Angels We Have Heard on High

Here we are, at Christmas Eve! Our family always comments on how quickly this time of year passes. It feels almost like we get to November 1, and then the next thing you know both November and December are over! All through this season, and through this series, I have tried to remind us of the truth that Christmas is to be a time to worship, by pointing us to the worship of those who encountered Jesus during His first days on earth.

We are a people called to worship. But I think that sometimes we think that worship is emotion, so we haven’t worshipped if we don’t “feel” anything, or maybe even worse, when we “feel” something we conclude that we have worshipped. This reduces the act of worshipping God to the rough equivalent of a quality Hallmark Christmas Special, designed to hit you in the feels, but not really much more.

The consumeristic nature of American Christianity has also led us to believe that worship something we attend, or something we experience, or something someone else does for us. But these things could not be farther from the truth. Worship, at its core, is our response to the truth of who we are, and what Christ has done, and the grace given to us through the Lord Jesus. And so because of that we can say confidently that, just like patience requires pain, worship requires work.

And so, we end our Sunday mornings in Advent with a story that we are most likely very familiar with: the angels and the shepherds in Luke 2:8-14. We will be discussing this passage in two different times together. This morning, we will study what the angels say to the shepherds. Tonight, we will discuss what the shepherds do after having heard this good news.

Luke 2:8–14 ESV

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 cloths and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”

Set the scene - this is happening right after the birth of Jesus, who was born in Bethlehem in to fill the Scriptures. Now, you may remember from our study together of Ruth just a few weeks ago that Bethlehem means “house of bread,” a place known for agriculture and particularly grain growing. So, what would have happened is that after the harvest was over, there would have been stubble and some leftover grains in those fields. And so, the shepherds would drive their sheep to these fields, where the sheep would be able to eat, and then do what sheep do best: produce fertilizer! It was a win/win for farmers and shepherds. But in order to save time and protect the flock, the shepherds would have stayed out with the sheep all night long.

Anyway, the shepherds are in the wilderness outside of Bethlehem, and man oh man it would have been dark! I can remember when Hurricane Hugo went over our home in the late 80’s. It was a devastating storm, but one of my most distinct memories was the day after the storm passed. After we finally cut our way out of the yard, we got to the top of our driveway and looked out. And it was pitch black dark. I mean, not a light to be found other than the stars in the sky. There is something about that sort of dark!

Now, imagine this dark and quiet being broken by an angel of the Lord appearing and the glory of the Lord shining around them. The way look has it written it is as though the angel just walks up to them! Now we can understand why the first words the angels speaks is “fear not!” That would have been a terrifying thing!

Now in this little scene, we have already set the stage for worship. We have grace - who are shepherds that they would have been deserving of God’s grace? Who is humanity that we would have been given a savior? And now, the angels are going to hit us with some truth that they call “good news” - this is the word we get the word evangelism from, the good news of Jesus Christ! And it will bring “Great joy” to all people. And now, we can start to examine worship from the perspective of the shepherds. Looking at the message of the angel to the shepherds will give us some great insights into how God desires to be worshipped as we remember the miracle of the incarnation.

1. See Jesus for who He is!

It is all too easy to think of Jesus as less than He is. Even this time of year, when we celebrate the birth of Christ, we must look to the whole picture of who Christ the King is! The angels make a declaration that does not occur anywhere else in the whole Bible, as they use three terms to describe Christ:

A Savior -first, the angel proclaims that a Savior is born! This is an important title, and in the rest of the whole NT the title “Savior, Christ the Lord” does not occur anywhere. God’s rescue plan has come! The Savior is here! And that is what we celebrate at Christmas. We celebrate that salvation has come to earth because men could not have saved themselves. The word Savior literally means “deliverer.” God has brought His promised deliverer to earth to redeem men! And, of all people to hear this news, the shepherds heard it first. God came intentionally first to the lowliest and most downtrodden of society. He went to those who knew their place so that His glory would be seen.

Christ - the next two terms describe what Jesus was as Savior. First, he was the “Christ.” This is a greek term that means “Anointed one.” This Savior is the One anointed by God to accomplish salvation for His people. A very special person, set aside for a supernaturally special purpose. Jesus was the chosen one, born of God to redeem His people! He will be able to save His people because He was the Anointed one!

The Lord - finally, He is “the Lord.” This Savior, chosen by God, isn’t just a man. He is the Lord! This word “Lord” has been used 20 times so far in the first two chapters of Luke, and up until this point, it has been used to denote God the Father. Now it is used to speak of the Son. What is the point? This baby isn’t any ordinary baby. He is God. Born as man. Nothing like this has ever happened, or would ever happen again. The Son of God, who is God, has come! And that is the news the Shepherds heard that made them want to come to Bethlehem and see! And it is the same message that is the cause for our celebration today. Jesus Christ has come.

When we use this time to see who Jesus is, to consider the mystery of the incarnation, we are putting in the work of worship. Worship is supposed to engage the mind. There is no mindless Christianity! We are to use the brain the Lord gave us to think about His majesty, His goodness, His sovereignty, His strength!

And so the first discipline of worship is the discipline of the mind: are my thoughts spiritual thoughts? Paul encourages us to take every thought captive. Every thought! Every single one, not just the sinful ones! We often think of this as a filtering out of sinful thoughts, and it is that. But it is more - it is also the discipline of thinking spiritually about everything! And when we start to discipline our minds to do this, we can see the next step of the work of worship: seeing the signs around us!

2. See God’s Sign!

This shall be a sign for you - the shepherds went to see the sign given that salvation had come - a baby lying in a manger. For them, the sign would have been where the child was! It would have been expected that Jesus be born in a palace, not among the poorest of the poor. It would have been fitting for him to be wrapped in the finest cloth and given the greatest comforts, and yet here is Jesus, born as the lowliest and humblest of people to the humblest and lowliest of parents.

The sign that the shepherds went to seek has become the symbol of the hope of Christmas for every generation! And still, as we said a couple of weeks ago, we look to the manger and marvel! But for us, there are even more signs than the manger. In fact, almost every aspect of Christmas bears a significance in pointing us to Christ the Lord!

Now there is a good reason for this: everything in this world can, and I would even say should, serve to remind us of spiritual realities! We are a spiritual people, and ours is a spiritual life, not just a physical one. But seeing life with spiritual eyes of faith takes a great deal of work anytime of year, much less this time of year.

And yet, all around us are signs that point us to the truth of what God has done. The manger is one, most definitely, and we have already talked about how to look at the manger scene. But there are even more!

Everything we do at Christmas, one way or the other, carries symbolism and meaning.

Each gift should point us to the greatest gift of all

Each blessed Christmas meal points us to the great meal that awaits us at the marriage supper of the lamb

Each light we look at holds the potential to point us to the Light of the World!

Each Christmas tree reminds us of the one who hung on a tree for our sake.

Each gathering reminds us of the great gathering around the throne that awaits all who have received Christ.

But it isn’t just the great things about Christmas that can remind us of the goodness of God! The longings of our hearts point us towards Christ as well.

Each lonely moment spent remembering points us to the One who will dry every tear.

Each loved one we miss reminds us that this world will be renewed, that our souls are eternal, and this life is fleeting, but one day Christ will return and make all wrongs right.

Each cold and dreary day serves to point us to the hope of a day when it is always Christmas and never winter.

Every early sunset and long night puts a longing in our hearts for the day when there will not need to be a sun, because the radiant light of the glory of God will be our sunshine.

How do we do this? Well, it takes work to keep these things in front of us, doesn’t it? Our natural inclination - to just see the physical, right in front of us, and forget about the spiritual truths that are just as real or, in some cases, even more real.

Even the things we lament about this season point to deeper, spiritual realities. I wonder how our perspective would change on things if, instead of simply lamenting the materialism that surrounds this season, we stopped and thought about what the materialism of the season revealed about the longing hearts of people? Every physical longing points to a deeper spiritual reality. They are, if you will, a sign. And each of these signs show us that our only satisfaction, our only redemption, can come as we meditate on The Savior, Christ, The Lord.

And as Christians, the highest use of every physical thing is as a means of meditating on a spiritual reality. So, we celebrate Christmas, and we do so as a sign, a means of remembering not only the true meaning of Christmas, but the true meaning of life itself! Christ has come and redeemed men for God! We are different because of Christ! and our minds, and our eyes, are different because of Christ. We are to look at this world through the eyes of faith, and when we do, we see signs all around us that point us to Jesus!

3 - See how blessed we truly are!

This season is a time for us to remember the blessings that God has given us. I stood at the back of the room last Sunday, and just marveled at the blessing of a church family, of gathering and enjoying one another, and of how good He has been to all of us.

I think the older I get, the more this year is a time of reflection for me. I think about what Christmases were like 10 or 11 years ago, I think about how much has changed from last year to this, I think of how many things I have seen the Lord do and I have found this to be a really good exercise.

But there is this little phrase tucked into the song of the angels that gives us even greater perspective into what our greatest blessing is: peace with God! But look at how the angels say it:

“on earth peace among those with whom He is pleased.” What a curious statement. Most modern Christmas songs have paraphrased this little statement with something like “peace on earth” and little else. But that’s not exactly what the angels are saying here. Look at what they are saying:

very literally, this passage reads “peace towards the men of His good pleasure.” Now, what does that mean? It means that Jesus did not come to bring peace for all people; He came to bring peace for His people. And who are His people? Those who hear His voice and respond to Him through repentance and faith! Those who are justified by faith.

It’s that incredible truth that we examined in Romans 5:1 - we who have been justified by faith have peace with God!

That is the blessing that the coming of Jesus brought us, friends! That we who were enemies of God and by nature children of wrath would have the Son of God take on flesh and live the life we could never live, in order that we might live with God forever! And the result of that is peace!

But that peace, the peace of God, is limited only to those who have turned from sin and trusted in the Savior. So we look to Christmas and marvel, that of all the people God could have chosen, that He chose me and you, not because there was something in us that was better or different than others, but simply according to His great mercy. God’s peace is reserved only for God’s people.

Which is why it is so heartbreaking when we don’t live our lives according to the peace of God. It’s why it hurts so deeply when conflict seems to define our days. We were redeemed for peace, by peace, and through the work of Christ to make peace for us. But we still live in a fallen world, so in order to truly experience the peace of God, we have to work at it. We have to do these things, that we have talked about today:

We must truly see Christ, remember who He is and what He has done, and be in awe of our Savior.

We must see the signs around us as pointing to Christ, and take our thoughts captive, looking to see spiritual realities in each one that show us a clearer picture of the Savior.

We must see how uniquely blessed God’s people are, as the ones chosen by God to experience the peace of God.

And that’s what this text has for us: do the work of worship!

What is Luke 2:9-14 telling me to do?

Do the work of worship! Worship is not simply an experience. An experience is something that happens TO you. Elizabeth Elliot once said:

"Worship is not an experience. Worship is an act, and this takes discipline. We are to worship in spirit and in truth. Never mind about the feelings. We are to worship in spite of them."

Worship takes discipline. This is never more true than at Christmas, where the lines between secular consumerism, deistic moralism, and true biblical Christianity are all intentionally blurred to the point that we can barely see where one ends and the other begins. But all the trappings of Christmas point to a deeper spiritual reality, either to what Christ has done, or what Christ has come to do.

So, enjoy your Christmas! But take your thoughts captive! Take the things of Christmas and just ask three questions of everything you do:

Is my heart devoted to the Savior, Christ the Lord as I enjoy this?

How can I see this pointing me to what Christ has done or what Christ came to do?

How does this point to the unique blessing I have of the peace of God?

This is the work of worship at Christmas. It’s likely none of us will do this perfectly. But it’s also likely at least some of us have never tried. So this year, take every Christmas thought captive. Look into your celebrations and see Christ, and then worship Him! True worship takes work. But what it produces is amazing fruit in our lives, as we learn to see this season for what it is: a time to truly reflect on and then praise God for His incredible work.

Non-Christian: do you long for peace? There is only one way to have true peace, and that is through Jesus Christ.

Benediction: Romans 5:1

Romans 5:1 ESV

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.