And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men!” (Luke 2:12-14, NKJV).
Dear God, indeed it is “Good News” that a Savior was born to pay the ransom for our lives with His own life! May we live in eternal gratitude as we remember the angels’ song of so many years ago. Thank You in the name of the One who brings us salvation – Jesus Christ! Amen.
By now you have noticed that the Christmas story is not being told in chronological order, and we are gleaming lessons from it for our day to day situations. Today we want to analyze the Angels’ Song: “Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!” Why the celebration? Why such high praise? Over a baby born in a barn? Yes indeed! This is not just another baby – This One is the Living Representative of the Everlasting Father! He is the “Prince of Peace”!
Yesterday we saw that of all the people living “in the same country” God sent the Heavenly Heralds to the lowly shepherds. There are several lessons that we can take from this story. We looked at lesson number one yesterday: God is impartial!
We also saw that the Creator and Ruler of the universe, the owner of all the cattle upon the hillside, to whom all the silver and the gold belongs, came into the world as the poorest of creatures. God does nothing thoughtlessly. In sending His Son into the world in this manner, He made Him identify with people of every walk of life: With the poorest of the poor at birth (Luke 2: 12). With criminals in His death (Luke 23: 32,33). With the rich at His burial (50-53). Therefore, no one can say “I am too poor,” or “I am too bad,” or “I am too rich,” to accept Jesus as my Savior. No one can say, “Jesus does not know what I am going through.” Because He does. He walked in the moccasins of every member of the human race! Lesson number two: God is universal!
No wonder the angels sang and rejoiced as they did: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace” to the inhabitants of the one planet in rebellion in the entire universe – planet earth. We who walked in darkness have seen a great light! Forgiveness and redemption has been made available to all! Sins can be forgiven because we have a great High Priest who is born this night in the City of David! He will break down every wall of division and will make of the two one. In Christ the newborn babe there is neither Jew nor Greek, bond nor free, male or female! Goodwill is offered to men and women everywhere!
Praise God for the Angels Song. It is a song of forgiveness, hope and redemption! Lesson number three: God is our Great High Priest!