GLORY TO GOD IN THE HIGHEST

Luke 2:1-20

Key Verse 2:14

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

Today’s passage is about the First Christmas ever. The first Christmas was a glorious Christmas, full of praise, worship and welcoming of the newborn king. Our purpose in studying the first Christmas is so we can make this Christmas, the one in 2007, just as wonderful.

Here are some Christmas Icons and Activities: Christmas Trees, Snow Men, Santa Claus, EggNog, Christmas Lights, Mistletoe, Christmas Cookies 

Candy Cane, Shopping, Presents, Snow Flakes, Christmas Ornament, Stockings, Wreaths.

All these things have become associated with Christmas. But as we will see, none of these items and activities are found in the passage. There is only one item that is required to have a glorious Christmas this year…that is Christ.

Practically though it isn’t easy to Get the Christ into Christmas because of the holiday hustle and bustle. As we will see many people during the first Christmas totally failed to get the Christ into Christmas. And what it means to get the “Christ into Christmas” is to accept Jesus into our heart. But if we are successful in this area, it will be just as glorious and wonderful as the first one described herein. So the question we want to answer through the passage is, “How do we get the Christ into Christmas?” The passage contains several clues to answering this question!

Let’s begin by looking at verses 1-3, “In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. 2(This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) 3And everyone went to his own town to register.”

At a quick glance these verses seem like a page out of a history book. But these verses represent the very challenging circumstances the Jews faced during the time of Jesus’ birth. There were two main problems:

(1) The problem of Caesar Augustus

He was good news for Rome but his authority over the Jews was “bad news” for them. What bothered people the most was the fact that he was a hedonistic gentile who embodied the Jewish antithesis. But what really burned the Jews is that he promoted the worship of man (himself) and that his Roman army occupied their land and took taxes from them.

Can you imagine if the Russian president Putin came to America and set up an occupation and then made President Bush his errand boy! How mad and burdened Americans would feel. But this is what happened. For Herod the Great was the King of Israel but his boss was really Caesar Augustus.

The presence of Caesar and Rome caused to main responses among the Jews:

(a) Some people became enraged and started feeding a nationalists agenda—they became known as the “Zealots”. (b) Others became opportunists and saw a chance to garner power and money and so became subservient to the Roman Agenda.

(2) The second problem for the people of Israel was the issue of the census. This census put a lot of pressure on the people through: travel expenses, time away from business and jobs, the busyness of all the people moving around, etc. It was such a burden to deal with.

With all these negative circumstances happening to them (Gentile Occupation, Corrupt Ruler, Taxation, Census) the people of Israel must have felt so bad and complained about their situation a lot.

What did this situation do to their heart? It filled their hearts with all kinds of anxiety, burden, worry and despair. Because of the harsh worldly conditions people’s love grew cold and because their hearts were filled with the worries of this world, their minds were full of worries of this world. The Ruler of all creation was coming to the world and was already ready to come but the people’s were stuck thinking about the things of this world.

The next verses develop this point further. Lets look at verses 2:4-7.

4So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. 5He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. 6While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, 7and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

At the very end here we see an interesting expression, “because there was no room for them in the inn.”

The problem wasn’t an issue of square footage of an inn but a problem of a cluttered mind and cluttered hearts that were filled with worries of this life and the pursuits of life. Another way to call this cluttering effect is being “busy minded”

Being busy minded is extremely dangerous because it pushes out the things of God and makes one numb to what God is newly doing. Can you imagine, the savior of the world, the king of glory, the Immanual was being born right down the street and people missed out! All because they were too worried about their problems!

Let’s consider an opposite example. Joseph and Mary were not too busy for the things of God. Joseph and Mary did not suffer from a “busy minded” nor were their hearts full of anxiety about their outward circumstance. In fact, they made huge amounts of space in their heart for God and their minds were set on fulfilling the personal missions God had given them. God had no problem getting into their hearts and as a result they were the carriers and participants of Gods’ work.

So looking back to our main question: “How do we get Christ into Christmas?” The first thing we learn from the passage is we need to:

1. Make lots and lots of room for God! Both in mind & heart.

We also learn here, 

2. Don’t worry about the world or this life. God is In Control.

This second rule is based on the fact that God was in control of Caesar and God was in control of the census because he was using them to bring about the Christ’s birth in Bethlehem. This was God’s sovereignty and God’s will for these things to happen, therefore they shouldn’t have been complaining about it because God was in doing good through the bad circumstances.

Let’s look at some more people who successfully participated in the first Christmas. Read vs. 8-9.

“And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. 9An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.”

These shepherds were really humble guys. They had one good point about them, they weren’t in a hurry to go anywhere and they were willing to take time to investigate into what God had done. When you think about it, God didn’t zap them into the presence of Mary, Joseph and the baby Jesus. Instead he gave them a message and a sign to seek after. Let’s look at the message.

Let’s read verses 10-12.

10But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. 11Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. 12This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” 

WOW! This was amazing! God blessed these humble shepherds with something really valuable. They were being invited to see the work of God and check it out. The most important even of Man’s history was about to happen and they got invited. God knew they would look into more and so he told them.

But was just the beginning, look what happened next: Read verses 13-15.

“Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, 14”Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.” 15When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let's go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”

I want to focus in on verse 14 because it is the key verse.

Verse 14 is an important verse because it is the high praise of the angels who dwell in God’s presence. These angels were God’s messengers but in a sense these angels were like “insiders” because they understood and saw what God was doing. The shepherds here were being given that knowledge of God’s work but they still needed to see it for themselves. So they were given the homework assignment in verse 12, “This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” So after they got this clue from God they said in verse 15b, “Let's go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.” Though they had the message God left room for them to seek it out. From their situation we can learn:

3. Seek the lord Jesus diligently based on God’s message (Word)

Just like the angel’s message the Bible directs us towards Christ. It is our opportunity to read the Bible (God’s message) and then meet the Lord personally through its guidance.

Let’s look at verses 16-20.

So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. 17When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, 18and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. 19But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. 20The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.

There are several things happening here. First, we see that after seeing Jesus, the shepherds accepted him into their hearts and then “spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child.” The shepherds, like the angels, became messengers and witnesses to what God was doing. The people who heard these things were “amazed” at what the shepherds said to them. This brings us to our fourth answer to the question: “How can we get Christ into Christmas?”

4. Be a witness to the glory of Jesus’ coming.

It is very important to be a witness to Jesus because the coming of Christ is the most glorious event and it brings “glory to God in the highest” and it also brings “peace to men”. Witnessing is most fluid and easy when the glory of Christ’s birth is newly accepted in our hearts. When we accept Jesus into our hearts the joy of this good news fills us up and we happily tell the world about God’s work. Just recently, Dr. John Jung went to go play tennis and he saw a woman there who was geared-up with all her tennis stuff but didn’t have anyone to play with. So, he asked her, “Would you like to play with us?” The woman accepted and after playing tennis he invited her to the Sunday service. She came that week with her son (who was college age)! I think they started Bible study now too. Also, Missionary Isaac had a student 30 years ago who accepted the message of the gospel and who called Missionary Isaac just to say, “Merry Christmas”. By God’s grace when I was at McDonald’s last week I was so blessed by God’s grace to send Christ that I asked a woman worker at McDonald’s, “Has anyone told you, ‘Merry Christmas’.” She said “yes” and then sat down next to me and started telling me her life story. Through witnessing to her she became brighter and happier. God’s grace filled my heart as I told her about God’s love through Jesus. May God help us to be witnesses to Jesus and to invite many people to the Christmas worship service on Decemeber 16th.

Now at the end of the passage Mary is stated to have “treasured up” all these things so she could “ponder” them in her heart. She is a good example of someone who does not let God’s grace slip through her fingers and doesn’t receive God’s grace in vain. From her we can learn the fifth way to bring Christ into Christmas. That is to:

5. Treasure up all these things.

From today’s passage we learned several things that can make this years celebration of Christ just as glorious as the first celebration of Christ. Especially, we learned from the shepherds who made time to look into what the angels had told them. The Lord was pleased to bring them into this awesome event because of their dedication and interest in God’s great work. If we follow their example we can see the glory of God to the highest through his son Jesus Christ.

One Word: Glory to God in the highest.

 

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