A Song for Heaven and Earth

That song was the source of great disagreement between two well-known Christian pastors of the 18th century. George Whitefield and Charles Wesley had a fierce disagreement over that song. In fact, if you look in any hymnal, you'll see—here's an example. (Ranger, if I could get my slide here.) You'll see right here, it's going to say Charles Wesley wrote this song. That's only mostly true. Charles Wesley wrote a song called "Hark, How All the Welkin Rings." Welkin—I don't know. I haven't heard the kids using that as slang lately. I don't know if it's coming back into vogue or not, but it's not a word we typically use. We don't hear it very often—probably ever, really.

So, to help you understand what this word means, here is a selection from Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus, where he writes: "When heaven doth weep, doth not the earth o'erflow? If the winds rage, doth not the sea wax mad, threatening the welkin with his big-swollen face." So that clears it up, right? You get what welkin is. You understand? Shakespeare makes it perfectly clear to us. Well, welkin is a Middle English word that means the vault of heaven. Now you know. But we don't sing "Hark, How All the Welkin Rings." We sing "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing." And that's because Charles Wesley never published the song. George Whitefield published the song, but before he published it, he made a few changes without consulting Charles Wesley. One of the changes was even in the title and that opening line: "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing." Wesley was furious. He couldn't believe that George Whitefield would have the audacity not only to take a song that he wrote and change the words without consulting him, but also to make what Charles Wesley believed to be a huge heretical statement.

Because Charles Wesley was emphatic that in Luke's Gospel, nowhere do we read that the angels sang. In fact, he was insistent that Luke says the heavenly host praised God, saying—he was insistent that the angels didn't sing. They spoke to the shepherds on the field that night in Bethlehem. He's only mostly right. Because while yes, we do read that word "praising God and saying," the Greek word really just means to express something with words, which could be song, right? We express things with words. So it's kind of ambiguous. It's open-ended. Maybe they sang; maybe they didn't. I like to think they did, though. In fact, we sang like four songs, and all of them talked about angels singing—most of them did, at least. But I don't know. When I imagine Gabriel coming to Joseph or Mary or Zechariah, I don't imagine him singing to them the news about the virgin birth or the news that Zechariah and Elizabeth are going to have a child in their old age. I don't imagine him singing. But yet, somehow, to the shepherds on the fields outside of Bethlehem, I just imagine those angels singing. So maybe Wesley overreacted just a little bit.

But the idea is that these angels were singing—or expressing something. What was this angelic song? Well, if you look in Luke chapter 2, part of what Chaz read just a little while ago, verses 13 and 14, Luke tells us that suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying (or singing), "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased."

Now, before we get into what they say, don't skip over the word "suddenly." I feel like that word doesn't get a whole lot of airtime around Christmas, but we already know the shepherds outside of Bethlehem were terrified because they saw one angel. Okay, that was enough to fill them with fear, because that's what it says earlier on. Verse 9: And the angel said to them, "Fear not." So they were terrified at one. And then we're told "suddenly"—which is like instantly, without any forewarning—there is boom, there's a host. "Host" is sort of like a military entourage or a huge military unit of angels that are all there in an instant. And I can assure you it didn't look like this, okay? It wasn't a bunch of babies that came and were with the angel, okay? That were just sort of fluffy on the clouds, you know, with their little tiny wings. That's not what happened. It would have been probably overwhelming. Suddenly, all of a sudden, a huge number of angels.

And what they're doing is giving glory to God. They are excited. They are exuberant. They can't believe what is happening. They are expressing this good news to these shepherds, and it is overwhelming them as well. And what I think is so amazing in this very simple statement is this idea that I think we need to latch on to: if there is something that angels are excited about, you and I should probably be excited about it too. If it gets angels amped up—that they're singing about it—we should be excited about it too.

Now, look at verse 14. You'll notice this very lyrical quality to it, which also suggests that maybe it was a song. Okay, maybe they really were singing. There are these great pairings: you have glory and peace; you have God and men; you have "in the highest" and "on earth." There are these two couplets. Things that are going on in heaven, things that are going on in earth; things that relate to God, things that relate to men. It's drawing these two spheres—these two worlds, if you will—in which God operates, and it's bringing them together in this one singular event: the advent of Jesus Christ, the coming of Christ the Messiah into the world, born to Mary in a stable, laid in a manger in the city of Bethlehem.

And it demonstrates to us what I think Jerry Bridges calls our attention to in his book Trusting God, when he says this: God never pursues His glory at the expense of the good of His people, nor does He ever seek our good at the expense of His glory. He has designed His eternal purpose so that His glory and our good are inextricably bound together. And that's exactly what the angels are expressing to these shepherds. After they tell them what has happened, they make this amazing declaration that the glory of God and His good will for humanity are united together in this event that has taken place. And those two things are inseparable. They are bound together. God isn't going to sacrifice the good of His people for His glory, and He's not going to sacrifice His glory for the good of His people. We see them right together in harmony. The angels declare it.

So one of the things I want you to realize in this simple expression that these angels make to the shepherds outside of Bethlehem is simply this: that God's work always magnifies God's glory. This is presented by these angels as a blessing to God's people. That's what they declare when the first angel—whoever that was, whether it was Gabriel still bringing this message or whether it was a different angel (we're not told)—but we're told that initially there was one angel that appears to these shepherds. And the angel says 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."

That was the good news. This is what the angel says: "Listen, guys, I have amazing news for you. It's not just for you—it's for all the people, but it is unto you. It's a Savior. It is Messiah, or Christ. He is the Lord, and He has been born today." This long-awaited deliverer was finally here. This is what we sing in that song: "Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus, born to set Thy people free; from our fears and sins release us; let us find our rest in Thee. Israel's strength and consolation, hope of all the earth Thou art; dear desire of every nation, joy of every longing heart."

That's what we're singing about. This Person—this God in flesh—has arrived. He is a joy for us because He is going to deliver us from that thing we have been in bondage to but could not free ourselves from. This baby that was even then lying in a manger in Bethlehem was a gift for sinners, and He would deliver His people from their sins. We've talked about that in all of these messages that I've sort of generally titled "Songs of Salvation," emphasizing that in all these prophetic songs—whether it was Mary's or Zechariah's or now the angels' here—the emphasis is on salvation: salvation for sinners, God's gracious gift.

And what the angels are saying is that even though this is a gift for lowly people—even shepherds—its glory resonates to the highest heavens. It's the glory of God, and the joy of this event is not confined just to the earth, just to these people to whom Jesus Christ came, but it resonates even into the welkin, the vaults of heaven. Peter tells us in 1 Peter chapter 1, verse 12, that all the details of salvation—all the ins and outs of it, the nuances of it—are things that the angels long to look into. He says they're very intrigued by it. They're very excited about it. It fills them with wonder because it glorifies God.

So even though salvation, the Bible is clear, does not extend to the angelic realm—those angels that fell with Satan chose to rebel against God, and there is no opportunity for them to be redeemed; Jesus Christ didn't die on the cross to redeem angels, but He did die on the cross to redeem human sinners—so even though it doesn't extend to the angelic realm, they still delight in it. They long to consider it. They find great joy in it because God is glorified in it. And that's what gives the angels such great joy: that God is glorified.

If you look in the Westminster Shorter Catechism, the first question is: "What is the chief end of man?" And the answer is: "To glorify God and enjoy Him forever." Well, this is the chief end of angels as well. They live to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. This really is the chief end of all things—of all creation—to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.

So don't think that all the commands of glorifying God are there just to remind us that we owe something to God because we have been redeemed from our sorry sinful state and that's the only reason we should glorify God and that's the only reason we should enjoy Him forever. We definitely should glorify Him because of that. We should enjoy Him because of the salvation that He has wrought through the work of Jesus Christ. But it is the natural state of all things to glorify God. I'm not denying original sin. I'm not suggesting that there's no curse that covers creation and that creation is not groaning under the weight of the curse of sin. But what I am saying is that in our natural state—if we were back in the garden with Adam and Eve in all the perfection there—we would be glorifying God and enjoying Him forever. And that is what we look forward to one day when we ourselves receive our glorified bodies and are in the new heavens and the new earth. We will, with unbroken praise, glorify God and enjoy Him for all eternity.

And that's what the angels are doing in this very moment outside of Bethlehem as they are making this pronouncement to the shepherds. They are glorifying God instinctively because it is in their nature. So it is only natural that when God acts in history to rescue sinners through His own gracious act, they don't need coaxing to shout God's praise. They do it. They love it. They want His glory to be shouted. Doesn't the Bible say the heavens declare the glory of God? That does remind us that all of nature, all of creation, wants to scream the glory of God. It's only really because of the fall that that glory scream is muted, and we have to be told to do this. But the angels in the heavenly realms are shouting God's glory and magnifying His name without any restraint.

When we have examples of people whom God privileged to get a glimpse of the glory of God in the throne room of heaven—people like Isaiah or John or Ezekiel—what they see is those angels surrounding the throne of God in unceasing praise, declaring, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty." They never cease to declare His praise. That's what the Bible says. This is what angels want to do. God's work always magnifies His glory, and the angels are more than happy to join in declaring that glory.

In Philippians chapter 2, the Apostle Paul is talking about Jesus Christ in His incarnation—when He takes on flesh and blood as a kind of humiliation, that for the God of the universe to come down and live with us as one of us and to experience all of the hardships of life, even to the extent the Apostle Paul says that He willingly suffers and dies on the cross. That life, death, resurrection, and ascension, Paul says, is ultimately for the glory of God the Father. In other words, what Paul is saying is God glorifies Himself—and it's okay for Him to do that because He's God. He's the only one worthy of all glory, honor, and praise. And that's what He does.

So if you go back outside of Bethlehem to those hills where those shepherds are tending those sheep and the angels say (or sing) to the shepherds that this newborn baby is born—that this shouts the glory of God all the way to the highest heavens—it's in this baby that God's supreme worth is made visible. That God Himself acts to redeem sinners by taking on our humanity so that in His humanity He could suffer and die and rise and pay for our sins reveals the beauty of God's loving character. And that glory reaches to the highest heavens. Some people—some Bible scholars—even like to translate verse 14, the first phrase, rather than "Glory to God in the highest," but "In the highest, glory to God." That's what's happening. You go to the highest heavens—where we might imagine, what is that even like? What does it even look like to be in heaven? It's got to be pretty good, right? Got to be way better than down here. I don't think taxes ever get raised in heaven. I mean, in heaven, they're always lowered. Your taxes always get lowered. I'm sure of that. That's one thing—I read that in the margin, I think, somewhere.

Anyway, the point is, as good as heaven is, even there they just love to glorify God. And even there, this event of God taking on humanity so that He might redeem us from our sins—that glory is declared there. God's work magnifies His glory.

The second phrase—the ESV says, "and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased"—simply lets us know this truth too: that peace with God comes from God. Peace with God is a gift from God.

In the beginning of Luke chapter 2, Luke kind of sets the stage for us by letting us know that everything that happens here to Mary and Joseph in Bethlehem—you know, the needing to give birth when there's no room in the inn, so they go to what's most likely the guest room, the lower area of the house where they would keep animals—that all of this happens because there was a decree from Caesar Augustus, right? That's the first verse: "In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered." He made this decree because he's a true politician and he wants to tax his people. So in order to do that, he's got to figure out who they are, where they live. So that's why they needed this accurate database, right, to keep track of the citizens, get their IDs so they could tax them.

And if he hadn't done this, it seems like from a human perspective that Jesus wouldn't have been born in Bethlehem. He would have been born up in Nazareth, which is where Mary and Joseph lived. That's at least from a human perspective how it looks. The Bible's clear that all this happens according to God's perfect plan. Even as Chaz prayed about this, the location of Jesus' birth was prophesied hundreds of years before Mary and Joseph even existed. And as Paul says, it was "in the fullness of time"—at just the right time, just as God intended it to be—God sent forth His Son to be born to Mary.

So even from a human perspective, even though these events were seemingly orchestrated at the decree of Caesar Augustus, what's more clear in the bigger picture is that this was all part of God's grand plan and His design. Craig Keener, who's a Greek New Testament scholar, makes this point: he says that earthly choirs used to worship the emperor, and this current emperor Augustus was praised for having inaugurated worldwide peace. That was one of the things they praised him for.

So there's a little bit of an irony here: that this guy makes this decree so that people could be taxed. In order to be taxed, they need to be registered. So Mary and Joseph go to Bethlehem. Jesus is born in Bethlehem. All of this seems to be by his design and at his will. And he's the one whom people sing praises to for initiating worldwide peace. And yet the angels outside of Bethlehem don't sing praises to Caesar Augustus for bringing peace to men. They sing praises to God for bringing peace to men. This angelic choir is debunking this myth.

Jesus' birth in Bethlehem is all perfectly orchestrated according to God's plan. Through the prophets, He's been telling about this for centuries. And they all clarify that God is no Caesar Augustus who will bring peace on earth. God is God.

You remember last week when we talked about peace—we said that the biblical concept of peace is the idea of wholeness or completeness, and specifically as it relates to our reconciliation to God through salvation, that relationship is made whole again. That sin breaks it. We see this most vividly even in the Garden of Eden, right? After Adam and Eve disobey God, they eat of the fruit of the tree, and God—what does He do? He sends them away. There's this separation then that's part of the consequence of their sin.

Even in Old Testament worship, the temple worship system, the Holy of Holies—there was a great curtain that separated the Holy of Holies, which represented the presence of God, and the people had to be separated from that. There is this division there. And so true peace with God is a reconciliation and a bringing that relationship back to wholeness again. That's what the idea of peace represents.

Some of our English translations—I know there's a lot of them out there—they can lead us to believe that this peace of God is given to us based on something that we do to please God. It's through our good will. And if you have good will to your fellow man, then God will give you peace. That's not what it's saying. In other words, it's not saying that God is Santa Claus, right? "You better watch out, you better not pout, you better not cry, I'm telling you why—Santa Claus is coming to town." But I've got some clarifying information to give you: He sees you when you're sleeping; He knows when you're awake; He knows if you've been bad or good, so be good for goodness' sake.

That's not God, right? He does see you when you're sleeping, and He does know when you're awake, and He does know if you've been bad or good—but His salvation is not given to you based on whether or not you can get your act together. It's not given to you if you can be really nice and not punch your sister and not steal cookies from the cookie jar. And you know, if that was the condition of our having peace with God and being made right with Him, that's not good news at all. Because we are all in big trouble, because we all screw up every single day, right? We all are on the naughty list—or we should be.

When you read these verses, don't think, "Oh, God's just like Santa Claus. You get peace if you're good. If not, it's coal in your stocking." Now, the NIV really makes it clear: this peace is a gift of God's grace. And that word "grace" comes up a lot when we talk about the story of Jesus being born in Bethlehem. One commentator, John Martin, says this: "God's peace is not given to those who have good will, but to those who are recipients of God's good will or His favor—His grace."

That's the good news. That's what the angels are singing to the shepherds: "Hey, there's some good news because you are going to have peace—even on earth. You can have peace with God because He is a gracious God. Yes, you're all on the naughty list." Paul points out in Romans: "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." There's really no debating that. But the peace of God—this shalom—is given to us by God through faith in the work of Jesus Christ.

Let me read a passage from the book of Acts, which was also written by Luke. But in Acts chapter 10, verse 34—this is when the Gentiles hear the gospel; Peter preaches to them. Verse 34: So Peter opened his mouth and said, "Truly I understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. As for the word that he sent to Israel, preaching good news of peace through Jesus Christ (he is Lord of all), you yourselves know what happened throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee after the baptism that John proclaimed: how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. And we are witnesses of all that he did both in the country and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree, but God raised him on the third day and made him to appear, not to all the people but to us who had been chosen by God as witnesses, who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. And he commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one appointed by God to be judge of the living and the dead. To him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name."

This is the gospel coming into the world. But what you'll notice at the very beginning is that "the word that he sent to Israel [was] preaching good news of peace through Jesus Christ." Peace through Jesus Christ. That's the only way—peace through what Peter goes on to describe: His life, death, and resurrection. We're talking about peace through our salvation from our sins.

John Calvin says this: "Whenever our salvation is mentioned, we should understand that a signal has been given to excite us to thanksgiving to the praise of God."

Here's what I want you to do—this is going to be fun. I want you all to put on your imagination caps if you brought them with you. If you got them, put them on. And I want you to imagine now you're one of those shepherds out on those hills outside of Bethlehem. Now, here's what I want you to do: forget it's an angel telling you this stuff. Let's just say it's not even an angel, but it's somebody that you trust deeply. And they are telling you the promised Messiah is here, but He's just a baby. And His parents right now are using an animal feed box as His little crib, His baby bed. And there are so many questions that aren't going to be immediately answered, and there are so many things that have yet to happen. But because of this baby, you are excited beyond words, and your faith in God has never been stronger. That's the message they tell you.

Now come back to reality here and now. You can take your imagination caps off. Jesus has lived now. He has died. He has risen. He has ascended to heaven, and we are awaiting His return. Some of the questions still aren't fully answered. We are still waiting for certain things promised to happen. But we can look back to that baby born in Bethlehem, laid in the manger, and we can be excited beyond words because we have faith in God that is rock-solid—because that baby is our Savior, and He has done what is necessary to grant us peace with God. What those shepherds were anticipating Him doing, He has done it. And so we can put our faith in Him and experience peace and join the angels in rejoicing and giving God glory that resonates even to the highest heavens.

So when the angels say to those shepherds outside of Bethlehem, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom his favor rests," that wasn't just true for them. That's true for you and me right now, right here, today. That's the message that the Bible from beginning to end is asking you to put your faith in. Believe it and trust in it. Trust in Jesus Christ that the work He accomplished is enough to grant you peace—a restored, wholesome relationship with God. That's the gospel message. That's what the angels sing about outside of Bethlehem.

Let's pray.

Dear Lord, we thank You so much for this angelic song—short and sweet, pointing us directly to You: that all the glory and all the praise belongs to You; that You accomplish this great thing for our good and Your glory. And our chief objective in life is to glorify You and enjoy You. And remembering what You have done for us certainly is a catalyst that helps us to do that. And to know that even the angels and even all of creation is yearning to glorify You in that way for the salvation that You bring to us is amazing. And we who have experienced the joy of that salvation—may You help us to rejoice with the same enthusiasm that those shepherds had and that the angels had who told them that message. May it not be something that's just relegated to the final weeks of December, but something that resonates throughout our lives from January through December. We ask all this in Your name. Amen.

All right. Would you stand and join us as we close in song? O how mighty, generous is the Son of God. In distress we rejoice.