Angels' Gloria (Luke 2:8–20) — The Songs of Advent

Now as we begin this Lord's Day I want to do so by reading to you from 1st

Samuel chapter 16 verses 1 through 13. And the

Lord said unto Samuel how long wilt thou mourn for Saul seeing I have rejected him from reigning over Israel fill thine horn with oil and go

I will send thee to Jesse the Bethlehemite for I have provided me a king among his sons and Samuel said how can

I go if Saul here he will kill me and the Lord said take a heifer with thee and say

I am come to sacrifice to the Lord and call Jesse to the sacrifice and I will show thee what thou shalt do and thou shalt anoint unto me him whom

I name unto thee and Samuel did that which the Lord spake and came to Bethlehem and the elders of the town trembled at his coming and said comest thou peaceably and he said peaceably

I am come to sacrifice unto the Lord sanctify yourselves and come with me to the sacrifice and he sanctified

Jesse and his sons and called them to the sacrifice and it came to pass when they were come that he looked on Eliab and said surely the

Lord the Lord's anointed is before him but the Lord said unto Samuel look not on his countenance or on the height of his stature because I have refused him for the

Lord seeth not as man seeth for man looketh on the outward appearance but the Lord looketh on the heart then

Jesse called Abinadab and made him pass before Samuel and he said neither hath the Lord chosen this then

Jesse made Shema to pass by and he said neither hath the Lord chosen this again Jesse made seven of his sons to pass before Samuel and Samuel said unto

Jesse the Lord hath not chosen these and Samuel excuse me oh and Samuel said unto

Jesse are here all thy children and he said there remaineth yet the youngest and behold he keepeth the sheep and Samuel said unto

Jesse send and fetch him for he we will not sit down so he come hither and he sent and brought him in now he was ruddy and with all the beautiful countenance and goodly to look to and the

Lord said arise anoint him for this is he then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brethren and the

Spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward in the story of King David's anointing we have great parallels to what we're going to consider today of course this

Jesus is also born in Bethlehem the city of David and in the house of David to a mother who's a descendant of the great king and what's more we see as we've seen over these past few weeks the wonderful ways in which

God delights to lay out and hold to his pattern of interaction with his people

God sends Samuel to Bethlehem to the family of Jesse to find a new king and which one does he choose is it the tallest the oldest no

God choose God chose the youngest the one who keepeth the sheep and today as we look at the moments immediately following the birth of Jesus the son of David we see

God returns to those who keepeth the sheep to use them in the way in which he would bring his son into the world again we can be forgiven for thinking that when

God steps onto the stage of human history the invitations would go to the important people first that if a king is being chosen you expect the cream of the crop to be on the short list and if a king is being born you expect senators

CEOs and influencers to hear about it before the night shift workers but when the eternal

Son of God takes on flesh and is laid in the feeding trough the first ones to hear the news are men who smell like sheep

Luke tells us that on that night shepherds were out in the field keeping watch over their flock by night these are not the movers and shakers of Jerusalem they're not the theological professionals not the sort of people that you put on the back of a brochure they're the kind of people that you not at in the grocery store and then you forget exist and it's to them that the glory of the

Lord shown around in verse 9 of Luke chapter 2 heaven pulls back the curtain and instead of inviting the powerful

God sends an angelic choir to the ordinary to the overlooked to the nobody and this is what

Advent is for Advent again it's not just a warm religious December Advent is the church remembering that the

God of glory does not wait for us to climb up to him he comes down he comes into the dark he comes into the ordinary he comes to shepherds to sinners to people sitting in the cold pulling another tired shift in the dark and he brings a song in the

Advent season we've been looking at these songs of Advent Mary's song Zacharias a song and now these angels song and each song is like a different voice part in the same great chorus that God keeps his promises to his people

God overturns the proud God lifts up the lowly God sends his Christ but in this passage

Luke slows the camera down on two things in particular first the announcement and then the response heaven sings and earth answers angels declare glory to God in the highest and shepherds hurry to Bethlehem telling everyone what they have seen so as we come to Luke 2 8 through 20 this afternoon here is the central point that I want ringing in our ears that in the

Advent of Christ God brings his glory down into our darkness so that his peace enjoy erupt in the lives of the most ordinary people not someday not somewhere not for someone else but here and now for people like us the question is not whether the angels can sing the question is whether we will join them the shepherds move from fear to faith from hearing the song to singing it by their obedience and witness

Advent again is not just something we commemorate it's something that we enter into as the same

Christ who lay in the manger now reigns at the father's hand right hand he meets us by his word and spirit so as we walk through this passage we're gonna see three movements first again heavens song that God proclaims his glory and peace to the undeserving second earth's response the shepherds hurry they see and they speak and then third our

Advent call is to pressure excuse me it's a treasure praise and proclaim this same

Christ and my prayer is that by the end will not only understand what happened that night outside Bethlehem but it will also find ourselves standing with those shepherds astonished humbled and believing that each of our lives will begin to sound a little more like the angels song and so with that let's approach our text for this

Lord's Day this third Sunday of Advent in Luke chapter 2 verses 8 through 20 here the word the

Lord and there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field keeping watch over their flock by night and lo the angel of the

Lord came upon them and the glory of the Lord shone round about them and they were sore afraid and the angel said unto them fear not for behold

I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people for unto you was born this day in the city of David a

Savior which is Christ the Lord and this shall be a sign unto you you shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes lying in a manger 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 goodwill toward men it came to pass as the angels were gone away from them into heaven the shepherd said one to another let us now go even unto

Bethlehem and see this thing which has come to pass which the Lord hath made known unto us and they came with haste and found

Mary and Joseph and the babe lying in a manger and when they had seen it they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child in all day that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds but Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart and the shepherds returned glorifying and praising

God for all the things that they had heard and seen as it was told unto them thus ends the reading of God's Holy Word may he write it on our hearts by faith let us pray father again we thank you for your word and we ask now that as we consider this passage in Luke chapter 2 that you would grant us by your spirit or to to be conformed to the image of your son again that we would by a hearing of your word believe it or that we would be transformed by it or that we would be a people who are prone to action prone to move in light of your glory or like these shepherds we wouldn't sit and just talk about what we witnessed or but that we would be energized activated

Lord to to move to proclaim your word to build to do the things of God to do the good works that you have prepared for us beforehand help us or to receive your word this afternoon by faith in Jesus name and again we'll focus first on heaven's song particularly verses 8 through 14 so we just heard again the most familiar of Christmas passages so familiar for many people these verses can become like background noise right these words often can even be played in shopping malls there we hear them on or see them on Christmas cards hear them in Hallmark movies whatever it may be and yet what happened that night in those fields outside Bethlehem is not sentimental wallpaper right is it is an invasion it's heaven breaking into earth it's

God interrupting the sleep cycle of a few nameless laborers and through them shaking the whole world

Luke wants us to see both sides of this heaven side and earth side again first heaven sings and earth responds it's a common pattern that first God acts and announces and then people here and hurry and herald and so let's listen first to this song of heaven glory and peace announced to nobody's in verse 8 we see the scene is set with almost painful simplicity especially in light of what's revealed in the first seven verses of Luke chapter 2 that the

Christ was born in Bethlehem but it very simply transitions in verse 8 and there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field keeping watch over their flock by night night fields flocks ordinary work no temple no palace no throne room or war room if you and I were staging the incarnation we would have sent press releases to Rome and Jerusalem would have lined up everybody that we knew the dignitaries the elites would have timed it to make the morning headlines but God doesn't do it that way he sends his angels to shepherds abiding in the field by night the people nobody writes down the workers who were invisible until something goes wrong the men who smell like sheep and whose names you forget as soon as they clock out but this is who

God comes to shepherds likely keeping sheep here for temple sacrifices these would be the only sheep that would be kept outside year -round or those being kept for temple sacrifices which

I think is an interesting thing here as we as we consider that these are shepherds who also would go to the

Lamb of God the temple sacrifice the true and ultimate temple sacrifice of God again these are the only ones they'll be maintained outsides and they're out are outside and these shepherds are out with them that to keeping watch of them by night and what's more at this time the shepherds were despised by most people there are a people despised by their community there's a great distrust of shepherds because of their transience you almost want to think of like the carnies no one trusts them because they're nomadic they're in and out they're always moving around giving the nature of their work often considered ceremonially unclean and often considered unreliable to the point that at that time they wouldn't even be heard in court their testimony bearing very little weight in the eyes of the law again very similar to even women at that time that the the witness of one shepherd means almost nothing in the eyes of the law at that time it's a very often a very downtrodden cast of people very looked down upon people for the period and yet this is who

God comes to in the night and it reminds of the many that God has come to at this point again the young Virgin Mary her cousin

Elizabeth and the baby in her womb and now these shepherds and in fact the only man that he's come to being

Zacharias God silences right he's not able to be a son

God is surely coming to the lowly just as James 2 5 reminds us that hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith and Luke says that they're not at a festival not at a retreat they're at work right they're keeping watch over the flock by night that is one of God's favorite times to show up when his people are simply doing the next thing in front of them

Moses was keeping the flock of his father -in -law when the Lord appeared to him in the burning bush David as we spoke about earlier was keeping the sheep when

Samuel sent for him and anointed him King and now in the city of David God once again draws near to those who keep sheep we're just doing the work you know you and I tend to think that God is most active in the spectacular moments right big elections big churches big events high emotions but Advent tells you that God loves to break into the ordinary right into the commute into the long days into the nursery rocking chair into the spreadsheets into the grocery runs and some of us might feel even that our life is often just a long verse 8 right it's ordinary it's hidden it's this never -ending loop of keeping watch over your flock by night changing diapers answering emails listening to your boss or your parents doing your schoolwork or repairing things that other people broke and you assume that God's real work is happening somewhere else with more important people than you but the

Christmas story refuses to let you keep that assumption wherever Christ is proclaimed and believed the glory of God is at work the same

Christ who met shepherds in the fields and in a field meets carpenters and plumbers and accountants electricians and parents and retirees and children in the fields that he's given them

Advent is a rebuke to the cult of the spectacular the eternal

Son of God enters the world in a borrowed stable announced to men who are not even named and yet this is how your

God delights to work so as we continue looking at verse 9 we see that everything is ordinary as God intervenes until it isn't verse 9 and lo the angel of the

Lord came upon them and the glory of the Lord shone round about them and they were sore afraid without warning the angel of the

Lord came upon them heaven does not schedule an appointment appointment with the shepherds God does not send a survey to see if they're spiritually ready grace simply arrives and with the angel comes the glory of the

Lord the same glory that filled the tabernacle in the wilderness the same glory that caused Isaiah to cry out woe is me for I am undone holiness blazing into the night and the shepherds react the way that sinners always react when

God's glory draws near they were sore afraid our age wants a God whose presence is cozy and non -threatening a

God who affirms but never confronts who soothes but never exposes but the Bible's God is blazing purity when he draws near hypocrites are unmasked idols are toppled and the people stop being impressed with themselves one of the cultural lies that we swim in is that humanity is basically fine and God if he exists is basically safe but Advent says otherwise when glory erupts in the field these tough men tremble and the first response to God's nearness is not self -congratulation that he chose that chose them but holy fear before him as where grace begins that when

God interrupts our comfortable darkness and shows us who he is and who we are this is where grace is finally made real to us when

God interrupts we realize who he is and who we are so we listen to the angels words here in verses 10 and 11 as God makes himself known the angel said unto them fear not right there so afraid he says fear not for behold

I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people for unto you was born this day in the city of David a

Savior which is Christ the Lord we want to notice the shape of the message again first fear not the same lips that announced

God's glory now announced God's grace the gospel does not skip over our fear but it speaks into it yes the glory of the

Lord has shown around you yes you are rightly afraid but do not be afraid because I bring you good news the

Shepherd's fear is not dismissed as irrational but it's answered with news I bring you good tidings of great joy

Christianity's not advice about how to climb up to God or say that God's not actually mad at you or that God's not

God doesn't actually doesn't actually have standards you can kind of be whatever you want to be no it's an announcement about what

God has done in Christ good tidings good news it's not good tips good vibes it's news that the first stone of God's kingdom was about to be set up and if this is not good tidings that God is setting up his kingdom establishing his kingdom with this courting with this cornerstone and there never are good tidings if this isn't good news there is no such thing that the

God of the universe would look at a sinful and fallen people and send his one and only

Son into the world to establish his kingdom made up of these people again this news has three qualities that we want to pay attention to first it's a great joy it's not shallow cheer not seasonal distraction but it's deep durable joy grounded in something that God has done second it's for all people right not because every individual but will be saved but because this

Savior is not limited to one class or tribe or nation Jews and Gentiles men and women rich and poor shepherds and scholars all who call upon the name of the

Lord shall be saved and third this is matter -of -factly historical and this is important he says this day in the city of David it's not once upon a time it's this day when we preach on Luke in the future sometime we will very much see that Luke is a historian in this way he wants to ground these things in the reality that they happen these are real people real events that happen the gospel is rooted in dates and places and names if Christ did not really come did not really die did not really rise and Christianity collapses and we're all fools to be pitied in the worst way but this news is true and the angel compresses the identity of the child into three titles against we have those three qualities great joy all people this day a but he focuses in here primarily naturally on this child who he gives ascribes three titles to and just a few short words says this is a

Savior which is Christ the Lord he's come the

Savior has come because you and I need rescuing right we're not mistuned instruments that just need a little bit of an adjustment we're rebels who need deliverance from sin death and the devil he is

Christ he is the anointed one the Messiah promised in all the scriptures the true King from David's line the prophet who speaks

God's final word the priest who will offer himself for his people and he's

Lord in Luke's context that word does not mean merely sir it's a divine title it's the one lying in the manger is no less than the

Lord of glory very God a very God this is the Greek word curious right it's the same word using the

Septuagint for the Old Testament translation into the Greek language for Yahweh Adonai this is the covenant name of God that's who this child is that's who

Luke or the angel is saying is being born here this is the Savior this is the

Christ this is the Lord God and here we want to kind of sound a little bit of a reformed note as is meet in times like this the angel does not say unto you is born a helper right he's gonna do his part if you do yours it is say unto you was born as an example who will show you how to be your own

Savior how to be better he says unto you is born a Savior your salvation is not a joint project between your will and his rather from beginning to end it is the work of this child he does not come to be the final piece in your self -improvement puzzle he comes to be your righteousness your redemption your life he is your

Savior he is your Christ and he is your Lord your covenant God that's who this angel is proclaiming to these shepherds and then in verses 13 and 14 we see the angel of the

Lord is joined very interestingly by a great multitude again verse 13 and suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising

God and saying glory to God in the highest in on earth peace goodwill toward men heaven cannot keep quiet about the incarnation one angel is not enough according to the text it's a multitude appears a host an army praising

God and this is important I think to note because as I mentioned earlier the incarnation is more rightly understood as an invasion

God here doesn't just bring many angels he doesn't just bring a multitude but he brings a host of heavenly angels if you're not familiar host is a military term this is an army of angels that's appearing with God and this invasion is not just an invasion of force as you might expect when an army is involved but it's an invasion of peace in the

Son of Man the Lord Jesus Christ towards his people right now to his enemies of course our

Lord is an avenging and assaulting army of angels he's sending it's far less peaceful but for today's purposes this message is to his own the

Lord is sending an army of angels to not bring war to bring peace towards man we listen to the words that they sing they sing glory to God in the highest in on earth peace in our age those two are often treated as enemies right that if we care about God's glory the assumption goes that we must be harsh and joyless and if we care about peace on earth then we must be you know social justice warriors we downplay

God's holiness in judgment but heaven disagrees the angels declare and again

I want us to hear this right the angels these heavenly beings that never sinned against God they needed no

Savior right they never fell from the grace of God like we had they required no

Redeemer no atoning blood this heavenly hosts are the ones who would say that the coming of Jesus the

Savior Christ and Lord of all mankind they would say that this is the highest display of God's glory and it's the only solid basis for real peace these angels do as they're told by their

God irrespective of its application to them all that their heavenly master does pleases and interests them they know

I mean they're not blind to it they know the misery that sin has brought into creation they know the blessedness of heaven and the privilege of an open door into it but above all as JC Ryle puts it in his commentary in this passage this shows us that the deep love and compassion which the angels feel towards poor lost man they rejoice in the glorious prospect of many souls being saved and many brands plucked from the burning the incarnation is revealing the heart of the triune

God the father sends the son the son willingly humbles himself the spirit empowers the son's ministry and there's no greater revelation of God's character than the

Son of God taking on our flesh to save us his power was seen in creation as justice was seen in the flood but as mercy remained to be fully revealed by the appearing and atonement of Jesus Christ and this is why these angels sing glory to God in the highest this is the greatest thing they're singing that God has ever done this is the most glorious thing that he has ever done and it doesn't even redeem them it doesn't even save them just because they rejoice in the wonderful and amazing works of their

God and they also sing again not they sing on earth peace it's not a vague absence of conflict it's not a sentimental mood rather peace with God for those who were his enemies peace of conscience for those whose sins have been forgiven peace among people where the gospel heals old hostilities this army has come declaring that God has extended peace terms in the midst of our enmity with him while we were yet sinners

Christ came and died for us he is the peace that surpasses all understanding and they are rejoicing these angels are rejoicing that it has been sent to earth for God's people now we ask how does that peace come right again

Christ is the embodiment of that peace but how does it come towards towards man in this song we we read it glory to God in the highest on earth peace goodwill toward men it comes to us with the goodwill of God toward men other translations render it peace among those with whom he is pleased or on whom his favor rest but either way the point is this that peace does not rest on human merit right it's not those who deserve it again

God's goodwill is not stirred up by our efforts his pleasure is not something that we earn it is purely grace

God places his favor where he chooses to place it in Christ and in all who are united to him by faith alone and this is where we must confront another one of those dangerous cultural lies of our time the idea that goodwill toward men means that God is vaguely pleased with everyone just as they are right that no repentance is necessary that all paths lead to the same

God and that somehow Christmas even attests to this Christmas somehow proves this that God you know he just had goodwill towards men that's why he's doing this that's why he sent his son and so as long as you're sincere then that's the only thing that really matters but the angels don't sing that right they don't sing glory to humanity in the highest and on earth peace through our progress or self -expression or sincerity they sing glory to God in the highest

God remains God we remain his creatures he doesn't bend his holiness to fit our preferences he brings peace on his terms and through his

Christ so if you want the peace that the angels sing about you must receive the Savior that they announced there is no other doorway into this song and this is how this really we see really guides the response of the shepherds right heaven has sung and now what do they do what's gonna happen here on earth the shepherds don't sit around talking about it and talking about their feelings about it oh this was this made me feel this way it was a little scary but I'll you know we'll be okay when we pray for your brother no they decide right away what they're gonna do they respond to the

Word of God verse 15 it came to pass as the angels were gone away from them into heaven the shepherds said one to another let us now go even unto

Bethlehem and see this thing which has come to pass which the Lord hath made known unto us again we noticed the

Lord didn't tell them that they should go right he told them that it was that this child was born he told them that there'd be a sign there for them to even know that this was the child but they aren't commanded now go to Bethlehem they receive what

God brought them by faith again the angels leave the glory recedes the field is dark again but they respond in faith

I'm sure many of us right I've had experiences like this right there's something really amazing that happens a powerful sermon or a conversation that we had you know a great event that we went to or we go on a vacation or a trip and there's a great great messages at this conference or retreat that we went to and then we come back to our lives we come

Monday comes right the emotions of the situation of the of the event kind of cool off the glow of it all fades and what do we do when the angels are gone again the shepherds don't say oh that was that was really cool man someone should write a book about this someday maybe we'll check it out you know maybe we'll go to Bethlehem and learn more about this guy when things calm down a little bit maybe wait wait till the morning no they say let us now go and see this thing which has come to pass they treat

God's Word as reality they don't wait for another sign they don't demand more proof they hear and they move right they came with haste verse 16 they came with haste and found

Mary and Joseph and the babe lying in a manger faith doesn't always move fast but it always moves real faith is not content to sit in the field and collect religious experiences it runs to Christ some of us have heard the gospel for years right we can some of us maybe can recite

Luke chapter 2 or this part at least from memory you could diagram even the doctrine of the

Incarnation but when the angels are gone and the lights are off and real decisions have to be made your life stays in the field

Luke confronts you with this simple question are you still sitting in the dark or have you run to Bethlehem our culture is full of spiritual browsers people who will sample anything spiritual as long as it does not require any repentance obedience commitment but the shepherds show us a different way

God speaks and they obey that's why even when we pray before the sermon each week and even the reading of God's Word we pray that we would respond to it right not only that we would hear it but that we would receive it and we would respond this is why we say this is the

Word of the Lord we respond in Thanksgiving to our God this is how the Christian is supposed to respond to the

Word of God God speaks and here these shepherds have met a God who sovereignly announces the good news and also sovereignly gives new hearts that respond in this effectual calling that we're seeing on display for these shepherds and by that I mean the work of God's Spirit whereby convincing us of our sin and misery enlightening our minds and the knowledge of Christ and renewing our wills he does not make repentance optional it makes repentance possible as the

Lord by his spirit persuades and enables us to embrace Jesus Christ freely offered to us in this gospel the good news again the good tidings that they've heard when

God makes known his word faith says as the shepherds did let us now go and they see when they when we see what we see in verse 16 excuse me they see this babe lying in a manger the sign matches the promise

God said you shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes lying in a manger it's exactly what they find they found everything exactly it has been as it had been told them and their simple faith received a rich reward they had the mighty privilege of being the first of all mankind after Mary and Joseph who saw with believing eyes the newborn

Messiah God's Word is not approximate he doesn't speak in vague generalities and then hope that reality lines up he speaks precisely in reality obeys and the reality of this is striking right that this

Christ this Jesus this Lord the Prince of Peace is born in a manger a feeding trough for animals what an incredible humiliation that the

Lord of Glory has brought himself into as he condescended to our conditions the worst of our condition even but such is the humiliation of Jesus Christ and his birth that he was born as a man in our low condition made under law undergoing the miseries of this life the wrath of God the curse of death on the cross even being buried and continuing under the power of death for a time but it's in his birth here that he foreshadows all of this it's in these circumstances the circumstance of his birth that the

Lord Jesus demonstrates the extent to which he is willing to go for his people that he would humble himself forsaking the glories of heaven that he might redeem his people by his own humiliation being born in a stable and being laid in a manger where animals eat verse 17 we read that when they had seen it they made known abroad the sayings which are the saying which was told them concerning this child so again we notice the order here that they see what the

Lord has done that he's given them that he's fulfilled the sign he told them would be there and they speak right they're not passing along rumors they're testifying to Mary and Joseph to what

God has told them and what they have now seen confirmed the first new covenant evangelists are not apostles or seminary graduates they're shepherds whose hands still smell like wool and dirt

God delights to put his treasure like we talked about last week in clay jars earthen vessels and this is a rebuke

I think in many ways to our church culture maybe especially but definitely including our circles more reforms high high churchy circles that often assumes that witness belongs to the professionals right that as long as there's a pastor or a missionary out there somewhere talking about Jesus that we can settle into a kind of comfortable silence but the pattern in Scripture especially in these early moments in the

Gospels and in the book of Acts is quite a bit different but they were scattered abroad for example in chapter 8 says that what the

Christians were scattered abroad they went everywhere preaching the word the word is heard believed and proclaimed right the shepherds show us a very similar thing here that the gospel assurance that they have is fueling a gospel witness because God has kept his word because they've seen the

Christ their mouths open they're not leaving it to somebody else again in our time there's immense pressure

I think for Christians to be quiet right keep your faith private believe what you like in your heart but don't bring it into public life don't say anything that might confront our idols of sexual autonomy greed self invention religious pluralism but if Christ is truly

Savior and Lord if he truly is the only hope for sinful people in a broken world then silence in that case is cruelty to withhold the news of a

Savior from a dying world because we fit with your awkwardness or rejection or even death is not love it's apathy dressed up as politeness we don't need to be obnoxious or self -righteous but we do need to be clear that the shepherds didn't edit the message to make it more palatable they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child that we found a helpful spiritual symbol now we discovered a new great way to be the best version of ourselves but that God has sent a

Savior Christ the Lord and we see the response the ripple effect of this witness in verse 18 all day that heard it wonder that those at those things which are told them by the shepherds not everyone who hears believes right maybe this can be somewhat of an encouragement to us but everyone who hears it is confronted right the word wondered here points to amazement astonishment people can't just shrug it off the message of the incarnation is not harmless right if it's true it rearranges everything even the pattern in this one verse it corrects a common mistake in the church we often want people to wonder at Christianity because we're impressive or we are able to say it in a more clever and persuasive way than anyone else has ever been able to do it or a more relevant way we want the world to be impressed with us but Luke points in the opposite direction these shepherds aren't impressive right they're not wearing new ties and great lapel pins these are but they're great we should wear them but they don't go get new jobs now that they're

Christians right now we're too good to be shepherds now we want people to listen to us what's not we can't be shepherds that's not that's not gonna help our witness right they're not too good for the work now that they're believers the message is what is impressive right that's where the power is it's not in the messengers but in the

Word of God concerning Christ and so these things are good and they're you know nice ties and nice lapel pins these are good things but this isn't the power right this this might make us think that we're impressive and in some ways

I think it does too but not in the eyes of God this doesn't make our gospel proclamation more impressive or more persuasive this is the work of God and it is the

Word of God its power is not in us but in him therefore when the Word is proclaimed

God himself we take heart in this God himself is the one who works through it to convict to comfort and to save and so when you speak about Christ at your table right at your workplace among your friends you may feel small and awkward in some of these things right because again we're taking the power of it out of ourselves we're not the impressive one so it can kind of feel a little bit awkward in some ways we again we feel small and the reason for that is because we are right we are small compared to the word that we carry and so we're the shepherds it's a great and wondrous thing far beyond our worthiness to carry this

Word of God this gospel message these good tidings we carry a word that is far too weighty for us to bear on our own or for us to to somehow comport to the world that it would be more palatable for them it is the work of God and the work of God alone for people's eyes to be open in dead men to be raised unto life by a spirit so if we're here this afternoon right here when you're not a

Christian you're listening this you're not a Christian right you're in verse 18 right you've heard the message and you may even wonder at it right it may seem really interesting and really amazing that that God would do this if this

God is real that he would do these things you may wonder at it you may admire the beauty of it and you may even serve some people appreciate the music and the tradition of the way that we do things right that what's more tied to the way the church has done things for a long time that's a good thing to wonder at to appreciate right but the power is not in those things but in the

God that we sing to that we submit to and honor and obey and preach of he is the power wonder is not enough right as we respond to our

God we must believe the shepherds didn't just wonder right they went they saw they believed and they praised and the call on all of us today is not just to admire

Christianity from a safe distance but to come to this Christ in repentance and faith and be saved to not just wonder at it from afar but to receive it and respond to it now as we prepare to close here our

Advent call that we see in light of heaven's song Earth's response our Advent call really is to treasure and join this song which we see really kind of in verses 19 and 20 we see

Mary treasuring and pondering as she's heard from these shepherds and the shepherds glorifying in praising and these are really two kind of snapshots into the shape of the

Christian life I think in response to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ verse 19

Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart Mary has received more revelation in nine months than most of God's people saw in a lifetime an angelic visitation a miraculous pregnancy a song from her own lips inspired by the

Spirit the birth of the Son of God in a stable and now shepherds showing up breathless telling of visions in the fields and what does she do she doesn't rush to start a movement and say oh women's empowerment

God's really speaking to women now we're gonna do all these things female pastors and all that sort of stuff no she doesn't she doesn't do that she doesn't immediately go on a speaking to her

I hesitate to use that example I wrote that earlier in the week no anyways I'm digress but she kept these things right she holds on to them and she ponders them in her heart she meditates

Advent for most of the Western world in particular is a season where we run the fastest right we think the least we fill the calendar we binge the shows we scroll we buy we complain that we're tired and then we keep feeding the machine that's making us tired but Mary stands in quiet rebuke to that she says or she ponders what is happening she's weighing it she's trying to connect the dots she's chewing on the

Word of God that has been revealed to her in this time and I think we can properly esteem that she's warm even and changed by it she's receiving it and responding it one of the things that we need to be aware of even in the church

I think is our addiction to distraction right our inability to ponder we carry little rectangles that promise and endless entertainment endless outrage endless news endless noise and then we wonder why our hearts feel thin and anxious and weak in the things of God but Advent is an invitation to treasuring and to pondering to put the phone down close the laptop turn off the constant feed and sit with the scriptures to ask who is this child what does it mean that he is my

Savior my Christ my Lord what does it mean that he came for me what sins did he come to save me from what idols have to fall if he is my

God and my Lord pondering is not reserved for mystics or monks it's basic Christian sanity the

Spirit uses the word pondered and treasured to conform us to Christ it's our brothers and sisters at this season passes and you've arranged many beautiful externals but you've not opened the scriptures and pondered

Christ then you've missed the point of Advent Mary here in her response to this gospel message of the shepherds calls you back to the heart of it treasure and ponder the things of God and then in verse 20 we see the shepherds they returned glorifying and praising

God for all the things that they had heard and seen as it was told unto them I really do love this verse as a closing element to what it is that we are considering this day because we see where they go right when the party's over right the baby there just as the angel said by the

Savior the Christ the Lord is here right everything just as the angel the Lord said it was going to be so now what do they do where do they go that was they go back to the fields right back to the flock back tonight and cold and work gospel doesn't always rearrange your circumstances but after Bethlehem some of some of us will go back to the same hard job that we have right same difficult family situations the same long struggle with illness or weakness but something has changed right the shepherds return glorifying and praising

God they do the same work just in a new key right their lives have become an echo of the angels song this is the shape or it should be of the

Christian life and the response to the Word of God God doesn't call everyone to leave the fields and to become professional ministers he calls all his people to do whatever he's given them to do heartily as to the

Lord and not unto men with hearts that glorify and praise him again you may feel that your life is very small you know you get children dressed you file reports you take calls you fix broken things you care for aging parents you sit at a desk but in Christ none of that is wasted when done in faith and with gratitude you're very returning to the fields becomes worship and we notice again what fuels their praise for all the things that they had heard and seen as it was told unto them what fuels them why are they glorifying and praising

God as they go back because he did exactly what he said he was going to do they're praising

God not for vague spiritual experiences but for specific fulfillment of his word they had heard the promise they had seen the sign and it all happened as it was told unto them the surest fuel for worship not just on Sunday but every day is not vague emotion but it's concrete remembrance that God has done exactly what he said he would do in Christ and so if your worship feels cold and thin particularly in a place again where tradition and simplicity and alignment to the scripture is prioritized like we have here when compared to you know the loud music or dimmed lighting an innovation of most of modern evangelicalism the answer is not to demand a more exciting atmosphere right the answer is to come back again and again to what

God has promised and done in the gospel to return rehearse those things until your heart cannot help but sing because your joy can't be sustained by the frills and ornaments of emotionalism and minor chords it needs

Jesus Christ he is the exact imprint of the nature of God he's the yes and amen to every promise he's the joy of the

Lord incarnate he is the Savior the Christ the Lord and this is how we respond in faith to God's Word and he fuels our worship with glory and praise to his name forevermore in everything that we do not just again on Sunday but every day so again as we close where does this leave us on this third

Sunday of Advent we've seen heaven's song glory and peace announced to nobody's we've seen

Earth's response faith that runs sees and speaks and we've seen our Advent call to treasure and to join the song and now the question turns to each of us are we content to stay in the field vaguely spiritual but never decisively running to Christ are we happy to keep the gospel at a safe distance admiring it as a cultural artifact while clinging to our own autonomy in the places that really matter are we going to spend this

Advent numbing ourselves with the world's distractions while our souls starve just a few feet from the manger or will we hear the angels words addressed to us that unto you is born this day in the city of David a

Savior which is Christ the Lord will we like the Shepherd say let us now go and come to him in repentance and faith will we like Mary treasure and ponder these things letting the

Word of Christ dwell in us richly and will we like the shepherds return and go back to our lives tomorrow our ordinary lives with an extraordinary song of praise on our lips and in our heads and in our habits our culture is desperate for peace but it refuses the

Prince of Peace it wants Christmas without Christ light without repentance joy without holiness community without submission to the

Lord of the church and the Christian answer to that confusion is not bitterness or retreat it's a clear joyful stubborn witness of glory to God in the highest and on earth peace but only and wonderfully in this child the

Savior Christ the Lord he came down into our darkness not just to decorate December but to bear a cross to endure the wrath of God in the place of his people and to rise from the dead and to reign until every enemy is put under his feet and the one who lay in a manger now in this scene sits at the right hand of the

Father forevermore the angels who sang in the fields now surround his throne and by his spirit he still comes to ordinary congregations just like ours in ordinary places just like this through ordinary preaching in ordinary bread and wine to assure sinners that his peace is for them and so dear brothers and sisters here again the main point of our message this this day that in the advent of Christ God brings his glory down into our darkness so that his peace and joy erupts in the lives of the most ordinary people so may we respond like these shepherds and our spirit be like theirs if we ever believe implicitly act promptly and wait for nothing when the path of duty is clear and in so doing we shall have a reward like that of the shepherds knowing that the journey that has begun in faith will end in praise so we do not leave this passage as spectators are we come to him we trust him treasure him speak of him we return to our fields glorifying and praising him for all that we have seen and heard exactly as he told us in his word the grass withers and the flower fades but the