Carols of Christmas: Gloria in Excelsis Deo

Would you take your Bibles today and turn to Luke chapter 2. Luke chapter 2. We're going to read probably one of the most familiar passages in all of the Bible. believers and unbelievers open this before they often open their presence and read it as as they do and we all know this story I pray that God will give you eyes to see more in this story that God intended for us to see not something made up but something that he intended to tell us in these words You follow as I read the first 20 verses of Luke chapter 2.

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 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 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 hosts 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 shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.

Let's pray. Lord God, with this most familiar of texts, we pray that you'd open our eyes to the message you have for us there. dispel from our minds any of all the things that accompany this text as we have used it in many different ways help us to just listen to your voice in this text lord we know that you did not use luke to write this story so that we would have a few more ornaments to our celebrations. Pray, Father, that instead we would hear the Gospel as You intended us to hear in these words.

So help us now, we pray. In Jesus' name, Amen. When the angels show up in the Christmas story, they start singing. now Christmas is all about singing isn't it you can't imagine Christmas without music in fact when you look at the book of Luke this is the third Christmas song in those first two chapters Mary sang a song Zachariah has sung as well but what are the songs about Santa Claus chestnuts roasting on an open fire bells ringing on bobtails?

Do their songs reflect a wish for a white Christmas? No. No, they don't. Well what do the angels sing They sing Gloria in excelsis Deo This song that we find in the chapter is called Gloria in excelsis Deo It called that because that the Latin translation for the first words of the song Glory to God in the highest. So whenever you sing that song, which we will, now you know what it means.

It means glory to God in the highest. It's the words that the angels sang. And when the angels arrive, they sing about the glory of God. something that is woefully lacking in most of our Christmas celebrations, the glory of God. Well, how could they sing such a thing? Well, let's look at our story this morning, the story that we're all familiar with. And the first thing that you see in verses 1 through 5 is God is glorified in his providence.

God is glorified in his providence. To qualify as Savior, Jesus had to be born in Bethlehem. The prophet Micah, some nearly 700 years before, as we heard in our Old Testament reading this morning that gave bread to us, that this king who is coming had to be born in Bethlehem. He had to be born in Bethlehem. Messiah's mother and his legal father were living in Nazareth.

They were living in the north. but God so ordained events that in order to fulfill his word he brings these two insignificant people to the town of Bethlehem in order to do that he moved great powers to accomplish that God moved the greatest power on earth for Jesus appearance and fulfillment of that prophecy now this probably was not a decree as we typically think of decrees where Caesar says okay I'm going send this decree out, I need to understand some things. This was probably an administrative directive. That is, it went out every so often.

And from what we can put together, this was a decree, an administrative directive that went out probably every 14 years. So every 14 years, this decree was issued in order to register people. Years earlier, Caesar Augustus was contemplating his vast empire when he stumbled on an extraordinary idea for more efficient taxation. Take a census of all the subject populations in the empire.

That way he have better records for more efficient taxation And that would be done at regular intervals as the empire expanded as there were more people And he would do that at regular intervals. And so the time had come for the next census to be taken. The 14-year mark had been reached and the usual administrative order went out from the tax department. and so you see the whole process of getting jesus or getting joseph and mary to bethlehem was set in motion years before only this time it touches far off galilee setting an unknown carpenter and his fiancee on the way to the little town of bethlehem in judea although caesar would never have known it he didn't let he had unleashed a chain of events that would turn the world upside down because among the millions millions who had to register were these two unknown insignificant people this tiny family swept up in the tide of earthly power gave birth to a son who would rule the world.

Now Mary's song, you remember as we looked at Mary's song, the very first song we looked at, remember what she said in that song. He has performed mighty deeds with his arm. He has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts. He has brought down rulers from their thrones, but has lifted up the humble. The rulers will be brought down, and this one born in the filth of a stable God will exalt to the place where every knee would bow including the knee of Caesar you know what's interesting if you were living in that time you would hear the titles that were used of the Roman emperor you know what one of his most popular titles was here's what it was Caesar Augustus, Lord of Lords, King of Kings, Savior of the World.

That was his title. So when the gospel comes and calls Jesus King of Kings, Lord of Lords, Savior of the World, it means a great deal to those people. The point is, God was taking... making Caesar's pawns and moving them to checkmate so that the Savior, the real Savior, would stand alone as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. That's the glory of God in His providence.

Not only that, but God is glorified in humility. In verses 6 and 7, what do we see there? Here's what we see. we see this couple going to a stable and putting their son in a feeding trough. God is glorified in humility. When Joseph and Mary arrived in Bethlehem, no one received them, and Jesus failed to receive the royal welcome that was his due. To understand what an indignity this was, we also need to remember who Jesus was, and in fact, who Jesus is. he was more than Mary's firstborn as it as he's described here he was the firstborn of all creation with the unique status as God the one and only son the very son of God he was the alpha and the omega he's the beginning and the end he was the creator of the universe the maker of heaven and earth it was Jesus who created it all he was the king of king and lord of lords the supreme ruler of all the lives.

He's the second person of the Trinity, the radiance of the Father's glory. By his divine nature, he shared in the full perfection of God's being. This baby born in Bethlehem was the all-knowing, all-seeing, all-powerful, and all-glorious Son of God. That's who he was. So what kind of welcome did he deserve? Jesus deserved to have every person in every nation bow to him.

He deserved to have every creature in the entire universe, from the fiercest lion to the tiniest insect show up and worship him. He deserved to have creation itself offer him worship with the rocks crying glory and the galaxies dancing for joy. He is God the Son and anything less than absolute acknowledgement of his divine being and his status as the ruler of the universe is an insult to divine dignity.

But all of this has significance. The fact that he was unrecognized and unacknowledged demonstrates the humility that led him to the cross The wretched filth of an animal shelter shows that humility was necessary for salvation It is not just a story of a poor couple. It shows the necessity of this humiliation for our salvation. The sufferings that commenced with his incarnation culminated with his crucifixion. the same body that was wrapped in swaddling clothes was also wrapped in a burial shroud the manger thus points to the cross and the grave showing us how we are saved we are saved by the humility of the savior god is glorified in the humility of his son god is glorified not merely in the explosion of the brightness of his glory upon us god is glorified in humility god's glorified in his grace now this is something that we've got to grasp i think verses 8 through 11 who's the center of the story here the shepherds the shepherds let's look at that 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 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 god is glorified in his grace the arrival of jesus did not go totally unrecognized right it didn't go totally unrecognized that night because there were shepherds who will later appear at the manger.

So it's not unrecognized. The shepherds are out in the fields, no doubt protecting their investment. By the way, they're not out there because they want to be. They're out there because you want to keep your investment. You've got to keep these things alive. You've got to keep animals from them.

You've got to keep them alive so you can get your return on your money. It's either their investment or someone else's investment. And suddenly an angel appears to them in the gloom of darkness with this blazing light. And what is not so strange here or surprising is that an angel appeared The strange thing is that the angel appeared to shepherds Now we all have a view of shepherds We all kind of think of King David when he was a shepherd boy and we romanticize that idea of shepherds We think of them as rugged outdoorsmen braving the elements.

We visualize them taking care of cute little sheep. But as a matter of fact, they did not enjoy a very good reputation in their day. Because they lived in the fields, they were unable to keep the ceremonial laws, and so they were treated as unclean. There was only one other segment of society that was lower than a shepherd and it was lepers. In terms of being unclean, in terms of not being able to worship God, in terms of all of those things, they were close to the liest.

They were regarded as thieves and liars and their testimony was not accepted in any court. Now you say, that's stereotypical. Yeah, they were stereotyped. There's no doubt about it. They were not viewed favorably. If you will, they were like the gypsies of their day.

Now, maybe this doesn't resonate with you, but if you go to Romania, where you go to parts of Europe where gypsies are very prevalent, in Romania there's lots of gypsies. Gypsies are considered, stay away from them. They will rob you. They will trick you. They will manipulate you. They live in shacks.

They don't care about where they live. The gypsies are the people you don't trust a gypsy. That's the way it is. That's the way the shepherds were viewed, right? They were those folks of that day. Yet these were the men that God wanted to hear the gospel.

Working class sinners, outcasts, the unacceptable. This is the one. Now listen, get this story. Let's get all this romantic stuff out of our head. Let's get the nativity scenes out of our mind. God is proclaiming this news to the lowest people in society.

Like everything else about Jesus' birth, this should upset our expectations. We tend to think God is for the good people, when in fact he is for the needy sinners who are desperate for grace. Luke God through Luke is communicating something here to us that we need to grasp listen our Christmas celebrations don do Christmas a favor right Who gets the gifts from Santa Claus The nice kids, not the naughty kids, right?

Are you on the nice list or are you on the naughty list? If you're on the naughty list, you don't get any gifts. This turns it on its head. It's the naughty list people who get the gift. we tend to think God is for the good people when in fact he is for needy sinners who are desperate for grace. And as Mary sang in the Magnificat, Jesus came to bring down the thrones of the mighty and exalt those of humble estate.

And that is beginning to be fulfilled right here as shepherds are exalted because they're the ones who receive the message. who better to exalt than these lowly shepherds if this would happen today I want you to think about this if this would happen today to whom would the angels appear to the guys in the strip joint to the prostitutes on the street to the pedophile who lives uptown that's the way you think of it that's the way you need to think of it and if you think you're on the nice list and all those folks I just mentioned are on the naughty list, guess what? You've missed the point. The gift is for people who don't deserve it.

The gift is for people who need help. That's what God is communicating here to us. If God has grace for these that he mentions here, He has grace for any poor sinner who will come to Jesus. That's the point. God is glorified in His grace. When you read the rest of the chapter, verses 9 through 20, I think you see finally God is glorified in the gospel. fear not says the angel when he when he appears the shepherds were terrified do you note that the shepherds were terrified and for good reason because this is Don't miss this.

This is the glory of the Lord. It's the glory of the Lord that's shown around them. This is the same glory that appeared above the tabernacle in the wilderness. That's what he's saying. What's called the Shekinah glory. The glory of God that appeared in the tabernacle.

The glory of God that appeared in that cloud that led them. The glory of God that inhabited the temple of Solomon. so that when Solomon comes and he dedicates that great temple in Jerusalem to God, what happens? The glory of God comes and it is so bright and so magnificent that the priest can't even go into the temple. That is what appears that night in the fields.

The glory of God. What happened to that glory? It was resident in the temple all those years that Israel existed as a nation. And then you remember the prophet Ezekiel has a vision. And what does he see? Before Babylon comes in and wipes out that nation in God's judgment against them, the glory of the Lord lifts from the temple and leaves.

And the glory of the Lord has not been with his people for well over 400 years, much longer than 400 years. It's more like 500, 550 years. The glory of the Lord has been gone. It has not shown up. What's the point? The glory of the Lord now appears.

It's come back. It's the presence of God. He's returned. Wow! Here is the sign of the presence of God in the Gospel. And yet the angels say that they should not be afraid, but instead they should what? rejoice why good news has arrived that should change this terror into joy a savior has been born to you the angels say child was born to the shepherds these words are like a tag on a christmas gift not as a kid we always did do this right we had these little these little um um tags did i say that right no my children are saying there's your wisconsin accent again the tags had this little string on it and you stick it on the package and it would say to and from and when we were given gifts we always fill that in and this announcement is like a to and from tag To the shepherds from God Right That what Jesus says To you guys from God And not only for you but for all people.

This is a gift. The angel was doing something more than telling the shepherds what happened, he goes on to tell them why it mattered. Ordinarily, a child is born to a family and they are the ones who receive the gift of the child's life, but in this case, the child was for the shepherds and for their salvation. And not only for them, but for any who would receive this Jesus by faith.

The good news gives the identity. Why does it matter? What's the identity of this strangely born child? We know it all by heart. Unto you was born this day. We all know it in King James, of course.

I don't know why. Unto you was born this day a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. A Savior has been born to you. A deliverer. Someone who will deliver you from death and destruction. Jesus came to save us from sin and from Satan.

From ourselves. And from the righteous wrath of God, who deserves to be angry at us. but he's he's appeared to deliver us from even the wrath of god he delivered us from these deadly enemies by dying on the cross for our sins and then raising being raised from the dead to give us eternal life he is christ now christ is not jesus last name okay like someone thinks jesus christ that's okay that now we know where the mail goes right that's his last name no it's not It's Jesus the Christ. And most of the time it's not translated typically in our scriptures, but mostly the definite article is with that word.

Jesus the Christ. Jesus the anointed one. Christos, which is the Greek word for anointed, which is the translation of the Hebrew word Mashiach, which is Messiah. What is that? The anointed one. The king.

He appeared as king to rule and to reign. The anointed one. He is Jesus, who is the, he is the Savior, the anointed one. All right? You know what I love is the second London Baptist confession of faith written in 1689. You say, no, please, don bore us with history now Listen this is one of the this is a fantastic confession of faith And here what it says about Jesus as King Listen to what it says Because we have turned away from God and are utterly unable to return to Him, and because we need to be rescued and rendered secure from our spiritual adversary, we need Christ's kingly office.

To what? to convince, subdue, draw, sustain, deliver, and preserve us until we finally enter His heavenly kingdom. This is what the king does. We need Him. We've turned away from God. We're utterly unable to return to Him. We need to be rescued.

We need to be rendered secure. So a king appeared in order to convince and subdue and draw us and sustain us and deliver us and preserve us by his power as king so that we can reach the heavenly kingdom. As the Christ, he makes sure his saving power, he makes sure his saving power accomplishes the purpose for which he came. He is the Lord. Now make no mistake about it.

The angel is saying he is God. When he uses that terminology, this is a savior. He's come to deliver you. right he's the promised king but he's also god you cannot get away from that that's what the lord means he can who can deliver you from your sins god alone can who has the power and authority to forgive sins only god why is it that you can call on jesus to save you why is it you can call on Jesus and he will save you because he is Christ the Lord and then the angel was joined by an entire chorus of angels singing praises and the first words they sing are glory to God in the highest gloria in excelsis deo God the son had always you think about this you see how far Jesus came before he came he had always, from eternity past, he had enjoyed the adoration of angels.

They were used to sing to him But now God was sending his son into the world where he would be despised and rejected unto death for the salvation of a lost and fallen race And these angels sang glory to God in the highest. This is the most glorious demonstration that God ever made of his grace. And it's only right for him to receive the praise for it.

This is a demonstration of his glory, this grace, this reaching down to people who don't deserve it. This deserves the hymn that says, Glory to God in the highest. J.C. Ryle wrote this, Now has come the highest degree of glory to God by the appearing of His Son, Jesus Christ, in the world. He, by His life and death on the cross, will glorify God's attributes, justice, holiness, mercy, and wisdom, as they were never glorified before. and then they pronounce this benediction, and on earth, peace among those with whom he is pleased.

Christ was sent, not just for the glory of God, for your good. For the glory of God and your good. Peace. Peace. Now, you know, the angels made this declaration at a time of incredible peace. Do you know that?

Historians look back at this time period in the Roman Empire, and it's called the Pax Romana. That is, the peace of Rome. Most of the Western world, and part of the Eastern world for that matter, had experienced unbelievable peace. This is during that time period. the all the romans often praised this emperor for bringing peace on earth but it came at a dreadful cost nations were conquered and plundered peoples were enslaved the poor were oppressed oh yeah there was peace there was prosperity for some but there was tremendous fear and poverty for others and even those who experienced this outward peace weren't satisfied the old stoic philosopher Epictetus who was alive at this time observed this while the emperor may give peace from war He is unable to give peace from passion, grief, and envy.

He cannot give peace of heart for which man yearns more than ever. He cannot give peace of heart for which man yearns more than even for outward peace. How does God accomplish this peace? Turn over to Colossians. Colossians chapter 1. Look at verses 19 and 20.

For in Him, this is speaking about Jesus now, for in Him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of His cross. there's conflict on every level in this world is there not conflict on every level from nations right from nations to our children not wanting to do what we want and causing disruption even in our home and parents being abusive whatever there a lack of peace there conflict on every level that you can think of right Why Because God has cursed the world because of Adam sin And because of that, we are at war. We war against one another. We war against the environment.

We have to eke our living out of the earth. Everything is unsettled, but Jesus died to remove that universal curse and thus buying peace for us by his redemption. He accomplished that peace. Peace between us and God. Peace between us as humans. But that peace belongs only to those upon whom God's favor rests.

That's what they're saying. Only upon those whom God's favor rests. They're the only ones who experience that peace. And someday all who have been favored by God in Christ will know the peace that we can have. We're experiencing it now. We as believers know something of that peace, but there's coming a day when we will know it completely.

But only for those upon whom his favor rests. Right? Only those who stand in Christ and in Christ alone. There are many responses to the proclamation of the gospel. Some are amazed, but they don't really believe. Some take a long time to believe.

Some are like the shepherds. They believe right away. But this is true. God is glorified in the good news of the gospel so with the angels we also ought to sing glory to God in the highest for God is magnified in this unexpected salvation Glory be to God because he moves in unexpected ways to accomplish the salvation of his people through wicked authorities and humiliating circumstances.

God accomplishes what he intends to do to save a people. Glory to God because he reaches unexpected people. with good news that he is for the worst when they surrender to Jesus. He's no longer against you. He is for you in every way. And we need to give glory to God because he gives us a Savior who is Christ the Lord who will certainly see his people to the end. this king will never let any of his go he will keep them to the end and so like the shepherds we too can glorify and praise god for all the things we have seen and heard gloria in excelsis deo glory to god in the highest father help us to glorify you because of this marvelous marvelous salvation which you've given us Lord I pray for those who are here who do not see the wickedness of their own heart Help them to see it And help them to run to Christ who came for them Father, there may be some here today who think they are the worst of sinners.

Turn their eyes to Christ. That they might see that Jesus is for them. That He died for them. And that if they would just surrender to Him, just entrust themselves to Him, He would save them. God grant that, I pray. Father, help us to glorify You in this season.

Lord, we know we don't have to get rid of our Christmas trees and trash everything there is about Christmas in order to glorify You. But Lord, we can start thinking differently. we can start really seeking to grasp what happened when Jesus took on human nature. Help us to glorify you like the angels did for what you've accomplished in Christ. We thank you for him.

We thank you for the love that sent him. We thank you for the love that submitted to you. help us to love him in his name we pray amen