The Angel's Song: Gloria in excelsis Deo Luke 2:8-15 Sermon 4 December 25th, 2011   What’s your favorite Christmas movie? What’s the one that you look forward to every year? If A Charlie Brown Christmas is one of your favorites, you may not know that it almost got canned because even way back in 1965, it was considered far too “religious.” The more things change, the more things stay the same. Even back in 1965, CBS executives thought a Bible reading might turn off a nation populated with Christians…and during a Christmas special, no less! CBS execs were totally opposed to having Linus reciting the story of the birth of Christ from the Gospel of Luke. They assumed that viewers would not want to sit through passages out of the King James Bible.   There was a standoff, but Charles Schulz, the creator of Peanuts wouldn’t back down, so CBS aired the special as Schulz intended it, but they were certain they had a flop on their hands. They thought that at least they might get a big tax write-off of what they were certain was going to be a flop. Want to see that controversial scene again?  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKk9rv2hUfA.   That passage that Linus reads from in Luke 2 lasts all of 51 seconds. The half-hour special aired on Thursday, December 9, 1965, preempting The Munsters and following Gilligan’s Island. 50% of the televisions in the United States tuned in to the first broadcast. The cartoon was a critical and commercial hit; it won an Emmy and a Peabody award. Even today it’s still one of the most popular Christmas specials and was recently picked up by ABC to be shown through 2015.   The angels’ song from Luke 2 contains perhaps the most quoted verse connected with the Christmas narrative, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.” How many times have we seen these words printed on Christmas cards? Or, as the Latin Vulgate renders the first part, “Gloria in Excelsis.” While the verse is familiar, let’s look at these oft-repeated words with fresh eyes.   Can you even imagine seeing angels from one horizon to the other! When the passage says, “a multitude of the heavenly host,” it wasn’t 50, or 150 or even 1,500. It was beyond count. Personally, I think that Heaven emptied out and every one of God’s angels was there. This was the most amazing event that had ever happened in the entire universe. Who would want to miss it? There were so many angels that it stretched from horizon to horizon, obscuring the stars and moon.   And while the host of angels was thrilling, it was not that it was angels or that there were so many, it was what they said. It was for all of the world and for all time. The best news in the world is that a Savior was born for you, Who is Christ the Lord. It’s the best news that has ever been or ever will be.   1. The best news about Christ the Savior is that it is historically true. This needs to be emphasized today. So many legends, such as Santa Claus and Frosty the Snowman, have become intertwined with the Christmas story that people lump them all together and forget that the birth of Jesus Christ as reported in the Bible is true history.   Someone may ask, “Well, who cares if it’s history or not? The story about the Virgin Mary, the Christ child, the angels, the wise men, the shepherds, and all that stuff is a heartwarming tale that children love to hear. It helps everyone focus on peace on earth for a few brief days every year. So what difference does it make if it’s really true or not?”   It makes all the difference in the world. If it’s just a heartwarming legend, then you can choose to believe or disbelieve it. It’s your option, based on how it makes you feel. It’s then a completely subjective decision, binding on no one. But if the story is actually happened as reported by Luke, then the birth of Jesus the Savior confronts every person with some objective facts that cannot be shrugged off as personal opinion. The fact that these events happened as reported means that God exists and that He truly broke into human history in the birth of Jesus in fulfillment of many Old Testament prophecies. The fact that God actually sent a Savior implies that people without the Savior are alienated from God and desperately need to be reconciled with Him through the forgiveness of their sins.   It means that the relationship between God and His people is not based on an inward experience inside their own heads…it’s not just (to quote Karl Marx) “religion is the opium of the people.” It’s based on a reality that was seen, heard, and authenticated by these witnesses. It means that you don’t just believe in Jesus because it makes you feel warm and happy inside, or because He helps you face life’s problems or because you like the Christian traditions of worship.   It means that you believe the Christian message because it’s true. Even if it ultimately brings you persecution and death, you cling to it because it is better authenticated in history than even the fact that George Washington was the first president of the United States. The good news about Christ the Savior is historically true.   2. The best news about Christ the Savior is based on His unique Person. The angel states it plainly in verse 11: Jesus, born of the virgin Mary, is the “Savior, who is Christ [Messiah, “Anointed One”] the Lord.” Please consider who this Savior is:   * He is fully man. He was born in the city of David, to descendants of King David who were there to register for their taxes. That sounds pretty human, doesn’t it? Do you think that maybe Joseph grumbled about having to make a 90-mile, three-day trip with a very pregnant wife, just to register to pay his taxes to the despised Romans? Isn’t it interesting that the God who sovereignly used the Roman emperor’s tax edict to get Joseph and Mary to Bethlehem for the birth of the Messiah (to fulfill prophecy) didn’t also sovereignly arrange for a room for them in the inn? There weren’t any special royal privileges for this baby. They laid Him in a feeding trough. Contrary to the popular Christmas carol, this baby did cry! There was no halo around His head. What the shepherds saw was a wrinkled, red, newborn human baby. Jesus the Savior assumed full humanity so that He might bear the sins of the human race.   * He is fully God. The angel told the shepherds that this one who had been born in Bethlehem was “Christ the Lord.” We must interpret this title in light of its use in the Old Testament and in light of its context in Luke. In the Old Testament, the Lord clearly is God, Yahweh, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob! Luke uses the same word in verse 9, where is says that the angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them. He uses it in 2:23 to refer to “the law of the Lord” and “holy to the Lord.” If the word means something different in verse 11 than it does in verse 9 or verse 23, surely Luke would have clarified it. The Savior had to be man to bear the sins of humans; yet He also had to be God so that His sacrifice had merit before the holy throne of Almighty God. Only Jesus is that unique Savior, the God-Man.   Before moving on from this term, Lord, we must note that it implies that Jesus has authority over every person, as well as over all angelic and demonic powers. That’s why it’s absurd for a person to say, “I’ve accepted Jesus as my Savior, but not as my Lord.” You can’t divide Him into neat categories to serve your own agenda. Jesus is both Savior and Lord, which means that submitting your entire life to Him is not an option for you to consider adding to the salvation package at some later date. It’s demanded by virtue of who He is, the sovereign Lord of heaven and earth!   * This Savior is the Christ (or Messiah). Messiah is the Hebrew and Christ is the Greek word for “Anointed One.” It refers to Jesus as the special Anointed King and Priest, who brings God’s salvation to His people. In the Old Testament, the only two office bearers to be anointed were the King and the High Priest, but the messianic expectation centered on the kingly aspect, as portrayed in Psalm 2. The title, Christ, especially focuses on the fact that Jesus is the One who fulfilled all the Old Testament prophecies about the promised Savior.   * This one who was born is the Savior. This implies that those He came to save are lost, alienated from God, under His just condemnation because of their sins. What Jesus saves us from is the awful wrath of God. The term also implies that we’re helpless and can do nothing to save ourselves. We need outside intervention if we are to be delivered from God’s judgment. Jesus alone provides salvation for sinners.   This combination of terms, that this Jesus who was born is a Savior, who is Christ the Lord, attributes to Jesus the highest possible view of His person. Any message that implies or states that Jesus is less than fully human, less than fully God, less than fully Lord, or less than fully the Savior from sin and judgment – is not the best news. It’s not the good news of the Bible. The best news centers on the Person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ.   3. The best news about Christ the Savior is for all people. Have you ever considered why the story does not say, “Now there were in the same region scribes and Pharisees, keeping watch over their scrolls and religious rituals”? Or, “There were kings and princes keeping watch over their treasures at the palace”? God chose to reveal the birth of the Savior to simple shepherds who were going about their duties and livestock chores. So why shepherds? God chose shepherds to show that…   * The best news is for all people, not just for the rich and famous. As Paul told the Corinthians, “For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.” (1 Cor. 1:26-29).   If the gospel were some complicated philosophy that required years of graduate study and a high I.Q. to grasp, then those who attained it would boast of their intelligence. If the gospel required sums of money or high social standing to attain, there would be no hope for the poor and lowly. But the beauty of the best news is that even an uneducated, illiterate tribal man in the jungle can understand that he is a sinner and the Jesus Christ is God’s Savior, and by God’s grace, he can believe and be saved.   * The best news involved the sacrifice of the Lamb of God. It’s probable that the very sheep these men were tending in the fields that night were being prepared for slaughter at the Passover in Jerusalem. It’s symbolic that the shepherds who were watching the Passover lambs would be invited to Bethlehem to view the Lamb of God who would be slain for sinners.   In His perfect justice, God has declared that the wages of sin is death. But in His love and mercy, God provided the very penalty His justice demanded. The entire Jewish sacrificial system pointed ahead to Jesus Christ, the perfect sin-bearer, who offered Himself as the acceptable substitute for sinners. And if you trust in Him as your sin-bearer, God transfers all of your guilt to Him and His perfect righteousness to you. 4. The best news about Christ the Savior brings light, then fear, then joy. The events that happened to those shepherds on that historic night were symbolic of what happens to every person who responds to the good news of Christ the Savior. First, they were sitting in the darkness of the Judean night. Coming immediately after Zechariah’s prophecy that the Sunrise from on high would “shine upon those who sit in darkness” (Luke 1:79), the story of the shepherds keeping watch over their flocks by night is more than a coincidence. It shows a fulfillment of God’s promise. Those shepherds sitting out in that black night are a picture of every human heart without the Savior. We all sit in darkness and the shadow of death apart from Christ.   Then, suddenly, there was a great flash of light. An angel of the Lord stood before them and the glory of the Lord shone around them. It was as if a prolonged lightning flash lit up the night sky. But it was more than a physical event. It symbolized what happens to every person when the Holy Spirit illumines his or her darkened heart with the light of the gospel. Before they were blind, now they see. As Isaiah prophesied, “The people who walk in darkness will see a great light; those who live in a dark land, the light will shine on them” (Isa. 9:2).   It’s easy to understand the shepherds’ next response: They were terrified. Sitting in darkness in a deserted place is enough by itself to make you a bit jittery. They were watching their flocks because of the danger of robbers or wolves. So they’re sitting there, kind of on edge, but also fighting drowsiness, when suddenly the sky lights up like the noonday sun, and a man who had not been there seconds before was instantly standing before them, brilliant in his appearance. Talk about instant terror!   It’s much the same when the light of the gospel flashes upon your mind. Sitting in the darkness of sin may have been a bit spooky, but it was tolerable. But suddenly the glory of God’s absolute holiness shines into your sin-blackened heart, and you realize, with Isaiah when he got a vision of God, “Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts” (Isa. 6:5).   Thankfully, God in His tender mercy does not leave us in that terrifying situation. The angel immediately spoke words of comfort and joy, “Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy…” (2:10). With John Newton, we sing, “Twas grace that caused my heart to fear, and grace my fears relieved. How precious did that grace appear the hour I first believed.”   The intensity and the sequence of these events will vary from person to person. There’s a sense in which as we grow in our walk with God, our awareness of the utter blackness of our hearts, the blinding intensity of the unapproachable light of God’s presence, and the joy of knowing that our sins are forgiven, will continually increase. They aren’t all present in fully developed form at the moment of conversion. But they’ll be present to some extent in the heart of every believer. If you do not, to some degree, know the fear of God and the joy of sins forgiven, you need to question whether you know Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord.   5. The best news about Christ the Savior requires a personal response. The shepherds did not hear this great news and then sit around discussing it. They didn’t send a delegation to the rabbis in Jerusalem to get their view of things. They didn’t say, “We’ve always believed these things. After all, we’re Jews, we know the Scriptures, we know that Messiah is to be born in Bethlehem. Thanks for telling us!” Rather, they responded in several definite ways:   * There is the response of faith. While this passage does not explicitly say that the shepherds responded by faith, it clearly describes their response of faith. They obviously believed the words of the angel or they would not have left their sheep and gone to Bethlehem to see for themselves what the Lord had revealed to them.   And, what did they see when they got to Bethlehem? Did they see a kingly child arrayed in royal robes in a golden cradle with servants attending Him? Did He and His mother have halos over their heads? Not quite! They saw a common couple from Nazareth in a primitive stable with a normal-looking newborn baby. It wasn’t exactly the way you’d expect God to bring His Anointed Savior into this world. But the shepherds viewed this baby through eyes of faith, in accordance with the word of God given through the angel.   When God reveals Christ to your soul, you must respond with eyes of faith. Jesus may not be the kind of Savior you expected. You might have had in mind a Savior who could give you everything you’ve always wanted. Your thoughts about the Savior might not have included birth in a stable, let alone crucifixion on a cross. But this Jesus is God’s Savior and you must personally believe in Him as revealed in the Bible.   * The response of sharing. “When they had seen this, they made known the statement which had been told them about this Child” (2:17). It is “good news of a great joy which shall be for all the people” (2:10). The shepherds didn’t stop to think about how people might respond. Some might have said with raised eyebrows, “You saw a bunch of angels and then you went and saw a poor carpenter and his wife with a baby in a feeding trough, and you think he’s the Messiah, huh? Right!” But that didn’t stop these men from sharing the story. Once you’ve seen the Savior with eyes of faith, you cannot stop telling others the great news.   * The response of praise. “The shepherds went back glorifying and praising God” (2:20). When God has taken you from the darkness of your sin and by His grace revealed His Savior to your soul, your heart will be filled with praise and joy. As the apostle Paul puts it, believers should be “joyously giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light. For He delivered us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in Whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (Col. 1:11-13). Those who have heard God’s good news should respond with faith, with proclamation, and with praise.   * The response of endurance. “The shepherds went back…” (2:20). Went back where? Went back to sign a book contract and to appear on TV shows? They went back to launch a ministry called “Shepherd’s Vision,” and they became famous throughout the land? No! They went back to their sheep.   That’s kind of a letdown, isn’t it? After the great things that they saw, they went back to the routine job they’d been in before. They didn’t set up tours of Bethlehem. They didn’t put on seminars on how to have visions of angels. They went back to their normal, every day jobs, but praising God for His abundant grace to them.   You see, God doesn’t call us to a spectacular, flashy, constantly exciting life. He calls us to believe in the Savior, and then He sends us back into the routine, to learn to rejoice in Him and His great salvation day in and day out.   Conclusion: My friend, while the shepherds were uniquely privileged to see Christ in his infancy, they were not unique in having been given the opportunity to experience Christ. Look at verse 20 again, “The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told unto them.” That can be your experience too. Today the Holy Spirit is extending to each of you the opportunity to see with eyes of faith the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. But He is not in a manger today, nor is He on a cross on Calvary, today He sits at the right hand of the throne of God awaiting His Father’s command to return to earth and finish the work He began long ago.   The incarnation of Christ, His birth in Bethlehem 2,000 years ago was only the first of two visits that Jesus Christ will make to earth. On that first visit He came to purchase your salvation. He came to live and die and rise from the grave to pay for your sins. He came to offer to you and me eternal life. His invitation is for you to be reconciled to God by turning from yourself and trusting in the work that He did. God will forgive you of your sins and will look upon you as though you had never sinned and never again will sin when you place your faith in Jesus Christ but you must embrace Him and His plan of salvation by faith, and it must revolutionize your life.   In December 1903, after many attempts, Orville and Wilbur Wright, “the Wright brothers” were successful in getting their "flying machine" off the ground. Thrilled, they telegraphed this message to their sister Katherine: "We have actually flown 120 feet. Will be home for Christmas."   Katherine hurried to the editor of the local newspaper and showed him the message. He glanced at it and said, "How nice. The boys will be home for Christmas." He totally missed the big news – man had flown!     My friend please do not miss the wonder of the birth of Christ. Don’t miss the angels’ song! Do not allow familiarity to rob you of the joys God has for you. He is worthy of your praise today. His birth is the greatest news in the world! Everything about His birth ends in the glory of God. Come today and catch a glimpse of that glory! See what the angels saw, see what the shepherds saw.   Remember, the best news about Christ the Savior requires a personal response. So have you responded? Have you come to Christ in faith? Is He your Lord and Savior?   If He is, are you sharing His message? Are you praising God for His love and salvation? Are you enduring and persevering in the place that He has placed you and being faithful there?