Songs for Christmas No.1 Elizabeth's Song

Good morning. Let's all stand, please. Let's bow our heads and come to God in the words of the prayer our Lord Jesus taught us, Our Father who art in heaven.

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory for ever and ever. Amen. Father, we come before your throne and we ask that this special day we shall sense your nearness.

Minister to every heart, confound every fear and may we be aware that underneath us and round about us are the everlasting arms of our God. Amen. I am terrified to take the blame for all the bad things I have done.

Thank you, Jesus, thank you, Lord for loving me so much. I know I don't deserve anything. Help me feel your love right now to know deep in my heart that I'm your special friend.

I'm special because God has loved me for he gave the best thing that he had to save me. His own son Jesus crucified to take the blame for all the bad things I have done. Thank you, Jesus, thank you, Lord for loving me so much.

I know I don't deserve anything. Help me feel your love right now to know deep in my heart that I'm your special friend. Amen.

All hail Emmanuel Call his name Emmanuel. There's no one else quite like him. Jesus, name above all names, beautiful Savior.

I think you probably know the words. It's 375 if you don't in mission praise. Jesus, name above all names, beautiful Savior, glorious Lord.

Emmanuel, God is with us. Blessed Redeemer, deliver us. Let's sing it unaccompanied.

Jesus, name above all names, beautiful Savior, glorious Lord. Emmanuel, God is with us. Blessed Redeemer, deliver us.

Let's turn to the Word of God which speaks about God's own Son who came into this world to establish the Christian family, to make it possible for men and women, Jew and Gentile, to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord and as a result, to enter into the blessing that Jesus alone can give, bringing men and women into the family of God. He came unto his own, but his own received him not, but to as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God. Well, let's turn to Luke's Gospel in chapter 1 where we read in the fifth verse, In the time of Herod, king of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah who belonged to the priestly division of Abijah.

His wife Elizabeth was also a descendant of Aaron. Both of them were upright in the sight of God, observing all the Lord's commandments and regulations blamelessly, but they had no children because Elizabeth was barren and they were both well on in years. Once when Zechariah's division was on duty and he was serving as priest before God, he was chosen by lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, to go into the temple of the Lord and burn incense.

And when the time for the burning of incense came, all the assembled worshippers were praying outside. Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him standing at the right hand of the altar of incense. When Zechariah saw him, he was startled and was gripped with fear.

But the angel said to him, Do not be afraid, Zechariah. Your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son and you are to give him the name John.

He will be a joy and delight to you and many will rejoice because of his birth for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He is never to take wine or other fermented drink. And he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even from birth.

Many of the people of Israel will he bring back to the Lord their God and he will go on before the Lord in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. Zechariah asked the angel, How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well on in years. The angel answered, I am Gabriel, I stand in the presence of God and I have been sent to speak to you and to tell you this good news.

Now you will be silent and not able to speak until the day this happens because you did not believe in my words which will come true at their proper time. Meanwhile the people were waiting for Zechariah and wondering why he stayed so long in the temple. When he came out he could not speak to them.

They realized he had seen a vision in the temple for he kept making signs to them but remained unable to speak. When his time of service was completed he returned home. After this his wife Elizabeth became pregnant and for five months remained in seclusion.

The Lord has done this for me, she said. In these days he has shown his favor and taken away my disgrace among the people. Then you go on further down the chapter to the 39th verse.

At that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea where she entered Zechariah's home and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting the baby leapt in her womb and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit in a loud voice she exclaimed 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 as soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears the baby in my womb leapt for joy. Blessed is she who has believed that what the Lord has said to her will be accomplished.

It's interesting isn't it that at the beginning of time when the world was made the Bible makes it quite clear that the very angels those who witnessed the scene rejoiced. The Bible tells us in the book of Job that the morning stars sang together at the beginning of the age before you and I were born as a result of God's fiat His creative will there comes into existence this world this universe our planets the suns and so on and the Bible says that at the beginning of creation there was jubilation in the heavenlies and when our Lord came on earth to perform what is in effect an act of recreation it seems to be quite reasonable to suppose that at that particular moment there would again be that great rejoicing that was present when before time was to herald the advent into the world of none other than God's own son. And so when you come to the opening chapters of the gospel of Luke you find that there are five differing groups of people or individuals who are so enraptured by what is taking place that they burst forth into song and of course one of the things that marks Christmas is carol singing in which we acknowledge the entry into this world of none other than our blessed Lord Jesus Christ.

Well, the first song that was sung the first prophetic declaration came from the lips of a woman. It seems to me quite extraordinary and quite significant that as at the death of our Lord Jesus women were present and heralding the resurrection of our Lord Jesus a woman was used to tell what had happened so when our Savior comes into this world it falls to a daughter of Eve to recognize something of the significance and to break forth in a carol in a declaration of praise. So for a little while we put the spotlight on Elizabeth.

She and her husband they're getting on in years. You read of that in the verses to which I drew your attention which speaks of their spirituality. The first chapter and the sixth verse of Luke's Gospel.

Both were upright in the sight of God. It speaks of their tragedy their domestic problem. They had no children.

It speaks of the eclipse of their hope in terms of ever being parents. They were both well on in years. So when you hone in on or when you come close to the person of Elizabeth you find her living in a political situation which was unfortunate in the extreme and in a religious situation which was equally depressing.

At the time of her marriage to Zacharias Rome had conquered Palestine. The insignia of Rome was seen in Jerusalem. Some hundreds of years had elapsed since the completion of the Old Testament canon.

No voice from the Lord had been heard for such a long period of time. The Bible tells us that when in the days of the Old Testament the Jews were disobedient there was always a small remnant who held on to faith. And I suggest to you that this aged woman Elizabeth is, if you like, an illustration of this.

She and Zacharias, her priest husband are amongst those who are remaining true even though politically and at the establishment level religiously there is so much in Israel that would cause them to be despondent. Zacharias, he was a remarkable man as indeed was Elizabeth. Both of them could trace their ancestry back to the priestly tribe of Levi.

Zacharias had the double blessing of not only having a royal or a priestly lineage but he married a woman who also shared this common ancestry. Together they serve the Lord. There is a sense sometimes in which your ministry can be be clouded by your memory.

Here is Elizabeth and she is alongside her husband and they are serving God at a most difficult time in their nation's history but she herself has this sad domestic situation. She is barren. In a day when to be barren seemed to indicate a mark of divine disfavor thus one woman in the early chapters of the book of Genesis says to her husband, give me children or I die.

It could well have been the case that Elizabeth was so bittered and bittered by her circumstance that memory could have in some way have dealt a double blow to her ministry. But she is a woman of a great spirituality. Both she, verse 6, and her husband are upright in the sight of God observing all the Lord's commandments.

One of the things that you will learn from Elizabeth is this, not to judge God too quickly. I mean by that time is always on his side. Here is her husband Zechariah.

He is amongst one of the 24 divisions that there were amongst the priests. The groupings of the priests were subdivided. Abijay was the 8th division.

There were at least 20,000 priests serving the needs of the temple in that particular day. One of the choicest privileges for a priest was to be able to offer incense on the high altar in the holy place. The desire to do this was so great that the way in which a selection was made was as a result of a lot being cast.

And it was Zechariah's good fortune, verse 9, to be chosen by lot and to go into the holy place twice a day, incense was placed on the altar. Three times a day, there was public prayer. And it seems on the latter occasion as the signal is given for the incense to be placed on the altar, then Zechariah, in what was one of the most awesome experiences in the whole of his ministry, aspires an angel.

It's difficult to understand just the solemnity that there was in the temple on the occasion of the offering, twice a day, you remember I said, of the incense. In front of the high altar and around all other precincts of the temple, the people would bow down. They would be prostrate.

And here is Zechariah at this most remarkable moment in his ministry. As the signal is given, he casts the incense on the altar and he sees what apparently others don't, an angel standing by. And the angel reminds Zechariah of the power of prayer.

Do not be afraid, verse 13. Your prayer has been answered. Your prayer has been heard.

A prayer for what? A prayer for the improvement of the spirituality of Israel. Doubtless he as a faithful priest had been asking the Lord for that. But perhaps even more pointedly, the angel is referring to those prayers of yesteryear which now have been dimmed because as the years have gone by, the desire for a child has waned.

As with logic and reason, they come to an appreciation that an elderly couple will not give birth to a boy, let alone a son. But the angel says, your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son and you are to give him the name John. He will be a joy and a delight to you.

You can understand the astonishment which grips Zechariah. You can understand the doubt promoted by reason, trying to mingle with the certainties of faith. And you can get some sort of insight into the reaction of Elizabeth when after the months have gone by, she realizes that what has happened in the temple, even though her husband has been too dumb to speak of it, was indeed from the Lord.

Verse 24, After this his wife Elizabeth became pregnant and for five months remained in seclusion. The Lord has done this for me. He's taken away my disgrace.

He's shown favor. Now the reason I go into this is that you need to have this information to fully understand the context of the first canticle, the context of the first carol. You see, one of the reasons why I have a distaste for Christmas is that you go down to Woolworth's or any shop and you hear them playing these carols and you know it doesn't matter a fig to the average person who goes by, neither indeed to the people who put the carols on.

There's little concern it may be a little town of Bethlehem or one of the more traditional carols that harnesses scriptural truth. But really the contextualization, what is behind the carol is unappreciated by the average person who listens to it. But that was not the case here.

You see, it's the circumstances behind the carol that she expresses that causes the wonderment that is contained within the verses that she sings to the Lord. You need to break off here for a moment or two. You see, one of the reasons for highlighting this from Scripture is not just to remind you of a historical incident, though that be precious and honorable in itself.

You see, you ought to learn from this woman. So long, faithful. So long, her prayers unanswered.

Having come to terms with her situation, she then discovers that God in His grace has not forgotten her. Now, don't misunderstand me. I'm not suggesting for a moment that always this side of eternity our prayers are answered.

But what I am saying is this, that God never forgets. He remembered those early prayers of a woman who was no more than a maiden. And though now she's mature in years, old by any reasonable definition, God still remembered the prayers of yesteryear.

And she acknowledges the favor and the mercy of God. You know, one of the more exciting aspects of our church program here is something that you men cannot go along to. It's called Cameo.

It meets on a Wednesday, and the number of folk who come along are so increasing that they've expanded their program once within the last few months, and it looks as though it will be expanded again. Cameo. What does it mean? Come and meet each other.

Now, if you're a mom with a child or a couple of children, one of the things that presumably you want more than anything else is to be in the company of someone who's got the same sort of situation so that you can pull notes, share moans, as well as encourage each other. Now, here you get in the Bible an illustration of the first meeting of Cameo. You see, here is Elizabeth, this elderly woman, and in a remarkable way, in one sense, in a miraculous way, she finds herself with child.

But when you move on in the story, of course, you know that as a common denominator with the next person who comes along, she has the fact that Mary and she are cousins, but Mary is younger than she is, and Mary also is with child. And we'll be looking at Mary's carol, Mary's song, next week. Here is this woman who may not have been much more than a teenager, and in response to circumstances somewhat similar to her older cousin, she determines to leave northern Israel and move down to Judea and to hunt out for Elizabeth.

So you pick up the narrative in the 39th verse. Mary, now informed that she is to have a child, goes towards her older cousin. At that time, Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea when she entered Zechariah's home and greeted Elizabeth.

Two expectant women together. You don't need to be a prophet to realize what they talked about. I mean, what do women talk about in prenatal clinics? It would nonetheless have been nice to have secreted a tape recorder and to have had a sort of expanded version of what is summarized by Dr. Luke in this word, greeted.

She greets Elizabeth. Incidentally, isn't it a mark of the sensitivity of the Holy Spirit that to bring this narrative into being, a doctor is employed? And isn't this one of the reasons for the choiceness of the language, especially encapsulated in the Authorized Versions rendering of chapter 2? Here's a doctor who knows a little bit about gynecology and what have you. Here is someone who has an understanding of the whole process of birth, and yet in the most wonderful, accurate, and yet sometimes poetically descriptive language, you get this account of the birth of John Baptist and the birth of Jesus Christ.

And here are just two womenfolk in the ante room of a maternal maternity ward. Zechariah's wife, Elizabeth, and Mary exchange greetings. Isn't it interesting that Elizabeth's barrenness was actually caused by God until the time was ripe for the young Mary to be with child so that this young woman would have encouragement from her older relative? Isn't this the way of God? Sometimes we judge Him too quickly.

Time is always on His side, and circumstances either this side of eternity or on the other side will justify everything that He has done. Elizabeth hears Mary's greeting, and we read, the baby leaps in her womb. Interesting the original word doesn't say fetus.

Interesting that the unborn child seems to have a degree of intelligence. Interesting that the babe here is said to be six months within his mother's womb when every nerve fiber is fully in place. Interesting to see how Dr. Luke argues for the sovereignty of that little unborn child.

How much do we need Dr. Luke's today to tell us something about the significance and the solemnity and the sacredness of birth and conception and what have you? The baby leaps as though having some understanding of what's going on he prompts his mom. I've never known a baby leap within me that would have been as remarkable an experience as David Eilish singing like Ruth Milne. I mean the mind, the mind boggles.

But babies do jump around don't they ladies? In the womb as though John was saying, hey mom you've got to do something significant about this. You're in the presence of one who will be greater than I whose ministry I will prepare the way for. Now there is something here on this occasion which is if you like an anticipation of Pentecost.

Don't misunderstand me but you can make too much of Acts chapter 2. As though the Holy Spirit never had any workings before Pentecost. There is something charismatic about the song that Elizabeth releases to the Lord. Indeed there is something charismatic.

There is Holy Spirit phenomenon which is within this particular account by Dr. Luke. The child leaps and Elizabeth responds and as at Pentecost there will be speech and prophecy so here there is speech and prophecy. In a loud voice she exclaims as though she cannot help herself.

And now hear me afresh. Here is the prophetic gift. The first time on display in what is basically the Christian era and it is used by God or given by God for a woman to be the mouthpiece.

Blessed three times. She doesn't just say happy. Happy refers to an emotion.

Blessed refers to a condition. Blessed, says Elizabeth to Mary, are you among women? I have a book written by a renegade Catholic nun and it is a wonderful book. Beautifully written.

The scholarship behind it is impeccable and the choice of English language is on the class with anything in the history of English literature. The book is entitled Above All Her Sex and it speaks of Mary and the book is correctly putting across what is here underlined amongst all women. Blessed are you.

It will be said of Jesus as he carries on his ministry as a full grown man. Blessed is the woman whose breasts gave you milk. Blessed indeed is Mary for into the world she shall bring God's own representative.

Blessed are you among women. Blessed is the child you will bear. But why am I so favored that the mother of my Lord should come to me? Mary, blessed who are you for your obedience.

Blessed is she who has believed what the Lord has said to her will be accomplished. So within this early carol, this first carol, there is a triplet recognition of blessedness. The woman, the child, and the obedience.

It seems to me as though it's not just a prophecy to Mary. It seems to me that encapsuled, that is contained within it is the heart of God's advice to men and women as they look upon the Christmas scene. Blessed are those who recognize who this woman is.

Blessed even more are those who recognize who this child is. And it advances on that even further. Blessed are those who respond to what he, the great God, has communicated to this world through his mouthpiece.

Blessed is she of those who believe what God has said and act on the intelligence that they are given. You see how much is contained within these verses. And yet, you know, it's not just Mary as a person, sorry, Elizabeth as a person, or Elizabeth as a prophet that really should detain you.

It's Elizabeth who is a sort of pointer to the way that you and I ought to behave. You see, I argued earlier that one of the problems with memory is that memory can be cloud ministry. Memory can make you embittered, especially when you reach hasty conclusions.

I mean, Elizabeth presumably was no less sensitive than Hannah who had the similar circumstance centuries ago of not being able to bear a child and alongside her was Penina who goaded her. You remember? How easy for Hannah, how easy for Elizabeth to become miffed with God, to say to him, but why have you not allowed things to happen to me as have happened to other people? I think pastorally, if I were to identify, that is one of the most recurrent features in terms of people's difficulties, including my own. Why do I have to be exception? Truly God is good to Israel, but as for me, truly God is good to mothers, but as for me, my womb is barren.

How easy for Hannah, how legitimate at the human level for Elizabeth to bring in a wrong conclusion and as a result to impugn the sovereignty of God. If Elizabeth will teach you anything, she teaches you have patience with the Lord. The mills may grind slowly, but they do grind.

She'll also teach you about humility. I remind you she's the older woman. She's been in the temple for many a long month, many a long year.

She is the happy wife of the celebrated Zacharias who has had this great privilege of throwing incense on the altar. Not many of the 20,000 priests had that privilege, you recall. So if honor passes through to a wife as a result of her husband, then she is one who could bask in the joy, in the fame of this, but she doesn't.

At least not in the sense that it perverts her reaction to the blessing by making her a difficult person to live alongside. I mean, here is this slip of a girl who comes from northern Palestine, northern Israel, and she is the one whose blessing is even greater. Elizabeth has within her one who shall prepare the way, but here is God's son himself to be born from the womb of this young Hebrew.

And there is no sense of envy whatsoever. Blessed are you, my young cousin Mary, above all your sex. Blessed am I that the mother of my Lord should come to my home to seek my fellowship.

Elizabeth will teach you a great deal, you see. Her reaction becomes a trigger point for Mary's song, for Mary takes over from the carol of Elizabeth. Blessed is she who has believed what the Lord has said to her will be accomplished.

Mary's response, my soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God. Thank you, God, my savior. You see the charismatic nature of the ministry? I've been working out with Tim our preaching program for this coming January, and in the evenings we'll probably be looking at Elisha.

And one of the things that was occupying me on Friday was the way that the baton was passed on from Elijah to Elisha, and both rejoiced, not in their ministries as exemplified in themselves as such, but in the baton. It's the ministry that's important, you see. There's no rivalry, not within the purposes of God.

All you want is for God to be honored, God to be glorified. All right, Mary, you've been used. I've been used.

Thank God that he's used you more. Blessed is the woman, blessed is she who has believed what the Lord has said to her will be accomplished. Then Mary takes on the baton of charismatic prophecy and goes even further than Elizabeth.

But all the honor and all the glory goes back to this gardener who stimulates the carols in the first instance by this remarkable interjection into the human story by being born, or his son being born into this world. And so, you see, we come full circle. The prophecy of Job, well, I say prophecy, there is a predictive element in Job, made reference to the morning star shouting with jubilation when the world came into being.

And here is the Lord Christ who will bring about the power of redemption, second act of creation, and it's right, it's proper, it's logical. The angels will sing. An elderly woman will sing.

A young teenage girl will sing. An elderly man, Simeon, will sing. There will be an anthem of praise orchestrated in the heavens finding its response on earth.

To what? Well, glory to God in the highest. On earth, peace, goodwill towards men. God has visited his nation.

God has visited the world. And that's really why we go, a caroling. That's why we sing.

You can do nothing more in response to what God has done through Jesus in Bethlehem. Amen. 560.

In mission praise. Praise my soul, the King of heaven, to his feet thy tribute bring. Then angels, help us to adore him, ye behold him, face to face.

That verse is so wonderful, we'll have a double run at it and enjoy it. Then our musicians will continue and take us on into a quiet, reflective period as we come around the Lord's table. If you need to go at that stage, then be free, so to do, but we do invite you, if you possibly can, to have the great privilege of remembering not only the birth, but the death, and take a sneak look at the resurrection of our beloved Lord.

560. Praise my soul, the King of heaven, to his feet thy tribute bring. Then shall give his love for giver to thy dearest gracious King.

Praise him for his grace and favor to the fathers in distress. Praise him still, the Savior ever, so to joy and sin to bless. Praise him, praise him, praise him, praise him, glorious in his faithfulness.

He tends and stares us where the feeble frame he goes. In his hands he gently bears us, restricts us from all our foes. Praise him, praise him, praise him, praise him, mighty as his mercy flows.

Praise him above.