Sermon Transcript – The Great Reversal

Series A – Midweek Advent 3 – Wednesday, December 14, 2016 | Pr. Chris Rosebrough

Welcome to the Teaching Ministry of Kongsvinger Lutheran Church. Kongsvinger is a beacon for the Gospel of Jesus Christ and is located on the plains of Northwestern Minnesota.
We proclaim Christ and Him crucified for our sins and salvation by grace through faith alone, and now, here’s a message from Pastor Chris Rosebrough:
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0:29our reading tonight is taken from the Gospel of Luke chapter 1 verses 39-56
0:35which reads in those days Mary arose went with haste Into the Hill Country to
0:41a town in Judah and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth and when Elizabeth heard the greeting of
0:49Mary the baby leaped in her womb Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and she exclaimed with a loud cry
0:55blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb and why is
1:00this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me for behold when the sound of your greeting came to my
1:07ears the baby in my womb leaped for joy and blessed is she who believed that
1:12there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord and Mary said my soul
1:19magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my savior for he has
1:25looked on the humble estate of his servant for behold from now on all generations will call me blessed for he
1:32who is mighty has done great things for me and holy is his name and his Mercy is
1:38for those who fear Him from generation to generation he has shown strength with his arm he has scattered the proud and
1:45the thoughts of their hearts he has brought down the mighty from their Thrones and exalted those of humble
1:51estate he has filled the Hungry with good things in the rich he has sent away empty he has helped his servant Israel
1:59in remembrance of his Mercy as he spoke to our fathers to Abraham and to his
2:05offspring forever and Mary remained with her about three months and returned to
2:11her home in the name of Jesus Satan is a usurper you have to think of
2:17him that way and as children are just like their father here’s the thorny part
2:23we’re all born dead in trespasses and sins and we were born under the Dominion of
2:29the devil and well we were like the devil this is why Jesus says you are of your
2:36father the Devil he’s a liar and a beget you know from the beginning so here’s our problem like the devil we’re always
2:42exalting ourselves always exalting ourselves against others
2:47against God you think about what goes on in the corporate world what goes on in
2:52the corporate world they talk about those people who are climbing the corporate ladder well climbing the
2:57corporate ladder looks a lot like taking a bunch of human beings destroying their reputations and then stacking them up
3:04like you know piles of bodies and then climbing the ladder to the top that’s
3:09how it looks so in our text tonight we will be running into in fact we’ve
3:14already begun to run into one of the major themes of scripture and that is The Humbling of the self-exalted and the
3:23exalting of the humble and so with that we return to Our Gospel text
3:28in which we hear these words in those days Mary arose and went with haste to
3:33the Hill Country to a town in Judah she entered the house of Zechariah and
3:38greeted Elizabeth and when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary the baby leaped in her womb Elizabeth was filled
3:46with the Holy Spirit and she exclaimed with a loud cry blessed are you among
3:51women and blessed is the fruit of your womb and why is this granted to me that
3:57the mother of my Lord should come to me for behold when the sound of your greeting came to my ears the baby in my
4:05womb leaped for joy and blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her
4:12from the Lord the first part of our text and so you’ll notice how this is all working out Jesus even though he is in
4:20utero Jesus who is well at the age where if he were
4:26around today he’d likely be a he could potentially be aborted so there
4:33he is a fetus and he’s already at work he’s already
4:39quite at work at work well going to visit his cousin John who happens to be
4:46the his Forerunner and making sure that he is ready for the task at hand and he
4:54prepares him for the task at hand while he is also still in his mother’s womb filled with the Holy Spirit John points
5:01to Jesus jumps for joy and there’s so much Holy Spirit left over his mother gets some too and she’s so filled with
5:08the spirit she begins to prophesy and you’ll note here that theologians are all agreed that one is not filled with
5:14the Holy Spirit unless one is a believer hmm what does that do with John the
5:19Baptist he’s a Believer even from his mother’s womb filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother’s womb I
5:27would beg to differ with those who would say that a fetus is not a human being something going on here quite
5:33fascinating and you’ll note that they are blessed by Jesus
5:40blessed to be in his presence and blessed to be in the presence of the one
5:45who believed the words that the Lord spoke to her and so from here this
5:53wonderful text takes us into a section of scripture that is referred to throughout church history as Mary’s
6:01Magnificat my soul magnifies the Lord my spirit
6:06rejoices in God my savior it’s a wonderful beautiful section of scripture
6:12but we would be remiss if we did not read it in light of its cross-reference in its cross-reference is kind of a
6:18funny funny place in scripture if you think about it now have you all seen the movie The Princess Bride
6:24great movie if you haven’t seen it in a while it’s worthy of Christmas type of stuff even though there’s nothing
6:30Christmassy about it now you remember that crazy guy Vizzini who would say
6:36inconceivable remember that and there’s this duel to the death that he has a
6:42battle of wits with Wesley and he thought he fooled Wesley and his line at
6:48this point goes ha you fool you fell victim to one of the classic blunders
6:53the most famous of which is never get involved in a land war in Asia but the
6:59only slightly less well-known is this never go in against a sicilian when death is on the line and those happen to
7:06be his last words at that point he died there’s an even better known blunder in
7:12human history and this blunder is exalting yourself
7:18against and over the one true God now I
7:23want you to think about this we all do this in all kinds of ways we sit there and hear a particular passage of
7:30scripture that teaches a particular Doctrine you know something thorny like you know God created the entire universe
7:39in six days speaking it into existence you sit there go come on really and what
7:45you’re doing is you’re exalting yourself above God and you’re saying you know
7:51better than God about how he created the universe I don’t really believe that
7:57this that or the other thing is a sin oh you’re exalting yourself
8:02against God against what he’s revealed in his word remember Mary is blessed because she is
8:08the one who believed the word of the Lord that was spoken to her and so God’s
8:13spoken word comes to us every Sunday and during Advent on Wednesday evenings
8:21comes to us in various forms and it calls for us to believe like Mary believed believed the word of the Lord
8:27that was sent to you well we’re going to look at our cross-reference to The Magnificat before we look at the text
8:34itself and it’s in all all places Exodus chapter 14.
8:40Exodus chapter 14. now those of you who’ve been paying attention in Sunday school will note well this sounds a lot
8:46like where we’re at in our study of Exodus I love these coincidences aren’t
8:52they brilliant we’re going to take a look at Exodus chapter 14 and we’ll fast forward just a smidge to verse 10 and
8:59we’re going to note that the Passover has already taken place the death of the
9:04firstborn has happened those who had the blood of their Passover Lamb on their
9:10lintels and on their doorpost God as he came through and saw the blood would
9:15pass over and they were saved they were not destroyed and there was not a house in Egypt that didn’t have somebody Dead
9:21all the way up to the Palace itself and Pharaoh finally said get out
9:27but remember what Pharaoh is Pharaoh is well he’s a stand-in for Satan he’s one who is exalting himself over God and so
9:35he comes to his senses gathers up his army grabs The Chariot tears and lets
9:42says what were we thinking let’s go get them boys what a dumb thing to do
9:49only slightly more dumb than starting a land war in Asia so we read Exodus 14 step verse 10.
9:57Pharaoh Drew near the people of Israel lifted up their eyes and behold the Egyptians were
10:04marching after them and feared greatly and the people of Israel cried out to
10:10Yahweh and they said to Moses this is a wonderful line one of my favorite lines in all of scripture is it because
10:16there’s no graves in Egypt that you’ve taken us away to die in the wilderness
10:21what have you done to us in bringing us out of Egypt is this not what we said to
10:27you in Egypt leave us alone so that we may serve the Egyptians for it would have been better for us to serve the
10:33Egyptians than to die in the wilderness this sounds a lot like those complaints
10:38that I would get from my kids when we would be on long car Journeys are we there yet kind of stuff and then need the complaining and the fighting and
10:44that stop touching me and the you just want to pull your hair out what kind of line is this leave us alone so that we
10:50can serve the Egyptians didn’t we tell you this no actually you did not okay and here we are we’re already out of
10:57Egypt and now you’re saying this so Moses said to the people fear not stand
11:03firm see the salvation of the Lord which he will work for you today for the Egyptians whom you see today you shall
11:10never see again the Lord will fight for you you have only to be silent now that
11:16sounds fantastic but that’s not exactly what the Lord had in mind so the Lord said to Moses why are you crying out to
11:23me tell the people of Israel to go forward now to kind of understand how difficult that’s going to be they have just come
11:31up against the Red Sea it’s in front of them
11:36and Jesus at this point has not done his whole walking on water thing and so they’re not sure what’s going on here
11:43because behind them is the Egyptian Army God has a bottlenecked in a Wadi with
11:48the pillar of fire and smoke there they are in the beach they’re and they’ve got the whole Red Sea in front of him and
11:55God is saying why are you crying out to me tell the people of Israel to go forward
12:01makes perfect sense so lift up your staff stretch out your hand over the sea
12:07and divide it that the people of Israel may go through the sea on dry ground
12:13I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they shall go in after them and I will get Glory over pharaoh
12:19and all of his hosts his chariots and Horsemen and the Egyptians shall know that I am Yahweh when I have gotten
12:25Glory over Pharaoh his chariots and his Horsemen so keep in mind Pharaoh’s
12:30really fighting with God that’s the thing he’s trying to exalt himself over the Lord and that never works out very
12:37well so the angel of God who was going before the host of Israel moved went behind them the pillar of cloud moved
12:44from before them and stood behind them coming between the hosts of Egypt and the host of Israel and there was the
12:50cloud and the Darkness and it lit up the night without one coming near the other all night then Moses stretched out his
12:57hand over the sea and the Lord drove the sea back by a strong East Wind all night
13:03and made the sea dry land and the waters were divided and the people of Israel
13:09went into the midst of the sea on dry ground the waters behind being a wall to
13:14them on their right hand and on their left and the Egyptians pursued and went in after them in the midst of the sea
13:20all of Pharaoh’s horses his chariots and his Horsemen and in the morning watch the Lord and the pillar of fire and
13:26Cloud looked down on the Egyptian forces through the Egyptian forces into a panic clogging their chariot wheels so that
13:33they drove heavily and the Egyptians said let us flee from before Israel for Yahweh fights for them against the
13:40Egyptians and then the Lord said to Moses stretch out your hand over the sea so the water may come back upon the
13:47Egyptians upon their chariots and upon their Horsemen so Moses stretched out
13:52his hand over the sea and the Sea returned to its normal course when the morning appeared and as the Egyptians
13:59fled into it the Lord threw the Egyptians into the midst of the Sea The Waters returned and covered the Chariots
14:05and the horsemen of all the host of pharaoh that had followed them into the sea not one of them remained
14:12but the people of Israel walked on dry ground through the Sea The Waters being a wall to them on the right and on the
14:18left thus the Lord saved Israel that day from the hand of the Egyptians Israel
14:23saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore Israel saw the great power that the Lord
14:28used against the Egyptians so the people feared the Lord and they believed in Yahweh and in his servant Moses and then
14:36Moses and all the people of Israel sang this song to the Lord saying I will sing
14:42to the Lord for he has triumphed gloriously
14:47the horse and his rider he is thrown into the sea the Lord is my strength and my song
14:55he has become my salvation this is my God and I will praise him my
15:03father is God and I will exalt him the Lord is a man of war Yahweh
15:10is his name and so you can see in this song the theme now of the Lord
15:17triumphing over those who opposed him those who opposed and exalted themselves
15:24over his people and who is it that has opposed and exalted himself over God that causes us
15:31to be in the misery that we’re in today is it not The Devil Himself his forces and unfortunately each and
15:38every one of us has sided with the devil in many in various ways exalting
15:43ourselves over God not doing his will not loving God as we are not loving our
15:49neighbor as ourself as we ought we behave a lot like the devil
15:58so what do we do it’s clear that the Lord humbles those
16:03who exalt themselves so humble yourself
16:09the Lord is in the right I’m in the wrong and so are you
16:15the song continues Pharaoh’s chariots and his hosts is cast
16:20into the sea his chosen officers were sunk in the Red Sea
16:26the floods covered them they went down Into the Depths like a stone your right
16:31hand O Lord glorious in power your right hand O Lord shatters the enemy in the
16:37greatness of your majesty you overthrow your adversaries and you send out your
16:43Fury it consumes them like stubble at the blast of your nostrils the waters
16:49piled up the floods stood up in a heap the deeps congealed in the heart of the
16:54sea the enemy said I will pursue I will overtake I will divide the spoil my
17:00desire shall have its fill of them I will draw my sword my hand shall destroy
17:06them i i i my my my
17:14it’s all of our problems isn’t it but you blew with your wind the sea
17:19covered them they sank like lead in The Mighty Waters who is Like You O Lord among the gods
17:25who is like you Majestic in Holiness awesome in glorious Deeds doing wonders
17:33you stretched out your right hand the Earth swallowed them you have led in
17:39your steadfast love the people whom you have redeemed you have guided them by
17:45your strength to your holy Abode and see you see the theme then those who are
17:51oppressed are now the ones who are victorious it’s the great flip it’s the
17:57great turning of the tables where those who have everything come to have nothing
18:02and those who have nothing end up having everything
18:07which calls us to empty our hands of everything so that we have nothing
18:13because in having nothing we have everything given to us by Christ
18:19you have led in your steadfast love the peoples whom you have redeemed purchased out of slavery you have guided them by
18:25your strength to your holy Abode the peoples have heard they trembled pangs have seen these the inhabitants of
18:32philistia now are the Chiefs of Edom dismayed trembling ceases the leaders of Moab all
18:39the inhabitants of Canaan have melted away Terror and Dread fall upon them
18:44because of the greatness of your arm they are still a stone till your people
18:50oh Lord pass by till the people pass by whom you have purchased you sit there
18:56and you go but wait a second Christ has redeemed and purchased me
19:04poor sinful being indeed he has
19:09this is actually your story this is your song you will bring them in plant them on
19:17your own mountain and the place O Lord which you have made for your Abode the
19:23sanctuary O Lord which your hands have established this doesn’t sound like
19:29Earthly Jerusalem does it because it isn’t the Lord will reign forever
19:37for when the horses of pharaoh with his chariots and his Horsemen went into the sea Yahweh brought back the Waters of
19:44the sea upon them but the people of Israel walked on dry ground in the midst of the sea and then Miriam the
19:50prophetess the sister of Aaron took a tambourine in her hand and all the women went out after her with tambourines
19:58and dancing and Miriam sang to them shiru
20:05shiroto shiru law Yahweh sing to the Lord for he has
20:12triumphed gloriously the horse and his rider he is thrown
20:18into the sea
20:24and this has everything to do with our text tonight because Mary
20:32after Elizabeth is filled with the holy spirit with from the Overflow of her unborn Sons filling of the Holy Spirit
20:39by Christ she says
20:45my soul magnifies the Lord
20:54she doesn’t magnify herself
21:00Mary does not exalt herself
21:05she’s humble and rather than exalt herself over the
21:10Lord the one who believed the word spoken to her by the angel Gabriel words given to
21:17him by God himself she doesn’t exalt herself
21:22she magnifies and exalts the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God
21:29my savior Mary like you and I needed a savior
21:36so much for the Immaculate Conception for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant
21:43slave for behold from now on all generations will call me
21:48blessed for he who is mighty has done great things for me and holy is his name
21:57indeed I remind you he who is mighty has done great things
22:02for you too one of the mighty things he has done
22:08is that he was born of this humble servant girl who was
22:14still a virgin they came into the world and suffered
22:19under Pontius Pilate and died for you on a cross
22:26he has done Mighty things for you holy is his name his Mercy is for those who fear Him from
22:35generation to generation and see the one who exalts himself does not fear God
22:41not at all the one who exalts himself over God
22:46doesn’t believe that he exists or suppresses that fact it isn’t fearful
22:51of him at all and kind of thinks in his own heart well if Yahweh is so powerful if God is so well Mighty and going to
22:59punish evildoers and why hasn’t he done a thing to stop me from doing the things I like to do
23:04right let’s give it some time he’s not sleeping
23:11but see he’s merciful to those who fear Him from generation to generation and it’s not his will that even you should
23:17perish he has shown strength with his arm he has scattered the proud and the
23:23thoughts of their hearts he is brought down the mighty from their Thrones and
23:29he is exalted those of humble estate
23:35have you ever looked at those magazines the grocery store
23:41oh it’s a train wreck it’s just glorious if you open up the magazine and you find
23:46out which movie star or celebrities life has come to a train crash the paparazzi
23:53has caught Kanye sleeping with this woman or that woman who’s really well
23:59known well it turns out that she has a drug addiction and we love to watch these things right but then you sit
24:06there and you realize that all of these people whom we worship as a society and that’s what we do we
24:13worship them we worship them and we laude them with all kinds of Glory with Fame and wealth
24:22and mansions and photo shoots and movie star roles oh man they get to drive the
24:30best cars stay at the best resorts and then the tabloids teach us
24:36that they’re just as screwed up as the rest of us
24:43it’s kind of fascinating how that all works and you know the reason for that is because they are
24:52because they are I always find it fascinating
24:57when a movie star kind of disappears and you don’t hear from them 15 20 years
25:06and then all of a sudden you just looking at the news and it says such and such a person died
25:16and then they remember them what do they remember them for they remember them for
25:22their make-believe roles they remember them for the things that they did while they were pretending to
25:28be somebody else and they did a great job of pretending to be somebody else
25:33because that’s what acting is isn’t it and we all say Oh Our Lives will never
25:39be the same it’ll never be the same now that this person is gone
25:44two days later it’s the same
25:49and see that’s the thing we’ve exalted these people and many of
25:55them have exalted themselves in their ambition they have sought this Fame they have sought this fortune and
26:01they have achieved it to what end they end up in the same place we all do
26:09in a box in the ground it’s a little colder in the boxes here
26:15than they are in Southern California but it’s still the same see that’s it
26:22this is the big theme of scripture but see Christ they stuck him in a tomb
26:27and he walked out of it three days later and the theme there if you follow it in
26:34Philippians chapter 2. Christ who was by Nature God did not
26:39count equality with God a thing to be grasped but he emptied himself
26:45and being found in the form of a servant he humbled himself became obedient
26:52obedient to death even death upon a cross the lowest of the low see Christ
26:59was the highest of the high and he on purpose became the lowest of the low to
27:05serve you to serve me the most despised man among us the one
27:11we were all saying crucify him he doesn’t deserve to live he’s the one who humbled himself to the
27:19point of death on the cross and therefore God has exalted him
27:25and he has the name that is above every name so the name of Jesus every knee will bow and every tongue confessed that
27:32Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father see the Bible is rich in this theme and
27:40the reason it’s rich in this theme is because the devil is the one who said I will Ascend to the highest Heights and I
27:46will be like the most high paw the text continues and says but you will
27:52be thrown to the greatest depths of shale
27:57so his Mercy is for those who fear Him from generation to generation he has
28:02shown strength with his arm he has scattered the proud and the thoughts of their hearts he has brought down the
28:09mighty from their Thrones from their photo shoots from their stars on the
28:15Hollywood Walk of Fame and he is exalted instead those of humble estate
28:22he has filled the hungry the Hungry with good things and the rich
28:29he sent them away empty-handed he has helped his servant Israel in
28:34remembrance of his Mercy and as he spoke to our fathers to Abraham and to his offspring
28:41forever and so Begins the great reversal
28:50the powerful the rich the wealthy the mighty
28:56those who exalt themselves will be brought to nothing
29:02but those who realize the truth that all of that Fame power
29:09and wealth is a mirage it’s an illusion
29:15it’s an exalting of yourself over God it’s sin it’s evil it’s self-centered
29:23and says Lord have mercy on me I have nothing blessed are the poor
29:29and spirit not the wealthy the poor God
29:36fills them with good things remembers his Mercy that he spoke to our fathers
29:42and to Abraham and to his offspring forever and you brothers and sisters are
29:47Abraham’s offspring you have been made The Offspring of Abraham and the Waters of your baptism
29:54you grow as The Offspring of Abraham strong and stuck
30:00through the preaching of his word to the preaching of the Gospel the proclamation of Christ and the
30:06magnifying of his name and through his law given to the descendants of Abraham
30:12we see that we are empty-handed and brought low in need of a savior and through Christ we have all of our needs
30:18met and rather than have our heads torn down in shame he is the lifter of
30:26our heads because of Christ what a great
30:32an amazing God we have and we thank God for his Mercy
30:40and we pray that he would ever continue to keep us humble so that we may ever be believing the
30:47words spoken to us through the apostles and through the prophets telling us the great Deeds that
30:55he has done so that we like Mary May magnify the Lord rather than ourselves
31:02in the name of Jesus amen [Music]
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