Two Joyful Testimonies (Luke 1:39–56) from South Woods Baptist Church on Vimeo.

On some occasions I hold an immeasurable joy deep in my heart. As a pastor, there will be a member that will give me a heads-up on some wonderful news: a marriage proposal, a long-awaited pregnancy, a new job borne out of prayer, a special recognition or honor, a call to a pastorate. And I have to sit on that kind of news, waiting until that member goes public. In those settings joy bounces around my inner being until the time it’s made known.

While good news is meant to be shared, its timing is important. One must not announce a marriage proposal until the bride has accepted! Those knowing the details beforehand feel a depth of joy as they wait until others share that joy.

That’s something of what we find in this familiar story of Mary’s visit with Elizabeth. Both held good news in their hearts. And yet here was no ordinary joy that others could claim from time to time. Elizabeth was pregnant in her old age—joyous enough—but she bore a special son prophesied by Isaiah and Malachi as the one that would prepare for and announce the arrival of the Messiah (Isa 40:3; Mal 3:1; 4:5–6). No other mother in human history could make that claim. That’s a lot of joy held in the heart!

And then there is Mary, a teenage girl from the obscure village of Nazareth in the region of Galilee that had just encountered the angel Gabriel who announced to her the best of the good news. She would conceive in her womb by the overshadowing work of the Holy Spirit, and carry for nine months the Son of God that would be given the throne of David and rule over an eternal kingdom. At that point, no one else on the face of the earth knew what God had done in the virgin’s womb. No one. Yet she held that best of good news with intense joy in her heart.

Within days of the virginal conception, Mary came to Elizabeth’s home some 80–100 miles and three to five days journey away. As soon as Mary offered her greeting, joy exploded, as these two women became the only two people living on the earth that knew what God was doing. Certainly, they didn’t understand everything happening, as Luke bears out, but they understood that the promises of God made centuries earlier to redeem a people for Himself were being answered. God had sent His Son as Savior and Lord. Mary and Elizabeth knew that joy while the rest of humanity waited for the good news to be unleashed like a joy-filled torrent that would change the human race, undo the effects of the fall, and restore image-bearers in a renewed world.

That’s the context for “two joyful testimonies” that we consider. Here’s what they discovered. God accomplishes the needed by doing the unexpected. The story is not about Mary and Elizabeth but about the God that accomplished man’s greatest need in the most unexpected way. What happened when they saw what God had done? For that matter, what happens when we see and believe what God has done? Let’s think about it together.

1. Converging joys

In an ancient culture dominated by men with women crushed under the arrogance of supposed-male superiority, God made known His eternal plans to two ladies: one old and barren, but now with child; the other young and a virgin, with child by the Holy Spirit. Luke’s record serves notice that God doesn’t countenance the prideful ways of mankind.

We’re accustomed to those governing us knowing things that the rest of us don’t. So leaks drift out to get the pulse of public opinion on whatever it might be. Tell-all books later inform us of what we didn’t know. Those kinds of things don’t meet with joy.

But here we see joy happening so fast that it is recorded in God’s Word for us to ponder as we think of the hearing of the “good news” of Jesus Christ.

Act on God’s declaration: While Zacharias wallowed for a bit in unbelief, Elizabeth and Mary both acted by faith on the divine declarations given through the angel Gabriel. We see this in verse 39. “In those days Mary ar[...]