As we’ve already seen the past two weeks and in our Scripture readings earlier this morning, angels are intimately involved in the Christmas story. In the past two weeks we’ve seen how Gabriel first revealed to Zechariah that he would have a son who would prepare the way for the Messiah. And then shortly thereafter, he comes and reveals to Mary that she is going to be the mother of that Messiah. In Matthew 1, we see that an angel also appeared to Joseph to reveal that Mary was with child and to instruct him to go ahead and take her as his wife. Finally, in this morning’s Scripture readings, we saw that an angel appeared to a group of shepherds to reveal to them that the Savior had been born in Bethlehem.
Angels are not just important to the Christmas narrative. There are over 300 references to angels in the Bible and angels appear in over half of the books of the Bible. But unfortunately it seems that many of us get our ideas about angels not from the Bible, but rather from classic movies like “It’s a Wonderful Life”.
[Show clip]
In the movie, Angel Second Class Clarence Odbody is portrayed as a human who became an angel upon his death. That same idea is reinforced later in the movie when a bell rings on the Christmas tree and George Bailey’s daughter says, “Teacher says every time a bell rings an angel gets his wings.” But these ideas are certainly not consistent with what we know about angels from the Scriptures.
So let’s set the stage for the song of the angels that we’ll look at this morning by taking a few minutes to discover some important facts about angels from the pages of Scripture. We’re going to follow up on this some more during the “Connections” Bible study time this morning, so I hope you’ll join us then.
In the Bible, angels have three main roles and we’ll see that the song that the angels proclaim in Luke 2 fulfills all three roles.
Three main roles of angels:
1. To magnify God
This is the most important role of angels. Whenever we are given a glimpse of heaven in passages like Isaiah 6 or Revelation 4, we see that the angels that surround the throne of God are praising God. And in Job 38, when God speaks to Job, He reveals that the angels, who He calls the “morning stars”, were singing God’s praise at creation:
“Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?
Tell me, if you have understanding.
Who determined its measurements—surely you know!
Or who stretched the line upon it?
On what were its bases sunk,
or who laid its cornerstone,
when the morning stars sang together
and all the sons of God shouted for joy?
(Job 38:4-7 ESV)
We’re going to return to this idea in a moment, but it is significant that this is only one of two places in the Bible where angels are found singing.
We also learn here that angels are a separate class of created beings completely apart from humans. The angels that we see in this passage existed long before Adam was created. And the Bible is clear that no human ever becomes an angel after his or her death.
2. To be messengers of God
Both the Hebrew and Greek words for “angel” literally mean “messenger.” And throughout the Scriptures we see God sending His angels to proclaim God’s message to His people.
Sometimes that involves announcing good news like the birth of His Son. But far more often the message is a message of judgment. If you don’t believe that, just read the messages the angels deliver in the book of Revelation.
So angels are certainly not the cute little babies with wings that are portrayed in our art or which are made into Christmas ornaments to put on our trees. So it’s not surprising that when angels do act as God’s messengers, the first reaction of their audience is almost always fear.
3. To minister to people
The writer of Hebrews described this role of angels:
Are they [angels] not all ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation?
(Hebrews 1:14 ESV)
Most of the time, angels are not seen – they minister behind the scenes. But occasionally, they enter our world, often in the form of a human, for a short time, to minister for a specific purpose, as the writer of Hebrews describes:
Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.
(Hebrews 13:2 ESV)
When it came to the incarnation, the event was so important and so critical, that no earthly channels were adequate to communicate this amazing event to the world. So it is no wonder that there is no other event in the Bible where so many angels were an integral part of the story.
Before we proceed with our passage for this morning, let me share one important word of caution:
Caution! - Angels are never to be worshipped!
Although angel worship is not as prevalent today as it was about 20 years ago in this country, a number of the mistaken ideas that many people have about angels are undoubtedly a holdover from the angel craze of the mid 1990’s that was fueled in large part by New Age philosophy. But the Bible is clear than angels are created beings who are never to be worshipped.
With that background in mind, we are now ready to tackle the song of the angels. Let’s read our passage out loud together:
And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,
“Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace among those with whom he is
pleased!”
(Luke 2:13-14 ESV)
As we saw in our earlier Scripture reading, the shepherds were in the field keeping watch over their flocks, when an angel appeared to them to announce the birth of the Savior, Jesus. And just as we see so many other places in the Bible, their first reaction to the appearance of the angel was great fear.
As soon as that single angel finished his announcement an entire angel army appears and proclaims the song that we just read. So you can imagine that if the shepherds were frightened by the appearance of just one angel, an entire angel army must have completely terrified them. The song that this angel army proclaims is different from the two we have looked at so far and the one we’ll conclude with next week. It is not the song of an individual human, but rather an anthem that comes down from heaven.
Before we get to the particulars of this song, let’s pause a moment to address the whole idea of angels singing. You’ll notice that nowhere in our passage does it indicate that the angels sang – they were “praising God and saying”. Neither of those words – “praising” or “saying” – can be translated “singing.”
Out of the nearly 300 references to angels in the Bible, there are only two instances where they are described as singing. We already saw the first one in Job 38 where the angels sang before the creation of mankind and man’s sin. The other is found in Revelation 5 as Jesus returns to earth. Although we cannot be dogmatic and say absolutely that angels never sing between those two events, it does seem significant to me that those are the only 2 times that the Bible shows them doing that.
And even if we could conclude for sure that the angels don’t sing between those events, the Bible doesn’t directly tell us why that is the case. But I think the song of the angels here in Luke 2 does give us some insight into that question.
Because they have constant access to the presence of God, the angels understood what man’s sin did to damage the relationship between God and man. So perhaps, Adam and Eve’s sin caused them to lose their song.
And even though the birth of Jesus was a great event that would begin the process of ushering in His kingdom on earth, that process would only be complete at the return of Jesus. So while the incarnation of Jesus was certainly worth their praise, there is no Biblical evidence that the angels resume their singing until after the second coming of Jesus completes the process of salvation.
Later this morning we’re going to sing “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing”. For me personally that song was completely ruined for all times by a music minister named Harold Walker at a church where we were members in Albuquerque. He always introduced that song as “Hark, Harold the Angel Sings” and that is still all I can think of when I hear that song. But because the issue of whether the angels actually sang this song is very significant in my opinion, I have been reluctant to sing that song at Christmas each year.
But this year Susan Hawthorne directed me to some information on the history of that song. Apparently when Charles Wesley first penned that song, his original first line was:
Hark, how all the welkin rings.
“Welkin” is an archaic English term that refers to the sky or heaven. So the song originally reflected the idea that the song that the angel army proclaimed – not sang – echoed off the inverted bowl of the sky. Unfortunately, the lyrics were later changed to the ones we’ll sing this morning, but at least now as you sing them, you will understand that the angels didn’t literally sing.
I know we’ve already spent a lot of time just setting the stage for the song of the angels. But I’m confident that it has been time well spent. With that background in mind, we are now ready to look at the song itself. It is a brief song – only 11 words in the original Greek. And we can summarize the theme of the song like this:
God’s glory and God’s grace
are to be grasped and to be given
The song of the angels is composed of two phrases:
• The first - Glory to God in the highest – is about what Christmas means for God. The incarnation results in God receiving glory in the highest.
• The second - on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased! – is about what Christmas means for all of us. Because of the birth of the Savior it is possible for all of us to have peace.
Let’s spend a few minutes focusing on these aspects of Christmas. We’ll being with…
God’s glory…
Here we see the angels doing what they always do – magnifying God – and thus fulfilling the first purpose that we looked at earlier. And there was certainly good reason for their praise.
Keep in mind that these angels knew the significance of the incarnation. They knew Jesus, the second person of the triune God, in all His glory in heaven. They understood that He was fully God and they worshipped Him as God. They also understood the consequences of man’s sin that separated him from God. And they were also aware of the prophecies that promised a Messiah who would save the people from their sins and restore their relationship with God.
So now that those prophecies were being fulfilled, their first response was to give glory to God. The phrase “in the highest” is the translation of a single Greek word that can either mean that which is highest in rank or highest in location. Here it seems to encompass both meanings. God’s glory is “in the highest” in the sense that it is highest in rank – it is the glory to the highest possible degree. But it is also “in the highest” because it is glory that is manifest in the highest heavens.
This glory is being proclaimed by the spiritual beings in the highest heavens because the birth of the Savior is not only going to result in the redeeming of mankind, but in the redemption of the very universe itself. In Romans 8 Paul described how all of creation will one day be set free and that process was put into motion by the incarnation of Jesus:
For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.
(Romans 8:20-23 ESV)
The focus on God’s glory in the highest is also a reminder that salvation must come from the heavens – from God and not from man. The salvation that will result in peace on earth does not arise from the earth and climb to the heavens – instead it must originate with God in the heavens and descend to the earth.
and God’s grace…
The song of the angels heralded the end of the longest lasting and most destructive war in the history of mankind. It is a war that began when sin entered the world and which could only be ended by Jesus coming into the world as a little baby who would grow up and die on a cross. It is a war that has cost countless lives – in fact this war is what brought death into our world in the first place. But the angel’s song is the proclamation that this war can be ended and that there can be “peace on earth”.
This is where the angels fulfill their other two roles. In this song they are messengers of God who proclaim the birth of the Messiah who will bring peace on earth. And through that message they also minister not just to the shepherds but to the multitude of generations who have also heard the words of this song through the pages of Scripture.
I know we’ve often discussed the Biblical concept of peace previously on several occasions, but this is a good place to dig into it a little deeper since it is so integral to our understanding of what the angels meant by “peace on earth.”
Originally the Greek word that is translated “peace” in the New Testament, essentially described a respite between battles or the absence of conflict. But its use in the New Testament is undoubtedly influenced by the Hebrew idea of “shalom”, which focuses much more on relationships than on conditions.
So the idea of peace in the Bible is not associated primarily with the resolution of political conflict, or even good health, personal well being or financial prosperity, but is focused instead on right relationships which influence every area of life. This peace is not just something that the shepherds and the rest of the earth could experience some day in the future. It is a present moment fullness of life that all can enjoy right here and now.
That peace must begin with God’s presence. That is why the incarnation is so critical. It was not until God put on a body of flesh and came to the earth that his kind of peace was possible because only then could man experience God’s presence in a tangible way. Any form of peace that is built on any foundation other than a right relationship with God is certainly not peace at all – at least not in Biblical terms.
Because of the incarnation, it is possible for all to have peace with God that then gives us the ability to have peace in our other relationships as well. But, as the song of the angels reveals, not all choose to accept that gift of peace. Notice that there is a condition attached to “peace on earth”. That peace only occurs “among those with whom he is pleased”.
Many of you, like me, are probably familiar with the KJV translation of verse 14:
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.
Unfortunately, that is not an accurate translation and it could easily lead us to draw some erroneous conclusions about what the angels are communicating here. The ESV, along with other modern translations like the NASB and NIV, all do a good job of translating this single Greek word in a way that indicates that God’s peace comes upon those who are the object of God’s pleasure.
So what does it mean to be the object of God’s good pleasure? Let me illustrate.
My wife is the object of my pleasure. That means it gives me pleasure to serve her – to provide for her, to protect her, to honor her. So if someone does something to harm or dishonor her physically, emotionally, or spiritually, I am going to jump to her defense immediately. In that case, my actions are not going to be dependent on how I feel about her at that moment. Even if we have a disagreement or she has done something to irritate me, I’m going to come to her rescue if I see her in danger because of my love for her – not because she has to somehow “earn” those acts of love.
The same is true with God. He didn’t send His Son to this earth to be born in a manger in Bethlehem and to die on a cross because we have somehow earned the right to have God provide for our peace in that way. He did that because He loves us and because we are the objects of His pleasure in spite of what we might do to offend or rebel against Him.
But obviously we don’t live in a world today that is characterized by “glory in the highest” or the kind of “peace on earth” that the angels sang about in this song. So did the angels just sing the wrong song or perhaps the right song at the wrong time or is there something else going on here?
In order to answer that question we need to go back to our original summary of the theme of the song where we are reminded that God’s glory and God’s peace…
are to be grasped and to be given
Earlier this morning we read verses 15-18, which record the response of the shepherds to the song of the angels. Let’s look at that passage again:
When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.” And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger. And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them.
(Luke 2:15-18 ESV)
This passage is so instructive for us because the shepherds responded to the song of the angels by doing two things that we must also do if we are going to have peace on earth and give glory to God in the highest.
You’ll notice first that they had to make a personal choice about what they were going to do with Jesus. They basically had three choices:
• They could have chosen not to believe the angels at all. Now admittedly, in their particular case based on what they had just witnessed that night, that wouldn’t have been real likely. But they could have just attributed what they saw to some bad Mexican food and gone on with tending their sheep.
• They could have believed what they heard from the angels, but not done anything about it and just continued tending their flocks.
• What they did choose to do to was to listen to the angels, believe what they had heard and then personally respond to what they had observed by immediately going to find Mary and Joseph and the baby Jesus. They grasped the gift that God was offering.
All of us also have to make a personal choice about what we are going to do with Christmas. And whether God gets the glory He deserves and whether we get the peace He desires for us to have depends on that decision. Like the angels, we can basically make one of three choices when it comes to Christmas:
• We can choose just not believe that God would humble Himself and come to earth as a baby for the purpose of dying on a cross for our sins. Obviously our world is filled with people who do exactly that every Christmas. They may decorate houses or trees, buy gifts, sing some Christmas songs or even attend a Christmas Eve service. But they really don’t believe that what God did at Christmas has any bearing on their lives at all.
• We can choose to intellectually assent to the facts of Christmas without really letting the wonder of the incarnation change our lives in any way at all. My guess is that the majority of people in our country fall into that category. They believe the Christmas story, perhaps even put up a nativity scene and read the account of the birth of Jesus in the Bible. But they aren’t willing to go so far as to commit their lives to Jesus in a way that transforms the way they live their daily lives.
• Or we can choose to not only believe in the incarnation, but in response to that belief we can commit to making Jesus both our Savior and our Lord. And as a result, out of gratitude for what Jesus has done for us, we then attempt to live a life of obedience to Him. That is the only one of the three options that gives God the glory He deserves and also gives us peace on earth. And, unfortunately because so few people choose to do that, our world is not characterized by either God’s glory or man’s peace.
Once the shepherds grasped God’s glory and their peace by personally responding to God’s revelation, they didn’t just keep that good news to themselves. That news was so good that they naturally wanted to give that good news to others. God didn’t need to command them to do that; it was just the natural outflow of hearts that were overflowing with joy because of the great gift that God had given to them and they wanted to share that gift with others.
This morning as you’ve heard the song of the angels, God expects a response from you as well.
First, you need to personally respond to the gift of the incarnation. And if you want to give God glory and be at peace with Him, the only way to do that is to grasp onto God by making a personal commitment to make Jesus your Savior and Lord. Anything short of that kind of commitment means you will lose out on the gift that God wants to give to you this Christmas.
And then, once you’ve grasped, you then need to give. If Jesus truly is your Savior and Lord, then one of the natural results of the peace that He brings to your life is that you are going to want to share that good news with others. Frankly, if you don’t have the desire to do that, then you really need to examine your heart and make sure that your faith in Jesus is genuine. The very best Christmas gift that you can give to anyone this Christmas is to share with them the good news that they can have peace on earth though Jesus.
The song of the angels is our reminder that in the incarnation…
God’s glory and God’s grace
are to be grasped and to be given
How is God calling you to respond to that great gift this morning?
