Series: Songs of Christmas
Title: Angels Song
Text: Luke 2:8-20
Truth: Christmas wonders at the birth of God the Savior.
Aim: I want them to worship God for Christmas.
Life ?: How do we recover our wonder of Christmas?
INTRODUCTION
The intriguing thing about contrasts is their similarities.
For example, Bill Crowder (RBC Ministries) illustrates this with the two top rock bands in the 1960’s, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. Both bands were from England, and both bands were revolutionary in their music, but the similarities end there.
The Beatles (in their early years), under the careful tutelage of manager Brian Epstein, were clean-cut, dressed in suits, and fun, while the Stones were dark and brooding and looked more like a street gang than professional musicians. The Beatles were likeable enough to spawn a cartoon series; the Stones were edgy and presented themselves as being almost dangerous. The Beatles innocently sang, “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” the Stones pushed the edges of propriety for that day with “Let’s Spend The Night Together.” As you’d expect their fan bases were radically different.
The Christmas story holds that kind of contrast. Can you think of two groups more different than the angels and the shepherds? The angels belong to another world, but the shepherds belong to the lowest social class in this world. The angels are bright and glorious with heavenly light, but the shepherds are dirty and carry the stench of sheep. The angels knew what it was like to exist in the presence of God, but the shepherds were excluded from the very temple they provided sheep for sacrifice. The angels explode onto the scene with loud, dynamic shouts of praise and worship, but the poor shepherds are stunned and frightened into silence.
Despite these Grand Canyon like differences, in the matter of Christmas, the angels and the shepherds display a surprising similarity. They both wonder at the birth of God the Savior! For centuries Christians have celebrated with awe and joy the birth of the Savior, but the first was this odd couple of angels and shepherds. They come from very different perspectives but they come to the same conclusion: the birth of God the Savior is wondrous.
What is wonder? We experience wonder when our expectations are exceeded. Wonder is being astonished at the fantastic, jolted by splendor. Wonder is the by-product of being in the presence of something that takes your breath away. There is an element of the will in wonder. A person can choose to not be impressed.
On our tenth anniversary this church did something wondrous for us. You made it possible for Carol and me to spend a week at Niagara Falls. (By the way, we did get to attend a Toronto Blue Jays baseball game and see Cal Ripkin play. It was great!) The next day after arriving we walked down to see Niagara Falls. It was a warm day. When we were at least two blocks away from the Falls, the temperature suddenly dropped several degrees. It was like walking into an A/C room. We couldn’t figure out what happened. Then we saw Niagara Falls.
As you know, on the American side there is the American Falls and the Bridal Falls. Approximately 150,000 gallons of water spill over the side every second. On the Canadian side there is the famous horseshoe fall, and a mere 600,000 gallons of water pours over its side every second. It is awe-inspiring.
Do you remember the first time you saw the Grand Canyon? It’s a mile deep and anywhere from 4 to 18 miles across. The astronauts can see it from space. You stand there in wonder. It exceeds your expectations. You are jolted by the splendor. You are astonished by the fantastic. It takes your breath away. You know what the angels and the shepherds experienced at the news of the birth of God the Savior. They wondered.
In the Christmas story the angels are busy delivering messages. The first angel we encounter is an archangel named Gabriel. Apparently, he is high ranking in the order of angels. His name means, “warrior of God.” They are the first to bring the critical message from heaven to earth of good news of a Savior to be born. Gabriel tells the old priest Zacharias that his childless wife Elizabeth will conceive and give birth to the forerunner of the Messiah. Six months later he appears to a young woman named Mary in the obscure village of Nazareth. He informs her she has been chosen for the role of giving birth to the promised Messiah. This was the desire of every Jewish woman. He also made a visit to her betrothed, Joseph, and assured him of Mary’s purity and the miracle she carried in her womb.
Nine months later Gabriel (we presume) suddenly appears in the Judean skies over the shepherd’s fields of Bethlehem. The brilliance of his appearance is exceeded only by this stunning message in v. 10-12 of Luke 2.
Up to this point in the story angels have served as messengers. We might think that is their primary function. It is not. When Isaiah saw into the throne room of God, he saw the primary function of angels. Their primary function is to praise and worship God. Hear is what Isaiah heard the angels occupying themselves with when in the presence of God: “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory” (Isa. 6:3). As soon as they finish praising God for his excellence they are reminded of something else about his glory and greatness, and they burst forth with another word of worship. They do this for all eternity.
In Revelation 4-5 John is given a glimpse of heaven. He reveals that the angels are declaring the holiness of God and they call on the redeemed of God to worship God for the wonder of his creation and to worship Christ for the wonder of his salvation.
You must see this. Angels spend eternity praising God for his creation and his salvation. They no sooner finish seeing something of the glory of God in which to praise and worship Him, than they discover something new to begin again offering praise and worship to the eternal God. Praising and marveling at the glory of God is their first business. But when the angel Gabriel announces to these shepherds that God the Savior of mankind has been born in Bethlehem, they can no longer contain themselves. They break their silence. They reveal their presence. They clear off a patch of Judean sky and have a hallelujah fit! There is something so wondrous about this event that it interrupts the perpetual praise of God around the throne of God! Christmas wonders at the birth of God the Savior.
I might point out that all an angel can do is observe salvation. Only redeemed sinners can actually experience salvation. How much more should be our wonder?
In contrast to the angels are the shepherds who wonder at the message of Christmas. It makes sense that the angels would be trusted with the single most important message the world was ever to hear. After some thought its reasonable that the angels would see the glory of this event and reach a new height in praise to God. But it strains incredulity that God would break the news first to shepherds.
Two summers when I was a boy I worked in the fields around Lindsey cutting broomcorn. It was the hardest work I’ve ever done. “Broomcorn Johnnies” would come from all over when it was time to harvest. Often they would camp under the bridge by the Washita River. They were hardworking and rough living. Most of them had limited education.
We were paid in cash at the end of each day’s work. I was in line with my Grandpa Sasnett and two uncles to get paid. I didn’t catch the whole conversation but my Grandpa did. Basically, the farmer’s son made a wise crack about us “broomcorn Johnnies” being unable to count up our money as high as we were being paid. It was demeaning, and I remember Grandpa being very angry. The people of the first century held that same low opinion of shepherds.
These were probably young boys. Because of their work they were considered unclean and could not participate in worship at the temple. Since sheep needed constant care, they were not able to participate in cleansing rituals. As a result they were permanently shut out of ever being acceptable to even offer one of their sheep for worship to God. Numbers tells us that making someone shepherd was one form of punishment for those who offended society. They were viewed to be thieves. A shepherd’s testimony was considered so untrustworthy it would not be accepted in a court of law. This is whom God revealed and trusted to deliver the most stupendous news on earth. This would have never been imagined as even a possibility.
Sometimes you find something expensive and breakable in the small hands of a little child. You quickly seek to rescue the object because you know the child doesn’t appreciate its value or understand how fragile the object is. Here are men who are involved in a way of life that prevents them from ever worshiping God at the temple. That’s how little value they place on the worship of God. They are in a profession that cares so little for the commandments of God that people automatically consider them thieves and liars.
Think about it. The worship of God and the Word of God is valued less than work with sheep. This is whom God first trusted with the good news of a Savior! It boggles the mind. It is like putting thieves in charge of the bank. The riches of God were entrusted to people who regularly exchanged his glory for something lesser. It would cause wonder in the people of the first century when they heard this story.
In seeking to read the Christmas story with new eyes, it dawned on me that everything about the story is filled with wonder. The message, the messengers, and the means by which it all occurred could not have been conceived by the most creative minds of men. God was at work. It was wonderful.
How do we recover the wonder of Christmas?
I. WONDER BEGINS IN THE PRESENCE OF GOD.
In v. 9 we are told that the shepherds are surrounded by the visible presence of God. What was true of the shepherds is true for you and me. All around us is the presence of God. The problem is life has gotten too busy or it’s gotten too burdensome with care for us to see God’s wondrous presence in the ordinary details of life.
Recently, I caught a segment on TV of a movie called Jack. It’s the story of a boy that ages four times faster than usual. Robin Williams plays the role of Jack. He enters public school for the first time in the fifth grade. Though he has the emotional and mental development of a fifth grade boy, he has the body of a 40-year old man.
The scene I caught was Jack watching a butterfly being born from a chrysalis. The camera focuses on his eyes. His eyes are filled with wonder as he watches this miracle of transformation take place. A caterpillar becomes a beautiful butterfly.
Moments of wonder like that are important to us. Maybe it’s watching a baby discover its own hand for the first time or a man walking in space. These things do more than just enrich our lives. For those with eyes to see it reveals that this world is more than material, energy, and chance. There is a transcendent God whose finger prints are all over this world.
God is here. He is present and active in this beautiful world we live in. He is present and active in the people we encounter. Our eyes are meant to recognize his activity and His presence in this world. We are meant to see His greatness and goodness. It is recognizing the presence of God that restores to us our wonder. His glory surrounds us if we would but look for Him.
Could it be that one of the purposes God has for Christmas is to open our physical eyes and spiritual eyes so that we see He is here. Moments of wonder cause us to be aware of the presence of God.
How do we recover the wonder of Christmas?
II. WONDER SPREADS THE MESSAGE OF GOD.
God could have given this message to Caesar or Herod or even the mayor of Bethlehem. Instead, God gives the message to common people to share with the world. They knew that Good News is for sharing. Their witness was natural. It was the spontaneous overflow of their heart.
Four days after Christmas, 1995, Donny Herbert, a Buffalo, N.Y., fire fighter suffered an injury that left him comatose for 9 ½ years. He was minimally conscious, unaware of his surroundings and unable to communicate. His sons were 14, 13, 11, and 3 years old when he slipped into unconsciousness. Then the most wonderful thing happened. After 9 ½ years, one day suddenly Donny woke up. For sixteen hours he spoke virtually non-stop, catching up with his sons who had become men, his wife and his friends among firefighters. Then he slipped back into a similar state of unconsciousness. He finally slipped away forever in 2006.
His sixteen-hour revival astonished everyone. Some attributed it to a cocktail of drugs he was taking. Others credited prayer. His wife assigned the miracle to his will to communicate with his family one more time. For whatever reason, he had one day of clarity—a day when he was fully conscious and aware. What did he spend that day doing? Communicating the most important things to the most important people.
Once a year the world has a day of clarity, December 25. Pretty much everything stops. Families gather. Businesses stand still. Traffic clears. And even the atheist think about a baby that was declared to be the Savior of the world. Then it seems as if the world slips back into a coma about Jesus. (Joel Gregory)
When Christianity is compared to all other religions there is an interesting difference. All other religions are ethnic religions with the exception of Christianity. Hinduism is primarily Indian, Islam is Arab, Taoism is Japanese, Buddhism is Asian and Judaism is Jewish, but Christianity is not a Western religion. Jesus was not a white man. Palestine is contiguous with three continents: Asia, Africa, and Europe. How do you explain this stunning difference between ethnically diverse Christianity and the other religions that are centered in an ethnic people? People who come to know Christ have to share the wonder of the Savior.
These two weeks are the two greatest weeks of witness for a Christian. According to research by The Center for Missional Research, four out 10 Americans are receptive to an invitation during the Christmas season. The study showed that 42% of the people surveyed who said they are not born again would be very or somewhat likely to attend church more frequently as a result of their New Year’s resolution.
Maybe the reason Christians witness so little is because they wonder so rarely at what God has done for them. Before our neighbors, friends, or coworkers slip back into a coma about Jesus, ask them to be part of your Christmas worship. Who knows? Maybe God will do something wondrous like save them from their sin.
How do we recover the wonder of Christmas?
III. WONDER PRODUCES THE WORSHIP OF GOD.
The Bible indicates that the first response to the wonder of God is worship. Look at the first word of the angels to the shepherds in v. 14. It is not, “God has sent a Redeemer.” The first response of the angels when they break the news is to worship God. A whole world needs to be saved, but the first words were not about a Savior. The first words were about the glory of the Savior of salvation. In the minds of heavenly beings God always holds first place.
To cultivate the wonder of God’s presence we must place worship as the priority of our life. Don’t limit that solely to times of worship experiences. The Psalmist must have been looking into a clear night, sparkling with stars, when he said: “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands” (19:1).
He is looking into the heavens and marveling at the work of the Creator God. He sees God’s goodness, power, and wisdom. But more importantly he is aware he is in the presence of God, and this produces worship of God.
In Chicken Soup for the Soul, Dan Millman tells the story of Sachi. When she was four- years-old her baby brother was born. Little Sachi began to ask her parents to leave her alone with the new baby. They worried that, like most four-year-olds, she might feel jealous and want to hit or shake him, so they said no.
Over time, though, since Sachi wasn’t showing signs of jealousy, they changed their minds and decided to let Sachi have her private conference with the baby. Elated, Sachi went into the baby’s room and shut the door, but it opened a crack—enough for her curious parents to peek in and listen. They saw little Sachi walk quietly up to her baby brother, put her face close to his, and say, “Baby, tell me what God feels like. I’m starting to forget.”
That’s it! That’s what real worship does. It restores. It reawakens our wonder that God would send a Savior for sinners. Open your eyes and heart to his presence all around you. Open your mouth to share his message, and seek Him in worship, and this Christmas wonder at the birth of God the Savior.
PRAYER
INVITATION
Christmas celebrates that Jesus came. He said he would come again. Are you ready for Him to come again?
