Broadway Baptist Church Maryville Tennessee

As we have been discovering, the Bible is God's revelation of Himself and He chose to do so through a story. The story of the Bible is consumed with glory of God, a God that has created, sustained and is now redeeming a people for His glory. Dr. Steve Weaver, “The Bible is the story of a God who makes a promise about a person who creates a people to live in a place with him forever.” God selected human authors to write down his story, one of these men was a prophet known as Isaiah. Isaiah has been called the “Messianic” prophet. He shares many specific prophecies concerning the coming Messiah.

In our passage this morning, I want us to consider the hymn known as the Magnificent (glorifies) (Luke 1:46-56) (this name comes from the first word of the hymn in its Latin version). This song is the first of four hymns recorded in Luke's birth narrative and it is patterned after Hannah's song of praise in 1 Samuel 2:1-10.

The Children's Choir at Broadway Baptist Church presents its Christmas Program.

The Adult Choir at Broadway Baptist Church presents its Christmas cantata.

What is the “key” to understanding the Bible? Last week we finished our study of the 5 solas of reformation with a look at “solus Christus” or “Christ alone” and we emphasized that Christ is the central figure in the Scriptures. Failing to comprehend the “Christo-centric” nature of the whole Bible causes us to lose sight of the “grand or meta-narrative” of the Scripture.

The Bible is the record of the self-revelation of God to the world, therefore, we would expect there to be a plot and direction to the story. Christianity teaches that the self-revelation of God to the world reached a culmination in the Incarnation, when the “Word became flesh”. If so, then the Incarnation would have to be this central interpretive principle of the Bible. The Incarnation of Christ occurred “in the fullness of time or when the set time had fully come” (Galatians 4:4), again suggesting an overarching plan, a meta-narrative. Often at Christmas we are so focused upon the nativity scene filled with shepherds and wise men that we miss the “big story”, God's story! This morning let us rejoice in the “Grand Story” Scripture.

Protestant Reformed theology affirms that Scripture and its teaching on grace and faith emphasize that salvation is “solus Christus”, by Christ alone – that is, Christ is the only Savior (Acts 4:12). The centrality of Christ is the foundation of the Protestant faith.

The Reformers rejected the sacerdotal (priestly) system altogether, and substituted for it the general priesthood of all believers, who have direct access to Christ as our only Mediator and Advocate, and are to offer the spiritual sacrifices of prayer, praise, and intercession. As the apostle Paul said, “There is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,” (1 Tim. 2:5).

We continue our study of the 5 solas of the reformation this morning by examining "soli Deo Gloria" which is Latin for "to the glory of God alone". This declaration forms the very heart and soul of the reformation. The reformers were consumed with "all" glory being given to "God alone". This is the motivation for all that they sought to teach and to do.

Chris Carpenter, Pastor at Hope Community Church, delivers this morning's sermon as part of the Eagleton Community Partnership

Former Broadway Baptist pastor Dr. Robert Brown is the guest speaker at the service celebrating the 75th Anniversary of Broadway Baptist Church.

Last week we laid a foundation for the 5 solas of the reformation by looking briefly at “sola scriptura”. The reformers were convinced by Scripture that the work of salvation was a work of God not man, and not the church. The word “sola” is really one of the most significant words of the Protestant Reformation.