for all the things they had heard and seen,
which were just as they had been told.
This is the Word of God.
Now, as I mentioned, this is obviously a very familiar passage to many of us,
whether you are churched or unchurched.
Certainly you have heard this passage before and heard this story.
And while that's truly a blessing,
sometimes when we hear a story over and over again,
it can be somewhat domesticated.
It can easily be lumped into the rest of Christmas that we celebrate, right?
We think of the Santa Claus and the Christmas markets
and the trees and the lights and the gifts.
And while all these things, there's nothing wrong with them individually,
so often we put this story of the Nativity on par with all these cultural elements.
In fact, probably this Nativity story,
if you think about Bible stories and unbelievers,
this would not be an offensive story to most, right?
Because they see it as being something that's tame,
that's warm-hearted, that's cute, perhaps.
But as we look at this passage tonight,
I want this to be anything but that.
I want to be able to see this story with fresh eyes tonight
because this is a story about fear.
It's a story that has elements of shock.
This is an army of angels, a coming king, a radical salvation plan.
And so while this story certainly brings comfort to us,
it should also invoke awe and wonder and praise and worship
because this story screams to us of the glory of God.
And so that's what I want us to focus on tonight
is the glory of God that we see in this passage.
And so if I were to ask you to define what the glory of God is,
I imagine there would probably be as many different answers
as there are people here this evening.
And not to say any of those answers would necessarily be wrong
because the glory of God is revealed and defined
in many different ways within the Scripture.
And so tonight I want us to look at just three of these different ways
where we see the glory of God
because glory is mentioned three different times in this passage.
And each time that glory is mentioned,
it's used in a slightly different manner.
We see glory when the glory of God,
it says it surrounded the shepherds and they were afraid.
It says that the angels sang of the glory of God.
And then it says that the shepherds glorified God
for all they had heard and seen.
And so these are the elements that I want us to think about.
God's glory in three parts.
I want us to consider the glory of God in His presence.
I want us to think about the glory in God's essence or His being
and the glory in man's response.
And so let's look first at the glory of God in His presence.
Look again at verse 7 and 8, or excuse me, 8 and 9.
And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby,
keeping watch over their flocks at night.
And the angel of the Lord appeared to them,
and the glory of the Lord shone around them,
and they were terrified.
Now I'm sure many of you have different Christmas traditions in your home.
One tradition that my family has done for a number of years now
is something we call a shepherd's meal.
So on Christmas Eve, and we'll do it this evening,
on Christmas Eve before the kids go to bed,
we gather in our living room,
and we lay out a blanket on the floor,
we turn off all the lights,
and we have a very simple meal of usually fruit and bread and cheese,
something similar to what the shepherds might have had that night.
And we sit there, and we think and we talk about
what the shepherds may have experienced
when they were confronted by those angels,
what they would have seen, what they would have heard,
what they would have felt.
And while certainly this would be probably more realistic
if we were to go like up to the Pentlands
and do this in the middle of the night rather than just in our living room,
it's a good exercise for us to think about
what the shepherds would have experienced.
But I think the thing that often happens here
is that we can jump forward in the shepherds' emotion.
Right?
We can jump forward to the awe and the excitement
of what they experience
without really recognizing that first emotion
emotion that they felt was terror and fear.
It's hard to replicate terror and fear in our living room.
But think about this level of terror and panic
that the shepherds would have experienced here.
Why were they fearful?
It says, because the glory of the Lord shone around them.
See, the Bible, it often speaks of the presence of God as his glory.
If you're familiar with the Old Testament,
you know that the people of Israel were led out of Egypt
by this pillar of light or this cloud that led before them,
which was the glory of God.
In the tent of meeting,
it talks about this glory cloud that hovered over it.
When the tabernacle was completed,
it says the glory of God filled the temple.
And so the Old Testament,
the people of Israel so closely related
God's presence with his glory
that when they lost in battle to the Philistines
and the Philistines captured the Ark of the Covenant,
they cried out.
He said, the glory of God has departed from Israel
for the Ark of our God has been captured.
And so we see then that glory is this special term
that's used in the Bible often
that depicts God's visible and active presence
among his people.
And so what happens when often in the Bible
when we see people are confronted with the glory of God,
how do they respond?
It's with fear.
Right?
We read earlier from Isaiah 6,
which talks about Isaiah sees God on his throne
in all of his glory.
And how does Isaiah respond?
He says, woe is me, I am a dead man.
When Peter, James, and John,
they recognize they're with Jesus
when he is transfigured,
and they hear the voice of God from heaven,
what do they do?
They fall on their faces in fear.
And so almost every time in the Bible
when these men and these women
encounter the presence of God
and they fall on their faces in fear,
what's the next command?
Don't be afraid.
It's what we see here as well.
Don't be afraid.
Why should they not be afraid?
Because this is not God coming to judge.
This is God coming to announce good news.
When it says good news,
this is where we get our word for the gospel.
This is the good news,
that God is not merely revealing his glory
through these angels for this one-time announcement.
The good news is that God is revealing his glory
through his Son.
God's presence will be with his people
through the coming of his Son, Jesus.
And so he says this is the good news
that brings great joy for all people.
This is not good news.
The good news of Christmas is not for some people.
It's not for the religious,
and it's not for the righteous.
It makes no difference your nationality
or your race,
your socioeconomic status,
your background,
your history.
This Christmas story,
this gospel message,
is good news for all.
And we see that
because who is this message delivered to?
Right?
This message isn't for the political leaders
or the religious leaders of the day.
This isn't for the chief priests
or the Pharisees
or an announcement to Caesar himself.
This is a message to a bunch of lowly shepherds,
a bunch of wandering,
smelly outdoorsmen,
the lowest of the low in society,
people who were ritually unclean,
who were regarded as so untrustworthy
that their testimony
wouldn't have even been accepted in court.
Yet God chooses these men
to announce the birth of Jesus,
that they may hear it
and share it with others.
And so this is the good news
that's announced in verse 11.
Today in the town of David,
a Savior has been born to you.
He is the Messiah, the Lord.
Listen to those three titles
that we hear in here.
It talks about Jesus as our Savior,
as our Messiah,
and our Lord.
This is the only place
in the whole New Testament
that we see these titles combined at once.
And so while we don't have time
to kind of break apart
every single title
and what their significance is,
I want to look at them
at least briefly
to recognize
when it talks about Jesus
as our Savior.
What does that mean?
Jesus has come
to take away our sins.
In the Old Testament,
God is referred to
as the God of our salvation.
That salvation has now come
in the person of Jesus.
It says he is our Messiah
or our Christ.
It's a title for the Anointed One.
This is what we read also
from Isaiah,
that this coming king
would reign on David's throne
over his kingdom.
And it says he is Lord.
It's making clear the point
that Jesus was not just
a regular man,
that this is Yahweh,
the Lord God Almighty
is now dwelling among his people.
And so the question then is,
well, how is this glorious king
going to save?
The angels say
that there's a sign.
What do you think
that the shepherds
would have anticipated
when they see the glory
of God in their presence
announcing the coming
of the Savior
that Jesus is coming
on this flaming chariot
from heaven?
That Jesus' presence
is somehow going to
kind of manifest
in the temple somehow?
Or at least he's going
to be born
to this wealthy,
religious family
or some political leader
to establish his kingdom?
No.
This will be a sign to you.
You will find the baby
wrapped in rags
and lying in a feeding trough.
Does that not just
strike you as bizarre?
Can you imagine
how the shepherds
would have responded to that?
The presence of God,
the glory that we see now,
his presence coming
in a barn,
in a poor baby.
How is this glorious?
How is this going to lead
to anyone's salvation?
How in the world
is this little baby
going to become king?
This passage is telling us
of the humiliation of Christ
that he took on our nature.
This infinite God
became a finite man.
The creator of the universe
was born of a woman.
Not only did he take on our nature,
he took on our condition.
Isaiah also says
in chapter 53,
Surely he took up our pain
and bore our suffering.
Yet we considered him
punished by God,
stricken by men,
and afflicted.
You see,
he came to save sinners
like you and me
by standing in our place,
by taking the penalty
for our sin.
And so this is the presence
of God that we see
in his glory.
Let's think then
of that second instance
of glory.
The second time
that we see glory
in this passage.
The glory of God's essence
or his being.
Verse 13,
Suddenly a great company
of the heavenly hosts
appeared with the angel
praising God
and saying,
Glory to God
in the highest heaven
and on earth peace
to those on whom
his favor rests.
Now have you ever thought
about this term glory here?
Because I think we read it
and we think
this must be a command.
Right?
This is a verb.
The angels are telling
the shepherds
that you need to glorify God
or at least we angels
need to be glorifying God.
Glory here is not a verb.
There's actually no verb
in this sentence
in the Greek.
Glory is a noun here
and it's used more
as an observation.
It's used more
as a statement of fact.
The angels here
are praising God
for who he is.
He is intrinsically glorious
in his worth,
in his sufficiency,
in his beauty,
in his splendor,
in his majesty.
God is glorious
in his very being.
And his glory
doesn't fluctuate.
It doesn't change
based on what you think
of God,
whether you acknowledge it,
whether you appreciate it
or not.
He is who he is.
But the wonderful thing
about this passage here
is that he is revealing
his glory to us.
God is bringing
his presence down.
He's displaying for us
just a glimpse
of his divine perfections
to us.
And so think about
what we read again
in Isaiah 6.
This image that Isaiah has
of the Lord,
high and exalted,
seated on the throne.
The train of his robe
filled the temple.
These angels crying out,
Holy,
Holy
is the Lord Almighty.
The whole earth
is full of his glory.
This is the glory
that the angels witness.
This is the glory
that these angels
have worshipped
since their creation.
And so now these angels
with that knowledge
are announcing this glory
to the shepherds.
Not only what God
is doing here,
not only who he is,
but also what he's doing.
Because they're proclaiming
that this glory of God
is now being revealed.
The glory is being revealed
to man
through the birth of Jesus.
And so what's the result
of this glory?
It says peace.
God's glory
displayed in the person
of Jesus
brings us peace.
Isn't that astounding?
I mean,
think about these angels.
Oftentimes when we picture
these angels,
right,
they're rather feminine looking,
they're in these long,
flowing white gowns
with long hair,
and they're all floating about
like a choir, right?
That's not how Luke
describes them here.
Luke describes them
as a large heavenly army.
An army announcing
the arrival of a perfect,
almighty king
of the universe
who's come into a world
of rebellious sinners.
How does that strike you?
What is this message
that's to be brought?
It sounds like judgment
is about to rain down.
That God is going to come
with his royal armies
to seek to destroy
and bring death.
But yet that's not
what these angels
are announcing.
Not death and destruction.
They are announcing
the peace
that God is bringing.
Peace between heaven
and earth.
Peace between
an infinite,
holy God
and a corrupt,
sinful people.
And it's this peace
that only comes
through the shedding
of blood.
It's a peace
that only comes
by the washing away
of our sin
and our guilt,
by receiving
a righteousness
that is not our own
and that we do not deserve.
Peace that only comes
through this baby Jesus
who is born to die
so that we might live.
This is what we're going
to sing about at the end
when we sing
Hark the Herald Angels
sing this refrain.
Mild he lays his glory by.
Born that man
no more may die.
Born to raise
the sons of earth.
Born to give them
second birth.
This is the glory of God.
So let's consider
then that third glory.
The glory that we see
in the response
of the shepherds.
The shepherds
receive this message
from the angels.
They hurry off
to see what the Lord
had told them about
and verse 20
it says the shepherds
returned glorifying
and praising God
for all the things
they had heard
and seen
which were just
as they had been told.
Now we see here
that the shepherds
they witnessed
the glory of God
in this infant baby Jesus
and it says
it leads them
to glorify God.
So you see
while God's glory
it can refer to
his presence
it can refer to
his essence
it also describes
the appropriate response
of God's people
to respond
in worship.
These shepherds
were the first
to be told
of this Messiah's birth
and how do they respond?
They go immediately
to Bethlehem
they see this baby Jesus
they tell others
what they saw
and they glorify God.
when we see
God's glory
it should compel
us also
to give God glory
because remember
these shepherds
they didn't have
the full story
right?
They were told
a limited amount
of information
by those angels
that they would
find the baby
wrapped in swath
and clothes
lying in a manger.
They weren't told
how this baby
would be their savior.
They didn't have
the benefit
of hearing him preach
or seeing his miracles
performed.
They didn't know
how he would live
or die
or rise from the dead
and yet they're still
compelled to give him glory.
And so consider
our own situation.
We know
the full story.
We have
the gospel message.
We have God's word
that tells us
this good news
that the son of God
humbled himself
was born
of a poor virgin
in a stable.
As a child
he was a refugee
raised by peasants.
When he began
his ministry
he was rejected
by his hometown
despised by religious leaders.
When he traveled
it was on foot
usually with no shelter
and no food
and no provision
all the while
journeying to the cross
where he would pay
the penalty
for your sin
and mine.
We know
the full story.
How much more
ought we
to receive
this good news
and respond
with glory to God?
God.
Because when we
think about glory
the ultimate goal
of God
displaying his glory
is that he may
receive glory.
The ultimate goal
of his revealing
his glorious plan
to us
of him extending
his glorious grace
to us
is that we may
respond with glory
to God.
Paul says
in Ephesians 1
he says
we have been chosen
and adopted
and redeemed
to the praise
of his glory.
And so the reality
is
is that night
that song
that that angels
those angels sang
it's a song
that has not ceased.
It's a song
that continues
today
in the heavenly places
among God's people
it's a song
that we should
look forward to
participating in
at Christ's return
that we will glorify
God
with all the saints
as it says
in Revelation 19
then I heard
what sounded
like a great multitude
like the roar
of rushing waters
like the loud
peals of thunder
shouting hallelujah
for our Lord
God almighty
reigns
let us rejoice
and be glad
and give him glory
is this not the same
song
that the angels
sang
this is the
eternal song
of the redeemed
this is the song
that we too
shall sing
so I say
see
the baby
born in Bethlehem
he is the Messiah
born for your salvation
and mine
so the invitation