The Songs of Christmas: Gloria! - The Song of Joy

James H. Cosentino II

The Songs of Christmas • Sermon • Submitted 5 months ago • Presented 5 months ago

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Introduction

Luke 2:8–20 (ESV)

And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and 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 among those with whom he is pleased!”

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. But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.

What is Joy? Joy is often described as happiness. But Biblical joy goes beyond mere happiness. It might include the feelings of happiness, but joy goes beyond happiness as it can exist even in the midst of suffering and hardship.

James 1:2 (ESV)

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds,

Paul tells us to Philippians 4:4

Philippians 4:4 (ESV)

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice.

Jesus tells us in Matthew 5:12

Matthew 5:12 (ESV)

Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Happiness is a cheap imitation of the joy that God wants to give to us, a joy that gives us a satisfaction in our souls that nothing else can give. Joy enables us to rejoice with others even when we might not feel it. Joy allows us to keep persevering even when the world stands against us.

Joy is a gladness of spirit that endures beyond the circumstances of life.

So as we come to this passage and the song the angels sing, we see that there is joy in what is taking place on that first Christmas night.

Joy in the Good News

As we open us this passage in verse 8, we have this group of shepherds out in a field in the same region or area where a peasant man and his wife have just delivered their firstborn son, in a stable of all places because the little village of Bethlehem was overrun with visitors.

These shepherds were simply doing their job, watching over their sheep and avoiding everyone else as the shepherds were typically despised and looked down upon as thieves and crooks and as the unclean portions of society. Staying out in the fields was preferable to going into town to deal with the looks and the whispers.

All of a sudden, an Angel of the Lord appeared to these unsuspecting nomads with the glory of the Lord shining around them.

The Message of Good News -

So the angel delivers the message that he has good news for these shepherds that is of great joy! Then they go on to declare what this good news is, a Baby has just been born who is the Savior, Christ the Lord.

We can understand why the birth of a baby would be good news to some people.

But why is this news good news of great joy for all people? How does this news bring joy for us?

The Bad News - Separation from God Because of Sin

To answer those questions, we must first understand the bad news to appreciate the good news.

The Bad News should come as no surprise to us. The Bad News is that we live in a broken world, separated from our Creator God.

The reason for this brokenness goes back to Genesis 3. God had created everything good including man and woman. He created humanity to bear His image and to walk in a right and loving relationship with Himself. We were meant to reflect His goodness and glory and to steward His creation under His authority. However, instead of trusting in God’s goodness and submitting to His will and glory, Adam and Eve, and all of us who followed, chose to believe the lie that we could be like God, choosing to trust ourselves to know what is good and best rather than trust in God’s wisdom, and as a result, we sinned and rebelled against God and brought sin and death into this world.

Since Genesis 3, we have been enslaved to the presence, power, and penalty of sin, doomed to the death that our sin deserves. As a result, because of our sin and God’s holiness, we have been separated from our Creator, looking forward to the day when God would send the Savior to redeem us and to break the curse of sin so that we could be freed from sin and reconciled to the God we were created to love and glorify.

All creation since this time has been groaning, waiting for the day of redemption that God would bring.

The Good News - Christ, God Himself, as Come in the Flesh to Rescue Us

When the angels announced that a child was born, they announced to the shepherds that this Child is the Savior, Christ the Lord. The shepherds would have understood the term Christ. It is the Greek word for the Hebrew word, Messiah, which means anointed One. That word pointed towards the One that God would choose to be King and Savior for Israel and who would be the One to free God’s people, not from physical and political oppression, but from the curse of sin and death.

This Good News is the pronouncement of spiritual justice, freedom, healing, and grace.

This same Child would later, as a man, pronounce the good news in a synagogue by reciting the words of the Prophet Isaiah:

Luke 4:17–21 (ESV)

And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written,

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,

because he has anointed me

to proclaim good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives

and recovering of sight to the blind,

to set at liberty those who are oppressed,

to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

This is the good news of Joy! Life, freedom, and restoration have been brought to us because of the birth of this Child!

Imagine the joy of hearing that your $200,000 mortgage had been forgiven.

Imagine the joy of a prisoner serving a life sentence being set free.

Or the joy of hearing that a cure had been found for a terminable disease that now means decades of life for you.

Now, imagine these things on an eternal scale. We owed an infinite debt to God because of our sin. We are all enslaved by our sin, incapable of anything else but to walk in rebellion and death towards God. We were all infected with the incurable disease of sin, doomed to die apart from God.

And now all these things have been undone because of the birth of this baby Boy named Jesus! Sure this is good news of Great Joy!

Joy is Available for All People

This good news of great joy is offered for all people!

The offer of the salvation that Jesus has come to bring is not limited to people of a certain ethnicity, background, economic situation, or even moral background. It doesn’t matter where you come from or what you’ve done, or who your ancestors were.

The Gospel is all inclusive in that it is available to any and all people without reservation.

This was good news for the Shepherds who were the cultural outcasts of their day. They were the lowest of the low and the despised of their society. They were considered to be unclean, thieves, and miscreants. No one had any love for these shady characters.

And yet, it was to these men and women that God had sent His angels to communicate His good news of great joy first! It wasn’t sent to the rich, the powerful, or the religiously superior. It was sent to the poorest, lowliest, and vilest of sinners.

If God has invited the shepherds to hear the good news of Christ, how much more has He invited each of us to hear and to respond to His good news!

Do not allow the lie that says you are not good enough to keep you from the joy that God has for you.

Joy is Given to Those Who Please God

While this Joy is available and offered to all people, it is not received or experienced by all people.

We typically hear the phrase, “Peace on earth and good will toward men.” However, that phrase is better translated “Peace to those on whom His favor rests” or as it says here, “peace among those with whom He is pleased.”

While these two phrases seem different, they are actually more similar than meets the eye.

The word favor is also another word for grace. So the angels are singing that joy comes to those who experience the peace that comes because of God’s grace, or on those with whom He is pleased.

How do we please God in such a way as to receive this joy?

Do we have to live up to some impossible standard? If that were so, we would never truly experience joy or peace. Trying to obey in our own flesh will never please God.

Matthew 7:21–23 (ESV)

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

It is possible to do many good things and still never please God. Jesus tells us that the one who does the will of the Father is the one who will enter the Kingdom of Heaven.

So how do we please God?

1 John 3:23 (ESV)

And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us.

What does God command? That we believe in the name of His Son Jesus!

Those who please God and those on whom God’s grace rests are the same people, those who believe that Jesus is God’s Son, that His work on the cross is sufficient to pay the price for our sin, and who trust in Christ by submitting to Him as Lord and repenting of their sins.

We do not earn God’s favor by doing good works. We receive God’s grace by simply trusting in Him and His Work.

Ephesians 2:8–9 (ESV)

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

But when we trust in Him and receive His grace, we will display that grace by the works God produces in us.

Ephesians 2:10 (ESV)

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

Therefore, if the joy that is promised is experienced by those who please God, the only way we can truly experience this joy is by receiving God’s grace by placing our faith and trust in Christ and in His work on the cross. And we experience the joy as Christ accomplishes His work in us as He changes our hearts and turns us away from our sin and towards His righteousness.

Joy Leads to Glorifying God

The good news of great joy led to a great response by both the angels who delivered the good news and by the shepherds who received this good news.

Worship

First, the angels responded to this good news by singing the praises of God who would so love His people as to send His one and only Son to be the Savior of the World. They sang, “Glory to God in the highest!”

But the singing did not stop with the angels. When the shepherds responded to this message in obedience to find this child laying in a manger, they returned by “glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.”

This great act of grace and mercy should lead to such joy in our hearts that we cannot but help to sing the praises of our God who demonstrated such love towards us!

Scripture continually commands us to sing songs of praise to God. The book with the most chapters in our Bible is Israel’s hymn book from which to sing their songs to God. There were songs of praise and songs of lament and everything in between. But ultimately, these songs directed their thoughts to the God who loved them and saved them for His glory and honor and we are being invited to respond to this joy by singing our praises to God for His glory!

If we are filled with this joy inexpressible, we cannot but help but sing His praises!

Tell of God’s Goodness to Others

Conclusion

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