Brothers and sisters, if you would turn in the New Testament now to Luke. Our reading there will be from chapter 2 this afternoon. I think you'll find that on page 1018 of your Pew Bibles. Luke chapter 2, and we'll be reading the first 20 verses. Let's give attention to God's very Word, Luke chapter 2. In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria. And all went to be registered, each to his own town. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling cloths, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn. 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." So far in the reading of God's Word. Amen. Please be seated. Would you pray with me? Our Father in God, we ask now once again, Lord, that you would add your blessing to the reading of your word. That you'd use your word powerfully in our hearts. Continuing, Lord God, to change us to be more like Christ. And Father, as we ponder these things, you'd help us to see and hear your glory. We ask this in the name of Christ. Amen. There is an account in the Old Testament when the temple had been finished, when it had been completed. Solomon's temple, so to speak. And at the dedication of the temple, Solomon prays a fairly long prayer, one of the longest prayers we have recorded for us in Scripture. And we read this In Second Chronicles, as soon as Solomon finished his prayer, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offerings and sacrifices and the glory of the Lord filled the temple. And the priest could not enter the house of the Lord. Because the glory of the Lord filled the Lord's house. We don't know exactly what that looked like, but we do know that the priests couldn't enter because of God's glory. And we do know that as this happens, as the fire comes down and the glory of the Lord is showing, whatever that looked like, it caused the people who were there to bow down on their faces to the ground and on the pavement and worship. This is sometimes referred to as the Shekinah glory of God. And as one website got questions, observes that word Shekinah does not appear in the Bible, but apparently it means, according to this website, that he caused to dwell. And that's exactly what happened. The temple was built It was prayed over by Solomon and now the Lord God himself dwells amongst his people. We saw that in the tabernacle. We see it now in the temple. We see it as Jesus was born. The dwelling place of God. His glory so intense, so palpable, so real and present that it prevented the priests from entering in. We have that similar thing happening here in a different way as the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ is recorded by Luke. Here in chapter two, Luke has already opened up the fact that he wanted to set forth an orderly account for Theophilus. He wanted to let Theophilus know what he knew, meaning what Luke, what Dr. Luke knew about Christ. And he wants to set that forth, and that's what he's been doing in this gospel. Luke began with the birth of John the Baptist and his unbelieving father, Zechariah. He also continued as Gabriel, an angel of the Lord, visits Mary and explains to Mary that she's going to have a child by the Holy Spirit. John the Baptist has been born at this point and now Now we read of the birth of Christ. This afternoon, I want us to see that those who see and hear the glory of God will praise Him. Those who see and hear the glory of God will praise Him. We'll see that in three short points this afternoon. First, seeing glory. Secondly, hearing glory. And then finally, giving glory. well first, seeing glory. We need to grasp this scene that's been given to us as Luke continues to write that orderly account of the ministry of Christ Jesus. We break in here to this scene of shepherds watching their flock. We know that they A registration was going on, a census was going on. We know that's the reason for Mary and Joseph to be going to the city of David, Bethlehem, to be registered. But then we hear of these shepherds. They were likely tired. It was at night. I'm guessing that it was a long day with the sheep, always constantly watching, constantly getting them to stay together, bringing them to the pen, whatever that looked like here outside of Bethlehem. Likely they were tired. And it was at night. Their eyes were likely heavy. It was dark. And it was probably quiet. And yet they were watching. The Lord comes to shepherds by this angel, not by mistake. And so we can assume, I think, that they were watching. They were watching over the sheep. They were watching to protect. They were keeping alert as much as possible given their physical conditions at night with their eyes being heavy. And then suddenly this angel appears. An angel of the Lord appeared to them and the glory of the Lord shone around them. It must've been immediate. This angel now appears at night. We don't know what the glory looked like. We don't know if it was a bright light. We don't know if it was fire. We don't know if it was this dark cloud, which is darker than the darkness. We just, we don't know. But it was apparent to the shepherds, those who were tired, those who were most likely weak, those whose eyes were heavy. Now their eyes are wide open. The glory of God is appearing to these men, this supernatural event, like the sun bursting through the blackness of the night. But unlike the sunrise, which is gradual, these angel appearance was immediate. It had to be. because the angel was of the Lord. An angel of the Lord. The New American Standard puts it this way, an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them. Again, we're not sure what the glory looked like, other than it was frightful. But the glory of God is shining in some form or fashion to these shepherds. We see the glory of God shining in various ways throughout scripture as he appears on Mount Sinai. It was not in a bright light. Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because of the Lord had descended on it in fire. The mountain trembled greatly. The sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder. God answers Moses in thunder. That's the appearance of the Lord on Mount Sinai. That's the glory of God. And that's what we read from Deuteronomy. Behold, the Lord our God has shown us his glory and greatness. They're speaking of the burning with fire, the darkness, the thunder of his voice. I see the glory of the Lord has filled the temple. As soon as Solomon finished his prayer, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the glory of the Lord filled the temple. Part of the glory was the consumption of the offering, wasn't it? The glory was so thick, whatever it was, it prevented the priest from entering in. We see the glory of the Lord at the tomb. Remember on the day of resurrection, that as the disciples and others go to the tomb and find it empty, they find men. In Luke, his account records two men stood by them in dazzling apparel. Radiating God's glory. That's exactly what the angel was doing as the angel appears before the shepherds, radiating the glory of God, having been with God in glory. Did you notice as the multitudes come, we read, when the angels went away from them into heaven. They come from God, they go back to God, And as they come to the earth, they are radiating God's glory. They couldn't do nothing else. They've been in the presence of God. And now as they come and appear to the shepherds, it's the glory of God, at least a portion, at least a glimpse that the shepherds are seeing. The one who made the sun, moon and stars. to produce and shine forth light. He is the one who has now sent his messenger to the shepherds and grabs their attention as he shines forth his glory through them. What is this glory? Moses saw the glory of God. He asked to see it, didn't he? In Exodus 33, please show me your glory. And God does. The Lord, glory, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin. Moses quickly bowed his head toward the earth and worshiped. Notice in that account, there was no description. of what the glory looked like. It was just this verbal description of who God was and is. And then Moses radiates the glory of God. As he comes down from the mountain, the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God. It's a bit of the idea with the angels appearing. Isaiah saw the glory of God. He saw the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up and the train of his robe filled the temple. But the description didn't stop there because the seraphim are flying about. And one called to another and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth is full of his glory and the foundations of the threshold shook at the voice of him who called. Think of that. The glory of God is described in part as the seraphim cry out to one another and the foundations shake. They're crying out. They're praising God, the one who made them. And at their voices, the foundation shakes. Stephen saw the glory of God as he's being stoned to death, martyred. filled with the Spirit. He sees the heaven open and he sees the glory of God with Jesus standing at the right hand. But maybe the most complete description that we have was Daniel's description. as he sees, as he appears, and he sees the ancient of days taking his seat, his clothing white as snow, his head, the hair of his head like pure wool. His throne was fiery flames, its wheels burning fire, streams of fire issued and came out from before him. Thousands, thousands served him, and 10,000 times 10,000 stood before him. A most complete description of the glory of God. How did this event in history, the history of redemption, shine forth the glory of God? Because that really seems to be the centerpiece of this passage. Sometimes we get lost in Mary and Joseph. Sometimes we fix ourselves on the barn, if it was a barn, certainly a manger. But I think it's clear that it's the glory of God that is the centerpiece. And so we can, and I think we should say, that God's plan of redemption had been playing out in the lives of His people up until this point. Even the lives of those who were opposed to Him. since Adam and Eve fell in the garden, God had a plan to save a people for himself. And that had been unfolding and unfolding and unfolding ever since he said, I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your offspring and her offspring. He, referring to the seed of the woman, referring to Jesus himself, he shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel. And then as time marches on, we see and read of the flood. We read of the Tower of Babel. We read of the period of the judges and then the raising up of kings of Israel as the people of God, and as they enter into the promised land, and then we read of the exile and the return from exile. God's plan of redemption unfolding. But here in this passage, we have this once in time event unparalleled in God's plan of redemption, where his son takes on human nature. We have the birth, the incarnation of Jesus, a significant turning point, so to speak, in the history of redemption and indeed in the history of the world, God's plan to redeem a people. God's plan to restore his people to intimate communion and fellowship with himself. In human terms, it takes a huge step forward in the birth, in the incarnation of this Jesus, the Christ. And so as thousands of years had passed from human perspective since the fall, now is born this one, the seed of the woman, who is promised in the garden. God's plan for redemption was visibly seen unfolding before the eyes of these angels, if we can say it that way, and certainly the eyes of the shepherds. And that's the reason for glorying in God, His perfect plan. Now, not just on paper, so to speak, but unfolding in real time before the eyes of these shepherds. How do you see the glory of God? Jesus said to Martha, as her brother had died, did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God. If you're believing this morning, this afternoon, in Christ Jesus, you have seen the glory of God as He's unfolded it in your heart. As you've seen yourself change from a child of wrath to a child of God, you've seen for yourselves the unfolding of God's glory, even in your own heart. That brings us to our second point, hearing glory. A shepherd saw, saw the angels, But they also heard them. The angel said to them, the one, the single angel, Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Think of that immediately, the compassion of God on display. These shepherds were terrified. Again, we don't know what the glory looked like, but it was terrifying. An angel appearing, an angel speaking, one from God himself, the glory of God being radiated to these shepherds and them falling. If they weren't falling, I think I would have been. They're terrified. But the Lord knew that they would never be able to truly hear what message the angel had unless he calmed their hearts. And so the Lord, compassionate and merciful. Calls them to fear not. Now they can hear. Now they can hear the the good news, 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'll find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger. The shepherds were given good news. Now, we don't have much text here, but we do know that the shepherds knew they were sinners. Because we do know that every single man, woman, and child knows That they had broken God's law. We have that written upon our hearts. The shepherds were no different than us. They had that written on their hearts. They knew that there was a problem. They knew they were separated from God. They knew they had to have someone bring them back into communion because they had sinned against God. And now they were hearing this Word of God. That this One was born to them. For unto you is born this day a Savior. Now, they may not have been able to put it in those words. They may not have been able to give it that kind of understanding, but they knew they were lost. They knew that they had broken God's law. They knew that there had to be something to change them and to bring them back into communion with God. And they hear that this one is born a savior, Christ the Lord. Did you hear that? That's what the angel said. Those were the words of God. For unto you is born this day, not next week, not next year, not a thousand years from now. Today is born this one who is Christ, meaning the Messiah, the promised one. The one who God said was coming, the one who Moses wrote about. The prophet of prophets, the king of kings, the one who would sit on David's throne, the Messiah. Now look at it. It's joined with those words, the Lord. Savior. This one had been born to them, who was the promised Messiah. who would be the one who would rule their hearts, the Lord, and also the one who would save them from their sins. This was good news. This is what they were hearing. It was glorious. that this one, this second person of the Trinity, and again, they wouldn't have put it this way, but we can because we're looking back upon time. We can say the second person of the Trinity would condescend, would lower himself according to the will of the father. Just grasp that for a moment. The one who had been in glory in heaven for eternity. Never a day when he was not. in fellowship, the son with the father, with the spirit. Now has submitted himself to the very will of his father, wholly and completely to the perfect redemptive plan of God to restore communion with his people. And the son, the divine one, the only eternally begotten son, submits himself to his father's will and takes to himself this human nature. That's glorious. that the son would so submit to the will of his father. A glorious event in the history of the Trinity playing out before the hearing of these shepherds. that in order to fully accomplish the redemption of fallen man, that the son, the fully divine one, God himself would take on this role, this work of accomplishing the repurchase, the recreation of sinful men and the shepherds heard it. And it brings glory to God. It causes us to ask that question, are we hearing it this afternoon? For this is the only way to glorify God. It comes through hearing Him. James speaks of not being hearers only, deceiving yourselves, but be doers of the Word. James' statement is premised on first hearing the Word, isn't it? He's cautioning those to be not hearers only. This passage is saying you must be hearers first. You must be, if you're going to glorify God. And that's exactly what the shepherds were doing. That brings us to our third point, giving glory. What we see here, it's not only the multitude of heavenly angels that praise God and sing, I would think, glory to God in the highest. Glory to God in the highest. And as the shepherds returned from visiting Mary and Joseph and baby Jesus, they returned glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen. As we consider this head giving glory, we have to qualify it first by reminding ourselves that we can't give God more glory He already is full of glory. Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders? Exodus 15, a proclamation by Moses as they're brought through the divided Red Sea. Or Isaiah, as he's listening to the seraphim crying out one to another, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory. Can we add to that? No. The heavens declare the glory of God, the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Psalm 138, all the kings of the earth shall give you thanks, O Lord, for they have heard the words of your mouth and they shall sing of the ways of the Lord, for great is the glory of God. It is as much as it can be. It's infinite. His glory. And God doesn't change. He doesn't remove a bit so we can add to it a bit. It doesn't become lesser or greater over time. But the idea is that as we praise God, as we obey God, as we please God, we are glorifying Him. We could almost exchange those two words, glory and praise, I just want to make sure we understand that our God is as glorious as possible. And that will never change. But the shepherds now do give glory. First by going. You consider that. They had flocks. They had a job, right? They're out at night, they're doing their job, they're watching the flocks. This angel comes and says, hey, there's one born that you need to go see. And I doubt they took their flocks with them. I don't know. But I think they left them behind or maybe they left one guy and the rest of them went. We don't know. But they go. They hear this proclamation. They hear this glory of God and they go. They've got to see it. They've got to see the sign. When the angels went away, 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. Well, we can do this next weekend. No, they went with haste. They hear the proclamation and they go. You see, not all go, not all heed. We read that. In Deuteronomy, as the people hear God coming down on the mountain, they're terrified of it and they tell Moses, hey, you go in here and tell us. We can't listen to God any longer. We're going to do everything you tell us. Yet we know the Israelites didn't. Ezekiel writes of this. And behold, you are to them like one, meaning Ezekiel is a prophet to the people, like one who sings lustful songs with a beautiful voice and plays well on an instrument, for they hear what you say, but they will not do it. They will not do it. Not all give glory to God through believing and doing his word, but the shepherds did. They gave glory to God as they go and even repeat the words of the angel given to them to those who would listen. But their glory didn't stop there. They returned glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen. I don't exactly know what the shepherds knew as they gazed upon Jesus in the manger. We do know that they heard the angel proclaim the good news, the birth of a Savior for them, Christ, the Messiah, their Lord, And as they looked upon this one exactly as the angel had described it, confirmed the words of the angel as the Lord's proclamation. They knew the good news was indeed from God, and that brought them great joy. To the point that they're praising God. They're glorifying God as they come back. As they leave the barn or whatever structure Joseph and Mary were in with the baby Jesus, we don't know the extent of what they knew, but we do know that they knew that the word that they had heard had been confirmed. It was from God. This was the Messiah. This was the Savior. This was their Lord. And that brought them to praise God. Now, as we consider that event today, as we have all of God's revelation. As we look back on that, we can say, well, what they were seeing that very day was the what's called the hypostatic union, this union of two natures in one person. The incarnation of the birth of Jesus means that. It means the joining together of one who is fully human and one who is fully divine. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Remember how we started. We started with the temple and the Shekinah glory. The dwelling of God with His people. And the glory of God filled the temple. And now here we have Jesus, the Christ, the Messiah, the Lord, the Savior, and the angel. The angel appears and shines forth the glory of God. As they're about to see this one promised. And the word became flesh. and dwelt among us." We have a hard time understanding that. There's nothing in this life, in our human experience, that we can compare this to, the joining of two separate natures, one fully divine, one fully human. And we don't know what the shepherds knew. But we stand in a different position because if you're trusting this afternoon in the Lord Jesus Christ, if you're trusting in him as your Savior, as his Lord, you have been given eyes to see and ears to hear. And as you read the scriptures, even though you've not set your eyes upon the baby Jesus, you know, you know that that one who was lying in the manger that day had two natures, fully divine, fully human. It was not merely one nature that indwelt this one person. You know from the Word of God, you trust the Word of God, you believe in the Word of God, that this one person, in this one person were those two natures. And that very truth, that very thing that you grasp, it brings you peace. Remember the words of the angel, glory to God. In the highest. And on earth, peace among those whom with whom he is pleased. The multitude of heavenly hosts were praising God and proclaiming peace. How is that possible? These shepherds were at enmity with God. They were at war with him. But they proclaim peace because this Jesus was born to reconcile. This was born to die in your place. This one was born to allow his blood to be shed. This one was born to take his father's wrath in your place. This one was born to restore your relationship to the true and living God. And brothers and sisters, that brings you peace. But you need to understand and remember this, that the only way that you can have this peace is because there were two natures in this single person, Jesus. We learned this morning that this conception by the Holy Spirit enabled this second person of the Trinity, God himself, now to take on this human nature. See, if it wasn't for that conception by the Holy Spirit, there's no way that the Son of God could take on this human nature. It had to be sinless in order for Him to take it to Himself. This one formed in Mary's womb had not inherited that corrupt heart of Adam. And thus the second person of the Trinity, the Son of God, God Himself, could then come and take this one to Himself. The Word became flesh. He emptied himself by taking the form of a servant being born in the likeness of men. And because he did, he was able to sustain Jesus as he suffered the eternal wrath of God. A mere human nature would not have been able to withstand and rise after the eternal wrath of God had been poured out upon him. But the God-man, Jesus Christ, the single person with two natures, one fully divine and one fully human, could and did rise from the dead because of the union. Because the divine nature upheld and sustained and raised the human nature. And it's only because of this truth and reality that you can be raised yourself from the dead in Christ. That should bring you joy this afternoon. You should be leaving here with joy, inexpressible, just like the shepherds walking out of the barn or whatever it was, rejoicing, glorying in God for what they had seen and heard because now they knew it was true and because the Spirit's working you, you know it's true. You must see now why the angels, the multiple angels, the heavenly host had descended to proclaim the glory of God. This birth of the Lord Jesus is so praiseworthy. It gives us one more reason to glory in God. Are we? Are we glorying in God as a result of this incarnation? as a result of the two natures coming together in one person. Brothers and sisters, we must. It calls for praise. It calls for adoration. It calls for us to be humbly submitting ourselves and rejoicing in all that He's doing in us. Yes, those who see and hear the glory of God will praise Him Shekinah glory is something that we can only imagine, but we can truly imagine it as we set our sights upon Christ, upon the God-man, upon the one person with the two natures who suffered and died and defeated sin and death for you. Praise God. Amen. Father and our God, this is a bit overwhelming. Our finite minds cannot fully comprehend this reality, this truth. But Father, to the extent we can, because you have given us understanding and knowledge, and not just knowledge and understanding, but you've given us faith and belief and trust. And oh, Father, as we think upon, as we contemplate, as we meditate upon this union between the fully divine second person of the Trinity and this Jesus in one person, oh Lord, we're overwhelmed with what you've done. We're overjoyed. Help us, Father. Help us to praise you. Help us, Lord God, to glory, to glory in you. We ask this all in Jesus's name. Amen.