Luke 2:1-20 – Seeing God’s Glory – turning fear into peace
C.S. Lewis’ celebrated children’s book, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, tells of the adventures of four children in the magical kingdom of Narnia. The story is fun, but it’s also an allegory of Christ and salvation, with Christ represented by the lion Aslan. When in Narnia, the children meet Mr and Mrs Beaver, who describe the mighty lion to them.
"Is he a man?" asked Lucy.
"Aslan a man!" said Mr Beaver sternly. Certainly not. I tell you he is King of the wood and the son of the great emperor-beyond-the-sea. Don’t you know who is the King of the Beasts? Aslan is a lion - the Lion, the great lion."
"ooh!" said Susan, "I’d thought he was a man. Is he - quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion."
"That you will, dearie, and no mistake" said Mrs Beaver; "if there’s anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking, they’re either braver than most or else just silly."
"Then he isn’t safe?" said Lucy.
"Safe?" said Mr Beaver; "don’t you hear what Mrs Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? ’Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you."
Meeting Aslan was a frightening experience for Lucy and her brothers. Meeting God is no different. Why you ask? Because of God’s Glory. Today, as we look at the Christmas story as told by Luke, I want to focus on this attribute of God – His Glory. I want us to understand that though it strikes fear into the bravest of men, when seen in the light of the baby born in that manger, it brings reassurance, salvation and peace.
Before we start, I want to quickly try to define this term for you … In the Old Testament, this term was used about one who had great riches, power and position. It was a term recognizing a person’s greatness, a person’s honourable status and a person’s reputation. When it was used of God, it spoke of his majesty as the Creator, his holy perfection and his awesome greatness. Glory was an attribute associated with God which led to praise and worship. When God revealed himself to people physically, his presence was often accompanied by a bright radiant light – often called the Shekinah glory. It was a visible symbol of God’s awesomeness and came to symbolize his glory.
This is what I want to look at today. I want to see how God’s Glory was represented in the Christmas story and how different people responded to it.
Let’s pray before we open God’s word, that it may be a sword in our minds and hearts this morning.
Pray
Let’s re-read some of the Christmas Story again… Read Luke 2:8-20.
Mary and Joseph have arrived in Bethlehem and God’s Son, the Saviour of the world, the Baby Jesus had been born. And God can’t contain his excitement. He is like a proud father and just wants to tell someone. So who does he pick – Well he goes to the Roman emperor of course. No he doesn’t, he goes to a bunch of shepherds. This is surprising, because there was probably no one more overlooked than the shepherds that night in the hills outside Bethlehem. Shepherds were not what you would call the social elite; on the contrary, they were the forgotten, overlooked.
No father in Israel dreamed of his daughter marrying a sheepherder; maybe a sheep owner, but not the servants who tended the sheep. They were probably a rough lot – we know of one young shepherd who killed a bear and a lion with little more than his hands and a sling-shot – they were a tough lot, who were not easily scared! These guys slept out in the cold – among the animals. When they came to town on market days it was probably difficult to smell the difference between the sheep and the sheepherder!
Yet it was to these people, God revealed his glory. But look what happened … (vs 9) An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.
Seeing God’s Glory is terrifying
These men – these tough guys were terrified. Amazing isn’t it. Well, not really. God’s glory is scary! When Lucy met Aslan – she was terrified – he was a great and awesome King. When these shepherds met God’s emissary – the angel, God’s Glory accompanied him and it was scary.
This Shekinah Glory was the visible manifestation of the invisible God’s presence. Remember in the exodus, God led his people by a cloud and pillar of fire. His presence with his people in the tabernacle and later in the temple was exemplified by this radiance of his Glory – the Shekinah glory.
It was natural for mortal, insignificant men to be fearful in the presence of their creator. It was natural for sinful men and women to feel totally inadequate and unworthy in the presence of a holy God. To be sinful in God’s presence was inviting judgment and so the Shepherd were terrified.
It probably didn’t help for one angel to suddenly turn into a great company of heavenly host. They radiated God’s glory and their very appearance and their words bestowed further glory on God. Listen to their song …
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.
Yes, God is worthy of praise and honor. It is right to glorify him because of who he is, even if his glory is scary.
Seeing God’s Glory means seeing Jesus
But God was not appearing on this occasion to judge, but to share some fantastic news. So the angel says (vs 10) “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”
God’s glory was being revealed to communicate the best news of all – the announcement of the birth of a Saviour. This very day in David’s town, a Saviour was born – The Messiah, Jesus Christ. This special Baby came to do 2 things …
1) to demonstrate God’s glory - John 1:14 says The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. Jesus came and we saw his glory. It was God’s glory lived through the person of his Son. Jesus came to show to mankind how great and awesome is our God. To show to mankind how loving and gracious is our God. To die for mankind, thus offering the greatest gift one could ever hope for. We live in a very privileged age. For the Old Testament saints, seeing God’s glory was a rare and auspicious event. For us, it is there on demand if we care to look. You see, to see God’s glory, all we need to do is to look at Jesus because in him, the fullness of God resided. Jesus demonstrated God’s power, authority, love and grace and in doing so, demonstrated God’s glory. But he didn’t just come to demonstrate God’s glory, Jesus also came to
2) to bring God glory - by dying for us, Jesus was showing us how much God loved us and because of this sacrifice, we can attribute even more honor and acclaim to God who authored this plan of salvation.
It is interesting that when the angels disappeared, the shepherds decided among themselves to go and see this baby. God’s glory as it appeared in the angels was terrifying. If this baby was to demonstrate this same Glory, weren’t they terrified? No! God’s glory was no longer terrifying. What was it that made him less terrifying?
Well firstly, there is the message from God. God’s angel said (vs 10) - 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; Jesus didn’t come to seek and destroy, he came to seek and save. A savior is far less scary than one who comes to destroy.
A second reason is why God’s glory revealed through Jesus is less scary than before is because of what he achieved through saving us. Can you see it there in the passage? It’s there in vs 14 in the angel’s song. Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests. God’s glory isn’t scary any more because we have peace. Jesus has dealt with the huge wall that separated us from God. He has made a way that we can become right with God – that is literally to make peace with God. So we don’t have to be scared of God’s judgement, because we have peace.
In today’s society, people are searching everywhere to find God and the peace that it brings. Islam is Australia’s fastest growing religion it is now claimed yet Hinduism, Buddhism and Bahai faiths are not far behind them – each growing at above 6% per annum, yet Christianity is stagnant at 0% growth. People are hungry for God, but they are looking in all the wrong places. 7A To see God and his glory, all we need to do is look at Jesus. Seeing God’s glory means seeing Jesus – that baby who was lying in the cradle and that man who was hanging on the cross.
I want to encourage you again, that Christmas time is an incredible opportunity to share with people the hope that we have in Jesus – We don’t have to be scared of judgement because Christ has come as a Saviour and brought peace to us. We can approach God with boldness because we are forgiven.
How can we enjoy peace this Christmas time? Only through seeing God’s glory in his Son’s sacrifice. Don’t be scared this Christmas about not being acceptable to God, but be bold in approaching him because Christ died to forgive your sins.
Seeing God’s Glory leads to action
When we see God’s glory through his son, Jesus Christ, we can be bold to approach God because God’s glory is no longer scary. But his is not the only effect of experiencing God’s glory. Consider the Shepherds (vs 18) … They went to find this baby and what did they do then - So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, 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.
The shepherd’s were transformed by their contact with God’s glory. This transformation led to 2 actions …
1)They began to spread the word about the marvelous things that had happened. Do you remember when you first became a Christian or when someone else did and they were so excited that they couldn’t stop talking about. Everyone they met, they wanted to tell. There was no shame, no fear – they were out there – telling anyone who’d listen. This was what the Shepherds were like.
It’s sad isn’t it that it seems that the older we get as Christians, the more reserved we get. We lose that youthful enthusiasm and boldness. Our openness is replaced by fear – fear of what others may think, fear of offending someone, fear of getting the facts wrong.
But let me tell you something – when we really experience God’s Glory, our fears disappear and peace and boldness takes it’s place. I wonder whether you have experienced God’s glory this Christmas. Have you stopped to look into the stable to see the king of kings who was born for you? If you have, have you paused long enough, to see his Glory? We need this Christmas to get back to the basics and to recognize who Jesus is – God almighty. Jesus demonstrates God’s glory and brings glory back to God. He offers forgiveness for sins and peace with God. It is what will give hope to a world full of war and fear. Why aren’t our newspapers and TV news full of this good news this year. Why aren’t we telling everyone about it – just like the shepherds did. John writes in John 15:8 My true disciples produce bountiful harvests. This brings great glory to my Father. Are we true disciples this Christmas? The first response that seeing God’s glory brings is that it prompts us to tell everyone about it.
2) The second thing the shepherds did was that they began to glorify and praise God. They didn’t just see God’s glory and say – that’s nice – now lunch is over, back to work. Their response was one of praise and worship. When we see what an awesome, magnificent and loving God we serve, we can do nothing but praise him and acknowledge his glory.
This Christmas, as we immerse ourselves in the tinsel, the presents and the food, will we leave enough time to praise God and tell him how magnificent he is? I know that Christmas day is a busy day – often traveling long and far to see relatives and get to the Christmas gathering. But I want to encourage you today to make a point of being in church somewhere on Christmas morning. Don’t miss the opportunity to give Glory back to the king of kings on his birthday.
So let’s wrap up. God is magnificent, holy and awesome. He deserves glory. Infact his glory is overwhelming and down right scary. That is until we see it in the person of Jesus Christ. Don’t misunderstand me, Jesus is just as magnificent, holy and awesome as God the Father, but in Jesus, we see God’s love and compassion. We see God making a way of escape for us so that we can be made right with God – we can have peace. God’s glory is no longer scary – instead it brings us hope, reassurance and peace because we know we will be found acceptable in God’s sight because of what Jesus has done. And if we do see God’s glory, what should our response be? It should be like that of the shepherds – to spread the word of the saviour that has come into the world today and to worship and praise him.
Let us make the time this Christmas to pause and see God’s glory in the baby lying in the cradle and let’s let it impact our lives.
