Responding to the Glory of God
Notes
Transcript
The title of the sermon today is...
The glory of God is something we speak of often here at CF. We mention it during call to Worship, it’s often included in the songs that we sing, we speak of it as we open the Word. It is the first thing mentioned in our values which help guide the purpose and identity of why we as Church exist. The issue however is that I believe this statement and the overall topic of the Glory of God has the tendency to become Christian Jargon. In other words, we say it often but do we really know what it means or just as likely there are some in our gathering today who will know exactly what we are talking about but others who will feel lost and confused when we make the assumption that anyone and everyone should just know what the Glory of God is.
So the two goals for this morning is that we would walk away understanding what the glory of God is and secondly that we would learn from the example of the shepherds on how we are to respond to God’s demonstrated glory.
Prayer
It is much easier to react then it is to initiate
Think about the last goal or change you wanted to implement. When it is up to us to muster up what is needed to bring about the desired effect it gets challenging whereas simply reacting to the influences and environmental factors around us is much easier. Spiritually, this holds true as well. When we lose sight that God HAS initiated and taken the first step in everything we need first for salvation but also for our continued growth in Him it frees us and enables us to simply react to what He has first done. When we lose sight of this and feel like we must muster up the strength, the determination, the wherewith-all to obey and grow and enjoy the Lord we get burned out and we fail quickly.
As we jump into our text for this morning, Church can I encourage us with the Truth that God was and is the initiator. Just as Romans 5:8 and Ephesians 2 reminds us that we were dead, we were lost and yet God intervened.
READ Passage
In our passage God initiates HIs redemptive plan by showing His glory to a group of shepherds who are simply going about their business as usual.
Who were these shepherds?
While not pagans as the Wise Men were, these shepherds were societal outcasts as they were often ceremoniously unclean due to the nature of their work. In essence they were viewed as subpar citizens.
Based off how the text describes the location of the flocks many commentators believe these shepherds could have been herding the sheep that would have been used for temple sacrifices.
As one author notes as we think about this passage in its entirety:
“It is a lovely thought that the shepherds who looked after the Temple lambs were the first to see the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”
What is the Glory of God?
Paul Tripp:
“You can say for sure that God is glorious – your Bible declares that he is – but you cannot accurately and fully describe in words the glory that Scripture declares. Perhaps the only workable path into some understanding of the grandeur of the glory of God is to read the entire Bible from cover to cover over and over again, looking for divine glory. Why? Because the glory of God isn't defined in his Word; no, his glory is so grand that it splashes across every page of his book.”
“The doctrine of God's glory encompasses the greatness, beauty, and perfection of all that he is.”
John Piper:
And one called to another and said:
“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;
the whole earth is full of his glory!”
“...the glory of God is the manifest beauty of his holiness. It is the going-public of his holiness. It is the way he puts his holiness on display for people to apprehend. So, the glory of God is the holiness of God made manifest.”
While Paul Tripp and John Piper might express their definition’s slightly different, the emphasis remains the same that God’s glory is His visible demonstration of His beauty, worthiness, greatness, perfection, holiness ALL OF WHICH STARKLY contrast with you and I.
Fear
They had a correct response to the Glory of God. It produced appropriate fear and positioned them to have the correct heart attitude as they approached the Savior.
God took the first step both in sending His Son but also in sending His messengers. This was not an incident that was intended to go unnoticed rather one that God desired to purposefully highlight.
The response of the Shepherds and the reassurance of the Angels mirrors that of how we should understand the whole of the Gospel.
Jonah began to go into the city, going a day’s journey. And he called out, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” And the people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them.
The word reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. And he issued a proclamation and published through Nineveh, “By the decree of the king and his nobles: Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything. Let them not feed or drink water, but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and let them call out mightily to God. Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish.”
When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it.
But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap.
Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”
JONATHON EDWARDS SERMON and the people’s response.
This response is not just for those who are unregenerate but also for those who have been made right before God.
Then Gideon perceived that he was the angel of the Lord. And Gideon said, “Alas, O Lord God! For now I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face.” But the Lord said to him, “Peace be to you. Do not fear; you shall not die.”
And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”
When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand on me, saying, “Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades.
Fear is the right response to the glory of God. It sanctifies our heart to where we view God and ourselves correctly. Just as the proverb writer explains, fear of the Lord is the foundation for all wisdom. If we think of God and have no sense of fear and deep, transformative reverence for who He is and what He is capable of our view of God is perverted.
The shepherds understood this.
2. The incredible reassurance and initiative by God brought about Joy.
Mankind NOW has a Savior. There is one who can forgive their sins, deliver them from death, bring new life. There is one who can be the final and sufficient sacrifice.
For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given;
and the government shall be upon his shoulder,
and his name shall be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Of the increase of his government and of peace
there will be no end,
on the throne of David and over his kingdom,
to establish it and to uphold it
with justice and with righteousness
from this time forth and forevermore.
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.
The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!
IS there any better news? Is there anything more noteworthy? Is there anything more precious and valuable for each and everyone of us? Is there joy that is overflowing?
Martin Lloyd Jones is incredibly helpful in framing this understanding as he says:
“You must be made miserable before you can know true Christian joy. Indeed the real trouble with the miserable Christian is that he has never been truly made miserable because of conviction of sin. He has by-passed the essential preliminary to joy, he has been assuming something that he has no right to assume.”
Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe:
“Aslan stood in the center of a crowd of creatures who had grouped themselves round him in the shape of a half-moon. . . .
But as for Aslan himself, the Beavers and the children didn’t know what to do or say when they saw him. People who have not been in Narnia sometimes think that a thing cannot be good and terrible at the same time. If the children had ever thought so, they were cured of it now. For when they tried to look at Aslan’s face they just caught a glimpse of the golden mane and the great, royal, solemn, overwhelming eyes; and then they found they couldn’t look at him and went all trembly. . . .
His voice was deep and rich and somehow took the fidgets out of them. They now felt glad and quiet and it didn’t seem awkward to them to stand and say nothing.”
Perhaps our prayer each day should be that God would fill us with appropriate fear at the holiness of God and the seriousness of sin, but to accompany this we would also be filled with abundant joy in our Savior Jesus Christ.
3. They were stirred into action
A. Enthusiastically pursued God’s revelation
With haste:
Two speeding tickets illustration
and Found:
The word “found” means to find after a search. They had some parameters to work with and they fully engaged in the process of unearthing the exact stable in which the Savior of the world would be located.
How engaged are we in pursuing Christ? Unlike the shepherds we are not searching for the location of our Savior but rather we are called follow Jesus, denying ourselves, and picking up crosses daily. With what effort and intensity could be it be said that we are wholeheartedly running after this joyful calling?
B. They shared with others what God had communicated to them
We talk about what is important to us. We discuss the things that excite us. When you had a good day at work, finished a project, discovered something new, were commended for an achievement…you share these things because there is something about it that thrills your heart.
Now I recognize full well that this is going to come across harsh and can I be the first to raise my hand and confess my own going guiltiness of this, but is there any other way to explain that for the believer who does not share the Gospel message with someone else that in that moment they are valuing something or someone else as more significant. Busyness, awkwardness, fear, embarrassment, apathy are all real things that our human body that is still impacted by sin will raise up to combat against sharing the Gospel with others. But as we assess the last time we could have shared the Gospel can I gently encourage to evaluate why you did not? Can I gently encourage you to sift through the excuses we feed ourselves and to make it our goal that every morning, afternoon, and evening the Glory of God would be where we place our focus and hope and as meditate on God’s Glory we would be unable to help ourselves from allowing it to have its naturally outflow into our lives.
C. Just as their story started with the glory of God it ends with it as well.
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