Sermon Tone Analysis

NOTE:

This is a manuscript, and not a transcript of this message.

The actual presentation of the message differed from the manuscript through the leading of the Holy Spirit.

Therefore, it is possible, and even likely that there is material in this manuscript that was not included in the live presentation and that there was additional material in the live presentation that is not included in this manuscript.

Engagement

We’ve already seen that angels play an important role in the Christmas story.

The angel Gabriel appeared to Zechariah to tell him that he and Elizabeth were going to have a child in their old age.

He later appeared to Mary to reveal that she was going to be the mother of Jesus.

And another angel, possibly also Gabriel, appeared to Joseph to instruct him to go ahead and take Mary as his wife even though he wasn’t the father of the baby she would bear.

Tension

But angels are not just important to the Christmas narrative.

There are over 300 references to angels in the Bible and angels appear in over half of the books of the Bible.

But unfortunately it seems that many people today get our ideas about angels not from the Bible, but rather from classic movies like “It’s a Wonderful Life”.

[Show clip]

In the movie, Angel Second Class Clarence Odbody is portrayed as a human who became an angel upon his death.

That same idea is reinforced later in the movie when a bell rings on the Christmas tree and George Bailey’s daughter says, “Teacher says every time a bell rings an angel gets his wings.”

But these ideas are certainly not consistent with what we know about angels from the Scriptures.

Truth

This morning, as we continue our current sermon series - The First Songs of Christmas - we’re going to study the song of the angels found in Luke chapter 2. But in order for us to fully understand the significance of that song, we need to talk for a few minutes about the role of angels in the Bible.

Angels serve three major roles and the song that we’ll look at thing morning accomplishes all three of these things:

Three main roles of angels:

To magnify God

This is the most important role of angels.

Whenever we are given a glimpse of heaven in passages like Isaiah 6 or Revelation 4, we see that the angels that surround the throne of God are praising God.

And in Job 38, when God speaks to Job, He reveals that the angels, who He calls the “morning stars”, were singing God’s praise at creation:

We also learn here that angels are a separate class of created beings completely apart from humans.

The angels that we see in this passage existed long before Adam was created.

And the Bible is clear that no human ever becomes an angel after his or her death.

To be messengers of God

Both the Hebrew and Greek words for “angel” literally mean “messenger.”

And throughout the Scriptures we see God sending His angels to proclaim God’s message to His people.

Sometimes that involves announcing good news like the birth of His Son.

But far more often the message is a message of judgment.

If you don’t believe that, just read the messages the angels deliver in the book of Revelation.

So angels are certainly not the cute little chubby babies with wings that are portrayed in our art or which are made into Christmas ornaments to put on our trees.

So it’s not surprising that when angels do act as God’s messengers, the first reaction of their audience is almost always fear.

To minister to people

The writer of Hebrews described this role of angels:

Most of the time, angels are not seen – they minister behind the scenes.

But occasionally, they enter our world, often in the form of a human, for a short time, to minister for a specific purpose.

Once again we get some insight from the writer of Hebrews:

When it came to the incarnation, the event was so important and so critical, that no earthly channels were adequate to communicate this amazing event to the world.

So it is no wonder that there is no other event in the Bible where so many angels were an integral part of the story.

With that background in mind, go ahead and follow along in your Bible as I begin reading in Luke chapter 2, verse 8:

First, a single angel appears to the shepherds.

And true to form, when that happens, the shepherds are afraid - I actually love how the King James phrases it - “they were sore afraid”.

But the angel told them not to be afraid and shared with them the good news that the Savior had been born in Bethlehem.

And the angel gave them a sign to help them find the baby although I often wonder just how helpful that sign would have been given the number of babies that might have been born in Bethlehem that night.

Just as that single angel finished his message, an entire angel army appeared - that’s what a heavenly host is.

And I have to believe that the shepherds are really afraid now.

I sure know I would be.

So the angels reassure them with a song.

Will you read that song out loud together with me”

It is a brief song – only 11 words in the original Greek.

And by now you’re probably already figured out that...

The angels’ song is a call to undeserved peace

That undeserved peace is manifest in two important aspects of who God is that the angels focus on in their song:

God’s glory

God’s grace

Let’s look first at God’s glory:

Here we see the angels doing what they always do – magnifying God – and thus fulfilling the first purpose that we looked at earlier.

And there was certainly good reason for their praise.

Keep in mind that these angels knew the significance of the incarnation.

They had observed Jesus, the second person of the triune God, in all His glory in heaven.

They understood that He was fully God and they worshipped Him as God.

They also understood the consequences of man’s sin that separated him from God.

And they were also aware of the prophecies that promised a Messiah who would save the people from their sins and restore their relationship with God.

So now that those prophecies were being fulfilled, their first response was to give glory to God.

The phrase “in the highest” is the translation of a single Greek word that can either mean that which is highest in rank or highest in location.

Here it seems to encompass both meanings.

God’s glory is “in the highest” in the sense that it is highest in rank – it is the glory to the highest possible degree.

But it is also “in the highest” because it is glory that is manifest in the highest heavens.

The focus on God’s glory in the highest is also a reminder that salvation must come from the heavens – from God and not from man.

The salvation that will result in peace on earth does not arise from the earth and climb to the heavens – instead it must originate with God in the heavens and descend to the earth.

Now let’s look at God’s grace:

The song of the angels heralded the end of the longest lasting and most destructive war in the history of mankind.

It is a war that began when sin entered the world and which could only be ended by Jesus coming into the world as a little baby who would grow up and die on a cross.

It is a war that has cost countless lives – in fact this war is what brought death into our world in the first place.

But the angel’s song is the proclamation that this war can be ended and that there can be “peace on earth”.

This is where the angels fulfill their other two roles.

In this song they are messengers of God who proclaim the birth of the Messiah who will bring peace on earth.

And through that message they also minister not just to the shepherds but to the multitude of generations who have also heard the words of this song through the pages of Scripture.

Unfortunately our understanding of “peace on earth” doesn’t always match up to the way the angels use it here.

Originally the Greek word that is translated “peace” in the New Testament was used pretty much the way we use it in English - the absence of conflict.

But its use in the New Testament is undoubtedly influenced by the Hebrew idea of “shalom”, which focuses much more on relationships than on conditions.

So the idea of peace in the Bible is not associated primarily with the resolution of political conflict, or even good health, personal well being or financial prosperity, but is focused instead on right relationships which influence every area of life.

This peace is not just something that the shepherds and the rest of the earth could experience some day in the future.

It is a present moment fullness of life that all can enjoy right here and now.

That kind of peace must begin with God’s presence.

That is why the incarnation is so critical.

It was not until God put on a body of flesh and came to the earth that his kind of peace was possible because only then could man experience God’s presence in a tangible way.

Any form of peace that is built on any foundation other than a right relationship with God is certainly not peace at all – at least not in Biblical terms.

Because of the incarnation, it is possible for all to have peace with God that then gives us the ability to have peace in our other relationships as well.

But, as the song of the angels reveals, not all choose to accept that gift of peace.

Notice that there is a condition attached to “peace on earth”.

That peace only occurs “among those with whom he is pleased”.

Many of you, like me, are probably familiar with the KJV translation of verse 14:

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

Unfortunately, that is not an accurate translation and it could easily lead us to draw some erroneous conclusions about what the angels are communicating here.

In the underlying Greek, the phase “with whom he is pleased” or “good will toward men” is just one word.