter were to essentially run away for 3 months.
Jeffrey Heine:But this is what Mary does. She runs off on a 3 day journey to the middle of nowhere. This is a young girl running off by herself for 3 days off to the hill country. Nazareth, it it was the country. But where Elizabeth lived was out in the sticks.
Jeffrey Heine:I mean, her town doesn't even get a name. It's just some town in in Judah, in the hills. Today, this would be like Mary, maybe, you know, living in Pinson and then deciding to walk all the way to a a little community outside of Arab, Alabama, in the middle of nowhere. Now, what Mary models here for us is actually something quite important. When she receives this news, she doesn't try to process it it alone.
Jeffrey Heine:She didn't go off into the wilderness by herself. Instead, she went to find someone with faith who could encourage her. She needed to be with someone who would understand, someone who would support her, and this is true of all of us. We are not meant to process spiritual things alone. God has called us to a faith community.
Jeffrey Heine:I mean, think about it. If an angel were to appear to you and tell you that you were going to have the Son of God, when you woke up the next morning, would you begin having doubts as to whether that actually happened or not? Wouldn't you begin wondering, did I just dream all of that? I am certain that Mary had some doubts as to whether that really happened or not. And so she goes and she runs to the to the person that she knows could help her and could encourage her.
Jeffrey Heine:If you've been around Redeemer for any amount of time, you've probably heard us say this, is that theology is best done in community. We say this over and over. Theology is best done in community. It's the reason that we have our home groups, and our home groups discuss the sermon each week, because we want to collectively process what we just heard. And and we're encouraging one another in these groups, challenging one another, supporting one another, because we know we were not meant to live the Christian life in isolation.
Jeffrey Heine:And can I just say this, that if a scared teenage girl can walk 3 days alone just to be with another believer, we can make some sacrifices for community? Despite whatever the governing authorities might say, the church is absolutely essential business. We need the community of faith. We need to be around one another. That is how God has wired us.
Jeffrey Heine:The Christians that I know, that I've seen over the last 20 something years in ministry, the Christians I know that have made terrible decisions and have fallen deeply into sin almost always have the same common, characteristic. They've dropped out of their faith community. They dropped out of their faith community before they they were deceived and fell into this sin. They quit going to their small group. They quit, making efforts to intentionally meet with other believers.
Jeffrey Heine:And it was in their isolation that they were deceived. I mean, I have I have often often met with people who are divorcing their spouses to go off and marry who they believe is their new soulmate, and they will look me in the eye and they will say that they're doing this because the Lord told them it was okay. Because the Lord told them that this was what they were supposed to do, and they weren't supposed to be in their old marriage anymore. And of course, there is no way any Christian community would have given an approval to that and said, no. You heard from the Lord correctly.
Jeffrey Heine:These people were being deceived in their isolation. None of their decisions were being confirmed by any Christian community. So, Christian, you need to be skeptical of anyone who comes up to you and says, the Lord told me this. Ask yourself, has this been confirmed within community? I mean, as a pastor, I get that a lot.
Jeffrey Heine:I actually get people coming up saying, the Lord told them to do different things. You know, the Lord told me that I need to sing a solo next week. Or the Lord told me I need to preach next week. And I'm always like, has that been confirmed? Has it been confirmed with me?
Jeffrey Heine:And usually, as I've talked with them, I realize, and it's definitely not confirmed with me. Once when, Lauren and I were dating, we were in college, somebody came up to me and said, hey, Joel. I want you to know that the Lord told me that I'm going to marry Lauren. I was like, wow. He didn't tell me.
Jeffrey Heine:And I don't think he told Lauren. And so, I think if he was actually telling you to marry Lauren, he might have mentioned it to her or to me. But we need these things confirmed within community. Otherwise, we can be deceived. And so Mary runs to an older, wiser woman who can help her.
Jeffrey Heine:She runs in haste to see Elizabeth. When she arrives at Elizabeth's house and, is greeted by her, the the baby leaps in Elizabeth's womb for joy. Elizabeth is then filled with the Holy Spirit. She blesses Mary in the fruit of Mary's room womb. And then Mary, you know, who's, you know, tired, confused, so young, it's at this point Mary finally explodes in joy.
Jeffrey Heine:She finally is overflowing with joy, and she bursts out in song as she gives us the first ever Christmas carol. There's a lot to, to unpack here, but first and foremost is this. Joy was unleashed when one believer met with another believer. It's when Mary was encouraged by the faith of another believer that joy exploded out of her. And this shows a tremendous need for us to gather together in order to stir up one another's affections.
Jeffrey Heine:You see, alone, we might submit to God's will, but we won't rejoice in it. It's in community that we learn to rejoice in what God is doing in our life. Worship is unleashed in us when faith comes into contact with faith. It's like when 2 2 rocks hit and sparks fly. You know, when this pandemic hit, one of the hardest things that I found to endure was not being able to meet with my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ for the church to no longer gather.
Jeffrey Heine:I mean, we scrambled. Do you remember? We scrambled to try to put together a, you know, a quick virtual service. And and virtual services, you know, it's it's great for a number of things. I really can't think of any of them, but I'm sure I just have to at least say, virtual services are great for a number of things.
Jeffrey Heine:At least during Zoom meetings, you could check your email while people still think you're engaged. That's a plus. But but virtual meetings are terrible for worship. They're just they're just terrible for worship. And I realize that there's there's some people here who, that's the only way they can experience our church right now, that they cannot come.
Jeffrey Heine:But I also know that they feel the absence of fellowship. They realize they are lacking. For those of you who who came to the parking deck that 1st week, or if you could remember your 1st week of coming here, I mean, it was awkward. We're setting up in a parking deck. It's like meeting in the catacombs.
Jeffrey Heine:Alright? But everybody comes not sure what we're gonna do. How's this gonna work? And we kinda stumble our way through the service, but then we sang. Do you remember, like, after such a long absence, hearing God's people sing together what it did to you?
Jeffrey Heine:I mean, when we sang the doxology, I I couldn't see people's faces, but I could see tears falling down by falling down so many people's eyes, so moved as God's children gathered together, and we were encouraged by one another, and we could sing. The church is God's gift to us to stir up in us passion for him. When we're with other believers, worship is ignited in us. Joy is finally unleashed in Mary only after she sees Elizabeth. And actually, there's joy all over this passage.
Jeffrey Heine:Elizabeth is filled with joy. Mary is filled with joy, and even little John in the womb, I love it, is leaping for joy. I I know this this passage of scripture was not written with abortion in mind, but this passage of script scripture has deeply shaped how the church throughout the ages has thought about life in the womb. Elizabeth is 24 weeks pregnant here. Yet in verse 44, she calls the life in her womb a baby.
Jeffrey Heine:It's not a fetus. It's a baby. It's the exact same word that's gonna be used later to describe Jesus, a baby lying in a manger. And even at 24 weeks, this baby can feel emotion. This baby can leap for joy.
Jeffrey Heine:When Lauren was pregnant with all 3 of our girls, she would come to church. And when our girls in the womb would hear me preach, they would go ballistic. They would just start bouncing around everywhere. It was hard for Lauren just to sit there as they were just going so crazy because they recognized my voice. And they didn't just recognize my voice, they recognized that I was really excited.
Jeffrey Heine:And so they would get very excited in the womb. Little John here, he's very excited, but it's not because he recognizes a voice. It's the Spirit of God inside of him recognizing Jesus. We read in John chapter 1 that John the Baptist was filled with the spirit even in his mother's womb. The spirit of God only fills persons, not body parts.
Jeffrey Heine:You don't have, like, the arm your arm filled with the spirit or your leg filled with your spirit. The spirit of God fills persons. And so even in the womb here, John is fully a person. And John here is a beautiful picture to us of what we were created for, to worship in the presence of Jesus. I mean, I read this, and I can't help but think of Psalm 1611.
Jeffrey Heine:In thy presence is fullness of joy. That's what John's experiencing here. It's like he can't wait to get out of the womb just so he could declare, behold the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. He is so excited. It's why he was created.
Jeffrey Heine:And what's astonishing about this as well is Mary is just a few days pregnant. I mean, at most, she's probably a week. Remember, she just got the news from Gabriel and with haste, she left, and she goes off to see Elizabeth. John's response is actually Mary's pregnancy test, if you will. This is Mary's confirmation that actually she really is pregnant.
Jeffrey Heine:John the Baptist leaping in the womb, that's that's the equivalent of, you know, her two blue little stripes or whatever it is in the pregnancy test. It's like, oh my gosh. It's real. I am actually pregnant. Because it was way too early for her to have any other physical signs of that pregnancy.
Jeffrey Heine:The whole thing here is just astounding as to what it says about the sanctity of human life within the womb. And then I love that, you know, once again, once faith meets faith here, Elizabeth is given some incredible new insight. She's actually the first person in the new testament who begins to expound on the trinity. It's Trinitarian language throughout here. She she's filled with the Holy Spirit, and then she recognizes that the Lord is outside of Mary's womb and that the Lord is also in Mary's womb.
Jeffrey Heine:So she recognizes that God is existing here in 3 persons. And it's almost like Mary, even as she's listening to Elizabeth, and Elizabeth is beginning to connect some dots for her. And when those dots are connected and she sees Elizabeth's joy, praise just erupts in Mary. She breaks out into song, and she sings the first Christmas carol in the New Testament that we know as the Magnificat. The Magnificat here is its opening lines or lines that are written on the hearts of every believer.
Jeffrey Heine:My soul magnifies the lord, and my spirit rejoices in god my savior. In other words, my soul magnifies the lord. My soul now sees the lord as huge and awesome in what he's doing. And I am now filled with joy in God, my savior. Mary was not sinless.
Jeffrey Heine:She knew she needed a savior, and the savior was coming into this world. And as we enter into this Advent season, my hope is that we would be like Mary, Elizabeth, and John, And that we would rejoice. And that we would let our spirits rejoice in God, our savior. Pray with me. Father, we thank you for your word.
Jeffrey Heine:We thank you for how it changes us. And we pray that through your spirit, your word would do its work. And we pray for this advent season, that would it be a time of hope for us, and that it would bring us great joy. Not joy as the world gives, but the joy that comes from being in your presence. Thank you for being our savior, Jesus, and entering into our darkness to bring us life.
Jeffrey Heine:And we pray this in your strong name. Amen.
