The Hymns of Christmas - Sing like the Angels & Shepherds

I would invite you to take your Bibles and turn with me to the

Gospel of Luke. Gospel of Luke.

We're going to be looking at chapter 2 beginning in verse 8

today. If you're here today and have a

Bible and not sure exactly where Luke chapter 2 is, the page is

Luke 2 · chapter mention

printed for you in the bulletin for the red Bibles that are in

the chairs around you. Going to read chapter 2 verse 8

down through verse 21 as we continue on in our Advent

series. Looking at these 4 hymns of the

first Advent, the first Christmas today, the hymn of the

angels and the shepherds. And in the same region there

were shepherds out in the field keeping watch over their flock

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 cloth 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.

When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds

said to one another, Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this

thing that has happened which the Lord has made known to us.

And they went with haste, and found Mary and Joseph and the

baby lying in a Manger. And when they saw it, they made

known the saying that had been told them concerning this child.

And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them.

But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her

heart. And the shepherd's returned,

glorifying and praising God for all, for all that they had heard

and seen as it had been told them.

And at the end of eight days, when he was circumcised, he was

called Jesus, the name given by the Angel before he was

conceived in the womb. Let's pray together.

Father, thank you for giving us this portion of your word to

consider today. We pray that you would open our

eyes and our hearts through the work of the Holy Spirit.

Help us to see what You want us to see from this part of Your

Word. But above all things, help us to

see Jesus. And as we do, Father, fill us

with the joy and the peace that are ours because of the birth

and the life and the death and the resurrection of the Lord

Jesus Christ. It's in his name we pray.

Amen. Can you remember a time in your

life when you were greatly afraid, filled with fear,

terrified? One of those times for me was

December the 28th, 1980. I know the date because it was

my birthday, my 10th birthday. I had called together a group of

my friends and family and we were having an overnight party

at our house. We went out all together to

dinner at my favorite restaurants and as we were

coming back to the house, my dad pulled the car into the garage

and we piled out of the car and started to make our way into the

house. And when we got to the door that

goes from the garage to the house, it was locked.

That door was never locked. My dad took out his key and

unlocked the door and we began to go in and that's when we

found out we had been robbed. As we came in, the door going

out to the backyard was wide open.

The dog was cowering in the corner.

Some bundles of my mom's inherited sterling silver were

still left on the floor. Apparently we had pulled into

the garage while the robbers were still in the house and they

locked the door to slow us from coming into the house.

They ran out the backyard through the woods to a car that

was waiting for them a street over.

We walked through the house and we saw drawers and cabinets that

were flung open and contents that were out on the counter and

on the floor. The police came and made a

report and they showed us how the thieves had removed the

deadbolt from the door to get into the house.

Based on how they got in, based on what they took and what they

left, the police were convinced that these were professional

thieves that had robbed our house.

My friends and I slept in the basement together and our

sleeping bags all huddled together, several of us with

baseball bats. It was a terrifying night just

even thinking about having people you don't know in your

house. Invasion of privacy.

Now, even though I can remember being that afraid that night,

being filled with fear throughout the night, my fear

that I had at that moment probably pales in comparison

with the fear that these shepherds were dealing with.

There are around 100 recordings recorded incidents in the Bible

of angels showing up and appearing to humans.

And there's almost a universal response that we read when those

events take place. And that is the people that that

experience. The angels are filled with fear,

some even falling down on their face in fear.

And the fear that these shepherds experienced was

probably particularly significant because not only are

they in the presence of an angelic being who serves the

holy God in heaven, but we're told that the glory of God

enveloped them. The glory of the perfect, holy,

sovereign, omnipotent, eternal God of the universe was shining

all around them. It's no wonder that we're told

that they were filled with a great fear.

But did you notice? Something must have happened to

them because 12 verses later we read about the shepherds going

home rejoicing, celebrating, worshipping, praising the Lord.

During this Advent season, we've been looking at these 4 hymns in

Luke chapters one and two, and we've talked about how hymns can

have a significant impact on our lives.

They, they can change us, they can form us, they can help us to

grow in our faith. And we've been looking at these

hymns of the first Advent, the first Christmas, and seeing how

we might be changed by them, these ancient biblical hymns.

A few weeks ago we looked at Mary's magnificate, then we

looked at Zechariah's Benedictus.

Today we're looking at the angels, Gloria, and the song of

the shepherds. So let's take a few moments and

look at this passage and see the song of the angels, the song of

the shepherds, and then let's consider how we might be able to

sing like they do. So first of all, the song of the

angels. You can see this described for

us in verses 8 through 14. We're told that there were some

shepherds out in a field and they were watching over their

flock. They were protecting it, keeping

it safe from thieves, from animals, keeping it safe from

itself, the sheep doing bad things to themselves.

And then out of nowhere, we're told an Angel appeared and the

shepherds were filled with a great fear in the glory of God

enveloped them. And then the Angel spoke to

them. Now we'll look at what he said

to them in just a second. But notice in verse 13, we read

that all of a sudden a multitude of the heavenly host showed up

as well. Now we don't know how big a

multitude is, but the sense is there are a lot of angels here

and they're they're described as the heavenly host that has the

sense of an army of angels of heaven.

And if that wasn't startling enough to have this army of

angels appear, we read at the end of verse 13 and verse 14

that they started praising the Lord.

They started singing and worshipping the Lord.

Now before we look at what they sang, let's look at why they

were singing. Look at verses 10 and 11:00 and

12:00. The reason they were singing had

to do with what the Angel told the shepherds in verse 10.

He says do not be afraid, He was there to give them good news,

not bad news. And he says that this good news

that he is bringing to them would bring great joy, not a

little bit of joy, it would bring great joy.

And this good news that would bring great joy, it would be for

all the people, regardless of nationality, financial status,

ethnicity, social status. So what was the good news of

great joy for the people? We see it in verse 11, Someone

had been born that day. Someone had been born in

Bethlehem, the city of David, and that someone was the long

promised and the long-awaited Savior, the Christ, the Lord.

Did you notice the Angel uses all three of those terms to

describe him. He is the Savior, He is the

Deliverer, the Rescuer, the Redeemer, the one who would

raise up the horn of salvation that Zechariah sang about, the

one who would accomplish forgiveness for sins that

Zechariah sang about. But he's also the Christ.

That's the Greek translation of the Hebrew word for Messiah, the

Anointed. 1 He. He is the one who is set apart

and has been designated for the accomplishing of the work of

redemption, but he's also the Lord.

That's the Greek word for the Hebrew word Yahweh, the

sovereign covenant name that God gave to his people for himself.

This, this baby that is born in Bethlehem, is no less than God

himself, the second person of the Trinity, God and human

flesh, Immanuel, God with us. And notice the Angel goes on to

give them a sign, a sign to the shepherds to confirm what he is

saying to them. He told them that they would

find a baby wrapped in clothes and lying in a Manger.

That could have been very possible.

Then when they got to Bethlehem, there could have been lots of

babies that had been born recently, but there was only one

that was lying in a feeding through.

Think of it that the multitude of the heavenly host ministered

to and served Jesus before his incarnation.

That we can imagine that they knew what was about to happen.

They knew the plan of redemption.

They had a sense of what was going to take place, how God

himself was going to be born into the world, how God himself

would be the promise that would be fulfilled.

The Saviour, the Christ, the Lord himself is going to be born

as a human baby to begin the work of redemption.

And now it had happened that very night.

Mary had given birth to Jesus the Savior.

The work of redemption was beginning.

The multitude of the heavenly host sang because the gospel of

grace was beginning to be unveiled.

Well, what did they sing? We see that in verses 13 and 14.

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. They they praised the Lord by

praising His glory, God's glory. Glory to God in the highest, not

glory to anyone else. God gets all the glory for the

plan of redemption, the gospel of grace, and it's the glory in

the highest to the greatest degree above all other glory.

Those who are in Christ get no credit for their salvation.

The only thing we contribute is our sin.

God gets all the glory for his plan of salvation and for

working that plan out in human history and for accomplishing

the plan through the incarnation and the life and death and

resurrection of His Son and our Savior Christ the Lord.

Glory to God in the highest. But that's not all that they

sang. They didn't just sing about the

glory of God. They also sang about Shalom,

about peace and on earth peace among those with whom he is

pleased. Now, if you're looking at the

ESV translation or if you're looking at the NASB or the NIV,

then it then it says what is what I just read.

And on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased.

That's a that's an accurate translation of the Greek, the

Greek phrasing there. There are some other

translations that actually skew what the Greek says there.

Other translations might say on earth, peace and goodwill toward

men. That's actually not what the

Greek says on earth, peace among those with whom God is pleased.

The the point that the angels were making is that what God was

doing was accomplishing peace for his people, for those who

put their faith in that baby that was born that night in

Bethlehem, in Jesus they have peace, not some generalized

World Peace for all like the pox Romana, that that term that was

coined in the 1st century for describing the long period of

peace, political, social, economic peace that was

established by the Roman government for the people in the

1st and 2nd centuries. Know what the angels are singing

about was a different kind of peace, a biblical Shalom, a

peace with God because of Adam and Eve's sin in the Garden of

Eden. The peace that they had with God

initially was broken. Now there was alienation between

God and his people. And as Paul said, we are enemies

to God. But through Jesus Christ these

angels are singing and reminding the shepherds, telling the

shepherds and reminding us that for those in Christ the enemies

have become adopted children. In the place of alienation and

war, there is peace. Peace with our Creator God.

So why did the angels sing? They sang because the long

promised and awaited Savior had arrived.

The the plan of salvation was being unveiled.

The work of redemption had begun in the birth of the Savior, the

Christ, the Lord Jesus. And what did they sing?

Glory to God in the highest and peace between God and his people

through Jesus Christ. Well, what about the shepherds?

We we read about the shepherds in verses 15 through 20.

They they sang a hymn of sorts as well.

In verses 15 through 20, we read that when the angels left, they

went to Bethlehem and they found the, the newborn Jesus, just as

they had been told, lying in a Manger.

And what did they do? Well, they shared with Joseph

and Mary and the others that were there what had happened

with the Angel that appeared to them and what had happened with

the multitude of the heavenly host.

And, and notice the response in verse 18.

Everybody that was there wondered at what they were told,

at what had happened to the shepherds.

But there was another response. We see that in verse 19, a

deeper response. It was a response of Mary.

We're told that she treasured these things in her heart, that

she that she pondered them in her heart.

Now the word there that is used for ponder for for ponder is

sumba lusa. And in the Greek it has the

sense of somebody, a person that is puzzled by something that

they've heard, but they keep it in mind.

They, they keep thinking about it in order to understand it.

We aren't given very much information in the Bible about

Mary's faith journey. But what we do know is this from

John chapter 2 and Acts chapter 1, that eventually Mary is with

John 2 · chapter mention Acts 1 · chapter mention

the disciples and others worshipping Jesus for who he

said he was. Then we read the Shepherd's hymn

in verse 20. What did they sing?

Well, we don't know. We're actually not told what

they sang specifically. We're only told that they left

Mary and Jesus glorifying and praising God.

Maybe. Maybe they used the hymn that

they had heard the angels sing glorifying God for his glory and

the peace that got established between himself and his people.

Maybe they had heard Mary's Magnificat or Zechariah's

Benedictus and use that to praise the Lord.

We don't know what they sang, but we do know why they sang.

They were glorifying and praising God, it says in verse

24. Or because all they had heard

and seen as it had been told them, they had just had quite an

experience. They'd been visited by an Angel.

They had been they had been participants and seeing the the

heavenly host singing about the glory of God and the peace of

between God and his people. They had been given the good

news of great joy. They had gone and seen Jesus

himself. It was all true.

It was all real, the Saviour, the Christ, the Lord himself had

come into the world and as a result the shepherds were moved

to praise and to glorify and to worship the Lord.

So how can we be moved and changed and shaped to be able to

sing like the angels and the shepherds?

Four things as we finish up today.

How can we sing like the angels and the shepherds?

Well, the first thing is this. We must understand why the

shepherds were afraid. Verse 9 tells us that the

shepherds were not just afraid, they were filled with great

fear. The Greek is phobon megon that

can be translated great fear or or terribly frightened or

terrified. Or if you have the King James

sore afraid, why were they so terrified?

It's because they were in the presence of an Angel who lived

in the presence of God. And not only that, that they

were surrounded by the glory of the Lord themselves.

In the darkness of the night, they were surrounded by the

blinding and dazzling light of God's glory, the same glory that

changed Moses's face when he experienced it.

And the right response of sinful human beings in the presence of

the glory of God is fear, great fear that happened to the very

first sinful human beings, Adam and Eve, in the garden.

Before they send. Adam and Eve enjoyed the

presence and the and the fellowship and the glory of the

Lord in the garden. But immediately after they send

everything changed. Genesis 3 tells us this.

And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden

in the cool of the day. And the man and his wife hid

themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of

the garden. And Adam said to the Lord, I

heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid because

I was naked, and I hid myself. Why were they afraid?

It's because they were sinners in the presence of the Lord, in

the presence of the glory of God.

They had just tried to be God. They had believed the lie of

Satan, and it failed. And now the ones who had tried

to be God were in the presence of the glory of the one true

God. And so they were terrified,

filled with great fear. If we want to sing like the

angels and the shepherds, we have to understand that fear

apart from Christ, sinners that we are in the presence of the

holy and sovereign Creator God. The right response is fear.

The glory of the Lord cannot abide sin and unrighteousness it

it will not abide it. And if you are here today and

you are not in Christ, you should feel this fear.

The fear of eternal judgement, the fear of alienation from God,

the fear of never experiencing the glories of heaven apart from

a relationship with Jesus Christ.

Being filled with great fear is the real reality.

But if we want to sing like the angels and the shepherds, we not

only have to understand this fear, we often also have to

understand why the shepherds were told not to fear.

The Angel told the shepherds, fear not.

Put away your phobon Megon. Why?

Because Jesus is born. The solution to our problem of

sin has arrived. The solution to our alienation

from God are being enemies with God.

The way that we can have peace with God had arrived.

Fear not because of the gospel. The good news of great joy is

that the baby Jesus grew up and every moment of his life was

perfect and personal love and obedience to His Father in

heaven in every way. He was perfectly faithful to the

law of God. And rather than just giving us

an example and then us being doomed to try to follow it, He

solved the problem of our sin. He was crucified on the cross

and he had the wrath and the anger and the justice of God

because of our sin poured out on him to such an extent that he

was forsaken. My God, my God, He cried out.

Why have you forsaken me? Our sin was put on Jesus, and he

paid for it in full by dying on the cross.

And then three days later he defeated death by coming back to

life and being resurrected from the grave.

And then he ascended to heaven and He serves there even now as

our advocates. And He's promised that He's

coming back. He's coming back for us, and He

is bringing a new heaven and a new earth where we will dwell

with Him together for eternity without sin, disease,

discouragement, depression, broken bodies, and especially

without death. That's why the Lord says fear

not to those who believe and trust in Jesus, who have

embraced him as their Lord and Savior, who are in Christ.

As our fear of judgement and hell and alienation and enmity

is removed, we should be moved to sing like the angels and the

shepherds. Thirdly, if we want to sing like

the angels and the shepherds, we must own the joy and the peace

that are ours, right? Can we?

We can just be honest and and we can we can admit that it is easy

to live in this world with heaviness and discouragement and

discontentment. It's completely understandable

that that we would feel that way.

But we live as fallen human beings in a fallen world with

other fallen human beings and it can feel heavy and discouraging.

We can feel disillusioned. We can feel discontent and

unsatisfied and as if we are at enmity.

But these hymns that we are looking at and our hymn today

reminds us that there is a joy and a peace that is objectively

ours in Christ Jesus. These, this joy and this peace

are not feelings. They they are objective truth.

They are objective realities because of the person and work

of Jesus. And in the moments when we have

a lack of a sense of joy and peace in our lives, we need to

remind ourselves of what is true.

There is good news of great joy. There is peace for those with

whom God is pleased, for those who are in Christ.

Those are ours to own, to experience, albeit imperfectly,

in this life. Now hear me say, this does not

mean that we should never feel down, or never feel discouraged,

or never feel heavy, or never be depressed.

Of course we will, even seasons of feeling those things because

we live on this side of heaven. But when we do find ourselves

feeling that way, when we find ourselves in those seasons, we

must go to God's Word and have it remind us of what is true.

To be reminded again of the good news, of great joy of the peace

that God has with His people. And as we meditate on that joy

and peace that are ours and treasure them up and ponder

them, in our hearts will be moved more and more to sing like

the angels and the shepherds. Fourthly, and finally, if we

want to sing like the shepherd, like the angels and the

shepherds, then like the shepherds, we need to see this

thing. You remember how the shepherds

responded when the angels left them?

We read it in verse 15. In the beginning of verse 16,

they said we need to go see this thing.

We need to go see this thing that we have been told, and then

they left in haste, with a sense of urgency immediately to go see

Jesus. It reminds us of other places in

the Scripture where similar things are said.

John chapter 12, we read about this part, this part of the

John 12 · chapter mention

story of Jesus's life. Now among those who went up to

worship at the feast were some Greeks.

And so these came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee,

and asked him, Sir, we wish to see Jesus.

Philip went and told Andrew. Andrew and Philip went and told

Jesus, and Jesus answered, The hour has come for the Son of Man

to be glorified. Truly, truly, I say to you,

unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it

remains alone. But if it dies, it bears much

fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it.

Whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal

life. If anyone serves me, he must

follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also.

If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.

Or we think of Luke Chapter 9 verse 23 where Jesus says if

Luke 9:23

anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his

cross daily and follow me. The the shepherds surely didn't

understand everything that was going on, at least to the degree

that we do now. But they got enough from what

the angels told them and sang to them that they knew that they

needed to go see this thing that they were being told about.

They needed to go see Jesus. And so they went with haste.

And it is certainly appears when they left, they left with some

level of a desire and and need to follow Jesus.

If we want to sing like the angels and the shepherds, we

need to see Jesus. We need to go to Jesus and

embrace him and take up our cross and follow him.

That should be a conscious thought everyday, an intentional

plan. Today I want to see Jesus.

Today I want to follow Jesus, following him and growing in our

knowledge of and obedience to His Word, growing in our love

and knowledge of the Lord Himself, growing in our our love

for our neighbors and one another, growing and living out

the fruit of the Spirit in our lives.

Every day when we get out of bed, we should make the

conscious, intentional, deliberate decision.

Today I will see Jesus. Today I will follow Jesus.

The more that we do that, the more we will be changed and able

to sing like the angels and the shepherds.

Let's pray together. Father, we thank you for the

message that these shepherds heard, this first announcement

of the arrival of the Lord Jesus Christ.

We thank you for the announcement of good news, of

great joy, of peace between you and your people through the Lord

Jesus Christ. Help us to meditate on these

wonderful truths, not just in the season when we think about

Jesus's first coming as first Advent, but every day, Father,

as we seek and long after Jesus Second Advent, when he will come

again and bring the new heavens and the new earth.

As we wait, as we seek to see Jesus and follow him in our

lives, fill us with the joy, the peace, and the hope that are

ours because of all that He accomplished.

We ask this in His name, Amen.