Study inLuke’s Gospel

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In His Hands:The Magnificat 2

Chap 1v46-56Presentation 04

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IntroductionMany are familiar with the words of the song, 'He's got the whole world in his hands'. A song which points us to God's control over every individual and every aspect of his universe. It is a comforting thought in the midst of a world of turmoil, uncertainty and confusion to know that our world is in safe hands. It helps us sleep at night. It helps us to face life's sorest trials. The focus is upon God's control and that is always the best place to begin when we are thinking about our future and what lies ahead. Just to know that God is in charge ministers untold comfort and encouragement to our hearts. And this is what Mary makes reference to in an even more famous song .

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IntroductionThere is a second way in which we can approach the phrase 'In his hands' and it involves allowing the focus to shift from God to ourselves. It stresses the importance of putting all of our lives in God's hands in willing surrender and glad obedience.

It is as we do so that we experience the fruitful outworking of God's grace in our lives. This too is seen in Mary's life in v38. After hearing of all that God had planned for her future Mary responded, 'I am the Lord's servant'. That is the language of surrender, the language of submission.

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IntroductionIt is important to see here that there are the two sides to the same coin, and it is for this reason that we will spend some time considering two aspects of the phrase 'In his hands'.

We will retain the order with the focus first upon God and then upon ourselves because our capacity for surrendering our lives to God is influenced by our awareness of his control.

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God's Control Of HistoryThe great theme of Mary's magnificat is the sovereign control of God in History. She clearly acknowledges God is in control of events. He is never out-manoeuvred. He cannot be defeated. His will is unassailable. Now we need to remind ourselves just who it is that is a affirming these great truths. This woman's nation had been annexed by the Roman Empire a people who ridiculed and scorned the Jews for worshipping a God who could not be seen. She was a direct descendant of the royal line of David but was reduced to humble circumstances while another, Herod, who had no rightful claim to the throne had purchased it from the Roman authorities.

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God's Control Of HistoryThis is the woman who is saying God is in charge of history. God is in Control! She realised that things do not happen accidentally in this world - they are brought about.

To know that nothing happens in God's world apart from God's permission may frighten the godless, but it stabilises the saints. It assures them that God has everything worked out and that everything that happens has a meaning, whether or not we can see it at the time. God always has the last word. He is a sovereign God!

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God's Control Of HistoryThe claim that God has sovereign control over history is one that many people find staggering as they look out on the world or in upon their personal worlds.

How can God be in charge if this or that has been allowed to happen? How can God be in charge of a world that is in such moral decline? How can God be in charge when the church in the land appears to be collapsing? How can God be in charge when evil men seem to prosper and those who seek to live righteous lives suffer?

These questions were as much on the lips of those in Mary's day as they are among our own contemporaries.

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God's Control Of HistoryWhat made Mary so different? Oh you say, 'She had insider information. God, who had been out of communication with his people for some 400 years had sent an angel messenger to Mary. That's what made the difference.' Do you really think so? That may have strengthened her convictions but it did not create them. Mary was a part of a daring remnant of faith who believed God despite all appearances to the contrary. When God's cause seemed to have collapsed, they believed God is at work in all of this. We do not see how, his activity is not apparent, but he is at work, he is in control. That is how faith addresses the bleak, black pages of human history. Is that how you face them?

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God's Control Of HistoryEither God has history in his hands or, he does not. Either he is in control of his world as he tells us in his Word or he is a helpless spectator, a victim of circumstance. But there is no higher authority than God.

To discuss the authority of almighty God seems a bit meaningless, and to question it would be absurd. Can we imagine the Lord God of Hosts having to request permission of anyone or to apply for anything to a higher body? To whom would God go for permission? Who is higher than the Highest? Who is mightier than the Almighty? Whose position antedates that of the Eternal? At whose throne would God kneel? Where is the greater one to whom he must appeal?

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God's Control Of HistoryThe way in which we view God's control will shape our attitude with regard to the future. It will mean walking into uncertain days either with apprehension and foreboding or with a settled confidence. On burning his bridges before going to China as a pioneer missionary Hudson Taylor wrote:

"Had I left: the questions 'Shall I go or stay?' to be settled by circumstances how uncertain I should have been. But the Lord has enabled me to take the step without hesitation because it was for his glory, leaving everything in his hands, my mind has been just as peaceful as it would have otherwise been unsettled.”

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Submitting To God's ControlBut it is not enough to acknowledge that God is in charge despite appearances to the contrary. There is a practical response called for on our part. If we believe that the future is in God's safe hands then we need to ask, have we gladly surrendered our lives into those safe hands?

Does Mary's words in v38 find an echo of response in our own hearts, 'I am the Lord's servant'. Mary was putting the whole of her life and future at God's disposal. This was an act of complete consecration, an act of unreserved surrender to the will of God

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Submitting To God's ControlMartin Luther the reformer wrote,“I have held many things in my hands, and I have lost them all; but whatever I have placed in God's hands, that I still possess.” Luther's words highlight a reluctance that is found in all our hearts from time to time and it is a reluctance to trust God with certain areas of our lives. It may be a concern for our material comfort, it may be a determination to preserve our reputation, it may be some human relationship, our job, or our home. Something that we hold dear. Something we decide to keep under our control rather than place in God's hand because we are convinced we can do a better job of preserving it.

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Submitting To God's ControlWhen Luther wrote:“I have held many things in my hands, and I have lost 'them all; but whatever I have placed in God's hands, that I still possess.” Her is expressing an irony which is clearly reflected in the teaching of our Lord and a great spiritual principle which he laid down in Lk. 9:24ff“For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self?”

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Submitting To God's ControlThis grasping on to aspects of our life over which we want to preserve control is nothing less than a vote of no confidence in God's control and ability to rule in every aspect of our lives for our good. It is a mark of Christian maturity to recognise this.

Let me quote Oswald Chambers on this subject.God never destroys the work of his own hands, he removes what would pervert it, that is all. Maturity is the stage where the whole life has been brought under the control of God… A saint's life is in the hands of God as a bow and arrow in the hands of an archer. God is aiming at something the saint cannot see;

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Submitting To God's Controlhe stretches and strains, and every now and then the saint says, ‘I cannot stand any more'. But God does not heed he goes on stretching until his purpose is in sight, then he lets fly. We are here for God's designs not for our own.”

Mary grasped this lesson very quickly, 'We are here for God's designs not for our own.' Mary did not argue,'But look here Lord I have my whole future mapped out. Joseph and I have plans and, to be perfectly honest, my having a child right now does not fit in. Joseph's got a contract to make 500 beds for Nazareth's new superstore. It simply is not convenient for me to place my life in your hands right now.'

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Submitting To God's ControlHave you and I grasped that God's ability to do something significant in our lives is, from a human perspective, dependant upon our putting every thing in his hands? Does the reason that the lives of some are so spiritually impoverished and unfulfilled lie in the fact that we have not put the whole of our lives into his care? Are our hands still full as we cling onto those precious things over which we deem it important to exercise our control? God gives where he finds empty hands.

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Submitting To God's ControlThis of course does not mean that any stubborn refusal on our part to submit all of our lives under God's control in any way imperils God's sovereignty. For God can either bypass us as individuals whom he might usefully employ or he will out of love for us chasten us until the hand that holds earthly treasures so tightly begins to relax and open. Our behaviour does not undermine God's reign.

“While we deliberate he reigns; when we decide wisely he reigns; when we decide foolishly he reigns, when we serve him in humble loyalty he reigns; when we serve him self-assertively he reigns; when we rebel and seek to withhold our service, he reigns.” WILLIAM TEMPLE

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ConclusionHave we consciously placed all of our life in God's hand? Do we see his hands as safe hands? Have we understood that we are only likely to begin to do so as we recognise that that our God is sovereign over his world and that in everything he exercises his control for the glory of his name and the eternal benefit of his people.