The Angels' Song

You are listening to a message from Thrive Community Church, a church located in Southwest Florida. For more info, visit us at thrive-fl.org. We've been in a series here at Thrive for this season called Advent, this time of preparation before the birth of Christ and Christmas on this, the Songs of Christmas, as I was looking at the Gospel of Luke chapters 1 and 2, what you find out is the gospel in a sense could almost be a script for a musical, because at least four different individuals break out into just praises to God in these poetic, prophetic words, sometimes sung like tonight's words. So we've had the words of Mary, the Magnificat it is called because she magnifies the Lord. We've had the words of Zechariah called the Benedictus in Latin because he blesses the Lord. And tonight we're getting the Song of the Angels called the Gloria because they glorify the Lord. It's Luke chapter 2 verse 14, just a short section of the whole chapter 2 of Luke that you probably know very well from at least a Charlie Brown Christmas if you don't know it already. The whole story of how Mary and Joseph come to Bethlehem, how they get there and the Savior's born and placed in a manger wrapped in swaddling clothes and then the shepherds in the hills outside of Bethlehem have the angel announce to them the good news and then the angels sing. Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased. It's 17 words in English, it's only 11 words in the Greek. The shortest song but it's not going to be the shortest sermon you've ever heard. What does it matter? You know glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, right? Peace on earth, we've got that going on don't we? Well we're going to talk about it and I'm going to show you I think this is actually the entire gospel in a nutshell. The angels are basically praising God as the angels, it says in the book of Job, praised God and praised God over the creation of the world and they keep praising God. You will notice angels appear at various times throughout the scriptures specifically when things go over the top and when God is doing something great and tonight is the night of all nights. So we're going to explore Luke chapter 2 by just kind of going right through the song with glory to God in the highest is our first point, peace on earth, and then among those with whom God is pleased, our third point. And I hope that you get some insights tonight as to what they were singing about and why it's so important. Now glory to God in the highest, the first word or what that word glory, doxa in Greek, is where we get words like doxology if you've ever sung praise God from whom all blood if we call it the common doxology. It's just a way to praise God to give him glory but it's really tied not to an idea of just a beautiful sunset, something glorious bright and shiny, but it's actually tied into the Hebrew Bible all the way back to the beginning and to the idea that God's glory is shown on earth through how he creates everything and God shows up in his Shekinah, that is the Hebrew word for glory, his presence from walking with Adam and Eve in the garden to showing up in the burning bush, to showing up at Mount Sinai, to showing up at the tabernacle in the temple, wherever God shows up in front of Isaiah, in front of Ezekiel, his glory is something to not only behold but to almost pulverize the people who see it. So what is this glory that's going on in Bethlehem of all places, right? What's interesting is they sing, the angels sing glory to God in the highest, that's really the heavens and peace on earth. It harkens back to actually Genesis chapter 1 verse 1 where it says in the beginning God created what? The highest, the heavens and the earth, right? The angels sing that God's glory from the beginning has meant to bring heaven and earth together. A little heaven on earth is exactly what God intended. God has always wanted you to experience heaven on earth in your life, to have the joy of his presence and the joy and harmony of others. That's what God intended from the beginning, that's what Eden really was, was kind of a temple, a tabernacle, a dwelling where God could meet with you and he would be there for you and you would be living in harmony and beauty. Well we know that didn't last, where our garden and temple fell apart, Adam and Eve and the serpent, but the angels are saying tonight God is bringing it back together. Now what's really interesting too, I learned from a Christian and Jewish rabbi named Chad Foster who lives in Michigan, he runs a Christian church up there, that the words the heavens and the earth that occur in this first chapter of Genesis, the Hebrew is ha-shemayim wa-eth ha-aretz, I know I could say almost anything and you wouldn't know what that meant, right? And it's read from right to left not left to right, so ha-shemayim wa-eth ha-aretz, heaven and earth, okay, that actually here's the amazing thing about Hebrew which I lear...