Read Luke 2:13-14
The text urges us to wonder at the message of salvation, which reveals God’s glory and brings us peace.
Glory of God
After the angel announced to the shepherds that a Savior was born who would be Christ the Lord, a “multitude” of angels appeared. A multitude is not a small choir, but rather a number no one can count. Get the scene before your mind’s eye: angels were stretched from horizon to horizon! [1] Some have opined that all of God angels were there. Why? Why would they turn out in such force and sing with such ecstasy? It was surely because they were overjoyed with the revelation of God’s salvation.
This joyful announcement to the shepherds is really just reflecting the pleasure of God. [2] Jesus clearly tells us that the angels observe God’s joy in heaven when one sinner is saved. So when the angels show up in this dark Middle Eastern sky to shake the earth with their joyful song, they are merely reflecting the even greater joy of God, which they have witnessed. They knew the glory and majesty of Christ, the morning star. They knew the sinful hopelessness and ungrateful rebellion of his people. For millennia they had scratched their heads to figure out how this beautifully holy God was going to draw near to such a wretched race. Now they knew! God had succeeded in becoming flesh in order to redeem his people. God was surely in ecstasy as he watched his plan come together. He had joined the kingly and uncursed lines of David together in Mary and Joseph, the Holy Spirit had conceived the Christ child, and he taken the whole world back to their hometowns in order that Jesus could be born in Bethlehem. He had done it! Now the world would be saved.
God rejoices over your salvation. He rejoiced to bring it in the first place, and he celebrated when it was particularly applied to you. Do you ever have the impression that this whole work of redemption was a bother to God? Yes, it cost him dearly, but there is no hint of his resentment in the Scriptures. Do you ever think that God begrudgingly works out his redemption in you? No, the angels’ joy is reflective of God’s joy. Today they announce to you God’s jubilation over your salvation. What is your task? It is to do what the angels are doing. It is to revel in it just because it is so great. It is also to be so full of this great joy that others will also discern God’s joy and come to him for salvation, too.
Peace on Earth
The Bible makes it clear that true peace is the exclusive possession of those who have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. But what kind of peace are we talking about? By observation, we know that it cannot be that Christians are spared from war or suffering or fearful situations. The Bible teaches us that the peace that Christ brings is a peace of mind: “You will keep him in perfect peace because his mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you” (Is. 26:3; cf. Ph. 4:7). It is a restful state of mind deeply lodged in the core of one’s being, in spite of circumstances. It is the comfort of knowing that no matter what trials one is undergoing, God is no longer at war with you because the “punishment that brought us peace was upon [Christ]” (Is. 53:5).
In one sentence of Scripture the Apostle Paul teaches us the three most important concepts we need to know about the peace which comes from Jesus Christ alone. He writes in 2 Thessalonians 3:16, “Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times and in every way. The Lord be with you all.”
First, Paul says that Jesus Christ is the “Lord of peace,” that is, he is the source of peace. Then Paul says that Christ will give his people peace “in every way.” The effect of embracing Christ for peace is that you actually receive it. Finally, Paul assures that the Christian’s peace endures forever.
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[1] Cf. R. Kent Hughes, Luke, Volume 1 (Wheaton: Crossway, 1998), 88.
[2] William Hendriksen, Luke (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1978), 155.