Songs for Christmas No.4 The Angel's Song

Let's do it. And would you turn with me to Psalm 148. The Psalms are songs of praise as we discovered some weeks ago when we were looking at them.

The word Carol has the idea of taking what you believe and expressing it before God in terms of thanksgiving, especially relative to the birth of our Lord Jesus. Well here's a psalm of praise caroling the greatness of God. Let's read together from the seventh verse through to the end of the psalm.

148. Praise the Lord from the earth, you great sea creatures and all ocean depths, lightning and hail, snow and clouds, stormy winds that to his bidding, you mountains and all hills, fruit trees and all cedars, wild animals and all cattle, small creatures and flying birds, kings of the earth and all nations, you princes and all rulers on earth, young men and maidens, old men and children. Let them praise the name of the Lord, for his name alone is exalted.

His splendor is above the earth and the heavens. He has raised up for his people a horn, the praise of all his saints, of Israel, the people close to his heart. Praise the Lord.

Now listen to this in terms of another bit of praise. Here's the Lord speaking to Job and putting a question to him in the book that bears Job's name. He says in the 38th chapter in the fourth verse, where were you when I laid the earth's foundation? Tell me if you understand who marked off its dimensions.

Surely you know. Who stretched the measuring line across it? On what were its footings set? Or who laid its cornerstone while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy? Now let's go through to Luke's gospel and to the second chapter. And here is the lovely account of the advent of our beloved Lord Jesus.

And we've been working through some of the carols, some of the inscriptions of praise which are found in these narratives. And we read now about these shepherds once more. Let's take from the 10th verse of Luke 2 and read with me.

But the angel said to them, do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David, a savior has been born to you.

He is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you. You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.

Suddenly a great company of the heavenly hosts appeared with the angel praising God and saying, glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for the birth of our Lord Jesus.

We praise you then in a very special, unique sense. As we see him, we understand the fitting name which you gave him. Emmanuel, God with us.

Father, if the beginnings of the world prompted praise, how much more our heart should be overwhelmed with gratitude to you for all that you have subsequently done in bringing about the possibility of a new creation. Thank you for the reminders we've had so delightfully expressed by our boys and girls. As staying close to your word, they brought to our attention again the wonder of Bethlehem.

Help us not, however, to have that message obscured simply through sentimentality. Help us not to consign the message to that of interest for boys and girls alone. Help us to realize that this is a message for a man.

This is a message for a woman. And the Christ of Christmas has come to revolutionize our mindsets, to bring us close to you, to make us part of the new creation outside of which there is no hope, there is no future. So bless us now as we come around your word and make it plain to us for Jesus' sake.

Amen. Well, will you keep your Bibles open at that passage? Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace. Goodwill to men on whom his favor rests.

Suddenly a great company sang that. Now as will be well known to everybody in Worthing, it was Doug Wheeler's 77th birthday last week. And in sending him our congratulations, I picked an appropriate little present.

I sent him a tape of the Grimes-Thorpe Colliery Band. I mean, it's good Arthur Scardell country, Dennis Skinner country, and it seemed quite appropriate. I mean, you get the context of the place by the very name, don't you? Grimes-Thorpe.

To be quite frank, they're a wonderful band. I heard them in the Midlands some months ago, and this particular tape is lovely. Some of the old hymns, and I believe one or two of the carols.

They're not, of course, the only famous band that comes from the north of England. You get the Huddersfield Choral Society, extremely well known for their rendering of anthems and so forth. And of course, down in the south of England and across the world, there are many choirs who have made their names through often singing some of the great anthems from Scripture.

And what we're doing this morning is focusing our attention upon a choir and upon a particular piece of Scripture that they sung together. Every choir obviously has a chorus. And presumably, every choir which has a chorus also has in mind the people who are going to listen to the rendering of what they have practiced.

So, let me direct your attention, not to the Grimes-Thorpe Cholery Band, but to these angelic creatures who provided the minstrelsy, who provided the musicianship, who provided the song on the occasion of the birth of our Lord Jesus. You see, in those days, 2,000 years ago, when a baby was born, at the beginning of life, as also at the end of life, the event was generally marked by bringing in some musicians. So, in funeral services, they would bring their professional flautists and so forth.

And also, if you have the money, you have the influence, when a child was born, you would bring in the musicians and they would lead you in typical spontaneous praise, as is basic to Hebrew religious practices. For the Hebrews had a ball when they went to their synagogues and to their festive occasions. Well, this infant, when he's born of Mary and Joseph, his guardian, he's not born into a home where there's a great deal of money.

There are no minstrels. There are no musicians. But this event is so important that it is marked by a holy minstrelsy.

The musicians of heaven, the choristers of heaven, they peer over the balustrades and they look down upon this event and they can do no more than to express their delight and indeed their astonishment as to what has happened. Suddenly, you get the impact in the introductory verse, suddenly, a great company of the heavenly hosts. This mark was not just one or two angels.

This was a group of angelic beings who came together. I wonder sometimes if the best way to envision this is if you had the Mexico Stadium where the World Cup was held or where the Olympic Games were held. Tear upon tear, tear upon tear of seating, housing thousands and thousands and thousands of people.

And here we're giving an insight. And obviously I don't have words to describe heaven in any adequate fashion whatsoever. But here we're giving an insight of those beings caught up in praise and wonderment who realize what God Almighty is doing.

And almost like a Mexican wave, they get up from near the throne and then behind them the others get up and then behind them and behind them and behind them and the great Gloria raises in the celestial realms and those on the outskirts peer over onto heaven, onto the earth and see what is happening. And they too join in this great peon of praise. Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to men on whom His favor rests.

A great company. A great company offering glory to God in the highest. Because at the lowest on earth has been born into the world none other than God's own Son, an expression of Himself.

So two dimensions are brought together. In the highest realm praise is offered for something that has happened in the most lowly of places on earth, a child born. In heaven the company of angels sing out the praise.

On earth in the company of animals, shepherds and magi shall express their worship. A great company. Ah, but I tell you, not just a great company but a great company that had sung before.

You see, although there was spontaneity in the way that heaven reacts to what happens on earth, it's almost a replay. But the wonderment is even more. That's why I took you to Job.

You see, here is this old man Job and the book of Job is one of the earliest in the Bible and Job is caused to think back to the beginning of time and God says to Job in his creatureliness, where were you? When I flung the stars into space, when I hung the planets there, where were you? Where were you when the great epochs of creation took place? And of course he wasn't there. He hadn't even been born. Where were you when the stars shone with all their pristine brilliance? Where were you when the angels rejoiced? You see this business of creation as depicted in the wonderful opening chapters of Genesis.

This is not a scientist in a laboratory-type fashion bringing out his report. This is not something that is clinical. Here is God, Almighty God, engaging in great successive acts of creation.

And here are the angelic hosts in wonder with mouths open as they see these remarkable feats which God is undertaking. And they rejoice, they sing, where were you Job when all this was happening, when the angels were so intoxicated at the sight that they sang together. Ah, but you see that's only one of the great pieces of narrative in the Bible that tells you about creation.

There is something else, something that is even more spectacular, something that makes the first category, if not slumped into insignificance, makes it relatively unimportant compared with what is happening now. You see here is it, depicted in Luke's Gospel. On earth, in the humblest place, in a manger, the strangest maternity ward of all time, a child is born.

But not just an ordinary child. The beginnings of that child's life, though on earth can be traceable back to the beginnings of time and beyond. Thou Bethlehem Ephrater, out of thee shall come forth to me one whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.

Born in that crib is none other than God himself, taking on himself human flesh. And the angels peer over the balustrades. Those who have been orchestrated, those who have practiced before in peons of praise, are so moved at this even more incredible feat as God comes on earth.

Suddenly, a great company of the angelic hosts appeared with the angel. But you know, this great company, they represent a congregation that has actually been depleted. You say, what do you mean? Well, I don't want to get too involved.

But if you read your Scriptures in the Old Testament and balance them with the New Testament, you will discover that before the earth was created, there were problems in the heavenly realm. One of their number contested the uniqueness of God and would have had such authority as God had. His name is Lucifer.

He's more well-known as Satan. And the Bible speaks of Satan being cast out of heaven. And with him, one-third of the angelic realm, who in utter disobedience and anticipation of that disobedience that Adam would show towards God, they too find themselves excommunicated from the Lord's presence.

So this angelic choir that sings the praise commemorating the birth of Jesus, however large it may be, it's depleted by one-third. And this is the reason for the astonishment, you see, behind these remaining large companies of angels and cherubim. As they look on what is happening, they know that God has manifested Himself on earth.

For what reason? Because the sons of Adam have sinned in the same way as Adam sinned. And here is God, who when a third of their company sinned, did not mount a rescue work. Here He is, sending His own beloved Son into this world to be born in human style, so that He might do for men and women what they cannot do for themselves.

And the angels are in wonderment. Peter says in the epistle that bears his name, when he thinks of the Christian gospel, these are things that angels peer into. These are things that cause angels to be curious that God should step forth in human flesh in order to rescue the sons of Adam.

This did not happen during a past fall in the heavenlies, but this has happened on the earth. Therefore, a great company, a great company had sung before, a great company whose numbers had been depleted, a great company whose numbers had been depleted, full of curiosity, peered down upon the scene. And what's more, these angels, they are for us.

You say, what do you mean? Well, you may not believe in angels. The Bible does. The Bible indicates that there are powerful agencies that work in this world for the benefit of humankind.

Hebrews will tell you that God's angels are ministering spirits. When our beloved Lord is on earth, He takes a little child in His arms and He blesses the child, and He goes on to teach those disciples who are a little lofty, a little distant from children. He talks about the angel of each child.

And our beloved Lord not only knows the presence of angels when He is born, but when He is in discomfiture in the garden of Gethsemane, angels come down and minister to Him. You say, explain these things. I cannot.

I can only tell you what Scripture teaches, that on the occasion of the birth of our beloved Lord Jesus, there are angels who look over, and angels are on the side of men, ministering to the church of Jesus Christ in ways that will astonish us when the revelation is complete, when we're in glory and we understand. So, here is this choir, and not the Grimesthorpe Colory Band, with great respect to them, not even the Huddersfield Chorus, nor the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Here is something that is greater than the greatest expression of any minstrelsy on earth.

Here are the cherubim and the seraphim and the angels singing praise to God. For what reason? Because the infant Christ has been born. God has moved towards mankind in love and in tenderness.

Well, if that's the choir, what is the chorus? What do they sing? I wonder how they sing the Gloria. Do they hang on to it like we try? Gloria. And some of you who've got wonderful voices like Ruth, you ride on the crest of the wave, but if you're troubled like I am with my voice, then, well, you still do your best, but you make a right mess of it.

But it doesn't really matter, provided you praise the Lord with all your heart and with all your soul. Well, here is this Gloria, and it's sung to the Lord. Glory to God in the highest.

It's a new song, but it's also an old song. Old? Well, they've been singing about the glory of God in the highest for a long time, have they not? I mean, when the world was made, what happens? Well, as a result of each stage of creation, there is praise. Thus I took you to one of the nature psalms of the book of Psalms, where you get the animals praising the Lord, where you get, in metaphorical language, the idea of the seas praising the Lord, and the winds praising the Lord, and the planets praising the Lord.

Let everything have breath, praise the Lord. You see, this is an old song. They're singing glory to God in the highest.

But I argue it's also a new song. New? Why new? Well, on earth, peace. There had been no peace on earth, not in terms of man and his relationship to man, not in terms of man and his relationship to God.

Since Adam fell in the garden of Eden, man has always been at war, at war with himself, at war with his neighbor. But here, say the angels, as they look down upon the Christ child, here is a new dimension opening up. Not just glory in the highest, but peace on earth.

Peace on earth towards men. Peace on earth towards men, on whom God's favor rests. So when Jesus is a fully fledged man, what do you find him saying so often in his ministry? My peace, my peace I give unto you, not as the world gives.

You see, here's a woman, and a child's in a little coffin. Jesus of Nazareth passes by. The woman is panicking.

Jesus comes along and He causes one of the great resurrection miracles, a declaration, an illustration of His power. He brings peace. Here are the disciples in the trouble.

The storm is up on the Sea of Galilee, and they think that the next wave is going to drag them down to a watery grave. And Jesus gets up, He's master of the storm, and He speaks to them and He says, Peace, peace I give to you. Here are these bunch of disciples, they've been with Jesus for three years.

He talks about being removed from them, and again they're filled with panic. And so He addresses that panic and He says, Don't be afraid. Let not your heart be troubled.

You believe in God. Believe also in Me. I'll never leave you.

I'll never forsake you. In My Father's house are many mansions. I'm going to prepare a place.

If I go away, I'll come back to receive you unto Myself. Peace, peace so that when your loved one is taken from you, peace so that when troubles break in on the shore of your life, you will know that Jesus is so close to you, that you can cope. Glory to God on the highest, on earth, peace to man.

There's a peace in my heart that the world cannot give. A peace it cannot take away. This is what those choristers are exposing.

This is why they're praising God. In heaven is good, on earth the possibilities are grand. Peace on earth to men on whom His favor rests.

That means men who receive the message of salvation which our Lord Jesus brings to their attention. It was an old song. It was a new song.

It was a living song. Actions do speak louder than words. You see, if you think of buying me a Christmas present, I'm not suggesting, not dropping a hint, but if you think of it, I will not be blessed one whit.

It's not what you think of doing, it's what you do, isn't it? You remember my favorite story of the old Quaker? The streets of London, two, three hundred years ago, here is this man, he's knocked down by horses which have galloped across him. And a crowd gathers round and they express their sympathy and the old Quaker takes off his three-cornered hat and he says, how much is your sympathy worth? He was quite right, wasn't he? Well, how much is God's sympathy worth towards men? God so loved the world, He gave. He gave.

He clothed His expression of love with actions, with activity. If God did not will good towards men, would He have sent His Christ as a child to Bethlehem? So, we've looked at the choir. I brought you to the chorus.

Now, don't take out your pens to write me a letter. I do know how to spell the word quorum, but it fits in quite well in terms of the way it sounds, even though it's spelt with a Q-U. Here is the quorum.

Or if you like, here is the audience. After all, our choir this evening will perhaps get some enjoyment out of singing, but if they're just met with empty pews and empty chairs, then the sense of enjoyment will also be spoiled by a sense of disappointment. You want to sing to someone.

And the angels, they sang their praises to God, but they also sang to the shepherds, who become a quorum, a sort of representative community of earth's men and women. When we have an elders' meeting, if there are not sufficient men present, which is never the case, incidentally, then we could not conduct our affairs. If we have a church meeting and we do not have a representative number, as indicated in our trust deed, then we cannot proceed with the church meeting.

The quorum represents the rest. And now here you have these shepherds, just humble men. A quorum.

Not amongst the mighty, not amongst the influential, but deliberately so. Because you will find that when this child becomes a man, he will direct most of his attention to that category of people. He's come as a physician to seek the sick, not those who recognize they have no need of a physician whatsoever.

Well, here is this quorum. Here are the shepherds. What had the quorum heard? What do the quorum do? What have they heard? Well, they've heard something which their masters hadn't.

You say, what do you mean? Well, I think that there is some credibility, some credence to the tradition that these were not just an ordinary group of shepherds. I mean ordinary men in terms of looking after sheep, yes. But what I mean is that their taskmasters, they were employed probably by the priests of the temple.

You see, the temple controlled some of the land, the undulating land around Bethlehem. And there the sheep were looked after were also part of the ownership of the temple. These were probably the sacred sheep, at least sheep that were destined for part of the religious, sacrificial, cultic practices of the temple.

Ah, but you see these shepherds, they became shepherds at a time in Israel's history where to be a shepherd was really the lowest rung of the ladder. It's a better bit than being unemployed, but no more than that. Shepherds were, by the very nature of their profession, reckoned to be unclean people.

Not, as I say, the sort of person who you'd invite to a party. They didn't get into the temple. They weren't allowed to go there.

And even at the synagogues they wouldn't be present very often. And yet it's these, these shepherds who are privy to what is happening in Bethlehem. The management are not informed.

But the work in class are told. I find that powerful. I find that wonderful.

I find that consistent with the whole of the Christmas narrative. Who am I? says Mary. I'm only the slip of a girl.

I'm not the daughter of anyone at least recognized as being great. Now, even though I could trace my ancestry back to David, I'm just an unknown woman. And yet the Lord has taken me and lifted me.

And the same principle here, you see, it's shepherds. Something their masters don't know is told them. And they come together to mull over what the prophets had foretold.

Could it be the case? Yes, it must. We have this bright light. There is this angel.

There are these company of angels. There is this glory that we have heard. We must do something about it.

So what had the quorum heard? They'd heard about God moving into the world in Bethlehem. What did the quorum do? They determined to leave. When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, let's go to Bethlehem.

They determined to leave together. Isn't household salvation one of the most wondrous things? I mean, many of you here, if you could write a list of Christmas presents that you want and present them over the counter of heaven, the first thing you would say, I want my son, my daughter. I want them involved.

I want them to receive the gift of salvation. The shepherds, a little family of men, determined, determined together, determined together to leave and worship. Let's go.

Let's see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about. And so they went. They hurried off.

They found Mary and Joseph and the baby was lying in the manger. And when they saw him, they understood. All that they'd heard in the Gloria suddenly becomes that much more intelligible.

And they embraced the truth. Though they would not have known all the theological nuances, of course, though there would be a lot more for them to grasp and to glory in, they came to a realization simply that God had stepped into time and space for people like them. And the shepherds surely then joined the choir.

You see, you can hardly be a follower of Jesus without being a singer. That's why, as I so often said from the tab, I like the definition of the church in Latin America, God's singing house, where people come together to sing his praise. Hey, these carols.

Some think that I put carols down because occasionally I'm critical of them. I'm not critical of carols, not the traditional carols. I think they're marvelous and some of the new stuff is excellent.

What I don't like is when you get your canned music, and there it goes again. But I really do have a thing about this, the canned music down in Sainsbury's and Woolison, what have you, because it almost makes a mockery of the thing. You see, these carols are so wonderful.

They embrace a truth that is so intimate that it's almost a pollution of the message to have these just piped over to a non-listening group of shepherds. But to sing the carols, to join in the gloria, not necessarily to get an invitation to the Grimestock Colliery Band, but to get an invitation from God to praise him. Can there be anything more wonderful than that? And yes, at Christmastime, we should be God's singing people.

The choir, they come to sing a chorus to a quorum, and the quorum joins the choir as they extol who Jesus is and what God has done. May you have the sense, may I speak pointedly, may you have the sense to do just that yourself today. Let's pray.

Just a moment for you to reflect on some of the things I've tried to share. Father, we thank you for the wonder of Christmas. We thank you for our boys and girls, how they delight our hearts as we see them helping us to grasp again something of the significance of the story.

Be with our kids. We love them and bring them to you. We thank you that Jesus was born into this world as a child.

He didn't come as he could have done, fully fledged as a man. You could have created him like you created Adam when he was a mature man. But no, you brought Jesus to the position of frailty, from the highest to the lowest, from the one who was the most esteemed to someone who was almost the most unknown.

We praise you because that declares your character. And we ask you now, Lord, that you who are a holy God who deals with humble things, take us. Lord, some of us have made a right mess of our lives.

We have no gold. We have no myrrh. We have no frankincense.

We bring you our brokenness. But we believe that as you took from working-class shepherds, so you'll take our lives for what they are, what's left. Hallow them and use us, Lord.

And give us significance and value because your Son has significance and value, and he's brought us into your family circle, even though of all men, of all creatures, we were the most undeserving. Amen. Amen.

And those whose journey now is half O'er the stories that we've heard O'er the treads of old, the path of life With painful steps and snow Beside the weary road And in the age That still the days are richly young My prophet see the road Who knows the fullness of the child When the three eggs are told Their young and their premature For the one living person Is now the angel's king Father, though written two hundred years ago, it's so relevant even today. With sorrow brought by sin and strife The world has suffered long And since the angels sang Have passed two thousand years of wrong For man at war with man And hears not the love song which they bring O, hush the noise, you men of strife And hear the angels sing Lord, hush the noise Hush it in Serbia and Bosnia Hush it in the Middle East Hush it in Israel Lord, hush the conflict wherever And cause there to be An entry into the peace on earth Which our Lord proffers to all men Who seek out for Him Lord, hear as we pray Hear us for ourselves Grant peace in our hearts this Christmas time Hear it for our families May we see them come And pay obeisance too to the Christ of God Grant us this, Heavenly Father Our Christmas petition before you That our loved ones May confess That Jesus Christ is Lord And await His return And the rearrangement Of things on this earth With its renewal And its regeneration Now bless everyone here May this Christmas be a good Christmas And help us to be good to you And to others Send us out with the blessings of the Nativity upon us The blessings received first by the Magi And the Shepherds And the Christ Mother And Joseph Thank you Lord Come near Emmanuel God with us And all God's people say Amen