Episode Transcript
Speaker 1 00:00:05 Wow. My name is Dean Anon and I'm the discipleship pastor here at Village Church. And if we haven't met yet, I'll be right down here afterwards. So please come up and say hi. And so let me say this. Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas. Thank you. Merry Christmas to you. Merry Christmas to all those who are joining us online. We welcome you as well. Thank you for being here. Well, let's start this way. Let's start by taking a look at some pictures. Um, God's glory comes in many ways and the psalmists knew that God worked through them, gave them these words. And I'm gonna read a little bit as you look at these pictures from Psalm chapter eight, but then also Psalm chapter 19, those two Psalms, just a few verses. And we're gonna see in God's creation how God screams his glory to us. And I Don, many of you like to go out in nature and like to look up even at night and look for shooting stars and all that.
Speaker 1 00:00:59 And just in awe in the beauty. Psalm eight says this, oh Lord our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth you have set your glory above the heavens. When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him and the son of man that you care for him? Psalm 19th says this, the heavens declare the glory of God and the sky above proclaims his handy worth. Day to day, pours out speech and night to night reveals knowledge. There is no speech, nor other words whose voice is not heard. Their voice goes out through all the earth and their words to the end of the world in them. He has set a tent for the son. Well, that's one way to see God's glory, right in creation many times in many ways.
Speaker 1 00:01:52 But another way, the best way to see God's glory is in and through Jesus Christ. And that's where we're going today in this advent season. So we're in week two of a three week series on glory. Glory in the advent season. Now last week, pastor Matt talked about Jesus's veiled glory. He talked with us and talked about the fact that only Jesus, all God who came incarnate as a man, fully man, fully God, not 50 50, a hundred percent God, a hundred percent man, only him in that combination could save people from their sins. But even in his time he walked the earth, his brilliant splendor, his glory had to be veiled. Or we couldn't have been around him. No one could have this week, the second week then our title today is Jesus' Glory Revealed. We're gonna talk about what it is, a little bit the glory again.
Speaker 1 00:02:45 So we're gonna talk a little more and expand on our definition from last week. Go a little deeper on the understanding. And then what we're gonna do after that is see where do we see Jesus Our big idea, today's this, the glory of God returned, the glory of God revealed and the glory of God reaching out in Jesus Christ. We're gonna look at Luke chapter two. That's our primary passage. You can turn there if you want to turn on your device. And we'll be primarily in verses eight through 14 for most of the time. And then a little bit to Luke chapter nine a little bit later. Big idea again, the glory of God returned meaning in the long awaited Messiah, the glory of God revealed in the message of the good news and the glory of God reaching out in Jesus Christ, especially to those you don't expect him to.
Speaker 1 00:03:35 This is the big reveal. Now next week, uh, Saturday when we have our Christmas Eve service, we're gonna look at glory in a different sense and Pastor Michael will be here and he'll talk about the sense in which we are giving back. Glory to God in praising God. Now anybody ready for Christmas? By that I mean shopping. Yes. Anybody co come on, you can raise your hands. Come's gonna be ashamed of shopping or maybe decorations. Any of you ready in that way? God bless you. I'm not, I don't think I'll ever be in your camp. Uh, but bless you anyways. But what we're gonna do today is try to get ready for Christmas in a different way with the magnificence and with marveling in his splendor for the long awaited Messiah that those people saw then Jesus Christ. So let's get ready. Let's get ready.
Speaker 1 00:04:19 Let's get our hearts ready. So first, like I said, I want to dig a little deeper. Now it's tricky to talk about glory. What is God's glory? It really is tricky because it's more like trying to define the idea of beauty than it is something like basketball. You know, we can, we can see beauty, we can point at it, we can say That's beautiful. Look at this artwork we have for you. This piece of art. It's called the birth of Christ. It's beautiful, right? Love the colors in there. You'll see the mother Mary with her hands. She's directing us towards the Christ child. You'll see Joseph, there he is <laugh>, you'll, you'll see the animal also looking at Jesus. It's beautiful, the impact that it has. Look at my wife and say she's beautiful. Uh, cause I like to look at her, but that's not the point.
Speaker 1 00:05:06 The point is the impact that she's had in my life. That's what's beautiful. The impact is beautiful. But you can take basketball, that's a little easier, right? You can define a basketball, it's about nine inches, a little more, nine inches of diameter. It's made outta leather, usually in rubber, and you inflate it with some air and it, it's a severe, it's a sphere and you can bounce it on a hard surface and you can play the same name, the game with it, right? Basketball, you can define that pretty easily with words. But glory not always so much. We try, it's really hard because nothing outside of God himself can define glory. His holiness, his greatness is perfection all in one. The sum of all his attributes. It's pretty hard to define. Last week we looked at it this way, we had two different things we put up last week.
Speaker 1 00:05:56 The first definition we looked at was God's emanating light. And this is where we're still today, the emanating light. And next week it'll be more about the glory of our praise, giving God glory praise back. So two things I wanna say about this light emanating to start. The first is this, God's glory is define more about the impact. There's that word again. I'm just gonna keep saying it more about the impact than trying to define it with words. And second, it doesn't point to one particular attribute of God. Most of theologians are gonna say that glory is not a attribute. Instead they're gonna say, glory is the summation of all of his attributes, the beauty, the brilliance that it entails, his holiness of splendor, all of that. All of God's beauty. All right, so <laugh>, I broke my own rule a little bit. I did look in a theological survey and I have a definition on the board.
Speaker 1 00:06:48 So let's put one up there. This from the Lex survey, they say this, the glory of God is the splendor and brilliant beauty that shines through all of the divine attributes, but especially evident in the crucified and risen Christ. Now I want to add to that, and even in the advent of the coming child, and that's where we're gonna be. We looked a little bit at the glory and little more words about that, trying to understand it. But now I want to go to that point of God's glory returned. God's glory returned before we get there. Um, I was thinking about what I'm waiting for or waiting for something. And as usual, my mind goes to something a little off kilter to start <laugh>. And it was Daisy, my dog. So Daisy, all day long, she's sitting there waiting. I know because when I come home, she's right there.
Speaker 1 00:07:37 Her tail is wagging, she's going crazy. And the next thing she does is she bolts. Now if you have a retriever, you'll understand what I'm saying. She runs, what does she go do? She has to get me something <laugh>. She has to get her toys because apparently she's not aware of that. I understand which toys are her and which toys are mine. So she goes and she gets her toys, she's wagging her tail. She just loves it. She loves it When it comes, she's waiting. Some of you are waiting. Some of you maybe are waiting to be a new grandpa or a new grandma, or maybe a new father or maybe a new mother. And you're expecting, and you know what that waiting's like, we have those here in our congregation who are waiting for just that. Now, talking about waiting, take that magnify that by a thousand and maybe we'll begin to understand a little bit of what's in the Israelites mind at the time of Jesus' coming. They have been waiting for the promised, the prophesy, the long awaited Messiah King who's coming.
Speaker 1 00:08:37 Big idea today again, is God's glory returned, revealed, and reaching out in Jesus Christ. God's glory returned in. Jesus impacted all those who were waiting, waiting for the long awaited Messiah. I'm gonna start reading in Luke chapter two, verse one. And this is Luke writing. Uh, Luke is the physician. Luke is the coal laborer along with the apostle Paul with the gospel. He wrote the Gospel of Luke. He wrote the book of Acts, and here's what he says in Luke two verse one. In those days, the decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the worlds should be registered. This was the first registration when Corus 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 betroth, who was with child first six.
Speaker 1 00:09:39 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, which is a food trough for animals because there was no place for them in the end. All right, so who is this Jesus? Well, we can see from Matthew chapter one, or even we'll go to Luke chapter one in just a moment. But in Matthew chapter one, we see verse 21, where the angel Gabriel is talking to Mary. And here's what Matthew records. Matthew says this of what Gabriel says to Mary. You shall call his name Gabriel saying this to Mary. You shall call his name Jesus, for he will save people from their sins, which is what this word, Jesus means the name. But to be clear, who can save people from their sins?
Speaker 1 00:10:28 It's not me, it's not a priest, it's not a pastor, it's not you. It's not good works. It's only God himself. This is getting clear to Mary. This is God himself. Luke chapter one. And if you're in Luke two, you could go back a little bit. Look at verse 32 of Luke one. The angel Gabriel told Mary this as Luke records that Jesus will be great and will be called Son of the most high, which is another way to say son of God, which is a title for God himself. And he goes on and says, and the Lord God will give him meaning Jesus the throne of the Father, David. And he will reign over the house of Jacob, meaning Israel forever and of his kingdom. There will be no end meaning this is the eternal Savior from before time began, he existed this one who will reign.
Speaker 1 00:11:22 And Mary knows this and she believes it. She was given a sign. Gabriel gave her a sign that her relative, Elizabeth, if you go on and read, you'll see her relative, Elizabeth, who is much too old to have a baby, had never had a baby, was pregnant with Jesus' cousin John the Baptist. And she believes Now the original hears of this Luke chapter two and the original readers, they would've had where it says the city of David, which is called Bethlehem. They would've had a Micah five moment, not an Atlanta moment, a Micah five. I dunno if you even know what that is, but nevermind a Micah five moment. This Micah is an Old Testament prophet, and God is giving him something very special 700 years before Jesus is born. Here's what he says. God is talking and says, but you oh, Bethlehem, ef, that's a, an old name for Bethlehem, you Bethlehem, who are too little to be among the Klans of Judah.
Speaker 1 00:12:20 In other words, you seem to be obscure and insignificant from you, shall come forth for me, says God. One who is to be the ruler in Israel and hear this though, who's coming from forth is from of old and from ancient of days, from of old and from ancient of days. In the original language is pointing to the E eternality of what the e eternality of this ruler, this section is talking about the Messiah to come the deliver, the one who will deliver is real from their sins. 700 years before the birth of Christ. Micah gets these words from God. The Messiah would be born in this obscure town. Bethlehem reading on Luke two, verse eight, here we go. The glory of the Lord. And in the same region by Bethlehem, there were shepherds out in the field keeping watch over their flock by night.
Speaker 1 00:13:09 And then angel of the Lord appeared around them and the glory of the Lord shown around them and they were filled with great fear. And the angels said to them, fear not for behold. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Verse 11, here's the good news. This is why the glory is there. The good news, verse 11 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 heavenly hosts praising God and saying, glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace among those whom with whom he is pleased. So quick summary. We saw shepherds an angel, God's glory, a response of fear, an assurance, a reassuring message.
Speaker 1 00:14:07 And then the great news, we saw a sign and then praising of God. But don't miss this, I wanna go back and I'm gonna be going back a lot. Verse nine, verse nine is, the glory of God has returned says the glory of God has shown around them. Around who? Around the shepherds. When the angel came with this great news and the glory of God was there, was this a regular thing? No, it wasn't a regular thing. Can you imagine? See the brilliance of what must have been like. There's one artist rendition, but I don't know if anybody could ever capture that, the impact of God's presence. And it has returned to the shepherds, and his name is Jesus, how beautiful that must have been, and they were about to meet him. So another question, what am I waiting for this Christmas? What are you waiting for this Christmas?
Speaker 1 00:15:01 I think I need to have my brain checked because again, I went to something a little off. I thought the M McRib sandwich, I just love the McDonald's. Don't laugh at me because the McDonald's corporation says this. This is what they said this November. Get one while you can because this is the Mc McRib farewell tour. Really? Do they not understand? Some of us are waiting for more serious things, but but just for a moment, just humor me. There's, there's onions, there's those are great. Select a kid, they're un, there's pickles, there's this great sauce, right? The two buns and then some sort of meat in the middle. I love that. Maybe you understand where I'm coming from. But also my mind of course, went more serious. We have people right now in this congregation that are waiting for the loved ones to return from overseas, from service, right?
Speaker 1 00:15:52 Maybe you're waiting for a relationship, a new relationship, a relationship. You long for connection or healing of a relationship, and you've been praying about that and you've been waiting. Well, the Israelites, if we get back to our passage, the Israelites have been waiting for well over 500 years since the glory of God had left the Israelites presence. See, if you go way, way back, just to start way back even to the time of Moses, which was way more than 500 years before the birth of Christ, you see that God's glory dwelt in the tabernacle, in, in the tent where they would worship God. But also later when Solomon built the temple, the the permanent place where they would worship God, the building, the glory of the Lord filled the temple. Also, we have a couple of places, uh, a couple of places in scripture up there.
Speaker 1 00:16:42 We'll see an Exodus 40, verse 34. It says this, then the cloud covered the tent of meaning. That's the tabernacle. And the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud settled on it. And the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. Later in one Kings eight, we hear this. And when the priest came out of the holy place, this is in the temple. Now a cloud filled the house of the Lord so that the priest could not stand. Can you imagine that the weight of the presence of this emanating light showing before them was too much for them to, to walk into. They couldn't minister there because of the cloud for the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord. Can you imagine that? Sometimes when I'm here, I, I have this feeling. I'm sitting over here, here and I, I look around and I kind of feel like, wow, God, this is heavy in a beautiful way. But can, can you imagine this kind of glory, God's presence, literally filling this space? Can you imagine that? Worshiping him?
Speaker 1 00:17:51 But about 500 years before Christ's birth, the glory of the Lord literally left, left the Israelites. Why? Because in their temple they were worshiping idols, idols, great evil before the Lord. And Ezekiel chapter eight through 10, you can go look it up. You can see that the Lord took his glory away and how sad it was for the Israelites to literally see this brilliance leave them because God will not share his glory with another. He is too good, too holy to be with a polluted temple. And so he left. And God says this through the prophet Isaiah, I am the Lord. That is my name, my glory. I give no other nor my praise do I give to curved idols. And so know this friends, that God will not share his glory with another. He does not tolerate idols. He loves you so much that he will not tolerate idols.
Speaker 1 00:18:54 Whether it's comfort, security, money, position of mine, of yours, none of it, none of it. God will not tolerate it. But now coming back to where we're at, this long awaited return of God's glory is back now to the shepherds. They had been waiting for well over 500 years for this tension of God's glory to come back and visit them. This time though it's not in the tent, right, it's not in the top Mount Sinai, it's not in a pillar of fire. It's not in the cloud by day. It's not in the temple, it's not in the building, but it's in a baby. Jesus Christ, the long awaited person, Messiah God, Jesus Christ, God's glory has returned. All right, let's move on. God's glory returned to God's glory revealed. So I wanna talk about God's glory revealed in this impact, this brilliance I've been talking about, and I'll keep using that over and over again.
Speaker 1 00:19:53 What we wanna see is God's glory revealed now in Jesus Christ. The impact, yes, in its brilliance, but also in the message that comes as part of our passage today. The message also, you know what's interesting? Very interesting and it's easy to scoot by it, but let's not do that. That the brilliance of the Lord shining brings fear. It brings fear. God's glory is the created brightness that resound, that surrounds the revelation of himself. And so what happens? People are afraid. It brings fear <laugh> seven days before Christmas. This isn't a very egg naggy type sermon, is it? Is that a word? Egg nogi, warm and fuzzy. Uh, Christmas sermon, not necessarily, but I can't go past this. Let's look back at nine, Luke two nine again, it says this, and the angel of the Lord appeared and we saw that already and shown around them.
Speaker 1 00:20:44 What was their reaction? The shepherds. They were filled with great fear. But here's good news. The next couple of verses, if you read on verse 10, verse 11, what's happening? This is not divine judgment. This is divine grace. God is calling people to himself. What do the angels say in verse 10? Fear not for behold. I bring you good news of great joy that will bring for all people. Jesus is coming to save. We have choices. Jesus says the judge or Jesus says the Savior, there's no gray. And the loving Savior wants us to know he is here to save all. Who will believe. You know, others in, in scripture too responded in fear. I think of Isaiah for one, the prophet Isaiah, because he was terrified. It says when he saw God in a vision, we think of Ezekiel, and it's in Ezekiel chapter one, we see that God's glory, Ezekiel saw in a vision and he fell like as if a dead man in a coma.
Speaker 1 00:21:42 Similarly way in the uh, future, the apostle John sees a revelation in the New Testament. Revelation chapter 21. No Revelation one. Revelation one, John John saw a vision of God's glory in what he do. He fell over. It says like a dead man. This is common. This is what happens when the weight and the glory and the brilliance of God is before people. They fall or they just can't take it in. Why? Why this fear? It could be because of the way our brains are built. We can only take too much in at times. We can only take too much in to process it even spiritually and emotionally just too much. Oftentimes we, we have this reaction of perhaps flight, but many times it's fear. It's, it's a freezing mechanism. Scientists talk about just in the brain. We just kind of freeze. Could because of that could also been because of maybe this.
Speaker 1 00:22:37 When you get a glimpse of God, when the shepherd's got a glimpse of God, he, they knew at the time that God saw them, God's holiness seeing their sin and they knew they were in trouble. But thank God that he came in grace. Now I want to move to the something called the transfiguration. Another time in, you can move up to Luke nine. If you wanna go a few chapters up, go to Luke nine. You're gonna see a physical appearance of Jesus. He's older now. He's a man. And his physical appearance changes another way. In another example of Jesus's revealed glory, it says this, and I'm gonna read from Luke 9 28 through 31. It says this, he took with him. This is Jesus took with him three disciples, Peter, John, and James. And he went up upon the mountain to pray with the three disciples.
Speaker 1 00:23:27 And as he was there praying, praying, the appearance of his face was altered. Now Matthew records it even more and gives more detail and says, Jesus' face shown like the sun interesting back to Luke and his clothing became dazzling white. This is Jesus. And behold, two men were there with him, Moses and Elijah. Now they've already passed on, right? They're already dead. But here they are, the essence, the real of who they are right there with Jesus. And behold, two men were talking with him, Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory and spoke of Jesus's departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. So you have Jesus, you have Moses, you have Elijah, and here they are talking about what? Talking about Jesus's death, his crucifixion, his burial and his resurrection and his ascension. What he came to do, because the reason he was born is he came to die.
Speaker 1 00:24:24 And they're talking about this. And Peter, John and James probably thought back to the time of Moses when Moses was on Mount Sinai and he got the 10 commandments, and Moses' face was also lighting up. It says it's interesting, seems like Jesus liked to meet with Moses on the mountaintop <laugh>. At least that's what I'm seeing. But reasons for the transfiguration. One thing we can see in scripture that Jesus is giving his disciples something. These three disciples, something special, something special to hold onto. He's given them a taste, a glimpse of Jesus' kingdom glory to come before he dies. This is beautiful. Jesus is right now or has been dramatically veiling his glory. Here's, he's given them a glimpse at this transfiguration, some grace He's given to these disciples. He's given them a sneak peek of what he's going to be looking like in his giving to come his glory. And also, if you will, a, a movie trailer of the kingdom to come. It's beautiful. I'm almost sure that those disciples needed that because soon they're gonna see the crucifixion of their Lord and they're gonna be persecuted for their faith. So they needed something to hold onto.
Speaker 1 00:25:44 Maybe some of you can point back to a, a kingdom moment in your life where you feel or have felt the glory of God. Maybe, uh, you know, at a time when you knew that you knew that you were saved by the blood of the lamb. You knew Jesus was real, you knew he was there. You knew in spite and despite your sin, whatever the words there are, he loves you and he died for you. But something has been really tangible in your life where you've just like felt and you know that moment. Hold onto that, hold onto that. When they come, write 'em down because the storms are coming in all of our lives. If they haven't already, they will just, just wait <laugh>. They'll come and remember these words from the angel. Fear. Not why, why shouldn't I fear? Because you have good news of great joy If you believe in who? Jesus. Who is the savior? Who is Christ the Lord.
Speaker 1 00:26:41 So the scripture's talk of Jesus's revealed glory, many different uh, ways His, his glory's been revealed, certainly the resurrection, right? Amen. He's alive. <laugh> how glorious that must have been. That's one another would be the second coming of Jesus Christ, the glory in glory. He's going to come. It's going to be brilliant and beautiful. We also call that sometimes a second advent. And if you're a Christian, and maybe you haven't heard this yet or haven't done much studying yet, know this, Jesus is coming back. We call it sometimes our blessed hope. And we take that from Titus chapter two. You'll put it up there. You'll see this because when he comes back, he's coming to rule. He's coming in power, he's coming in glory and it's going to be unbelievably beautiful. Titus two 13 says this, waiting for our blessed hope. But what's our blessed hope?
Speaker 1 00:27:36 Our blessed hope is the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. Matthew 24, we see something else about this coming back of Jesus. And they will see the son of man that's uh, divine apocalyptic title that Jesus used for himself. The son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. He's coming another time. Jesus will reveal himself in his power. So whether it was a transfiguration or while back for the shepherd, the transfiguration with the three disciples, the resurrection, a second coming, there's another one I wanna point out. There's another time when Jesus's revealed glory will be right there and it's in the future. And something we call the eternal state or our final destiny as believers. It's Revelation chapter 21. The Apostle John gets a revelation, gets a vision of the new heaven and the new earth, meaning the holy city of Jerusalem will come and will be recreated and will be new and it will be here.
Speaker 1 00:28:40 And this is what the Apostle John says. He says, and the city has no need of sun. He's talking about the new heaven and the new earth, the eternal state that all believers will be in. And the city has no need of the sun or the moon to shine on it for the glory of God gives it light and its lamp is the lamb. I believe this is much more literal than figurative. Whether or not we have a son, moon, I, I don't know, not too long ago whoever was, I was debating this with some other pastors or whether there's gonna be a sonner Moon point is not needed. The glory of God will be so amazing and it will be emanating from the lamb. Jesus Christ. How beautiful. So Jesus's glory revealed has an impact in its presence and brilliance. We've already seen that, right?
Speaker 1 00:29:29 But now I wanna look at Jesus's revealed glory and tie it to the message, right, the message, the good news of great joy that will be for all people and its impact. There's that word again, impact. The message specifically says this, for unto you is born this day in the city of David, a savior who is Christ the Lord? This is God's glory that a accompanies what the greatest news ever. You might say, wait, I thought that the death on the cross for forgiveness of sins and also the resurrection. Okay, we could have that debate <laugh>, but this has to proceed. That doesn't it? This has to come first. This is what everybody was waiting for. Let's keep that slide up there for a moment. Because God's glory accompanies this with, with neon lights, if you will. The message, the enunciation of the Christ child to the shepherds has come.
Speaker 1 00:30:26 And it's not that Jesus is going to be a really good moral teacher to learn from. No, no, no, no. So far from that, was he a good moral teacher? Of course, but that's not at all what he was about. He was sent to do one thing and that is to die. He was sent to die to take the wrath of God against sin, to save people from their sin, to take the penalty for sin for all. Who will believe in him? Do you see that? That's the news. Three things. That's why this is still up here on the screen. Three things. Savior, first savior, that's his mission. Second Christ, that's his office. It means anointed one, that's his office. Third, the Lord, that's his authority. All of those are right there. His mission, his office, and his authority. And so the, the shepherds here went from, from fear beginning to awe.
Speaker 1 00:31:21 And now they start telling others, after seeing the glory, its impact is to begin to be literally evangelists. They're, they're telling people they're going to tell people about this long away to Messiah is now here. It compels them. That is the impact. And here's what happens. Luke chapter two, verse 15. It'll be on the screen when the angels went away from them into heaven, meaning away from the shepherds. The shepherd 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 when they went with haste and found Marion Joseph and the baby lying in a man manger. And when they saw it, when they saw the baby, the newborn king, the promised Messiah, they made known the saying that has been told them concerning the child. They told people, they went and told people again in the city of David, a savior who is Christ the Lord?
Speaker 1 00:32:16 They told it. That's the impact of the revealed glory of Jesus. We tell people, we tell people about the newborn king. Finally, when we talk about the glory of God returned, the glory of God revealed and the glory of God reaching out. I wanna talk about reaching out. And what do I mean by that? Reaching out. First, let me say that God does not work according to our standards, right? He does not work according to human standards. Never has, uh, he doesn't use the influencers of the day. As a matter of fact, if he took at the local community college, a PR 1 0 1 class, I think Jesus would've failed <laugh>. Why? Because the, the human teacher probably would've expected Jesus, if he's gonna be ushering in the news and the glory of the long away to Messiah, to the Israelites. What would the teacher probably have told him to?
Speaker 1 00:33:09 Teacher probably would've said, well, go to the high priest. Go to the chief priest, go to the Sadducees, go to the scribes. Go to the Pharisees. The Pharisees, know the word of God. Go to the Pharisees, they're gonna help you out. But Jesus doesn't do that. Why not? Because that's not in God's economy. God does not work that way. Scripture says over and over again that the humble will be exalted and the arrogant will be made low over and over again. Mary sang a song. If you're still in the scripture, you can go back to Luke chapter one again. Luke chapter one, verse 51. Here's a little piece of Mary's song that she wrote under inspiration of God. She wrote, he meaning God. God has shown strength with his arm. He has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. He has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of what humble estate later on when Jesus is a man, he's preaching, he's preaching.
Speaker 1 00:34:01 And he says this in Luke six, blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you shall be satisfied and blessed are you who weep. Now, for you shall laugh. Why <laugh>? You know, why did Mary, and why did Jesus feel compelled to talk about this? The humble exalted, the arrogant made low. Because I think it's obvious that the prideful, the arrogant, have difficulty making room in their heart for the coming king, for the one who brings it in salvation, who is Jesus. So I call this the great reversal. The great reversal. When God, who has returned God, who has revealed, is now reaching out. And Luke wants us to know this. In Luke's writing, the way God used him to write, you see it over and over again. The reaching out of Jesus to the outcast, to the unimportant, to the lowly.
Speaker 1 00:35:01 All the time. All the time, Jesus' revealed glory to the lowly. That means there's hope. Have you caught that by enough? You haven't already caught it by an hour. Are not familiar with this text? Maybe you're seeing it already. Hope. I'm not talking about hope. Wishful thinking. I'm talking about biblical hope, assured confidence in our Lord. Hope we have hope. God sees you in your state where you are. He saw Mary, where she was in Nazareth of all places. Nazareth, he saw Mary in her humble state. He saw her and the Jews thought so little of that town, but he saw Mary and know that you are not an outcast either. God is reaching out to you. He reached out to the shepherds. Let's look at Luke two. I won't read eight through 10 again, but I'll have it on the screen where he is reaching out in his glory, Luke, to who he's reaching out to.
Speaker 1 00:35:56 It's the shepherds, right? The shepherds, the shepherds. And it says that the angel of the Lord appeared to who? To them. And then it says that the Lord's shown to who this wasn't to the high priest, the glory of the Lord shown to the shepherds. And who did he bring the good news to? First he says, I bring to you the angels said the good news of great joy for all people. These were the shepherds. Generally speaking, shepherds were ignorant. Shep shepherds were uneducated. They were not skilled. As a matter of fact, in that day, there's some extra biblical writing. It talks about shepherds being dishonest. And certainly we know they were unclean according to religious standards of the day. But Luke wants us to know that these are the people, these are the people, the outcasts, the sinners that Jesus came to save. That means there's hope for everybody. God is reaching out. This is the great reversal.
Speaker 1 00:36:55 So what do we do with all this? One thing is, I just wanna remember, I wanna remember this, that God's glory accompanies the greatest news ever. Please don't forget, even though we're talking about the glory of God, it is revealing the message. Verse 11 says this, I'm gonna read it again. I can't read it enough. I really can't. For unto, unto you is born this day in the city of David, a savior who is Christ the Lord. That's what we celebrate. So what will we say often at the end of our sermons here at Village Church? So what? So what, what else can I do with this? Let me give three ideas of what we can do. The first is this, believe and know that in your state, wherever you are today, that there is hope. There is hope in Christ. Come to him. Don't delay.
Speaker 1 00:37:40 Maybe it's hope for salvation the first time. Maybe it's, it's just coming back to him again. Whatever it is, talk to someone. If you need help, if you need help to come to him because you are never too low, you're never too down, you're never too distant, you're never too depressed for the Lord to reach you. So come to him. Take a step second. So what, like Mary, like the shepherds, like the heavenly hosts, you know, uh, feel and ponder the glory of God this Christmas. Take your time this week. Feel it. Maybe you need to be on your knees. Maybe you just need to be sitting, praying, whatever's. Maybe you need to be on your face in the kitchen. If your kid comes in, say it's thought mom's okay. But whatever it is, just ponder deeply. Feel the magnificent, beautiful glory of God this season.
Speaker 1 00:38:31 Let it overwhelm you. And next week we're gonna talk about worshiping in response to the glory of God. Third, make specific time for Jesus. Spending time in his word prayer. Whatever it is for you. Maybe you need to be a person like me who needs to put things in your calendar. Why don't you put meeting with Jesus? Maybe put that in your calendar. Somebody sees that. Say, wow, that's pretty good. <laugh> if you need to, or Jesus what? But meeting with Jesus, meet with him. Put it down. Schedule it. Why? Because Jesus is so intentional in everything he has done to come to you, to come to you, to come to all of us, to come to me. He's so intentional. From the cradle to the cross, from his resurrection to the return. Everything, everything he has done is intentional. So take time, be intentional. Carve out time. Come to him. Well, I'm gonna pray for us. And Pastor Matt's gonna come up here in a few moments and, and lead us in communion. So let's pray.
Speaker 1 00:39:35 Lord, you are beautiful and we've tried today to get into our brains even more, and especially got into our hearts, the glory of you, the revealed Christ, the Savior who comes, who came, who is here now, who comes to save anyone who will believe in him. So God, we thank you because you didn't come that time to judge. You came that time to give divine grace for all who will believe in you. Thank you Jesus for meeting us here today. Change us, make us different now than from when we came in for all these things. In Jesus glorious name. Amen.
