Speaker 1 00:00:03 Hello everyone. Welcome back to the Pursue God Podcast. I’m Pastor John, and I’m alongside Pastor Eric. As we continue on in our expecting Jesus series, we’ve been looking at some of the unexpected elements of Jesus’ backstory. We kicked off in week one looking at some of the members of, of an unexpected family. You know, even though much was known about the lineage of the Messiah, uh, we knew that he would come from the tribe of Judah. We knew that he’d be a descendant of King David. There were certainly a lot of unexpected members of Jesus’ family tree, uh, that we talked about the unexpected pregnancy. And we looked at the, the truth, the, the factual historical evidence of the virgin birth, and really the theological significance of that. Uh, that because of man’s fallen nature, you know, Jesus had to not only be seat to the woman, but he had to be divinely conceived. Uh, and then that brings us to this week’s topic, which is unexpected joy. And so Pastor Eric is, as we share that title, I would imagine maybe some of our listeners are wondering, well, how, how is it really unexpected? We, we sing joy to the world. You know, everybody assumes that that Christmas is a joyful time. What are we talking about when we say unexpected joy?
Speaker 2 00:01:19 Well, we see as we continue on in the story of the, the backstory of Jesus, um, in the womb, basically, we, we leave off with, uh, Mary getting the news from the angel Gabriel, and then being confused and disturbed. And so she runs in this next story to, um, her cousin’s house, Elizabeth. This is in Luke 1 39 through 56. We’re gonna look at that. And what we see is that the news has now sunk in and, and it’s gonna turn into joy, which leads to praise in her life. Um, we also see joy in Elizabeth’s life, and we even get to see, uh, joy in a special way, um, through Elizabeth. She herself is pregnant. It’s a, it’s an amazing story as we get into it. But, but really it brings up this, this idea of joy, um, causes people to come together to, to share good news.
Speaker 2 00:02:22 Um, kind of like, I think about, um, when my wife first revealed to me, um, our earliest or our newest child, um, she shared the news with me and I was shocked at first <laugh>. And it took a couple of days for it to set in. And, uh, then we were, we went on vacation and we revealed it to the kids later, and they celebrated with us. And then we were with some family friends at dinner, and we celebrated with them. We, we revealed that the baby that my wife has been waiting for for so long is now come and she’s expecting, and we all, um, kind of just had joy together as a family.
Speaker 1 00:03:06 Yeah, I would imagine many of our listeners just had a family event last week. You know, we celebrated Thanksgiving, and so I’m sure they were together with loved ones. And it’s interesting how that’s the time of the year that often good news is shared. Maybe someone in your, in your family announced that they were engaged, or maybe they announced that they were expecting. I know for our family, I have a nephew he and his wife are expecting, and so they did their gender reveal, and we found out they’re gonna have a baby boy. And, and that was really exciting over the Thanksgiving holiday. So there really is this idea that families come together to share the joy in special occasions. And, and one of the big ideas that we’re gonna kind of take through this, this message today is that true joy is evident in every person who has been with Jesus. And then that, that joy leads us somewhere, right? Eric, where does that joy take us? Well,
Speaker 2 00:03:56 That joy usually causes us to start worshiping and praising and proclaiming God the goodness of God, the, the mighty works of God. Um, people who are overflowing with joy end up being bold. Um, they’re, they’re willing to endure hard situations sometimes. And, and we certainly read that in the Bible. We read that about the apostles, and we’re gonna read that about, um, the boldness, the joy and the, the, the praise of, of Mary Elizabeth and, and John in this story.
Speaker 1 00:04:32 Well, let’s give a little backstory about Elizabeth and about her husband Zechariah, so that all of our listeners are, are on the same page. So Zechariah was a, a priest, and he was serving before the Lord in the temple of the Lord. And an angel appears, and as I would be, he’s terrified. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And the angel tells him that, that he and his wife are gonna have a child. Uh, they were quite old in, in age at that time, and we’re Barron. And so I think Zach, Oriah and Elizabeth had probably given up most all hope, and certainly were trying to guard their hopes. And so when he first gets this news, he, he says, well, how am I gonna know this is gonna happen? How can I know this tree wanted to sign? In a sense, right? Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And then the angel gives him this response, and Luke won Verse 19.
Speaker 1 00:05:19 Then the angel said, I am Gabriel. I stand in the very presence of God. It was he who sent me to bring you this good news. So I think it’s interesting how we’re contrasting what Zechariah was saying, Zechariah saying, but I’m, I’m an old man and my wife is old. Hmm. And Gabriel counters that and says, you’re, you’re focused on the wrong thing. It doesn’t matter who you are. It matters who I am and who God is, right? I, I, I stand in the presence of the Lord. Who you are is irrelevant. Who got it is is really what’s important.
Speaker 2 00:05:53 Yeah. And you know, the interesting thing about this, what it brings up in me right now is thinking about how this story is pretty similar to a story in the Old Testament with Abraham and Sarah. And Abraham was, and Sarah was Barron, and they hadn’t had any children. And then God promises ’em a son. And, and they were old in age, and they thought it was impossible for that to happen. And, um, lo and behold, an an an angel tells ’em, and, and they end up having the son, which we learned about through the genealogy a couple of weeks ago, um, which ended up leading to Jesus. And you could say that the people in Jesus’ genealogy were prophets in a sense. Well, when, the major thing we need to understand about Elizabeth is that she is also the mother of the John the Baptist, who would come and, um, be the forerunner to Jesus.
Speaker 2 00:06:55 The Bible says that he’s basically like the last prophet before Jesus. He’s the one who it says that he’s to prepare a way for the Lord. And so Elizabeth is his mother, which makes, uh, John the Baptist, Jesus’s cousin. And, and so what we’re talking about today, like I said, is um, in, in verse 39 of chapter one, we see kind of the starting the story. It says A few days later, Mary Hurry to the hill country of Judea to the town where Zacharia lived. She entered the house and greeted Elizabeth. And so Mary gets the news, she, you is confused, and maybe she wants to talk to her cousin. And, um, her cousin at this time, Elizabeth, she’s already been told by the same age an angel Gabriel, that, that that spoke to Mary, um, that sh that she’s pregnant as well. Um, and she’s been pregnant for longer than Mary.
Speaker 2 00:07:59 She’s, she’s about six months at this time, pregnant. And this is the story where we see Mary’s rushing over to Elizabeth’s house to tell her this good news, right? She’s, she’s a little bit confused. Maybe she needs someone to confide in to talk to a mentor. Maybe she saw her as a mentor in her life, but she wants to tell her this news that’s going on. You wouldn’t believe it. And she, she rushes to tell Elizabeth, maybe for us, as we think about the narrative of the story, we can relate. Maybe we have people that we run to share, uh, news about like the first people, you know, when you hear something at work or when you hear something, whether it’s bad news or good news, we have a set of people that we just trust and that, that can either lift us up or support us or encourage us in those times.
Speaker 2 00:08:53 And my question for you is, do you rush to other believers or a family member or friend to share about the things in your life that are going on, good or bad? I think we see in this story that that’s one of the first things that Mary does, and that really ties it back to the point is that, you know, families or, or families of faith, right? We’re called a family in the church. They gather together to share the joy of special occasions, of good news. And this is certainly a special occasion in, in Mary’s life.
Speaker 1 00:09:29 Yeah. And Gabriel also told Mary that, that her cousin was with child. So Mary not only wanted to go share this amazing news that she was expecting, I think she also wanted to go celebrate with Elizabeth to know what a blessing that would’ve been in Elizabeth’s life to be barren that long and all of a sudden to be with child. I think to your point, she wanted to be a part of that. She wanted to celebrate that.
Speaker 2 00:09:51 Yeah, I see that all the time actually at church. Uh, <laugh>, you know, practically speaking, um, the young, um, you know, pregnant moms, um, kind of gather together at church. We even have like a mom’s room, uh, designed at the church for moms to take, you know, their, their children to go and hang out together. And, but there’s kind of this fad going on. It’s probably been going on forever. Um, but, you know, pregnant women like to share, uh, like ideas and diets and, you know, things about pregnancy science and things. There’s just a lot going on. My wife was doing that during this last pregnancy, you know, looking up natural birth, you know, how to do natural birth and how to deal with it. This, this last child that we had, she, she wanted to do all natural, all the other ones she didn’t. And this one she did. And, you know, maybe that’s what she was going to do now, just, they probably did it all natural back then, right? <laugh>,
Speaker 2 00:10:56 Another thing though that I see in this that maybe could be practical for us, is she’s coming to share good news. You know, Jesus coming is good news. That’s what the gospel is. Um, and so for us, you know, when we became believers, um, did we rush to go share the good news with someone, the automatic joy that came into our lives, knowing that our sins were forgiven by trusting in Jesus? Do we rush with courage and boldness and joy to go share the good news with unbelievers or family members or friends or coworkers? Um, if you don’t, you should. We should. That’s our call.
Speaker 1 00:11:44 Yeah. I remember one of the more challenging, uh, Easter videos that I’ve seen. Our, our church uses little, little videos often as we get ready for Easter. And it was just titled that good news was meant to be shared. And it, and it had several scenarios where a, a young lady found out she was pregnant, another lady got engaged, uh, uh, a son got the job he was hoping again. And everyone in those situations, as soon as they get the good news, what’s the first thing that they do? They, they share it. You know, good news is meant to be shared. And here, you and I as believers have the greatest news that’s ever been told. Are we still as excited to share that today as, as the first day we heard that good news? You know, I think that’s a, I think that’s a good question to ask ourselves and a good challenge for us that’s gonna bring us into our second point with the arrival of Jesus, the Holy Spirit produces joyful praise.
Speaker 1 00:12:37 So we’re gonna continue on in the story where we see Mary greet Elizabeth. You can read it in Luke chapter one, verse 41. It says, at the sound of Mary’s greeting, Elizabeth’s child leaped within her, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. Elizabeth gave a glad cry and exclaimed to Mary, God has blessed you above all women, and your child is blessed. Why am I so honored that the mother of my Lord should visit me? I think it’s interesting. It says Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, and that happened at the coming of Jesus, even though Jesus was still in the womb at, at the coming of Jesus, Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 2 00:13:20 Yeah. That’s kind of like how it is with believers. When the holy, when Jesus comes into our lives, when we finally put our faith and trust in Jesus, the Holy Spirit, the Bible says the Holy Spirit comes into us to dwell in us now as a guarantee of the inheritance. That’s to come now at this moment in time that hasn’t started happening yet. This is like a weird period of time between the old and New Testament, right? Where the Holy Spirit really didn’t actually start fully indwelling believers until Acts chapter two, which I think this can also mirror. Um, that when we look at Acts chapter two, when, when Jesus, after he ascended, he said, go wait for power from un high to come upon you, and you’ll be witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, to the ends of the earth. Um, in Acts chapter two, finally, they go away in the upper room and, and the Holy Spirit falls on them.
Speaker 2 00:14:27 And it’s this, this amazing, miraculous moment that inaugurates the starting of this new era for the church and the Holy Spirit now to be in believers, uh, constantly to be fully filled, baptized in the Holy Spirit. Some people say, um, that happens in Acts chapter two. And what we see that they do is they start speaking in all these other languages. And there’s a lot of focus on that. But the main focus that I wanna make is that they start proclaiming, the Bible says they proclaim the mighty works of God. And yeah, same thing is true. Isn’t it interesting that Elizabeth is filled with the Holy Spirit at this time? We now, now not, uh, that was just temporary. Um, I don’t think he stayed on her like, like it happens with believers after Acts chapter two. But what it caused in her is joy. But it also caused her to exclaim and somehow even know that this child inside of Mary was blessed. She, she must have been revealed, um, by the Holy Spirit, must have revealed to her that this was Jesus, this was the Messiah. That’s amazing.
Speaker 1 00:15:45 Yeah. Let’s, let’s help with a timeline here, cuz I, I think maybe people are trying to put all the names together and, and, and even the order of everything. So Gabriel, we know from scripture that Gabriel visited Mary in the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy. So Elizabeth is six months pregnant. Mary finds out she’s pregnant. Scripture says that in just a few days she hurried to see her. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So, so Mary’s at the very beginning of her pregnancy when they meet. Right? Okay. Elizabeth is about six months along. And keep in mind that, that the angel had told Zechariah all about John the Baptist and all about the pregnancy. And then he struck mute. Mm-hmm. He, he can’t even share verbally with Elizabeth all the things that the angel told him in the temple.
Speaker 2 00:16:32 And Mary didn’t have a phone to call Elizabeth
Speaker 1 00:16:34 <laugh>. Exactly. And, and so, you know, we know that maybe he wrote on a tablet, cuz we know when John is born, he writes out his name shall be called John. And then, and then he can speak. And again, if you don’t know that story, guys go back and read Luke chapter one. It really is an incredible story. But there’s just the amazing work of the Holy Spirit here that Elizabeth really is, she’s trusting on so much of this by faith that she kind of heard secondhand through her husband who couldn’t even talk. Cuz John hasn’t been born at this point. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So, so Zechariah still can’t speak when Mary comes and visits Elizabeth the first time. And yet she, somehow the Holy Spirit reveals to her not only that Mary is pregnant, cuz we, we don’t know from the text. It just says that the sound of Mary’s greeting. Elizabeth says, why am I so honored that the mother of my Lord should visit me? Mary hadn’t even said, Hey, I’m pregnant. Yeah. Right. The Holy Spirit reveals to Elizabeth, number one, Mary’s pregnant, and number two, she’s pregnant with the Lord. Yeah. That’s, that’s
Speaker 2 00:17:38 Powerful. I know. That’s just amazing. And, and you know, kind of in this, this part of the story, what I see, and that’s why it’s the point, is that it’s the Holy Spirit who is producing this joyful praise in, in God’s servants. God is using both Mary and Elizabeth to ultimately fulfill his will and his redemptive plan for humanity and to save them as well as they’re both sinners, everyone’s sinners, but they understand now. And it gives them this joy knowing that Jesus is coming as the Messiah to save them and to save their, their country, Israel. And, and even beyond that, the whole world, it brings joy to the point of she’s got the special revelation and she also exclaims with, with boldness as it as it goes on. Something else interesting happens in the next verse. It says, when I heard your greeting, the baby in my womb jumped for joy.
Speaker 2 00:18:44 You are blessed because you believed that the Lord would do what he said. Isn’t that interesting? It says that the baby in my womb, so John the Baptist in the womb, somehow at the coming of Jesus also knew that it was the Lord coming. And we see because he, he, he kicks her somehow. Right? Um, I think in a different translation it says, kicks or jumps, but jumped for joy. John, um, now is, it’s a little bit different because John the Baptist, um, there’s a scripture in Luke, uh, if we back up in verse 15, it says He was filled with the Holy Spirit from the mother’s womb. So what does that mean? I’m not quite sure, honestly, does it mean that he would be filled from from then on like most prophets? That’s what a lot of people think. Or does it mean that he was filled at this moment?
Speaker 2 00:19:40 I think I don’t think that that’s the case, but I think what’s happening here is that, uh, John the Baptist is going to be set apart as what was already revealed to Zacharia. He’s gonna be set apart and he’s gonna be this, this prophet who prepares the way for the Lord. It says in, in the E s v in verse 15, for he will be great before the Lord and he must not drink wine or strong drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb. But even, even though he was filled with the Holy Spirit from his mother’s womb, he still jumps for, for joy. So there’s all this joy going on as Mary walks in because she is carrying the Lord Jesus Christ. And through the Holy Spirit, this family knows.
Speaker 1 00:20:31 Yeah. And because he was filled at the Holy Spirit, even in the womb, just like the Holy Spirit revealed to Elizabeth that Mary was the mother of the Lord, he reveals it to John the Baptist, even in the womb. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> like the, the, the mother of your Lord is here. The Lord is here.
Speaker 2 00:20:47 Yeah. And so we, we see later on in, in the gospels that, that John grows up to, um, prepare the way for the Lord. And he actually baptizes his cousin Jesus. And he says, one who’s coming, whom, um, I am unworthy to even untie the strap of his sandal. And, uh, John was, um, a humble man. He wasn’t trying to make a name for himself. He knew the job. He was called to, he was a peculiar man. You can go read about him later on. But one of the things I love that he says, he says he must increase, but I must decrease. John knew, um, with the joy that he had through the spirit. He knew that he had a job to do and his job was to prepare the way for the Lord. And I think that that’s exactly what Mary knew, and that’s why, um, she had joy and Elizabeth had ajoy.
Speaker 2 00:21:47 She, they all knew what their purpose was. Now does that bring you joy? I think it’s brought us joy. You know, I, I counsel a lot of people and a lot of people come to me and they’re like, you know, they might’ve placed their faith in Christ and maybe the honeymoon phase of, of the gospel is worn off and they’re now just trying to go through the motions of Christianity and they wonder, what is my purpose? What am I supposed to be doing now? And and we find, you know, that the Bible says that every believer has spiritual gifts, different spiritual gifts, and, and, and are used to, you know, come do the Lord’s work together with the church to edify the church. And when a person, it’s beautiful when a person uses their gifts and finds their purpose finally in the body of Christ.
Speaker 2 00:22:36 I think it’s a joyful time. I knew it was when, when I figured out what God wanted me to do, um, and he wanted me to be a preacher, and he wanted me to proclaim boldly the the word of God. And, and I am filled with joy even though my job’s not always the easiest. There are tough times, uh, joy goes beyond those hard times, um, and helps us to endure because we know what we’re called to do. And I think that’s, that’s part of the joy that I would say that John the Baptist, uh, grows up with later on and helps him, helps him to do the work that he did to tell about the Lord Jesus. Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:23:16 He had the beauty of being secure in his identity from, from the womb. Mm-hmm. He knew exactly who he was. I mean, think of all of our young people out there who were just searching for significance, searching for a sense of identity, who they are in Christ, who they are in, in the face of this world. And John was blessed to know literally from the womb through the, the revelation and the wisdom and the power of the Holy Spirit, that he was the one called to make straight pass for the Lord. I just happened to be reading John three today in my daily reading. And, and that is the passage where John’s disciples come up to him and they’re all frustrated because more people are going to be baptized by Jesus than they are by John. Mm. And and John’s like, I’ve been telling you guys this the whole time.
Speaker 1 00:24:01 You know, don’t you get it? I I must decrease. He must increase. So yeah, what a blessing to know who you are in Christ and to know your identity from the womb. Well, that’s gonna take us into our next point. And that’s that Mary had joy over God’s mercy, grace, and faithfulness. So Mary was a, a sinner, right? Eric, just like everyone else, Mary needed a savior. There wasn’t really anything special about Mary that God chose Mary. Now her her response is pretty awesome. We see her response to it and, and her, her trust and her faith after the, the angelic proclamation. But it, it’s all about God’s character. We don’t want to, we don’t want to have somehow elevate Mary that she was worthy of this calling. Right?
Speaker 2 00:24:48 Yeah. Yeah. I think, you know, there’s been some confusion about Mary’s role in the whole thing. And, uh, but she’s just a regular person, just like us, who even though she carried the Lord Jesus in her womb, she was still, uh, a fallen, sinful, um, woman human being that needed this savior that she was gonna be the mother of. And that must have been, as we’ve talked about, probably a disturbing thing for her to deal with a thing that she was wrestling with, but ultimately comes to grips with. It has joy over it. And, and then we get to this point of the story where she actually bursts out in song over it. She bursts out in song a Song of Praise, it’s called The Magnificat, um, which is a famous, a famous, it’s almost like a poem that could be sung. You know, most songs are poems, right?
Speaker 2 00:25:43 That, that people sing. And so out of joy, um, she starts to produce this song. Now, I was, I was listening to a guy talk about, um, poems and songs and, and people, um, brain, brain activity and, and, and what part of the brain, you know, poems and songs come from. And I don’t know if you know much about it, I, I’m not a brain scientist at all, but apparently we have, there we have a left part of our brain and a right part of our brain. The left is more logic and reason and information. And then the right is more, uh, feeling emotion. You know, our, the artistic side. And I was listening to someone, you know, talk about this. And she had moved from, you know, rationalizing all the information, taking it in, logically thinking about it, sharing it, processing it with her, her, her cousin, and believing it.
Speaker 2 00:26:46 And then it moved from left brain to right brain. Now she just bursts out and prays. And I think that, you know, God, God created the brain. Obviously He created us. And it’s so wonderful to think, you know, the Bible says we’re fearfully and wonderfully made. It’s so amazing to think that that’s, that’s how it works, is we first have to come to this place of gripping the truth when, especially when it comes to God, who God is, what he’s done for us, the good news, the gospel, that Jesus Christ died for our sins. And then once we grip it and understand it, then we can respond emotionally to it. That’s what I see in this kind of, this whole message, is the joy that comes through the Holy Spirit is through the Holy Spirit’s, illuminating and revelatory work in each one of these persons.
Speaker 2 00:27:42 He’s, he’s revealing truth and helping them to understand and then to respond right-brained in joy. And so she sings this song, let me read it. It says, Mary responded, oh, how my soul praises the Lord, how my spirit rejoices in God. My savior say she’s calling him her savior. For he took notice of this lowly servant girl again. She’s got this place of humility. And from now on, all generations will call me blush for the mighty one is holy. And he has done great things for me. He has shown mercy from generation to generation to all who fear him. His mighty arm has done tremendous things. He has scattered the proud and hotty ones. He’s brought down princes from their thrones and exalted the humble. He’s filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich way with empty hands. He has helped his serve in Israel and remembered to be merciful for he made this promise to our ancestors, to Abraham and his children forever. And then the narrative ends and it says, Mary stayed with Elizabeth about three months and then went back to her own home. What are some of those things that you see play out in that, that song or that poem?
Speaker 1 00:28:58 Well, I love how much it’s all about God and what little bit there is about. Mary is very humble, right? Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, he took notice of this slowly servant girl. He has done great things. He shows mercy, his mighty arm. He has scattered right. It, it’s all directed. All of this praise and adoration and, and just this proclamation of the things that God has done. It’s all directed at God. And the brief mention of herself is in a pretty humble position, the slowly servant girl. And the other thing that I love about it too is there’s what I would call the, maybe the more general truths about God, about how God has, has done tremendous things. He’s scattered the bra proud. He’s brought down princes, but then she also makes it very personal where she says he took notice on his lowly servant girl from now on all generations, we’ll call me blessed. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, he has done great things for me. So she’s got the big picture, God’s goodness, his graciousness to the nation of Israel, to really, to creation in general. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, but then also that focus of, wow, God has been so good to me as an individual.
Speaker 2 00:30:10 Yeah. She’s, she’s really revealing the truth. Uh, at the end, kind of what we talked about in the first message when we talked about the genealogy for, he made this promise to our ancestors, to Abraham and his children forever. She’s recalling some things in the Old Testaments, the truth that she would’ve known because right. The New Testament hadn’t been written yet, but she’s, she’s seeing the fulfillment of the prophecy of this promised son, the expected savior. But comes in such an unexpected way for her. But yet she responds with humility. She responds with truth. I, it reminds me when Jesus, um, tells the Samaritan woman, um, that one day a day will come when, when worshipers of God will worship in spirit and in truth, that’s exactly what she’s doing here. She’s worshiping God in spirit, you know, and, and in truth, she’s, she’s worshiping, you know, right brain, left brain, and in spirit all at the same time coming up with this amazing poem, which is, which is scripture by the way.
Speaker 2 00:31:25 One of the things that you said, um, you know, brings up a maybe a, a point that can be contentious sometimes that I was thinking about is, uh, I love worship songs that are focused mainly on God. You know, there’s a lot of worship songs and they’re poetic and they’re good. And, um, and we see in the psalms often, you know, David refers to himself and his depression and his feelings and stuff. We see that. But my favorite worship songs are, are songs of praise to the Lord talking about all the wonderful things that he’s done and, and really focusing on the gospel. I wonder if anybody has turned this into a song that we could sing <laugh>,
Speaker 1 00:32:10 If not, get working
Speaker 2 00:32:11 On it. Yeah, exactly. If you’re a worship leader out there,
Speaker 1 00:32:14 <laugh>. And then it ends with this note, says, Mary stayed with Elizabeth about three months and then went back to her own home. So, so what likely happened is she stayed until John was born. So again, keep in mind she went and visited Elizabeth about six months into her pregnancy. She stayed three more months. So she probably stayed until the baby was born. So she had the opportunity to see John the Baptist born before she went back and, and went back to her home.
Speaker 2 00:32:37 Yeah. I wonder if she sang this song in front of people or by herself. <laugh>. You know, my, my wife was a, uh, a worship leader for a while and she would practice her songs and she hated it when I was in the house, when she was practicing the songs. She would want to go do it by herself cuz maybe she was a little bit embarrassed, you know, or, or not quite, um, had the, the self-confidence or the courage to do it around me or in front of me. But I see also in this song that she bursts out in, she does it in boldness. I wonder who was around, you know, if it was a few people, if, if she burst out singing in the streets. I don’t know. Uh, maybe it was just in front of Elizabeth and maybe Zacharia. Um, there had to be witnesses because they wrote this down, you know?
Speaker 2 00:33:28 So, but the Holy Spirit, you know, did right through the writers. But her boldness and her proclamation of truth and the gospel come out of this. And that’s really, you know, to tie this message up is, is really out of joy. Um, we see a bold worship of God and a bold proclamation to other people. And it reminds me of our, our main idea. Our big idea is that we can see joy in people that have truly been with Jesus. We see the joy in Elizabeth and even in John the Baptist, in the womb. We see it in Mary. And, um, it reminds me of this verse in Acts chapter four, verse 13 in the esv. It says, now, when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, this is after they’re filled with the Holy Spirit and they’ve gone around, uh, preaching and proclaiming the good news.
Speaker 2 00:34:24 It says, when they saw the boldness of Peter and John perceived that they were uneducated common men, they were astonished and they recognized that they had been with Jesus. When people have been with Jesus or been around with Jesus or, or truly just know Jesus, they ought to be bold. I’ve heard it said, um, about boldness. What does it mean? It means to be, um, if, if you were to use maybe writing a document and you see all the same characters, all these same characters in the same text or font, but then you’ve got a few bold ones that stick out of the page and your eye is drawn to the boldness of those letters. They’re screaming, read me, look at me. I think the same thing should be for people who have been with Jesus. They ought to be easily spotted, um, in a room, in a world where there’s regular characters, but but the joy that we have through the Holy Spirit, by knowing Jesus ought to cause us to be bold, to praise him, to worship him, and to tell other people about him.
Speaker 1 00:35:44 Yeah. And the, they in Acts four 13 were the religious leaders of the day. People who didn’t believe Jesus said, you know, that Jesus was who he said he was. And yet even they as unbelievers recognized that Peter and John had been with Jesus. There was something about them, something about their characters, something about their boldness, the joy. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> like you said. Right. Where does that boldness come from? It comes from the joy that they had, that they had been with Jesus. So great challenge to us as believers, as we head into this Christmas season, that we really would be bold and, and certainly bold can, can mean courageous, but like you said, Eric, it really just means set apart in this context. It means that we look different, we don’t look the way the rest of the characters look. Uh, and so that’s my encouragement to all of us listening today who have already put our faith in Jesus, that we would be bold this Christmas season. That the joy that we have and the good news, the greatest news ever told, uh, would lead us into sharing that with boldness and with excitement. Don’t forget, have conversations about everything we’ve talked about in this series with, uh, your, your mentor, with your small group leader, with someone at your church, with a family member. You can get all the resources that you need to do that or pursue god.org And we’ll see you on the next podcast.