Glory To God In The Highest! Luke 2:8-20 Series

Luke 2:28 And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. 9 An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. 11 Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. 12 This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

13 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.”

15 When 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.”

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

Tonight I’d like to consider just three aspects of this passage:

1. To whom were the angels speaking?

2. What did they say?

3. What was the response?

THE AUDIENCE

Shepherds: they were “nobodies”. This is clear. If it were not for these few verses in the Bible, this troop of sheep herders would have lived out their entire lives without any notice from anyone in the world. No one in our century would have heard of the shepherds of Bethlehem were it not for the message God sent them by the angels.

Yet, beyond this, Jesus called himself a Shepherd, and not just any shepherd, but the Good shepherd. The people who reflect God’s glory do so by means of their simplicity and ordinariness. God receives the glory He deserves, quite often, only when He works through the lowly. The high, mighty, influential, popular, famous and rich do things for God and too often get glory for themselves. But God brought His son into the world through two poor village Jews, and He announced His birth to the lowly. This was the nature of Jesus’ entire ministry. As Augustine said

Maker of the sun,

He is made under the sun.

In the Father he remains,

From his mother he goes forth.

Creator of heaven and earth,

He was born on earth under heaven.

Unspeakably wise,

He is wisely speechless.

Filling the world,

He lies in a manger.

Ruler of the stars,

He nurses at his mother’s bosom.

He is both great in the nature of God,

and small in the form of a servant.

THE MESSAGE

The message to these simple shepherds demonstrates the fact that God and God alone will get the glory for the work He does. And that brings us to part two: the message

14 “Glory to God in the highest,

and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.”

This demonstrates for us the unmistakable dual aspect of our relationships: first to God, and second to humanity (the vertical and horizontal). In our relationship with God, He gets all the glory. In our relationships with one another, God wants us to have peace and good will. Jesus taught the greatest commandment was “love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength” and the second greatest commandment was “love your neighbor as yourself” “All the law and prophets are fulfilled in these two”. How do we love God? At least part of it is we give glory to Him.

What is glory? I know many have undertaken to explain the meaning of glory. I’d like to add my two cents worth.

The Hebrew word, chabad, has something to do with weight. But the way the word is used shows us it means more than this.

18 Then Moses said, “Now show me your glory.”19 And the LORD said, “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the LORD, in your presence. . . . When my glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft in the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by. 23 Exodus 33:18-23