We're going to read from Luke chapter 2, verses 1 to 14.
So we read this passage last week as well, but we focused on a different section,
and tonight we'll focus on the very end of the section where the angels sing what's typically called the Gloria.
This is the Word of God.
In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered.
This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria,
and all went to be registered, each to his own town.
And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David,
which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David,
to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child.
And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth,
and she gave birth to her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling cloths,
and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.
And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field,
keeping watch over their flocks by night.
And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them,
and they were filled with great fear.
And the angel said to them,
Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy,
that will be for all the people.
For unto you is born this day, in the city of David, a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.
And this will be a sign for you.
You will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths, and lying in a manger.
And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host,
praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased.
This is God's holy word.
I was traveling to church this evening, and the radio was on,
and Alison reminded me of how it was on the old days
when the number one single was revealed on Christmas Day,
Christmas Day Top of the Pops.
I don't think any of that happens any longer,
but often the musical number one,
the musical offering at this time of year would be Christmas themed.
Do they know it's Christmas?
Last Christmas.
Lonely this Christmas.
Mistletoe and wine.
To name but a few, and you'll be glad to know
I'm not going to embark on a rendition of any of these items.
Instead, what I want to do is for us to look together
at a very different Christmas song.
Indeed, the first ever song released, if I can put it that way,
and sung on that first ever Christmas Day.
And we find it here in Luke's Gospel, chapter 2 and verse 14.
A song sung, perhaps even shouted or chanted,
by a multitude of the heavenly host.
Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace among those with whom He is well pleased.
The song of this text is often better known simply as the Gloria,
Gloria in excelsis, in excelsis Deo,
glory to God in the highest.
In some churches, it is sung every Sunday.
And over the years, great musicians,
Bach, Handel, Mozart, Vivaldi,
have written arias and oratorios based on this particular text.
And it's a text that announces the great turning point in human history.
God Himself, the Creator, breaking into our world
and taking to Himself our flesh and blood.
According to the Bible, here is the great eternal plan and purpose of God coming together.
Here is the fulfillment of God's ancient promises to His people,
focused on a little baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.
No wonder a multitude of the heavenly host,
literally a great army of heaven,
burst into this song of praise.
It's hardly, I suppose, a silent night.
They cry out, they declare glory to God in the highest.
Their desire that all of creation should rise up
and praise this wonderful God.
And their song essentially is a kind of commentary
on what God is doing in sending His only begotten Son into the world.
A song of praise to God about the Lord Jesus Christ
and about the significance of His coming.
And it's a song that I want to suggest to you tonight.
It sounds out three distinctive notes about God
and about what the birth of this child will mean.
And the first note that I want you to see with me is this.
The first note is a note of divine glory.
Glory to God in the highest.
The coming of Jesus is first and foremost designed to reveal and to bring glory to God.
According to the Bible, this is what God Himself, in a sense, is all about.
He is a God jealous for His own glory.
After each musical composition,
Johann Sebastian Bach would write that great Reformation slogan, SDG,
Soli Deo Gloria.
To God alone be the glory.
And what Bach understood, perhaps better than most,
was that this is the great mission statement of heaven.
This is what God has written over the universe and over the world that He has created.
Soli Deo Gloria.
Here is God's great overarching purpose in all that He does.
I recently bought a copy of Herman Bavinck's book on Christian doctrine,
entitled The Wonderful Works of God.
It's beautifully rich, devotional, systematic theology.
The first sentence of the book is,
God and God alone is man's highest good.
And the concluding sentence of the book is a quote from the Apostle Paul.
For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things.
To Him be the glory forever. Amen.
Bavinck's literary envelope follows Calvin
in underscoring the aim and goal of all Christian theology
as being the glory of God.
Glory to God in the highest.
Therefore, the first note of the Gloria is about God, not about us.
The angels do not begin with our felt needs,
our psychological wounds,
our existential loneliness.
They begin with the glory of God.
And that is always the biblical order.
Man's chief end is to glorify God.
And only then, in the light of that glory,
to enjoy Him forever.
It seems to me that much modern theology and indeed preaching
has kind of reversed this order.
Begins with humanity and its problems.
And then, you know, if there's time,
we might squeeze in a word or a thought about God.
But the angels of heaven know better.
They know that the highest thing that can be said on earth
is something about the God of highest heaven.
This God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
The Father eternally loving the Son,
pouring out the Spirit upon Him.
God of eternal glory, giving out love and light.
And that's why in the Bible,
so often God's glory is likened to light
shining and radiating out.
And we see it here in this text,
in this passage in Luke chapter 2.
The shepherds out in the field,
keeping watch over their flock by night.
An angel of the Lord appeared to them,
and the glory of the Lord shone around them.
We have that in the Old Testament in Isaiah 60.
Arise, shine, for your light has come,
and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.
Behold, darkness shall cover the earth,
thick darkness the peoples,
but the Lord will arise upon you,
and His glory will be seen upon you.
And the nations shall come to your light
as kings to the brightness of your rising.
And if we turn to the very final book of the Bible,
Revelation, Revelation 21.
I saw no temple in the city,
for its temple is the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb,
and the city has no need of sun or moon to shine upon it,
for the glory of God gives it light.
And its lamp is the Lamb.
By its light will the nations walk.
The kings of the earth will bring their glory into it.
The gates will never shut by day,
and there will be no night there.
His glory is the shining forth of all that God is.
The effulgence of His holiness,
the radiance of His majesty,
the splendor of His perfections being made public.
And here the angels announce
that the glory has now,
in the birth of this child,
broken out in a new and quite astonishing way.
The Word has become flesh.
The eternal Son has taken our nature.
And so, at the birth of Jesus Christ,
we have this outshining radiance of God's glory.
Here is a God eternally full of light and love,
and whose glory is spilling out into the world
in the person of His eternally beloved Son.
In the Old Testament, that word for glory
comes from a Hebrew word suggesting weight
and substance and importance.
The very antithesis of something light
and inconsequential.
When the Bible speaks of the glory of God,
it speaks of His infinite worth,
His radiant honor,
His eternal greatness.
And indeed, that's why sometimes in the Bible,
in Scripture, God is referred to simply as the glory.
And God's great goal or aim in all things
is to display His glory.
He is God in the highest.
There is none above Him or beyond Him.
He glories in His own name.
He delights in Himself.
He stands supreme at the center of His own affections,
a self-sufficient, inexhaustible fountain of grace.
He delights in His own glory as Father, Son, and Spirit,
and He opposes everything that would seek to belittle
or diminish that glory.
Indeed, the very essence of human sin
is in robbing Him of the glory that is rightfully His.
Instead of Him occupying the central place in our lives
and in our thinking and in our worship,
He has since the fall been relegated,
dethroned, marginalized.
And so, as human beings,
we no longer bask in the light of God's glory.
We much prefer to hide away in the darkness.
We put other people, we put ourselves,
other things at the center of our lives.
Everything and anything but our Creator.
Paul writes of this in Romans chapter 1
when he says,
He goes on,
So when the Christmas angels sing,
they sing first and foremost about God's glory.
Jesus has come.
He's a man on a mission
to reveal the glory of God,
to restore God's glory in our lives.
He has come to put right
what has gone horribly wrong.
He has come to prepare honor and glory for Himself
through His people.
God is glorified in becoming one of us.
And in going to the cross
to bear the curse
and in being raised up to newness of life,
Jesus Christ has come to usher in
a glorious new creation.
No wonder this great multitude
of the heavenly host break into song.
And that's the first note of the Gloria.
God's glory.
A note of divine glory.
And that brings us to the second note.
Because if God is going to restore His glory,
how will He accomplish this?
Well, He will do so
by bringing peace.
That's the second note in the Gloria.
A note of divine glory.
And then a note of divine peace.
And on earth, peace.
Peace on the earth,
not peace from the earth.
Here is the peace that only God Himself
can bring to us.
And the peace that's spoken of here
is not, I think,
some kind of vague,
wistful, sentimental kind of thing
that people often mention
at this time of year.
The angels here are speaking about shalom.
That Old Testament word
that conveys wholeness
and harmony and salvation
and everything put right.
And this peace is proclaimed
on earth.
This place of thorns and thistles,
of sweat and blood,
of idolatry and immorality,
of enmity and strife
and of war and conflict.
It is on this earth
that peace is pronounced
and announced.
And so the angels are speaking
theologically about peace with God.
For this restless, broken world
is at war with God.
As human beings,
we have robbed Him of His glory
and we're not going to give Him
His rightful place in our lives.
We're going to do our own thing.
We're going to follow our own path.
We're going to live life
by our own rules.
I mean, who does He think He is?
And so there's conflict.
Enmity between human beings and God.
But it's a conflict
that will not last forever.
For God has promised one day
to restore His glory
and to banish and exclude
all that is wrong and evil
from His universe.
And sometimes that's referred to
in the Bible as the great day
of the Lord,
sometimes the last day.
Think of Isaiah chapter 2
where He proclaims,
He shall judge between the nations,
shall decide disputes for many peoples,
and they shall beat their swords
into plowshares
and their spears into pruning hooks.
Nations shall not lift up sword
against nation,
neither shall they learn war anymore.
Isaiah envisages a kind of
reordering of the world,
one not based on partisan loyalties
and nationality,
but upon the worship of the one true God.
A world of shalom and harmony and peace.
Conflicts resolved,
wrongs righted,
tears wiped from every eye.
Fallible human judgment
replaced with the perfection
of divine judgment.
The symbolism there is
of a return to Eden.
The curse removed,
men and women at peace with God
and with one another.
There can be no ultimate peace
and prosperity
until men and women are brought
under the rule of God.
Only in submission to Christ
is there peace.
Calvin writes,
Oh, that we might live
under Christ's perfect rule,
that we might enjoy
Christ's perfect peace.
One day God's peace
will reign on the earth.
The curse of the fall
will be lifted forever.
And we need to be ready
for that day.
How do we do that?
We need to be reconciled
to God now.
The angels remind us here
that Jesus' coming
is all about bringing
that reconciliation
and peace with God
that we so desperately need
in this broken,
decaying,
and dying world.
He brings peace
on the earth.
The Old Testament,
of course,
Jesus has given that title
in Isaiah 9,
isn't he?
The Prince of Peace.
Paul writing to the Christians
in Ephesus
says that
Jesus himself
is our peace.
We sometimes
sing the Christmas carol
at this time of year,
that famous carol
of Charles Wesley's,
Peace on earth
and mercy mild,
God and sinners
reconciled.
So how does Jesus
bring us
peace with God?
What does this
little baby boy
wrapped in swaddling cloths
lying in a manger
got to do
with bringing
peace on the earth?
Some years ago now,
I came across
a newspaper article.
It was about
retail sales
at Christmas time.
And the heading
was this,
we won't know
the results
of Christmas
until Easter.
I remember thinking
how true
that is,
at least from
a Christian point
of view.
Jesus lived
a life
of glory
to God.
And at the end
of that life,
he tasted death
and judgment
on a cross.
Despite living
a life
of loving
perfection,
he was
rejected
and despised
and crucified
like a common
criminal.
And yet,
his death
was not just
some cruel
injustice.
According to
Scripture,
it was
accomplishing
something
remarkable
for us.
For at
Calvary's cross,
he bore
!
He bore
God's wrath
and judgment.
He stood
in our
place.
He took
our punishment
and our
death.
It is at
the cross
and through
Jesus'
violent death
and the
shedding
of his
blood
that he
brings us
peace with
God.
We,
as human
beings,
we've
exchanged
God's
glory
for
idolatry
and sin.
But Jesus
has come
to exchange
his glory
for our
punishment
and to
bring us
what we
need most,
and that
is peace
with God.
John Stott,
in his book,
The Cross
of Christ,
writes this,
The essence
of sin
is in man
substituting
himself for
God.
The essence
of salvation
is in God
substituting
himself for
man.
Sin involves
man rising
up against
God,
placing himself
where only
God should
be.
Salvation
involves God
sacrificing
himself
where only
man
deserve
to be.
Sin entails
man claiming
an authority
which belongs
to God
alone.
Salvation
entails God
accepting
the judgment
which belongs
to man
alone.
The early
settlers
in North
America
often had
to cope
with great
prairie fires
that travelled
often so
quickly,
so speedily
across the
land that
they consumed
everything that
was before
them.
But to
keep themselves
safe,
often the
settlers
would start
their own
fires and
stand in an
area that
had already
been burned
out.
They were
safe there
because where
the fire
had already
burned,
it would
not burn
again.
And the
Bible says
that the
fire of
God's
judgment
is coming
upon all
and none
of us can
outrun it.
it's
unavoidable,
we cannot
save
ourselves.
But there's
one place
where the
fire has
already
burned.
There's
one place
where God's
fierce
judgment
on sin
has already
exhausted
itself.
And that
is on the
cross of
Christ.
That is
on Jesus,
the Prince
of Peace.
because at
the cross
Jesus takes
our punishment
and our
place.
He becomes
our shelter
and our
salvation
and our
peace.
Remember the
angel says
to Joseph,
you will
give him
the name
Jesus,
for he
will save
his people
from their
sins.
There's
only one
way to
evade and
avoid the
wrath and
judgment of
God.
And that
is through
faith in
the one
who upon
the cross
did not
escape it.
It's by
putting our
faith in
Jesus,
the great
peacemaker.
And this
is the
peace of
which the
angels are
speaking and
singing on
that Bethlehem
hillside.
A costly
peace.
A peace
wrought in
nails and
sweat and
blood upon
a rough
wooden
cross.
Because that
is what
Jesus came
to do.
He came
to bring
peace on
earth.
Peace to
sinners and
rebels like
us.
He came to
bring us
peace with
God that
we might
enjoy as
Corey was
telling us
this morning
the peace
of God.
God.
And the
big question
I suppose
for us
all is
this.
Do we
have this
peace with
God?
And if
not, how
can we
receive it?
What does
it involve?
Well, if our
first two notes
are about
God's glory
and God's
peace,
then our
third and
quickly,
briefly,
final note,
third note,
is, I
think, a
note of
divine grace
among those
with whom
he is
well pleased.
What does
this mean?
Are the
angels
proclaiming
a kind of
doctrine of
works
righteousness?
Does it
mean that
only those
who really
try and
please God
can be
saved?
No, I
don't think
so.
Some older
translations,
the authorized
version,
has good
will toward
men.
Most modern
translators
have some
variation of
people he
favors.
And I
think what
the text is
driving at
is this,
is that
those who
find this
peace with
God only
find it
as a
gift.
This peace
is to be
enjoyed by
those in
whom God
delights,
literally
those of
his good
pleasure,
those with
whom he
is well
pleased,
this
idea,
concept,
found in
a number
of places
in the
New
Testament.
It's
connected
strongly with
the idea
of God's
grace.
The NIV,
I think,
translates it,
those upon
whom his
favor rests.
This peace
is not
something we
can earn
or do
ourselves.
Grace
means a
gift.
Receiving
something that
is free,
undeserved,
gift.
We don't
pay for
gifts.
Someone
else pays
for gifts,
we receive
them.
The whole
point of a
gift is you
don't pay
for it.
It costs
the giver
everything,
the recipient
nothing.
That gets,
I think,
to the heart
of what we're
speaking about
here.
Grace
means receiving
a gift I
could in
no way
contribute to
or qualify
for.
And perhaps
that sounds
great.
Free gifts.
Someone else
picking up
the tab.
And yet
as human
beings,
we often
don't like
this talk
of grace
and free
gifts.
Why?
Because
often we
don't like
charity.
We're
cynical and
suspicious of
it.
There's no
such thing
as a free
lunch,
is what we
say.
We don't
trust getting
something for
nothing.
It seems
a bit off
to us.
I think
the story,
I'm trying
to remember
who told
it,
maybe in
the Christianity
Explored
materials,
they told
the story
of a man
who stood
at a
tube station
somewhere in
central London,
tried to
sell golden
sovereigns at
a penny
each.
By the
end of
the day,
he'd
hardly sold
any.
Why?
No one
believed
them.
We're
suspicious
of charity.
And
secondly,
we don't
like grace
because it
offends us,
offends our
pride.
We don't
want charity
because we
want to be
independent.
We want to
stand on
our own
two feet.
We want
to pay
our own
way,
want to
do our
own
thing.
We don't
like being
in this
position of
being beholding
to anyone
else.
We don't
like this
feeling of
indebtedness.
Christmas
people say,
you know,
I buy a
few extra
cards in
case someone
sends me
one and I
haven't sent
one to
them.
We don't
like to be
one down,
like to
keep the
score even,
like to
pay our
own way,
like to
be in
control.
And yet,
if we
think like
that,
we will
never find
ourselves as
those upon
whom the
favor of
God rests,
and we'll
never find
peace with
God.
None of
us can
buy or
earn our
way into
God's
favor.
There is
nothing we
can give.
We have
no leverage.
We cannot
manipulate God
to do our
bidding.
God's favor
cannot be
bought.
As human
beings, we
are completely
and utterly
dependent on
his gift of
grace that
comes to us
only through
Jesus Christ.
Charles
Spurgeon
once told
the story
of a
minister,
went to
the house
of an
elderly woman.
He had a
gift from
the church's
poor relief
fund, and
he went to
the door,
and he
knocked on
the door,
and he
knocked on
the door,
and he
knocked on
the door,
but to no
avail.
There was
no answer.
Later on,
he discovered
that the lady
in question
had been
inside.
She'd been
at home
all the
time, and
she explained
to him,
I heard the
knocking, but
I thought it
was the rent
man come to
ask me for
what I
owed.
That kind of
parable of
misunderstanding.
We know
that we are
accountable, so
when God
draws near and
speaks and
knocks on the
door of our
heart, if I
could put it
that way, we
often conclude
that he's
come like
the rent
man to
claim that
debt of
moral obligation
we owe.
Instead of
opening up
our lives
to him, we
feign deafness,
we close our
ears.
But friends,
Christmas is
all about God
coming near,
not to take,
but to give.
The triune
God of the
Bible is not
some needy
deity desperate
for our
attention.
He is the
eternal God
of radiant
glory who
delights to
pour out
his love
and light.
In Jesus,
in the
sending of
the eternally
begotten
Son, he
has come to
reveal his
glory to us.
He has come
to bring us
peace with
God.
He has come
to bestow it
upon all who
will receive
his gift of
grace.
He wants to
give you of
himself.
He wants his
favor to rest
upon you.
We sang those
words, didn't we?
Your grace
that reaches
far and
wide to
every tribe
and nation
has called
my heart to
enter in
the joy of
your salvation.
Well, the
angels have
gone back to
heaven.
The sky is
dark again.
The shepherds
return to
their flocks.
But the song
remains.
And if you
listen carefully,
you can still
hear its
distinctive
notes of
glory, of
peace, and
of grace.
It's still a
song worth
listening to
and singing.
For the song
of the angels
flows from
heaven itself.
It's not a
song of human
progress.
It's not a
song of
psychological
wholeness.
It's not a
song of some
political
utopia.
But a
song that
begins with
the glory
of God.
A song that
declares
peace on
earth.
All because
of the
grace of
God that
is in
Jesus
Christ.
Will you
join with
the angels
this evening?
Will you
give glory
to God?
Will you
enjoy peace
with God
and the
peace of
God?
Will you
rejoice in
receiving the
grace of
God as
it is
offered to
you in the
Savior,
Christ
the Lord?
Lord, we
thank you
for the
song of
the angels
and for
those notes
of glory
and peace
and grace.
Lord, may
those notes
resonate in
our own
hearts
tonight as
we receive
and trust
in Jesus
Christ, our
great Savior
and King.
Lord, bless
us with
your peace,
indeed a
peace that
passes
understanding.
May your
peace reign
and rule in
our hearts.
May we know
what it is to
be at peace
with you,
and may we
know your
peace reigning
in our
lives.
May we
live to
give you
glory,
and may
we rejoice
always in
your astounding
and amazing
grace.
We pray this
in Jesus'
name.
Amen.