“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men!” (Luke 2:14)
We’ll pause this week between our sermons on the Old Testament Book of Nahum and the start of our study in the New Testament Letter to Titus. December 25th is indeed “Christmas” in many parts of the world and as the old song goes, “It’s a wonderful time of the year…” It’s a time to rejoice and call out, along with His holy angels: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men!” (Luke 2:14). Our God is with us, our Savior has come, and He is wonderful. He changes the “negative” in our lives into good.
“Advent” is a word that is best understood as “a coming, an arrival,” and it is often used to describe the time when Jesus Christ came to this earth. We look back 2000 years to a baby in Bethlehem and many feel that was when His relationship with humanity began. But there is more – incredibly more. In order to really understand this Baby in a manger who became a Man and then died for our sins, we must go back – really go back to before the beginning.
The Book of Genesis begins, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth,” and interestingly the Hebrew word carefully chosen for “God” in that first verse of the Bible is “Elohim,” which is a plural word, and it literally translates as “Gods.” The “Elohim” is "One," as it correctly states in Deuteronomy 6:4, but God is also even more. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth…” and the Genesis account continues in Verse 2, “… the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.” God was and is God, and yet He is also the Spirit of God. One who is God spoke everything into existence from eternity and God was simultaneously on earth, “hovering over the face of the waters.”
We move to John Chapter One in the New Testament where we can look once more at Creation, this time from an additional perspective. To give you a preview of what this chapter is about, look ahead to Verse 14, where we find that “the Word” of God “became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” The Word of God is Jesus Christ, the Babe in a manger who is Himself God. The Father is God, the Spirit of God is God, and the Son is God. They are “One,” just as Deuteronomy 6:4, the “Schma” (the “Hear”) of Israel says.
John Chapter One starts, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men” (John 1:1-4). To find out who this Babe in a manger really is, we must reach back through time, through all history until we reach the beginning and then beyond, for His real home is not Galilee, not Nazareth, not Bethlehem, not Israel, not even this earth. Before this universe existed, before there was sun, moon, planets, stars or galaxies, He was God.
“All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.” Your Creator, the Maker of the earth, the solar system, the galaxies, the universe itself, was Jesus Christ. He lived in what is called “eternity,” which is outside of space and time. One of the prophets who heard from God and then spoke of Him, said that the Messiah, the Christ would indeed be born in “Bethlehem” some 700 years in the future from that moment, but the prophet, whose name was Micah, also saw that Jesus would be the One “whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting” (Micah 5:2). “Everlasting” in that verse is literally “the days of eternity.”
The author of the Book of Hebrews in the New Testament reports that Jesus Christ is greater than the angels (Hebrews 1:4). “In the beginning (He)laid the foundation of the earth and the heavens are the work of(His) hands” (1:10). He tasted death for everyone (2:9). He is the author of salvation (2:10). He is greater than Moses (3:3). And then we find, “He who built all things is God” (3:4). He is the Maker and Builder of this universe. He is God.
He was in eternity as the King of Glory. This universe, your body and mine – everything is “held together,” it “consists” because of Him (Colossians 1:17). You would not exist except that He has given you life. He knows precisely who we are and yet He loves us anyway. He chose to give up EVERYTHING and come to this earth, not in the form of the King which He was and is, but as a Baby born into a poor family that lived obscurely in a captive nation. He “made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a servant, and coming in the likeness of men, and being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross” (Philippians 2:7-8).
He, the King of Glory, became a human child, born into poverty, having no more control over his bodily functions than any other baby, and was dependent on his parents for His very life. After He grew up, He healed, taught, comforted and cried out to this world that had rejected God. He responded to the leading of the same Holy Spirit that is offered to us all. He “became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.” He died for you and me.
“Therefore,” as it continues in the Letter to the Philippians, “God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:9-11). He is God, He is your Creator, He died for you. He has offered you everything because of His love, and all God asks in return is that you give up relying merely on yourself and place your trust, your faith in Him. We are to praise Him for He is wonderful.
Angels spoke of Him at His birth. They sang out to shepherds near Bethlehem, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men!” (Luke 2:14). Your purpose on this earth is to give “glory to God” as they did. You are intended to finally trust in the Lord. He is your Maker and you are His property. To the extent that you deny Him in your life, you keep yourself from happiness. You can choose to be His or not, but when you perform the reasonable act of giving “glory to God,” you find the “good will” that He intends for mankind; for you. He will accept, protect forgive, love you and give you joy, now and forever.
You will receive His peace. Jesus gave us a glimpse of what His peace is all about in John 14:27, when He said, “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” Our concept of peace is not unlike a crystal-clear pool of water, beautiful and uncontaminated; a place of serenity where the storms never come. But He offers “peace” as something that the world does not understand or even accept. When we receive Him, He leaves us in this world with all of its storms and troubles. Just like it is for everybody else it is for us, except He is in us and with us. He says, “Abide in Me” and He blessedly continues, “And I in you” (John 15:4). Outwardly life remains full of difficulties, but Christ comes inside your very being and is with you.
Lord, we call out to you: “Glory to God in the highest,” and we thank You for the “peace, good will” You give to mankind. Forgive us for neglecting and rejecting You in the past. We place our faith in You now, giving our lives over to Your good purposes. In Jesus Name. Amen.
