Gloria

We're going to read from Luke chapter 2, verses 1 to 14.

Luke 2:1–14

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.

Luke 2 · chapter mention

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

Romans 1 · chapter mention

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

Isaiah 2 · chapter mention

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.

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.

Amen.