Luke 2:14
Well, as we come to our time in God’s Word this Christmas morning, I’d like to return to what was just read for us in Luke’s Gospel. So go ahead and open your Bibles to Luke chapter 2. Luke chapter 2 and as we think about the meaning of Christmas, which we really love to do every year in this season, I want to draw your attention to really what is the centerpiece of that text that Bret read? Luke 2:14, which is the angelic summary of the gospel. It really is a good summary statement of the reason that we love to celebrate Christmas. Luke 2:14 says, “Glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace among men with whom he is pleased.”
It’s by that summary statement, which is two parallel stanzas, that the Angels tell the shepherds the good news of true glory and a real peace, a lasting peace. You can see in the first stanza, “glory to God, in the highest.” The second stanza, “peace to men on earth.” Those are all in parallel. You’ve got two kinds of being, God and man, creator and creature. You’ve got two states or qualities of being in glory and at peace, two places of being, in the highest and on earth and that really is what this gospel is all about. It’s what Christmas is about. It’s about reconciling God and man. It’s about demonstrating God’s glory and his mercy, the mercy that brings us peace. And it’s about the reunifying of heaven and earth, which was broken with man’s sin.
All of the need for reconciliation, the demonstrating with God’s glory through mercy that brings peace, the reunification of heaven and earth. The real problem, in all of those need for reconciliation bringing together, is the issue of human sin. But all of this announcement of the Angels, the Christmas story that we love, the Christ that we worship, is about the glorification of God in the salvation of mankind.
At the heart and center of this gospel of divine glory in human salvation is a baby, a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. It’s about a baby, and not just any baby, it’s about the one who was born a Savior, the only one who is Christ the Lord and that’s why the Angel announced in verse 10, “I bring you good news.” There’s an interesting verb there, the verb euangelizomi, which is where we get our term evangelize. This is evangelizing from heaven. This is the Angels evangelizing men. It’s the good news of the very highest order, that’s what euangelion means. It means good news.
We translate that into gospel, but it’s good news and gospel of the highest order and the greatest magnitude, which is the glorification of God in the highest and the salvation of men on earth. And so whatever else Christmas may mean to you or may have meant to you in the past according to all the traditions that you have practiced and inherited from your parents, enjoyed with your family and want to enjoy, kids ripping open presents they find under the Christmas tree, lots of food and lots of calories we really don’t need, visiting relatives, friends coming over, conversations around the table. Whatever else Christmas brings to us in our traditions, a lot of joyful things, many of them precious, worth preserving; We lose all of it if we fail to remember where this all began.
If this story is gutted of its true meaning, then all those other trappings drop, lose their significance, and wither away. I don’t know about you, but I’m seeing that around the time that we live. Seems like the world is getting colder and harder and less really concerned about this Christmas story that we have celebrated for all these many years. We need to remember where this began and began in Bethlehem. Why it began? It began because of the birth of a baby laid in a lowly manger. So we’re going to kind of do a survey of this entire section, but we’re going to take our outline from verse 14.
So just two points for our time this morning, starting with this first one. Number one, the glorification of God. The glorification of God. The story begins in verse 1 with the will of a Caesar, the decree of this man, Augustus, with the authority of those who govern and who tax people who have power to take their money, power to move common people around and even when it’s inconvenient for them, like during a pregnancy. On a human level, in a day-to-day life, we tend to give a lot of prominence to figures like this, governors, kings, Caesars, emperors. We give way too much prominence, probably to the larger life personalities that occupy our news feeds and dominate the news cycle, elevated on platforms, flaunting power, flaunting influence, telling us what we ought to admire and participate in.
But as we see in this text, and indeed we see this in all of holy Scripture, the authority of emperors and governors, movements of peoples and nations, times of war and seasons of peace, all of that really, in the, are just pawns on a chess board of the sovereign God who moves all things by the providence to accomplish his will and that’s what we see here in this text. Look at the verse, first 5 verses once again, “Now it happened that in those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus for a census to be taken of all the inhabited earth. This was the first census taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria and everyone was going to be registered for the census, each to his own city. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and of the family of David in order to register along with Mary, who was betrothed to him and was with child.”
Here’s what’s happening on the human level, happening on the political level, happening on the day-to-day common life level and the most important person in that scene right there is not the emperor it’s not the one governing, it’s not those who carry the swords, and have the money. The most important person in this scene is the one tucked away in Mary’s womb, that one needs to get to Bethlehem because there are prophecies to fulfill. The biggest domino to fall. The first domino to fall was a big imperial sized domino. It was tipped by God’s sovereign hand, Caesar Augustus.
He needed money, as emperors tend to do. They need to count nickels and noses, so to speak. So they’ve got to know who’s there and who, how much money they can get from whom, and so he decreed a census. And this census was decreed years before Jesus was conceived. Augustus was renowned as an effective administrator of Rome, well known for that. He was aided in this census, in the taxation administration by the reliable and wise governance of Quirinius. And that is what precipitated the move of Joseph from Nazareth to Bethlehem. And there’s a very fascinating back story to all of that which we studied when we studied this text in Luke’s Gospel. But it’s going to suffice for now just simply to recognize it’s God who moves nations and regions and kings and governors.
He also moves seemingly insignificant people as well, so that his chosen one, Christ the Savior, is going to be born at precisely the right time and in exactly the right place. God determined this time from of old, 700 years prior to his birth, naming the place through the prophet Micah in Micah 5:2, “But As for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, too little to be among the clans of Judah. From you one will go forth,” from me or, “for me to be ruler in Israel. His goings forth are from long ago, from the days of eternity.”
An eternal one is going to be born in Bethlehem, spoken 700 years before the event. God had determined the lineage of the Christ, as well, from this one from the days of eternity, this one from everlasting, who had come from the tribe of Judah, which is the royal tribe of Israel. He would be the physical legal descendant of King David to David. God promised this in 2 Samuel 7:12, “I will raise up your descendant after you, who will come forth from you, and I will establish His Kingdom. He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of His Kingdom forever.” House, Kingdom, throne, all of David, God is going to establish them forever in David’s descendant, who is this Jesus. The prophecy of Micah 700 years before the birth of Christ. The prophecy and promise of David through Nathan the prophet. That’s about 1000 years before the birth of Christ. And here in verse 6 it’s all coming to fruition. Says in Luke 2:6, “Now it happened that while they were there the days were fulfilled for her to give birth and she gave birth to her first born son and she wrapped him in cloths and laid him in a Manger because there was no place for them in the guest room.”
The legal right to the Davidic throne traced through the genealogy of Joseph, the supposed father of Jesus, but not the real father. That genealogy is found in Matthew 1:1 through 16. Tracing that legal right to the Davidic throne, the physical link to David, that comes through Mary’s genealogy, which is recorded in Luke 3:23 to 38. All of this legal right, physical link came together in this baby, this one who was prophesied centuries before, whom the Angel Gabriel announced to Mary just prior to the miraculous conception in her womb. Just back up a chapter and you can look at Luke 1:31 where Gabriel said to Mary, “Behold, you will conceive in your womb, and you will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and he shall be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the House of Jacob forever and his Kingdom will have no end.”
Physical, legal descendant of David, prophesied from long ages past, announced by the Angel Gabriel, born here to Mary in Bethlehem, the city of David. Now I know you’re not keeping count, but CIn fact, it’s so high as to be statistically impossible. It’s only possible by the power and the wisdom of God that this baby would fulfill all those prophecies. God is all powerful and he is not only able to circumvent what is the normal manner of conception to affect a miraculous conception in Mary’s womb by the Holy Spirit without the seed of a man, but even more mysterious, sometimes when you think about it, is how he orders the details of great events. The decree of Caesar that happened well before the birth of Jesus, that started to move everything, set everything in motion or the details of more mundane matters, like the bureaucracy of Rome and the administration of Quirinius or seemingly insignificant details, as in Mary having to get on a donkey and travel from Nazareth to Bethlehem. Very inconvenient and yet on a global scale, seemingly insignificant detail. No place for them in a guest room. All of this to manifest the glory of the power and the wisdom of God. Only he could make this happen. Only he could do this.
At the heart and center of this gospel of divine glory in human salvation is a baby, a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. ” Travis Allen
The visible manifestation of God’s glory came upon a midnight clear. Shepherds in the fields outside Bethlehem tonight. If you imagine yourself out there, say, go east of here into the Pawnee grasslands, out there, and just go out there at night when it’s dark. Go out there when it’s cold. Get your eyes fully adjusted to the dark and imagine everything calm, peaceful, restful. Got the sheep penned up. You’ve got guards posted. You’re sitting settled in, and then suddenly and immediately blinded by a brightness on the level of starlight, the glory of the Lord shown around them. Look at verse 8, “In the same region there were some shepherds staying out in the fields and keeping watch over their flock by night, and an Angel of the Lord stood before them. The glory of the Lord shone around them. They were terribly frightened.” Had to be an arresting, heart stopping experience. Shocking, shocking to the senses, shocking to the the mind for this to happen so unexpectedly to them.
The word glory, it’s the word doxa in the Greek, from which we get the word doxology. But doxa means splendor or brightness or radiance, and it’s used in several senses in Scripture. The word doxa can refer to an intrinsic characteristic or a quality of a great being, like the glory of Rome or the glory of Caesar, or the glory of an army with transcendent being, a supernatural being like an Angel, God himself, glorious, even a great human being, as I said, like an emperor or king. The word can also describe the display of that intrinsic and great quality, maybe through a demonstration of power or might or majesty. That can also be described the word glory.
Glory can also describe whether it’s used poetically or literarily or literally. It can also describe the visible manifestation of transcendent greatness in light. Light is often used as a theme we can see in poetry and in literary forms, but here it’s quite literal, isn’t it? Think of the Shekinah glory of God, the visible manifestation of his power, in his presence, of this invisible God made visible in a bright shining cloud by day or a pillar of burning fire by night, like visibly seen. You know that’s not God, but it is a an indication of visible manifestation of God, of power, of light, of brightness. All of those senses of the word glory, doxa came together on this night, the bright, the shining radiance of light, illuminating the countryside, terrifying sheep and shepherds alike.
Once their eyes adjusted to the light, they saw an Angel standing before them. Probably the messenger Gabriel, who’s been the chief featured messenger all through Luke 1 and 2. Gabriel shows up. Don’t make the mistake, as we tend to do, of imagining this Gabriel as some kind of precious moments Angel, you know, fat little cherub with wings airbrushed onto a greeting card. Gabriel’s nothing like that. He’s not at all like the bumbling Angel second class Clarence Oddbody from It’s a Wonderful Life. He’s not a human who earned his wings through good deeds. All that is insipid sentiment of fiction. It really is confusing for kids growing up trying to learn about what angels are really like.
If you study scripture, you see that Gabriel, like all Angels, is a warrior. He’s a high-ranking elite member of the Angelic host; host, meaning army. Throughout biblical history, Angels came to Earth, sometimes to announce, but usually in their announcement there was a warning, a warning about impending judgment and doom, the inflicting of death and destruction and then they came delivering it. In Sodom and Gomorrah, the Angel of the Lord rained down fire and brimstone on those wicked cities. In Egypt, one Angel of the Lord precision strike took out the first born of each Egyptian household. In Hezekiah’s day, the Assyrian army surrounded Jerusalem and one Angel killed 185,000 soldiers in a single night.
That’s an Angel and this is why whenever Angels show up in Holy Scripture, the first human instinct is to cower in terror. What’s coming? Luke uses a Hebrew expression to portray just how scared the Angels were he doubles the word fear, both noun and verbal form. It shows up here and then he adds the word mega. So it’s a mega fear that made them fearful. They’re overwhelmed with fear, cowering in terror and Gabriel immediately speaks to them. You might think, well, that’s worse. No, he speaks to them and tries to put them at ease. When he speaks to them, he’s cutting through the emotional response to engage their minds, calls them to think and to listen to this special announcement about the true glorification of God through the birth of this very special human baby. Look at verse 10, “They were terribly frightened, but the Angel said to them, do not be afraid for behold, I bring you good news of great joy, which will be for all the people. For today, in the city of David, there has been born for you a Savior who is Christ the Lord. And this will be the sign for you. You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a Manger. Suddenly there appeared with the Angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace among men with whom he is pleased.’”
What I think is kind of interesting here is, if the shepherds were terrified by one Angel showing up, what happens when an entire regiment or battalion or divisions of the Holy Host appeared, as the heavens are parted and they see, oh, there’s not just one of you. Multitudes of the angels in their ranks speaking from heaven to men on earth and what have they shown up for? Why have all the troops been mustered? Why are all the heavenly hosts arrayed as they are in in ranks? Not for judgement, not this time. They’ve heard the proclamation of glory in Gabriel’s message. They’ve seen the fullness of the glory in the incarnation of the one they have worshipped ever since he had created them. And they come to echo in a chorus of praise.
The newborn Savior, as Gabriel told Mary in Luke 1:35, Christ the Lord, he’s another, none other than the Son of God, they know him to be that. Ihe incarnation itself, evidence in the birth of this special baby which was to be assigned to the shepherds. For the angels, they being created creatures, they’re created to be spiritual beings. These angels who inhabit spiritual places, who are specially designed and equipped to minister in the very presence of God. In fact, this Angel, the one speaking to the shepherds, the same, he’s the same Gabriel who spoke to Mary earlier in chapter 1. He also spoke to the old priest Zechariah in chapter 1. As Zechariah ministered before God in the temple, Gabriel told him, Luke 1:19, “I am Gabriel.”
Then he says, in case you’re wondering what my significance is, what my rank is, what my credibility is, what the credibility of my message is, what validates me, “I am Gabriel who stands in the presence of God. That is a very dangerous place to stand for any creature, any creature who is not equipped with perfect holiness. If there were one ounce of unholiness in Gabriel, he would be destroyed, banished from God’s presence. This is the Gabriel who stands before them.
These are the Angels who come and speak from heaven, these very special creatures who are elevated above humanity in strength and in intelligence. They don’t die. So these angels have existed since the very creation of time and space. They were the first among the first to be created. They were there at the beginning of heaven and earth, and they stand in the presence of God. They’ve seen it all, they’ve heard it all, they’ve done it all. They’ve been there, done that, got the T-shirt, and here they are and they themselves, who’ve seen everything, astounded at the glory of God in the incarnation of the Son of God. Why is that?
Because human beings, as creatures from conception onward, clearly and plainly are creatures, created beings, flesh and blood. They’re finite beings, subject to limitations of time and space, they’re flesh and blood beings, limited in power, unable to impose will, limited in strength, dependent, frail, weak, mutable beings always changing. In fact, to be human is to change and progress and grow; nothing wrong with that, it’s just the nature of humanity, it’s the nature of a creature.
By contrast, God the creator is described often in Scripture by what he is not. He is uncreated. He is infinite being that is not finite. He is omnipresent and eternal, that is not subject to the limitations of space and time, space and time being things he created. God is perfect, and therefore God is not subject to any change, but rather he is immutable. God doesn’t change because any change would be for the better. And if he’s not already better, he’s not God. And if he goes from the best and the greatest and the most perfect being and changes, it can only be for the worse, making him not God. By definition he is unchangeable, immutable.
It’s an absurdity for God to change and so here’s God the creator and man the creature, the two kinds of being who could not be more different. And you say, yeah, I know, I got it. What’s the point? The point is this, this little baby, it’s swaddled in cloth for comfort as he transitions and changes from womb to open space, for security, as he needs his mother’s warm embrace and for protection so his little fingernails attached to his flailing little baby hands don’t scratch his soft little cheeks and his eyes. This little baby, truly human in every way, is united to the Son of God, who is truly divine in every way.
The Son of God, divine nature, no need for comfort, security or protection. He’s the creator who brought creation into existence. The creator took to himself the creature, really and intimately. He, the mighty Sovereign, made himself the weakest subject. Mystery of mysteries is here in the glory of incarnation, the omnipotent God taking of residence in frail, weak flesh of mankind. The infinite God joining himself to finite man. The self-sufficient God taking on dependent man. The omnipresent God now living within the normal limitations of time and space, normal for humanity. The immutable God joining mutable humanity to himself, now subject to change and growth and improvement, learning and being perfected. Look, the Angels had known the Son of God in heaven prior to this incarnational moment, and so they know what this means. They see clearly from the beginning what God’s people and what the Christian Church has come to discern and understand. The incarnation of God in Christ Jesus is the very power of God and the wisdom of God to do what, humanly speaking, is unimaginable.
No wonder the Angels praise God in this way, saying glory to God in the highest. Glory to God indeed. But there’s more to their excitement and their joy than this, this astounding incarnational miracle. The reason for their exaltation is incomplete without the second-half of verse 14 and so let me be a second point for this morning: the salvation of mankind. The salvation of mankind, the means of bringing glory to God in the highest, comes in the second-half of the Angelic praise, “and on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased.”
Now don’t allow the familiarity of that announcement on earth peace which we say peace on earth, peace on earth. Don’t let that familiarity remove the wonder here, lest you be robbed of amazement because we need to stop and ask an obvious question. Where on earth is peace? You see it, our nations at peace with each other? Within the nations, are the peoples at peace? What about the families of the peoples of the nations? Do we see peace within families? Within individual homes? No, not peace, but constant war, continuous hostility, fighting and bickering and anger, hurt.
We’ve seen some famous high profile murders of sons killing their parents just recently. That’s the world we live in, right? That’s what fills our news feeds. That’s what causes us to groan and mourn and sorrow. But for the Angels on this night, this is what brings an attitude of awe and wonder to them, the glorification of God and it’s by means of this statement on earth peace. The angels are amazed at the imminent fulfillment of God bringing ultimate glory to himself by the salvation of sinful men that they find truly amazing. As I said earlier, the complete statement of verse 14 is about reconciling God to man. It’s about demonstrating his glory through his mercy, and it’s about reunifying heaven and earth. God is in this child doing great things. He is on the precipice bringing this child into existence as a Christ. He is doing great things.
So the fullness of God’s glory and the incarnation of the Son of God means salvation is visiting sinful men. And this is a big, big deal to the Angels. Why is that? Because the Angels and the heavenly host, they have been the ones executing many, many judgments upon sinful humanity. In fact, there are more judgments coming if you read the Book of Revelation and Angels are all over the Book of Revelation, raining down judgment upon sinful humanity. Angelic troops are going to be deployed in the future to execute God’s justice. So why all this hostility coming from heaven to earth? Because of human sin, because of the rebellion of mankind against God and it is a millennial long rebellion.
It’s because of human sin that there is no peace between God and mankind. It’s because of human sin that there’s no peace among men either. More often than not, we find ourselves at war or experiencing some measure of conflict. And when we’re not at war, we’re preparing for one. We’re in the throes of some conflict which is going to sow the seeds for the next war by sinning against each other and offending each other, hurting each other. And Isaiah was right in Isaiah 1:5-6, he said, “the whole head is sick. The whole heart is faint from the sole of the foot, even to the head. There’s nothing sound in it, only bruises and welts and raw wounds not pressed out or bandage not softened with oil.”
The older sinners get, the harder I find them to be. So peace is a welcome announcement to a world that knows no peace, that longs for peace but seeks peace, but never finds it, that plans for peace, but gets war instead. Why? Because the lack of peace is a vertical issue first, not a horizontal one. There are going to be no political solutions to the situation in Israel or the situation in America or the situation in Colorado because it’s not a horizontal issue. It’s a vertical issue first. There’s a reconciliation with God that must happen first. When we are reconciled to God, knowing his love, knowing his grace, knowing his mercy, his compassion, and knowing his peace, now we can turn around and show that to our fellow man.
Hostility among men is not due first and foremost to their fellow man, it’s due to hostility against God, their creator God, the righteous lawgiver. Men rebel against his law. He’s the inflexible judge, and men deny their accountability to him, saying such foolish things as ,well, what if he doesn’t exist? Then there’s no accountability to him. You know in your heart that he exists. You know in your heart, you know in your heart that there’s an accountability greater than yourself. There’s one that you will have to answer to. You know that in your heart, you know that you sin.
You know that you should have done something that you didn’t, or you shouldn’t have done something and you did anyway. Who’s going to hold you accountable to that? The law, the US Constitution, the cops, they all do their best. But when someone goes out and murders somebody else, taking their life doesn’t actually do full justice, does it? Even if we follow the prescription of capital punishment, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, that’s good. But that’s not full justice because the taking of one life by a murderer doesn’t rectify all the relationships he’s ruined, all the hurt he’s caused.
There must be a higher accountability and a higher authority. We know that instinctively in our heart of hearts and that’s why Psalm 7:11, which tells us God’s angry over our sins. God is angry over our sins, Psalm 7:11 makes so much sense to us. God is a righteous judge and a God who has indignation every day. It’s not because he’s cranky, nah, he is the blessed God, but he sees into every heart, into every home, into every relationship, into every bad deal, into every unjust situation and he notes it. And yet God is also merciful, ready and eager to forgive all those who humble themselves and confess their sins, and trust in him and follow him in an obedient faith.
God is by nature a savior, which is why this Bible exists for us to demonstrate his redemption to us. From cover to cover in Scripture, we see that God is a savior as early as Exodus 34:6, second book in the Bible, when God told Moses who he is and what he’s like, saying “I am Yahweh, Yahweh God, compassionate and gracious and slow to anger and abounding in loving kindness and truth.”
God’s like that, he condescends to those who are fallen into sin, who live under the judgement of sin and live with the consequences of their sins, physical and spiritual death, enslavement to sin, succumbing to all manner of temptations, committing all manner of sins and wickedness, bringing degradation and purity on the soul. He comes into all of that muck and mire and he offers salvation and rescue and escape and not just escape from those consequences, an escape from an even greater condemnation which is coming to everyone who will not bow the knee and escape from an eternal hell.
It’s getting popular once again, seems to come in cycles, but it’s getting popular once again to question the eternality of hell. No, it’s not eternal conscious torment. God’s too merciful for that. No, instead it’s just snuffing out the life, conditional immortality, immortality granted to those who put their trust in Christ, but to everyone else, cessation of existence. We don’t have time now to correct that narrative but let me just tell you that denial of an eternal conscious torment in hell, that doctrines clearly taught in Scripture, that is an affront to God’s justice. It is a minimizing of sin against a holy God. It diminishes who God really is. Don’t buy that lie, folks. No matter who says it, no matter how well they say it, no matter how popular and cheerful they seem.
Hell is a horrible, horrible fate, yes, but it’s also entirely avoidable for all those who will repent and believe, those whom the Angels here refer to in verse 14 as the men with whom he has pleased. This is the great longing of Angelic hearts to rejoice with their human counterparts in the goodness of God’s great mercy, in the magnanimity and wisdom of his great salvation which has now come down from heaven to earth. They summarize the new state of affairs as in one word, as peace. Peace, not war. New quality of life for those whom God chooses to favor.
Peace, it’s the cessation of hostility, which is an objective peace. The Angels are rejoicing, looking to the end of a very, very long war against God and their response in judgement. They look ahead to a new state of being, one that’s characterized no longer by hostility, but by even a subjective enjoyment of peace in this new reconciled relationship between God and man in heaven and earth. Now, let me be clear, the peace I’m Speaking of, even objectively, is not merely a cessation of hostilities. The technical term for a cessation of hostilities, it’s called an Armistice. It’s what we have existing right now between North Korea and South Korea dropping the weapons before a time, but the hostility still broiling in the North and the South. There’s a Demilitarized Zone that separates them. Oh, but just go from the South to the North or from the North to the South and find out what happens. This is not that.
The peace that the Angels rejoice in is far more radical than that, way deeper, way longer lasting. It’s an eternal peace because it actually deals with the problem. The Angels look ahead; they rejoice in dropping all weapons of war, never again to deploy for the purpose of war. Instead of killing men to execute God’s judgement against their sins, the Angels look to a time of embracing men as brothers in worship, enlisting men and women and receiving them into their ranks of this, not their army for justice and judgement, but a great Angelic choir to sing praises of God together. What’s going to do that? What’s going to reunify heaven and earth, broken from the beginning by the sins of men?
What’s going to demonstrate the glory of God and all his attributes being made manifest, including his justice and his mercy, which seemed to be at odds? They’re not at odds. Justice and mercy are in perfect harmony with one another, and they always have been and they are demonstrated to do so in Christ. That’s what harmonizes them, Christ, his cross, what reconciles man to God such that God’s justice forever satisfied and mercy is accomplished so that peace reigns in creation from heaven to earth, is what Christ accomplished, what he did. This is the gospel, and it’s right here at the heart of the Christmas story, a story that’s centered on the birth of this very special child.
So when the Angelic hosts praise God, saying “glory to God in the highest,” they’re not referring to the bright splendor of their sudden appearance in fields outside of Bethlehem to sleepy shepherds and frightening them to death. They’re not referring to any overt outward manifestations of great strength or power or might or majesty of Angels or of men. They’re rejoicing in divine glory, a divine glory that will not destroy sinful men, but now in Christ, a divine glory that saves them, now dwells with them and without destroying them forever. God signals his intent to dwell with men, very first time in the pre-fall world, when he defined the nature of the relationship between God and men in covenantal terms, gave them a warning and a promise as he walked with Adam in the cool of the day and they enjoyed sweet fellowship together.
But giving a covenant between God and man, there before sin entered into the world, it treated man as a partner as it were, not really, not essentially but, but treating him as a covenantal equal, able to make a decision and be with God in relationship according to the terms of the relationship. God graciously giving him the covenant. And this is the reason that theologians consider the Garden of Eden as the first temple sanctuary, and that sanctuary to be extended wherever the offspring of an obedient Adam and Eve in covenant with God would dwell. But sin brought an end to that. it all seemed to come crashing down. Even though it was the decree of God, the intention of God to dwell with mankind remained.
Clear manifestation of God’s intent to dwell among his people happened during the wilderness wanderings of Israel. As we read in much of the Pentateuch, over the 40 years that followed the Exodus from Egypt, God manifested his presence to them visibly, as I said, in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. The people could see it with their eyes. Israel referred to that visible manifestation of the invisible divine presence, they referred to that as the Shekinah glory of God. Why that name? Because whenever the Israelites would stop their march to wherever God had told them to go, whenever they would stop their march, whenever they would come to rest, the pillar of cloud would settle over one place. It would settle over a tent, so Tabernacle, think of a big Arab tent, not, not something that you pitch in the Colorado mountains, but something you might see, unlike Lawrence of Arabia, you know where you enter into it and there’s carpets and warmth and food.
It’s because of human sin that there is no peace between God and mankind. It’s because of human sin that there’s no peace among men either.” Travis Allen
But here this was called the tent of meeting and, just you can, listen to this. You want to jot it down, it’s in Exodus 33:7 and following, but just listen as I read, “Moses used to take the tent.” This is the tent of meeting, “and he would pitch it outside the camp,” a good distance from the camp, “and he called it the tent of meeting. And everyone who sought Yahweh would go out to the tent of meeting, which was outside the camp. And it happened whenever Moses went out to the tent, that all the people would arise and stand each of the entrance of his tent, and gaze after Moses until he entered the tent. It happened whenever Moses entered the tent, the pillar of cloud would descend and stand at the entrance of the tent; and Yahweh would speak with Moses. All the people would see the pillar of clouds standing at the entrance of the tent, and all the people would arise and worship each at the entrance of his tent. Thus Yahweh used to speak to Moses face to face, just as a man speaks to his friend.”
It’s a beautiful picture, but even that beautiful picture, we have to understand, comes in the context of judgement. Why did he have to pitch the tent outside the camp? Because a chapter earlier, these same people in covenant with God made a golden calf and started dancing around it in Pagan revelry. God was about to absolutely destroy them. God had prescribed that the hosts, the armies of Israel, would, would array themselves at the resting place. Their encampment would be all around the tent, the Tabernacle in the middle. And now the tent of meeting has to be the Tabernacle. Stay there as there’s a new tent, a tent of meeting, outside the camp. Again, human sin messes it all up. But this word for tent or Tabernacle, the Hebrew word is Mishkan. It’s because the pillar of clouds settled over the tent, the mishkan, the pillar is called the Shekinah glory of God, an indication that God graciously is condescending to reveal himself to his people. God made himself known to them at the tent of meeting in peace. He showed his intent to dwell with his people in mercy and in favor. And yet something’s wrong. He’s not dwelling inside; he’s dwelling outside their camp. Why? Their sin! Their sin is the problem. As Adam and Eve did, Israel too disobeyed, violated the terms of the covenant God made with them.
In fact, no one from Adam forward has kept the covenant, has obeyed God perfectly and fulfilled all his will until this Jesus. He never sinned, nor was any deceit found in his mouth. He never sinned in his heart, never sinned in his imaginations, his thought life; always did what pleased the Lord. So it’s in Jesus Christ and him alone that God can dwell with men, remain with men. He’s the incarnate son of God, and he’s united now and forever in human flesh to us. And he was obedient, perfectly fulfilling the will of God.
This is why John said in John 1:14. Josh read it earlier. “He became flesh and dwelt among us.” You know what that verb is? Skenoo, it’s to pitch his tent with us. Same imagery from the Old Testament. He did that when he took on human flesh. He didn’t just pitch a tent in our midst, he didn’t just get a house in our neighborhood; no, he took up residence in a human being, united himself to us through human flesh, and “we beheld his glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father.” John’s words, you hear the echo in John’s words of the angelic praise. Glory to God in the highest, in the means to that great and on earth peace among men with whom he’s pleased.
The angels know he came to make the invisible God, visible to mankind, to show them God, to teach them who God is, and what he is like. And that’s what John 1:18 says, “No one has seen God at any time.” Why? He’s invisible by nature, by his essence, but the only begotten God. This is Christ Jesus, the only begotten God, who is in the bosom of the Father, the second person of the Trinity. He has explained him. He’s interpreted him to us, far more glorious than the heavenly glory that lit up the dark field on this night; far more glorious than Angelic’s splendor; far more glorious than all the kings, governors, decrees, and all the might and power of the nations of the earth all put together.
Put on one side of the scale, on the other side, weighing heavier than it all, though swaddled and helpless and lying in a manger, it’s this babe. He outweighs them all. He is the one who is the radiance of God’s glory in the exact representation of God’s nature. “He’s the one, Hebrews 1:3, “who upholds all things by the word of His power.” And these Angels know that once he makes purification of sins, he will sit down at the right hand of God. Glory to God in the highest, in the manifestation of the incarnate son of God, to glorify God to all creatures, Angel and human alike. And God is now glorified in Christ. He’s made known; that’s what the word glorify means, to be shown for who he really is. Now, does he show himself to everyone? No, he does not. Eudokia, with those with whom he is pleased. There’s a delimiting word there. Eudokia, those with whom he shows favor, those whom he approves. Eudokia, is a word that when Luke uses it in his Gospel, Luke 2:14, 3:22, 10:21, 12:32. When Luke uses this word, he’s referring to God’s favor. He’s referring to God’s good pleasure to save. So it’s those to whom God reveals this peace. God’s peace rests upon those he’s chosen to save in accordance with his good pleasure.
He sent his only begotten Son to become a man, joining the divine nature to the human nature forever in one unique person, one chosen Christ, the perfect mediator between God and men. It’s interesting that the one who came to join God to men, he himself is the God man. He reconciles God to man in his own body, in his own flesh, being himself both truly divine and truly human. And he represents God to man by teaching us about God, telling us what he requires, telling us to repent and believe. He represents man to God also, being the perfect sacrifice for our sins. So he’s the perfect mediator in his own person, he demonstrates the saving glory of God. He satisfies God’s justice by dying as a man for the sins of men, dying for those with whom God is pleased, to whom he will show favor. He fulfills God’s mercy by absorbing the wrath of God for all our sins, by taking our punishment on himself, and by dying, and then rising from the dead, and ascending into heaven. And so in his own person he reunifies heaven and earth, which has been separated since Adam. He bridges the gap in himself. He brings heaven and earth together so that God dwells with us and we dwell with God.
There is one God, one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. 1 Timothy 2:5 and 6. He’s the one who gave himself as a ransom for all; the testimony born at the proper time, testimony revealed to the people of his choosing, those with whom he is pleased. God revealed his glory and his salvation to the people of his choosing. He started with Zechariah and Elizabeth here in Luke’s Gospel, then to Joseph and Mary, then to these Bethlehem shepherds keeping watch over their flocks on a cold starlit night. And then it says this in verse 15, Luke chapter 2, “It happened that when the angels had gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds began saying to one another, ‘Let us go to Bethlehem then and see this thing that has happened which the Lord has made known to us.’ So they went in a hurry and found their way to Mary and Joseph and the baby lying in the manger. And when they had seen this, they made known the statement which had been told them about this child and all who heard it marveled at the things which were told them by the shepherds. And Mary was treasuring all these things, pondering them,” in her, “in her heart. And the shepherds went back, glorifying and praising God for all,” they, “that they had,” seen or,” heard and seen, just as it was told them.”
The message that they received is what was sung earlier in the service. “Hark the herald that angels sing Glory to the newborn King, peace on earth and mercy mild. God and sinners reconciled.” Friend, this is, this is what we celebrate at Christmas as Christians. Let me ask, is it what you celebrate at Christmas? The glory of God in, in and through the salvation of sinners like yourself. Do you look upon the babe in the manger as God’s chosen Christ, as the one anointed to be your mediator, the one who reconciles you to God and brings heaven down to you? Are you following this child of Christmas? Now the full-grown Christ who in his life, death, resuresion, and resurrection, and then ascension on high. He reigns victorious now, no longer the babe in the manger, swaddled, helpless, weak, but the King of Kings and Lord of Lords? Are you serving him, the one who has the name above all names, Jesus. This is what the Angels came to announce, evangelizing the shepherds, evangelizing us, and now evangelizing all of you. It’s what the gospel is about. This is what Christmas is about too. We implore you, be reconciled to God, put your faith in Christ today. Let’s pray.
And our Father, we are so grateful for your great salvation that you revealed in Christ. We thank you for the glory of your salvation, the glory of your character, the full exposure of all of your attributes, fully harmonized, reconciled in this one life, this one perfect life. We love you, father, and we thank you that for so many of us, you have opened our eyes to understand the truth that we, like these shepherds, have heard the announcement of the Angels and responded. They ran to see this great salvation that you provided in the birth of this child, and we have followed their example, compelled to come near, to come close, to trust, to repent and believe.
If there are those here who do not yet know you, have not yet bowed the knee, we pray that you would soften their hearts, and you by the Spirit would give them a new nature, a heart to understand and embrace the message. Eyes to see, ears to hear, that once their eyes are opened, they wonder that they never saw it before. That once their ears are open, they chide themselves and rebuke themselves for listening to any, any, any lesser message. Once their hearts embrace the truth, they wonder at the folly of all of their years of idolatry. And we pray for all of us who are Christians, who to whom you’ve shown this grace, to whom you’ve demonstrated this mercy, revive us once again here on this this Christmas season, that we would be those who are conduits of your grace and your mercy by preaching this message. Give us great delight in our celebrations. We pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.