The Word Became Flesh: Glory to God in the Highest

Introduction

John 1:14 NIV84

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

No time of the year are we reminded of this truth more than the time in which we are in now. The world becomes a beautifully decorated Hallmark Card as trees are put up, decorations are brought out of storage, and we go through the hustle and bustle of celebrating the joys of Christmas. Some stores have been piping in Christmas music now for 2 months as they try to drive sales and move merchandise to promote the most wonderful time of the year.

The world becomes home to festive parties, gifts being exchanged, and lots of goodies being baked. All these things happen because traditionally we celebrate this time of the year as Christmas, the time when the Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us.

Over the next few weeks, I want to invite you to examine with me exactly what it means to us that the Word did become flesh and made His dwelling among us. The Word is not just a word. It is about God revealing something about Himself through His spoken word and perfectly personified in His Son Jesus.

As the Word of God, Christ being God, came to this world to reveal God to us. As the Word of God, Christ with God from the beginning and became flesh. As the Word of God, Christ was the Creator of all things.

The angels knew this and realized what was happening on that first Christmas day. That is why they were sent to reveal the Lord’s coming. Our text today shows us what they sang in celebration of this incredible event.

Luke 2:14 NIV84

“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.”

As we take off on this journey, let’s look at this verse a bit more and see what gave them this jubilation when the Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us.

A Familiar Statement

If you have ever celebrated Christmas in any way you have heard or read this statement multiple times. We have it on the cards we give and receive. We hear it on the songs that have been sung. We even hear it proclaimed in “ A Charlie Brown Christmas.”

Has it become too familiar that we have lost what it really means?

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We learn in the preceding verse that the announcement was from a multitude of angels. The multitude’s first word was Glory. In Scripture, Glory usually has two meanings. One meaning is that Glory is an attribute or general characteristic of God. Another meaning refers to a particular point in time when God manifested His Presence. Both meaning point to His majesty, His splendor and His beauty.

So when the angels said Glory to God, they were announcing the majesty, the splendor and the beauty of God was manifesting His presence! It was both an announcement and a pronouncement. One is a public or formal notice that something has happened. The other is a formal authoritative statement.

These angels are announcing the Glory of God and at the same time pronouncing what God has done with the birth of Jesus. They are embracing the holiness of God by saying to Glory to God. remind us that we just cannot match up with the glory of God.

Romans 3:23 NIV84

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

Romans

The angels are saying to us what the scriptures also give to us!

Nehemiah 9:5 NIV84

And the Levites—Jeshua, Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabneiah, Sherebiah, Hodiah, Shebaniah and Pethahiah—said: “Stand up and praise the Lord your God, who is from everlasting to everlasting.” “Blessed be your glorious name, and may it be exalted above all blessing and praise.

refers to blessing His Glorious Name.

Ephesians 1:17 NIV84

I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.

describes Him as the Glorious Father.

calls Him the King of Glory.

, tell us that God’s glory is exalted above the heavens and earth.

shows us that the glory of God appeared to the Patriarchs.

We see from , and that even creation proclaims the glory of God.

There are many other instances of scripture portraying the glory of God.

The statement from the angels about the glory of God is consistent with what scripture tells us. This is a wonderful example that reminds us that all messengers of God will never contradict scripture, and scripture will never contradict true messengers of God.

However, this multitude of angels did not just say glory to God, they said glory to God in the highest.

This had to be a fabulous song!

A Fabulous Song

This multitude of angels made the announcement and pronouncement. They had been given the opportunity to share the highest of all announcements and pronouncements. We learn from that one of the functions of the angels was to glorify God.

Isaiah 6:3 NIV84

And they were calling to one another: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.”

On that Christmas night, one angel had given the good news of the birth of Jesus to the shepherds. Then, according to :

Luke 2:13 NIV84

Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,

Luke 2:13 NIV84

Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,

They were singing about something that could make mankind could receive. They were singing about Jesus, the Son of God, being born in a manger. Not just a baby born into the world, but a baby that would be the salvation for the world. They gave God the glory and then proclaimed it as the highest possible way they could. Glory to God in the Highest!

They were singing about something that could make mankind could receive. They were singing about Jesus, the Son of God, being born in a manger. Not just a baby born into the world, but a baby that would be the salvation for the world. They gave God the glory and then proclaimed it as the highest possible way they could. Glory to God in the Highest! We have just just mentioned that even the creation gives praise to God. God is glorified in the beautiful sunrises and sunsets we have seen this week. God is glorified through every bird that sings. God is glorified by the creatures of the sea and every animal that roams the earth. God is glorified even by the stars in the sky and all of the marvels of the universe. Yet in the incredible beauty of all His creation, God chose to make His salvation known through the Word that became flesh.

We have just just mentioned that even the creation gives praise to God. God is glorified in the beautiful sunrises and sunsets we have seen this week. God is glorified through every bird that sings. God is glorified by the creatures of the sea and every animal that roams the earth. God is glorified even by the stars in the sky and all of the marvels of the universe. Yet in the incredible beauty of all His creation, God chose to make His salvation known through the Word that became flesh.

These angels knew that while creation could praise and glorify God, it was not the full manifestation of the created order. God has something higher and greater. Creation giving praise and glory to God is beautiful, but it was not as high as what God did in salvation. Salvation, mankind being made right with God, is the absolute highest degree of what God has done. Salvation glorifies God. It provides for His most intelligent and amazing creation, the opportunity to be aligned with Himself.

Glory to God in the Highest!

What a fabulous song that must have been these angels sang!

I believe these angels had song Glory to God since the foundation of the world. But this was the first time that the angels sang “Glory to God in the Highest.” God did not change His position or His status. God was already getting all the glory. says:

Psalm 108:5 NIV84

Be exalted, O God, above the heavens, and let your glory be over all the earth.

The angels were saying, “nothing can stand in the way of seeing just how incredible God is, and we are telling you about the greatest thing He has ever done!”

The angels didn’t need salvation. They were designed to praise God and give Him glory. The angels were excited because the ones that needed salvation were given an opportunity to receive it through the birth of this child. This caused them to celebrate so they sang out, “Glory to God in the highest.”

Matthew Henry wrote, “Other works of God are for His glory, but the redemption of the world is His glory in the Highest.”

The angels knew that!

Then they explained why they were giving glory to God in the highest.

They sang out, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men whom His favor rests.”

A Final Solution

They get specific in their pronouncement. The angels proclaim the final solution. Since the creation of the world, mankind entered into a state of rebellion and turned their backs on their Creator.

Let me explain this by reading from the Book of Isaiah.

Notice the final solution.

Isaiah 1:2 NIV84

Hear, O heavens! Listen, O earth! For the Lord has spoken: “I reared children and brought them up, but they have rebelled against me.

Isaiah 1:

Isaiah 1:18 NIV84

“Come now, let us reason together,” says the Lord. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.

Isaiah 9:

The people needed to have peace with their God. Peace is the healing of the great divide between God and mankind caused by sin. The angels specifically stated, that on earth peace was coming to mankind whom had the favor of God.

In today’s world, peace is a word that many people don’t understand. Some people think that peace can be found in a bottle or in a drug. Some people think that peace can be found in a relationship or perhaps in a job. Some people think that peace comes from studying crystals or the alignment of planets.

Real peace can only be found in and through God. For God to allow that to happen, He had to have a way in which the holy could become accessible by the unholy. There had to be a bridge to cover the humongous gap that stood between a Holy God and very unholy men and women. There had to be a way that established peace. Rick Warren says there are three things that rob us of our peace: guilt, grief, and grudges. Guilt is what separates us from God. We are guilty of the acts we have committed that are unholy. However, what the angels proclaimed is that our unholy acts are redeemed because of and through Christ.

Sometimes we grieve that which we have lost. For many of us, this season brings up many painful memories. Perhaps the loss of a loved one, a relationship that went south, a parent that abandoned you, or something like that. God never intended for you to carry that all alone. He knows your pain and longs to walk along beside you and even carry you.

Sometimes we hold grudges because of what has been done to us. Like the grief and guilt, grudges cause us to make situations and circumstances bigger than God. We become resentful and angry that these things happened to us.

All of these things rob us from our peace. The angels knew this and in their announcement and pronouncement, they saw that a Holy God was offering to provide a way to be free from guilt, grief, and grudges. The angels proclaimed “Glory to God in the highest, on earth peace to men whom His favor rests.”

If you want to have peace on earth, you have to give Glory to God. To give glory to God, you have to be able to access Him. To access Him, you have to have a Savior. Why would God do this?

Simple. He loves us. The verse says that we are “whom His favor rests.” Have you ever been told you are favored? Have you ever been told you are approved of, accepted, and blessed? You are admired, esteemed and considered. God says you are favored and because you are favored, the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.

Glory to God in the Highest!

We are on this earth temporarily. We

One more thing, the angels were the messengers of God and in God’s designed order, once mankind had the Good News, mankind became the messengers. If you read the rest of the story in , you see that the shepherds go and see the Christ child then listen to what happened in ,

Luke 2:17 NIV84

When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child,

When you see that Christmas card this year or hear that song that says, “Glory to God in the Highest, and on earth peace to men whom His favor rests”, perhaps you should go and spread the word. This worlds needs to hear it.